With the bulk of our first Sunbeam Rapier(A3811473) gone, I’ve had a chance to clean up and reorganize my garage. In the last week or so, I’ve dropped the front front grills, bumpers, door handles and other miscellaneous small bits off at the plating shop to be re-chromed. I also dropped a 5 gallon bucket full of hinges, brackets and hardware off to get clear zinc coated. I placed an order with BritishWiring.com for a new semi-custom wiring harness. The new harness will be set up for negative ground, a single wire alternator, and a single wire high torque starter. It should be pretty nice, and very “factory” looking in appearance. I also cleaned and repainted the front window regulators, and start sandblasting a small mountain of trim bits and pieces.

I’ve also been busy prepping the Rapier hood and trunk lid for epoxy primer. The parts were sandblasted a while back, and once I started sanding out the course blasted surface, I quickly realized why I’ll never use sand on body panels again. Baking soda blasting, though more expensive, saves a bunch of additional prep time and eliminated a ton of unnecessary sanding. Both the hood and trunk lid needed minor lead filling, and once that was completed, I gave them both a phosphate coating and a nice thick blanket of epoxy primer. Next, I think I’ll focus my time on repairing the door.

Oh, I added the Lucas Fault Diagnosis service Manual to the manual page, so check that out too…

Categories: body, manuals

If ever an adage described me best with respect to this project, I’m guessing it would have to be:

the best way to make a small fortune, is to start with a large one.

After a long and hard battle with myself, the decision was finally made to scrap our first Sunbeam Rapier(A3811473) for the necessary parts to complete our Rapier Project. Aside from the many, parts this vehicle was missing, the frame, floor and lower 6″ of the car was completely rusted out. I also discovered, as I began cutting, that the rear quarter panels were filled with Bondo and much of it was not worth saving.

So, what started out as a $1500 investment, quickly turned into an $11.05 scrap metal payout. After our trip to the scrapyard, We stopped by 7eleven and cashed out our funds on 2 slurpees, a drink and a Classic Motorsports magazine. I think I missed my calling as an investment banker…

I was, however, mindful of sparing the usable parts this vehicle while dismantling. So, as time permits, I’ll be adding these parts to the Rapier Parts page for those in need of random spares.

Tags: fluff
Categories: fluff

Well, Hello Rapier fans!

It’s been far to long since my last web entry. YES, it seems life, as it does, has gotten in the way of my Rapier web journal. Since my last post, work on the Rapier has progressed, but rather slowly and since so much time has passed, I thought I’d use this post as a new starting point for my progress reporting. I’ll keep today’s post short and sweet, I’ve added a Rapier Manuals section to this site and all the manuals that I have collected for this project will be added to the site in PDF format. Please, feel free to download and view any and all of the manuals. I’ll be adding new manuals as I get them scanned, so check back for new entries.

My apologies for those with dial up or slow internet connections, the PDF files are rather large and may take some time to download, so please bear with me. I tried to scan each manual in the highest resolution possible with out making the files sizes to large.

That’s all I have for now… Enjoy!

(photo link to manuals page)

Tags: manuals
Categories: manuals

well… it’s been just over 2 months since I last updated this site. Man, I’m such a slacker! and sadly, in that time, I haven’t really gotten a whole lot done on the Rapier. I guess sometimes life really does get in the way. I had hoped I’d be wrapping up my garage interior project by the first of the year, but unfortunately, it looks like the new garage deadline is Feb 1. I was able to complete the insulation, drywall and paint, but i still have some cabinets to build and some serious cleaning to do. Aside from all the construction mess, it looks like 2 sunbeams have puked their guts all over my shop. I’ve got Rapier parts everywhere!!!

Since my last entry, I did manage to get a few things going on the Rapier. I dissembled and cleaned 2 complete Rapier front ends. To my surprise, most if not all of the parts off of both assemblies are in amazing condition. I dropped 4 drums off at Page Brake to get turned, and also sent out 2 sets of front shoes to get re-bonded. My “new” parts supply continues to get bigger too. I just recently received all new brake pipe and wheel cylinders (and a bunch of kits from Vintage Parts Inc. on Ebay), I still need to source some rubber brake lines, but they’ll surface soon enough. I sent out a single carb intake manifold, that I got from Ray Marty, to Mike at Pierce Manifolds. Mike is going to outfit the manifold with a fresh new Weber carbie….YAY! I ordered a couple sets of vent wing window rubber seals from Frank Schoenberger in OZ. and made a sizable order from Scotts Old Rubber for the rest of the rubber bits.

Since the garage had taken up most of my focus, I thought this would be a good time to get the ball rolling on the interior bits, so, off to the upholstery shop Liz and I went to pick out interior colors and materials. We are using a local Salt Lake upholster called the “Seat Cover Shop”, who specializes in Convertible tops and were “the” suggested shop of one of the local Upholstery warehouses. We took down the seats (fronts and rear) and had Scott give them the once over. Seems everything is workable other than the rusty seat frames, which Scott stripped and I sent off to my powdercoater go get a nice satin black treatment. While the frames were at the coaters, I took the front seat hinges, hood chrome and headlight eyebrows to T&T Plating to get re-plated.

While I did all this, Scott made up a sample of what the seat covers would look like.  Liz chose a nice marine grade white vinyl for the tuck and roll seat fields and we had Scott mix up a pink match to our paint color to add to the piping. Needless to say, the color was a dead ringer, and Liz loved the pink/white combo!!!

White with pink piping….SWEET!!!

Tags: garage,seats
Categories: garage, seats

Well, the weather has made a turn for the cold. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, it is after all November. Man, where have the last 2 months gone…

Progress on the Rapier 2.0 has come to halt until I can make some working room in my shop, looks like I’ve got some serious cleaning to do . While moving the 2.0 into the garage, I thought to myself, this would be a great time to insulate the ceiling, it is after all, starting to get really chilly!

So… aside from some serious cleaning, I’ve spent the last 2 days stapling bats of pink joy to my shop ceiling. This stuff really sucks, but it will sure be nice to have a toasty warm shop in the thick of winter. If I finish this quickly enough and I’m still feeling motivated, I may even drywall the ceiling and hang all my new shop lights. So much to do, so little time.

The Rapier makes a really great insulating table.

Tags: garage
Categories: garage