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