So, I'm walking my dog...

[KenF]

Took the dog for a walk one night last week, and as I walked by a house, I could see my neighbor messing around with a small car that had it's front end poking out from the side gate of his house. I instantly stopped and asked the guy, who I've never met or talked to before, "Hey, is that a Tiger?" It was kind of dark, and I couldn't tell if it was an Alpine or incredibly a Tiger up the street from me. He answers "Yes, I just bought it from the neighbor 2 houses down a few weeks ago." Turns out it is a Tiger, real as far as I can tell. And, the last tag on the plate was 1985. I has been sitting for the last 34 or so years 200 yards from my house! Arrgggg!!! I'm usually pretty good seeing various kinds of covered cars behind fences, but in the 30+ years I've lived in this neighborhood I had no idea that car was sitting there. And it seems to have been put away pretty good, on concrete, not covered such to trap moisture, etc. Anyway, kind of crushed that he found it and not me, but I've gotten over it, and good for him. So, I guess there's a few left out there. I still can't believe it!

 

[Tweak]

What a nice Mk1. Hope he finds this forum and shares more about it.

 

[65sunbeam]

And it has the rare American Racing magnesium wheels on it too!

 

[Warren]

Old growth forest

Is what its like. It is hard after years of yard sale and estate sale hunting to find the old growth. I bought my first Tiger from a yard sale seller. There is a 68 VW bus, a 66 Split Window pop top camper in my neighborhood plus mini trail and a CT70. SFM368 AKA Cobrakidz is sniffing about your neighborhood as well. I think most of our cars are stopped by something simple like hydraulics or in a recent find non conforming smog checks in the late 80's. Please take a copy of Tiger Tails and slip it under his door mat. Of course after you ask if he wants to sell it on

 

[michael-king]

The american racing mags look like the top shelf magnesium ones given the reactions and markings on them...great wheels but warn him to be very careful... Its likely the magnesium has degraded and could crack a rim

 

[KenF]

Of course after you ask if he wants to sell it on

Yeah, he's already turned down my 30K offer. He may take 40, but I'm really not sure what it's worth. Rust-wise, just a little through the in the battery area panel, everything else looks good. He loves cars, but not really a mechanic. I advised him less is more on that car. Just go through the brakes, clutch master/slave, change coolant hoses, flush fuel lines, go through carb, oil and filter, and try to start it up. Don't even clean it much, just focus on making it safe and drivable. I think he listened to me, as I noticed on the ground was the air cleaner top and based stripped of paint and painted black. I offered to help him out, but I've got a 66 Mustang convert on the rotisserie I need to get ready for paint in October, just don't have time right now. But then again I'd hate to see this thing badly messed with. I've got a set of magnesium Pantera wheels on my shop, and they don't look half as bad as those mags. If they aren't cracked I'd be tempted to leave them as is and mount new tires. Well, maybe carry a class D fire extinguisher. . I think I need to give him a bit of Kroil to soak those brake fittings, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't have a good set of brake line wrenches.

 

[Warren]

That's right

Scare him into offing the rims, saying they need to be X-ray for hairline cracks. 40 seems like too much for a non runner. If you don't have a Tiger Tales PM me your address and I'll send you my slightly used copy. The join tab is off the main home page.


I heard this one just came out of the woodwork from Central California too.

 

[KenF]

He's got the set of unmounted steel wheels, but I didn't see any hubcaps. The spare has an old 1" whitewall mounted, maybe one of the originals. Someone has told him the wheels alone are worth 3K. They do look pretty crusty, but maybe crack free. Car has 86K miles and still has the generator, although it doesn't have the Ford markings, probably a rebuild.

 

[KenF]

Well, my neighbor says he'll take $35K. I need to take a closer look at it today and crawl under it more. Any tips on what issues to look for?
Obviously it's not TAC'd, I'm pretty sure it's a Tiger, but I'm a novice. Any specific pictures I can post to get some feedback? Odometer shows 86K miles, maybe 1 repaint in its past. It is missing the grill bars. Spare tire could be one of the original tires. Neighbor just installed right fuel tank with new rubber, I need to check his work.
Any advice would be appreciated!

Thanks, Ken

 

[KenF]

Is that the wrong oil filter housing?

Thanks

 

[hottigr]

Yes, it's the wrong oil filter set-up. Looks like someone may have done one of those toilet paper conversions back in the day. We had a Franz (?) filter on one of our cars in the 60's...the rest of the car looks pretty Tigerish. Kirk

 

[HolyCat]

Inspect, Inspect, Inspect

My suggestion to you would be to do a thorough inspection of the areas where Tigers are known to have issues. Here are a few areas you might want to look over:
1. The openings where the exhaust goes through the frame members. Quite often these factory holes are enlarged for larger diameter exhaust systems or to prevent the pipes from knocking against the frame (bad motor mounts). This weakens the frame members.
2. Check the front cross member for any signs of cracking, especially around the shock towers. If those wheels are real magnesium wheels, it is possible that a previous owner might have driven the car hard, either on the street or on the track.
3. If the car has or in the past had the traction bars with the mount welded to the car, check the car around those weld-on mounts. The metal quite often starts to tear in those areas.

These are just a few areas. I am sure others will chime in with other areas you might want to look at carefully. If you are worried that the car may not be a real Tiger, you might want to look into getting the car TAC inspected.

God luck!

 

[KenF]

Looked a little closer at it today and took more pics. Floors look solid, the battery area is the only rust issue I can see. There is some surface rust on the lower edges of the front and rear valances.
A few questions before I pull the trigger:

- Are the rubber parts still available. Hardtop looks pretty crusty.
- Are the correct oil filter housing parts hard to find?

Thanks!

 

[KenF]

My suggestion to you would be to do a thorough inspection of the areas where Tigers are known to have issues. Here are a few areas you might want to look over:
1. The openings where the exhaust goes through the frame members. Quite often these factory holes are enlarged for larger diameter exhaust systems or to prevent the pipes from knocking against the frame (bad motor mounts). This weakens the frame members.
2. Check the front cross member for any signs of cracking, especially around the shock towers. If those wheels are real magnesium wheels, it is possible that a previous owner might have driven the car hard, either on the street or on the track.
3. If the car has or in the past had the traction bars with the mount welded to the car, check the car around those weld-on mounts. The metal quite often starts to tear in those areas.

These are just a few areas. I am sure others will chime in with other areas you might want to look at carefully. If you are worried that the car may not be a real Tiger, you might want to look into getting the car TAC inspected.

God luck!

Thanks! I'll take a look.

 

[HolyCat]

Looked a little closer at it today and took more pics. Floors look solid, the battery area is the only rust issue I can see. There is some surface rust on the lower edges of the front and rear valances.
A few questions before I pull the trigger:

- Are the rubber parts still available. Hardtop looks pretty crusty.
- Are the correct oil filter housing parts hard to find?

Thanks!

Yes, the rubber for the hardtop is mainly available. There is an issue with the rubber sitting under the outter corners - it tends to be thikcker than original. There are various vendors (including CAT Parts) that sell some or all of the various rubber pieces.

A lot of Tiger owners have changed the oil filter system to screw the oil filter directly onto the block and no longer need the original system. (You can do the same if originality is not important to you or until you find an original oil filter system.) Do a search for oil filters under Tiger Technical - Personalized/Modified. I believe Sunbeam Specialties sells reproductions of the oil filter hoses. However, I do not think they include the part that attached to the block nor the part that caps the oil filter, but I could be wrong. You could check with them.

Good luck!

 

[Warren]

96,000

Not like 10,000 will make a difference but wondering what stopped the car from running? That may or may not be a T.P. oil filter set up. There is a J.C. Whitney shoppers item in view. The oil stock oil filters remain one of the non repopped items but since they are a PiTA it's not so bad with most running a short filter or a remote. Torn off traction bars are not a big deal as the thin metal they were welded to is easily repaired. In period they were stick welded on and it's hard to stick weld even in a pit with the car overhead as many old school muffler shops did the deed.


If you buy it I'll throw in a set of the grill bars with an AC air filter housing plus a one year membership to CAT or STOA as the clubs have been good to me for the 400 plus shipping United price, Of course you'll have to antique it to match the car



I'd press the seller to skip the fuel tank messing about and run a little remote tank and run it thru the gears on stands. With that tall of mileage I'd say she was stopped by other than the usual hydraulic failures. I'm with Kirk and the and a little more positive on the Tigerish call. In an open forum most will not discuss what makes a Tiger a Tiger. But other questions are...
Open diff or Trac loc?

Diff. and rear end numbers match car?

Is car titled and in California system and are any copies available of previous registrations ?
Any DMV inf70 report to find P.O.'s will take weeks if not months. Unclear if other states offer any similar date down service.



As for comps look to the for sale section here there was a 35,000 ish car that was more of a runner. It failed to sell flipped on at auction recently."The black car in resale red."

Be sure to flip the hard top upside down on some grass and poke the ares under the corner pads. There is a drain holes that are covered by the pads duh engineering dept...
Other comps are about but gotta be a watcher for some time to get a feel on the market.

 

[KenF]

Well, I went ahead and bought it! We pushed it down the street and into my garage. Hope I don't regret it, probably won't.


The neighbor bought it a few weeks ago and title is still in the previous owners name before him. His name is Rick and I have his number, I'll probably call him soon to get more of the history, and new bill of sale. Title looks to be from December 1974. He drove it until 85 when the rubber hoses to the fuel tank(s) started leaking. He said it ran fine when he covered it up.


Neighbor just bought the following parts from Sunbeam Specialties, and are in the trunk.


So, now the fun begins. Here's my plan:

• Join CAT.
• Strategy for now is to leave as much as possible unrestored, and replace only as needed to safely and reliably drive.
• Get car onto jack stands. I need to figure out the best way to jack the front without doing damage.
• Remove wheels and have tires dismounted. Get wheels checked to see if they're usable.
• Rebuild brake system.
• Rebuild clutch master/slave system.
• Replace fuel tank rubber parts. Neighbor gave up doing this, which is good.
• Might drop oil pan, who knows what sludgy stuff is laying down there.
• Change all coolant related hoses.
• Hope the radiator and heater core don't leak.
• Start rounding up parts that are missing.
• Figure out what to do for wheels/tires. Got the original steel 13" wheels, but no hubcaps. Kinda thinking hubcaps might be the way to go on this one. If those mags checkout okay, may run them as is. Running 13" tires is kinda depressing, but maybe for this one, okay.
• Once running, get it TAC'd.

If you folks have any thoughts or suggestions, please let me know. Thanks Warren and HolyCat for ideas so far. I'm sure I'll have a lot more questions.

Thanks, Ken

 

[0neoffive]

Better Than Most

Well, it's all there to work with and should make a great driver. It will still require lots of time and efforts $$$$. Keep the goals realistic. Rescue projects have a very bad habit of growing into lottery money demands.

 

[Warren]

Yay

Looks like they added 66SUN in front of the VIN. It is likely out of the DMV system and you will need to go thru their dance. I have had to correct 4 Tigers now. I have an appointment with the CHP . One car they did not care and added the B. Every time it's a little different but getting VIN corrected has been not fun but needed. If you want some tips give me a call PM sent. By the way guys spend 2 to 4 thousand to ship cars nice to push it home...Welcome.


PS when jacking up the car use extreme caution the front cross member is slick and the jack will easily slide forward and wham then you have a messy valence. Position towards the rear and watch it with every stroke of the handle. Many long term term Tiger owners have dropped the car on the slipped jack over the years, position stands on x frame.

 

[steven]

Note to jacking the Tiger. Use a garage jack under the cross member to lift the front then hold with stands and follow on the other side. As stated that cross member is a recipe for jack slipping At the rear I jack under the rear spring centre and then fit the stands. Takes a bit of time but better than being dead