Tiger Reassembly

Update by Tim Suddard to the Sunbeam Tiger project car
Dec 27, 2007

Important note: When we disassembled the car we were careful to take pictures of how the writing harness was positioned, especially under the dashboard. The time spent here was a lifesaver.

Now that the car is a roller we decided to take a break from some of the bull work and have a little fun. To this end, we rebuilt the front side marker lights, installed the SUNBEAM lettering on the front and restored and reinstalled the license plate light.

We also started putting the side trim back on the car. However, we discovered a mistake that made us halt our work: While doing the bodywork on the sides of our car, we didn’t mark the holes required for the side trim. We did leave the holes on the doors and decided not to go any further with side trim until we had the doors back on the car. This would make it easier to align everything correctly.

Before installing the wiring harness, it was time to look under the dash and build the underside of the dash from the firewall out. First to go back in was the wiper assembly. We carefully cleaned, tested and painted this assembly before reinstallation. Next to go in was the heater assembly. Our heater motor was bad, but we sourced another one from a local club member. After again testing, cleaning and painting (where appropriate) the heater was reinstalled. Next up were the cool air cowl vents.

While early Tigers did not have these vents, later Mk 1As and Tigers did. When we write about this project car in the magazine, we’ll cover this topic in more detail. One mistake we made here was to not install the dash braces that bolt underneath the cowl vents. We had to pull the cowl vents back out to remedy this mistake.

We next mounted the fuel pump. The original Tiger fuel pump was mounted below the rear package shelf on the passenger’s side. There is an access door over this area.

In its stock location, the Mk II Tiger’s fuel pump was subject to exhaust heat and road grime. So, we relocated the fuel pump into the well where the spare tire goes on the four cylinder Alpine that the Tiger is based on. Instead of the stock Lucas pump, we opted for an Edelbrock unit. Made by Essex, a name we’ve had good luck with before, the Edelbrock pump should supply plenty of fuel for our Edelbrock-equipped (intake manifold, cam and heads) engine.

The next step was to install the wiring harness. We got a new harness from British Wiring that was fairly easy to install. Since we were going to switch to an alternator, we specified an alternator type harness. (British Wiring makes them both ways.) The last of the Tigers came equipped with an alternator. Ford switched from generators to alternators in 1965. Important note: When we disassembled the car we were careful to take pictures of how the writing harness was positioned, especially under the dashboard. The time spent here was a lifesaver; when we went to reinstall the harness we could see where it had been. This is the kind of thing you can never find in a shop manual.

With pretty much all our electrical equipment installed, it was not only possible to hook up our wiring to all the electrical components, but it was also a little easier to see what went where with the corresponding electrical component already installed in the proper location.

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