Hi guys,
This is my first post in this forum so I would like to introduce myself and my little wounded kitten... this is the Story how we found each other and what happened so far. I hope my English is readable
The Story begins in Germany 1973/74 where a guy drove a Tiger as his daily driver and unfortunately left the road on a frozen street in winter... The front valance was badly damaged while trying to pull it back on the road.
The guy was disgusted from the car, but didn´t wanted do give it away, so he left it in a garage which sat right next to a kindergarten in Erlangen/Germany
The Tiger was sleeping there for a very long time.
it was around the late 80´s when a little Kid lived just a hundred meters away from the garage, went to the kindergarten and always braked out from the garden, trying to reach the playground on the other side of the garage row, where the Tiger sat lonely and waiting... That little boy was me
I Newer saw the garage open...
In 2010, the little boy is now 25 the guy from the 70´s is old and realizes, that he will never bring the car back to live again. He sells the car to a friend of him, who has a passion for American muscle an VW-Busses and worked at a Auto shop.
Me to I am driving an old T25 from the German army, so i knew the guy to which the car was sold. at one day i came to the shop and there it sat...
covered with decades of dust and looking very pitiful.
I had never heard of a Sunbeam Tiger before so i thought it was another small-engined British rust bucked, i joked and asked what he wanted to do with that pitiful looking crap.
The only thing he said was "lift the hood and take a look at the engine!"
I did so... and was convinced
He told me some bullshit, that the car was a prototype and so on.
Didn´t really believe, but the Engine in this little car was quite interesting to me.
He wanted to bring it back to life and worked some time on the car.
He managed to bring the motor back to life, which was stuck from sitting 37 Years. Changed the water pump and had an new core fitted to the radiator.
A few month later, he bought a Truck and wanted to go for some camping, he lost interest in the tiger and it was sitting outside in the rain...
I asked him what he wanted to do with it. he asked me if I wanted to have it, he would sell it to me.
I had no space and no experience for such a project and for me it was quite a lot of money he wanted for it, so I passed by...
I kept visiting him from time to time, and he always asked me... always a little bit cheaper.
I found it a real pity, that this car had to sit in the rain and rust even more... but had no money and still no place...
I talked to my parents... needless to say, they didn´t wanted me to by the car...
But my parents have an old farm in France, 400km away... there was a little barn in which the car could actually fit in.
even with a room height by about 1.6meters, it was OK, because the car was very low profile.
I cleaned out the barn and a week later I was back at the shop.. the guy gave me an ultimatum.
If I did not buy the car till June, he would have ripped engine and tranny apart and thrown the rest to the bone-yard.
I found the Sunbeamclub of Germany, in which I am member today and asked with some pictures if the car was worth saving... the told me it was.
I had to do it, couldn’t let the car go for destruction.
So I bought it in may 2011 for 2000€ just to save it.
In france, i started to take things apart just to see the condition.
Fortunately, so far it looks pretty good despite the sills and wheel arcs being badly rusted.
Last december, the car went back to Germany, as I managed to rent a location where I can work on the car without time pressure.
At the moment, I’m stripping off the paint of the tub and building some Reinforcements for the tub, so I can put it on the rotisserie I have built last year.
Pictures of the car can be seen on this link:
https://plus.google.com/photos/1135...s/5810727255943737601?authkey=CIPnlNmglvT91wE
I hope to find some information here as the restoration accelerates
Sorry for my bad spelling
Greetings from Germany,
Thibaut
This is my first post in this forum so I would like to introduce myself and my little wounded kitten... this is the Story how we found each other and what happened so far. I hope my English is readable
The Story begins in Germany 1973/74 where a guy drove a Tiger as his daily driver and unfortunately left the road on a frozen street in winter... The front valance was badly damaged while trying to pull it back on the road.
The guy was disgusted from the car, but didn´t wanted do give it away, so he left it in a garage which sat right next to a kindergarten in Erlangen/Germany
The Tiger was sleeping there for a very long time.
it was around the late 80´s when a little Kid lived just a hundred meters away from the garage, went to the kindergarten and always braked out from the garden, trying to reach the playground on the other side of the garage row, where the Tiger sat lonely and waiting... That little boy was me
I Newer saw the garage open...
In 2010, the little boy is now 25 the guy from the 70´s is old and realizes, that he will never bring the car back to live again. He sells the car to a friend of him, who has a passion for American muscle an VW-Busses and worked at a Auto shop.
Me to I am driving an old T25 from the German army, so i knew the guy to which the car was sold. at one day i came to the shop and there it sat...
covered with decades of dust and looking very pitiful.
I had never heard of a Sunbeam Tiger before so i thought it was another small-engined British rust bucked, i joked and asked what he wanted to do with that pitiful looking crap.
The only thing he said was "lift the hood and take a look at the engine!"
I did so... and was convinced
He told me some bullshit, that the car was a prototype and so on.
Didn´t really believe, but the Engine in this little car was quite interesting to me.
He wanted to bring it back to life and worked some time on the car.
He managed to bring the motor back to life, which was stuck from sitting 37 Years. Changed the water pump and had an new core fitted to the radiator.
A few month later, he bought a Truck and wanted to go for some camping, he lost interest in the tiger and it was sitting outside in the rain...
I asked him what he wanted to do with it. he asked me if I wanted to have it, he would sell it to me.
I had no space and no experience for such a project and for me it was quite a lot of money he wanted for it, so I passed by...
I kept visiting him from time to time, and he always asked me... always a little bit cheaper.
I found it a real pity, that this car had to sit in the rain and rust even more... but had no money and still no place...
I talked to my parents... needless to say, they didn´t wanted me to by the car...
But my parents have an old farm in France, 400km away... there was a little barn in which the car could actually fit in.
even with a room height by about 1.6meters, it was OK, because the car was very low profile.
I cleaned out the barn and a week later I was back at the shop.. the guy gave me an ultimatum.
If I did not buy the car till June, he would have ripped engine and tranny apart and thrown the rest to the bone-yard.
I found the Sunbeamclub of Germany, in which I am member today and asked with some pictures if the car was worth saving... the told me it was.
I had to do it, couldn’t let the car go for destruction.
So I bought it in may 2011 for 2000€ just to save it.
In france, i started to take things apart just to see the condition.
Fortunately, so far it looks pretty good despite the sills and wheel arcs being badly rusted.
Last december, the car went back to Germany, as I managed to rent a location where I can work on the car without time pressure.
At the moment, I’m stripping off the paint of the tub and building some Reinforcements for the tub, so I can put it on the rotisserie I have built last year.
Pictures of the car can be seen on this link:
https://plus.google.com/photos/1135...s/5810727255943737601?authkey=CIPnlNmglvT91wE
I hope to find some information here as the restoration accelerates
Sorry for my bad spelling
Greetings from Germany,
Thibaut
