Inspection summary for Jim's Mk1
For those looking into Jim's Tiger, I wanted to share my notes. I have not seen too many Tigers up close and personal, so keep in mind that this manifesto is just my observations and opinions and may not be totally correct. I hope this helps!
I went to go see Jim's car yesterday. In short, I see it as a diamond in the rough. Looking at the pictures, it doesn't look that impressive because of a low quality paint job put on by the previous owner. Seeing it in person changed my opinion.
I flew in to Phoenix and rented a car. It's about a 3-1/2 hour drive up there. Very scenic drive! Jim is a friendly man and easy to talk with. It was clear to me that he wanted to be as honest and forthcoming about the car as possible so that anybody making the trip to go see the car wouldn't be unpleasantly surprised. I think he will take just about any picture you would like.
After taking a long look at the body, we were able to jack up the car and I got the rear axle and transmission numbers. Both have oil leaks and I suspect are original. The trans is an HEHE as would be typical.
As far as the body goes, there are just a few small areas of surface rust that I could see. The areas of the lower body immediately behind the wheels have small areas of surface rust. It's my guess that the car may have been driven in the Las Vegas area down some unimproved roads. The erosion of the paint by road debris may have contributed to a small degree of metal exposure and resulting surface corrosion.
The pictures that Jim has taken of the interior pretty well depict what I saw on the driver’s floorboard. A little crispy on the surface, but not rusted through like would be typical for an east coast car.
The front valance is by far the worst of the body. I noticed some cut out portions of the valance, but the forward frame that the radiator attaches to appears intact. I would think that a new lower valance from one of the places that still makes them in England would solve the issues with that area.
I couldn't get a good read on the extent of the body damage on and around the headlights. The right headlight area has evidence of body filler more so than the left side. Clearly there has been some work done, but when I looked in the wheel well towards the headlight buckets, I did not see any massive repairs. I think this area could use some attention, but I don't think there is substantial damage there. The frame rails at the forward jack point look good and straight.
I did not see any signs of frame compression that might result from a front-end event. A cursory measurement from the lower body/door intersection to the rearmost portion of the wheel on both sides have equal measure - this is just a quick way to detect obvious cross member displacement and I didn't notice any. Just eyeballing the front wheels in their respective wells, both appeared to have the same lateral location. All four wheel arches appeared to be in good condition with just minor tweaks here and there. The bonnet was probably a code 39 red and obviously not original, but the fit is surprisingly good. The gaps are very uniform and mostly even. To me this indicates that any damage history to the front is not significant.
Moving backwards, the doors have decent fit and rig. The gaps were fairly even and uniform. The left foot was a little out of rig and needs some adjustment. The right door had a slight degree of binding in the hinge and I cautioned Jim not to open that door too often until some lubricant could be applied to solve this issue. I have seen cases where these hinges have fractured due to binding.
There is one small ding on the bottom edge of the left door, but not significant.
Both rocker panels appear in good shape with no rust that I could see.
Between the right door and the right rear wheel arch there is a deep scratch, but does not appear to have significant resulting damage.
The right rear quarter has a tall vertical dent. I couldn't determine what had caused it or how deep it is. The pictures show it pretty clearly. The top of the right fin has a few dents but do not appear very deep.
The trunk lid is the only body panel that had poor fit. It appears to have some degree of buckling and there is a dent in the lower mid area where a license plate would be typical. The inside of the upper area where the sunbeam letters are typically mounted does not show signs of damage. I found this a bit puzzling as the lid looked bent, but there were very little signs of trauma. It seems to close well.
The last area of body damage is to the lower outer portion of the rear valance and to the lower rear area of the right fender. There is a dent with a depth of roughly an inch at the junction of those two panels. The seam is opened. Judging by the appearance of the damaged area, it's my guess that the car backed up into an object at slow speed vs. a collision event.
The signature Tiger pinstripes have been removed and I don’t recall seeing any part of them in the parts pictures. The mounting holes are present but are filled in with body filler.
The brake booster has been bypassed with a union so its operating ability is unknown.
I noticed that it has LAT-5 weld-on traction masters installed.
The exhaust pipes are necked down at the pass through and near the rear cross frame cut out. Perhaps the original pipes? The one muffler I did look at had holes where it was rusted through.
As far as Tiger markers that I'm aware of, they were all present. The generator dent, the strut hats, the left exhaust pass through, the spare tire hold down fitting, and the battery lugs all appear to be correct and in natural condition. The data plate looks original and I verified with a magnet that the rivets are steel.
Jim allowed me to unwrap the steering wheel cover and I opened just a small portion. It was kind of like unwrapping a Christmas present. It does have a wooden wheel but I didn't look at it more than that and didn't assess its condition.
The radiator is one of Jim's custom contributions. He got some tanks of the appropriate size from a junkyard and had a radiator shop install a new core. I noticed that the clearance between the steering rack and the radiator was minimal which might lead to issues with a fan shroud. Jim has a shroud but it is not installed.
In retrospect, there were just a few things that I forgot to look at. I didn't look at the right exhaust pass through nor did inspect the panhard bar mount.
I only had two hours to spend with Jim but very much enjoyed the visit. I am thankful for the opportunity to crawl around an original car that has been ensconced in a preserved state of slumber. It certainly was an educational experience for me!
I would love to take this car home myself. Unfortunately it will just beyond my financial reach…
This car is a solid and straight example of a Mk1 Tiger and its next caretaker will be one lucky person for sure!
Cheers, -Kevin