Listers,
I had the opportunity to see a very impressive Sunbeam on the weekend.
(Forgive me Theo I couldn't wait) Th e fellow who owns it is Jim Foster. It
is an Alpine that has been hot rodded very substantially and I will list a
few of the things. It is a '65 I think but it has a ton of modifications
some of which are:
Dales front sway bar modification which looks really strong but kind of
sticks out in front but given the solid front mounting points and the
adjustable locations at the rear is probably a good trade off.
Frame connectors to strengthen the floor pan to improve rigidity.
15" 5 bolt wheels mounted to Billet aluminum hubs on the front as he said
stockers are very soft and were prone to bending or breaking under load.
Ford 9"
12" Rotors in front and 10" Rotors in rear with Wilwood dual piston calipers
all the way around.
Triple master cylinders with two cylinders for brakes with the balance beam
for proportioning.
Car is painted BRIGHT Yellow and looks really good.
He has a hood from Tiger Technologies if that is the place in Huntington
beach CA.(I guess someone builds them for Tom and tom distributes them) I
know there was some flack over the fitment of these hoods a while back. I am
a journeyman Body Technician and painter (Previous life) and with one Very
SMALL exception the hood fits FANTASTIC. Given the current state and the
obvious lack of skill on the part of the Tech who refurbished Jims car (The
rest of the car fabrication is far superior to the body work) any moderately
skilled individual should easily be able to fit one of these hoods and after
seeing it I HAVE to get one. All of the gaps were very decent with some
minor variances and as picky as I am that says a lot. The only flaw was that
the drivers side rear corner curved up about an 1/8" but could easily have
been repaired with some minor glass and fill work. (2.5 hours for a decent
Tech) Jim indicated that they did not diddle too much with the hood and the
rest fit great!
More features:
Handmade stainless Dash board with working glove box lid with magnetic
fasteners. (This is oustanding craftsmenship).
The best part...Engine
337 CU.IN. 620 lift Roller tappet camshaft with Ported DART cylinder heads,
billet balancer, Roller rockers, good rods and one of Dales road race oil
pans which has excellent workmanship. All together it should be strong to at
least 7500 RPM.
His plan is to run a toploader and i suspect that this unit should produce
about 500+ horsepower.
I did take pictures as there is invariably something that I forgot about and
I hope to get digital images when I get them developed and maybe Theo might
consider posting them after I clear it with Jim. He seemed a little funny
about having pics of his car on the 'net.
Well i will be on the road to CA tomorrow and plan on stopping in to see
Rick at Sunbeam Specialties (This is a big deal to a Canadian) and hopefully
pick up some $ouvenir$. I am trying to forward my mail but if it doesn't
work talk to all of you in about 10 days.
Regards,
Tim Ronak
B382000680
PS: Steve L. I have my Laptop battery all charged up and plan on useing the
flight time to finish the editing project.
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