[harit]

Originally Posted by Jehan-Sam

Karlos,
I am patient about this, but I don't want to be TOO patient either. So now Chennai was close with Mr. Ananth, my brother went to his garage and was well impressed by the quality of detailing and attention.
I'm looking for trustworthy people in Mysore/Bangalore/Chennai/Coimbatore - people who would be able to give the same attention to detail as my grandfather did...Any thoughts?

Hi Jehan,

If you feel comfortable, come to Mumbai. There is this guy who has restored my Sunbeam Rapier convertible, lots and lots of trim was missing, now she is almost done. And, he has worked upon the third known Sunbeam Rapier Coupe in India. Yours was the first posted, the second was in Calcutta and the third came from Gujrat to Mumbai. This guy has been working on old cars since years, both restoring and maintaining. Can put you in touch next week after I am back.
Cheers harit

[Jehan-Sam]

Originally Posted by harit

Hi Jehan,

If you feel comfortable, come to Mumbai. There is this guy who has restored my Sunbeam Rapier convertible, lots and lots of trim was missing, now she is almost done. And, he has worked upon the third known Sunbeam Rapier Coupe in India. Yours was the first posted, the second was in Calcutta and the third came from Gujrat to Mumbai. This guy has been working on old cars since years, both restoring and maintaining. Can put you in touch next week after I am back.
Cheers harit

I'd love to know more. Can you post his details? God, as much as Mumbai seems convinient, I still don't know about bringing it here. That car belongs in its home. In the Nilgiris.

[ajmat]

Originally Posted by Jehan-Sam

I'd love to know more. Can you post his details? God, as much as Mumbai seems convinient, I still don't know about bringing it here. That car belongs in its home. In the Nilgiris.

Where is the home without the owner ? It is important to keep the car going as opposed to restore and letting it stand. Being a car, it would cost not that much extra to truck it for a restoration with experience, consideirng the history of the car

[karlosdeville]

Jehan, just as I hoped, the car is looking splendid. The lines are so clean and well preserved. All the interiors look original, as is the paint possibly? Rust free too. So what you need to do at this point is just mechanical work (only where required - very important). Some minor detaling and the car will be perfect. If it ain't broke, DON'T fix it. I've learnt that the hard way. Skilled labour is very hard to find.

Originally Posted by Jehan-Sam

I'd love to know more. Can you post his details? God, as much as Mumbai seems convinient, I still don't know about bringing it here. That car belongs in its home. In the Nilgiris.

Absolutely, the car belongs in its home. She can take a vacation to Bombay for a short while eh? Make a trip yourself first to check out the prospects, look at 2-3 places (I can help you there). Also chalk a budget well in advance, and get a clear estimate. You can get rude shocks sometimes, especially after the car is opened up and immobile.

[howler]

Originally Posted by Jehan-Sam

I'd even like to maybe (and i don't know if this is sacrilige) get it fitted with cng/lpg so that it becomes affordable to run it (it gives about 5KM to a liter).

Jehan.

Lovely car Jehan. Please do not even attempt to convert it to LPG. Drive it once in a while if economies do not permit regular usage, you will ruin all the years of love your granddad has put into it by converting it to LPG/CNG.

Cheers

[Prabal]

Hey Jehan, here's the link to pix of the Sunbeam Rapier that was in Calcutta (and some trivia on the model being discussed on this and over the next page of the thread as well). Although I'm not certain if there have been only three known so far including yours and Harit's, but of such lovely cars we can never have enough of, can we?

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vintag...ml#post1191373

Cheers,

Prabal

[Dussey]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Jehan, just as I hoped, the car is looking splendid. The lines are so clean and well preserved. All the interiors look original, as is the paint possibly? Rust free too. So what you need to do at this point is just mechanical work (only where required - very important). Some minor detaling and the car will be perfect. If it ain't broke, DON'T fix it. I've learnt that the hard way. Skilled labour is very hard to find.



Absolutely, the car belongs in its home. She can take a vacation to Bombay for a short while eh? Make a trip yourself first to check out the prospects, look at 2-3 places (I can help you there). Also chalk a budget well in advance, and get a clear estimate. You can get rude shocks sometimes, especially after the car is opened up and immobile.

Mr Jehan, I am a vintage car enthusiast from Chennai who has restored quite a few cars (see My Garage). I completely agree with Karl, as, from what I can see from the pics, the car may require very little work.
Maybe, the mechanics at the Defence establishment in Nilgiris (who may have maintained the car all along) maybe able to help you with the mechanicals to put the car on the road.

[Jehan-Sam]

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Absolutely, the car belongs in its home. She can take a vacation to Bombay for a short while eh? Make a trip yourself first to check out the prospects, look at 2-3 places (I can help you there). Also chalk a budget well in advance, and get a clear estimate. You can get rude shocks sometimes, especially after the car is opened up and immobile.

Karlos,

Can I take your help and start looking at places? I was going to truck the Sunbeam down to Chennai, near my aunts, and to Mr. Ananth, my brother even went to check out the garage, impressive. But he since, fell very ill, and has since then stopped restoring cars it would seem.

There's someone in Coimbatore, but my local mechanic in Coonoor who keeps it running (but wants to do things like replace parts with other availiable parts, like brake shoes from ambassadors), is genuinely loathe for me to give it to a garage who may leave it up on blocks waiting for spare parts, and in the process loose a bunch of parts as apparently is known to happen.

The truth of the matter, is that I'm willing, I have SOME resources to invest in this, but I'm a working professional and can't give it the kind of time that a dedicated car collector and enthusiast can. So I WOULD like to put it in a garage that will return it to me in 6 months to a year.

I suppose I could bring it to Bombay/Pune/Nasik or down to Mysore/Chennai/Coimbatore (which I am checking out)

As you advised, I don't want to fix non-broken parts, but I do want to be able to get everything looked at, cleaned, re-coated/enforced/re-oiled/re-calibrated/re-painted/re-trimmed/re-upholstered. So that it runs well, and doesn't require any major jobs until *I* retire and can do them myself!


Jehan.
ps
Anyone else who feels like piping in with people I should check out please, let me know, or get in touch via pm and we can take it from there.

[thebulletboy]

The workshop manual for the rapier is available for download at this link :

the rusty little rapier Rapier Manuals

might prove to be a good reference during the restoration

Pankaj

[Jehan-Sam]

The Work of Team-CSA, with some finishing touches by our Grandfather's mechanic Shahnavas from Sasco Autopoint in Coonoor. (Good place to go if you're driving anything non-standard and are in trouble btw).

Some detail pics, some pics driving up the Ghat from Coimbatore - to Coonoor, some pics of the car at home. All courtesy my lovely wife who really can take a photograph.

We received it a year ago. Its now in Coonoor, getting run twice a week. I won't bring it to Bombay, cause I think it will rust here, and I don't think it should be anywhere but, at home.

Thanks for all your help and advice during the time of finding a restorer. Thanks to Team CSA for lions share of making this happen, despite all the difficulties that came from unreliable parts suppliers in the UK and local mechanics in Chennai.

She works fine now. :-)

[Bulldogji]

the car brings back memories of a very gracious couple and their lovely home. great to see this car back on the roads, I remember many drives in it . The typically Indian army type hub caps, do you intend to retain?

[karlosdeville]

Originally Posted by Jehan-Sam

We received it a year ago. Its now in Coonoor, getting run twice a week. I won't bring it to Bombay, cause I think it will rust here, and I don't think it should be anywhere but, at home.

Thats great news Jehan, glad the car is finally done and home. Hopefully since she is back to regular use you should have minimal trouble on maintenance. More images would be welcome.

Glad to see St. Christopher still in the same place too, alongwith the temp guage. Things like these make the car retain the identity, often lost when a car is restored.

Originally Posted by Bulldogji

The typically Indian army type hub caps, do you intend to retain?

Actually from the look of it I would think the hubcaps are the originals, with the criss cross trim.

And call me crazy, but if I had an ex Army car with the 'army type' hubcaps, I would retain them. It is a fast dissappearing memory, to see Ambys and other staff cars in gleaming black with those cheapie wheelcovers.

[thebulletboy]

Originally Posted by Jehan-Sam

... despite all the difficulties that came from unreliable parts suppliers in the UK...
She works fine now. :-)

And she looks fabulous!
Unfortunately there are very few parts suppliers for Rootes group vehicles in the UK. It has taken me two years to find some critical parts for my 66 Sunbeam Minx.

Originally Posted by Bulldogji

The typically Indian army type hub caps, do you intend to retain?

Originally Posted by karlosdeville

Actually from the look of it I would think the hubcaps are the originals, with the criss cross trim.

They definitely appear to be originals.
My 66 has similar hubcaps and the wheel trims were optional accessories. Here's a grab from the 66 Sunbeam accessories brochure.

[Bulldogji]

Thanks, I stand corrected. A lovely coupe, simple yet elegant. Sam Bhadur as always, knew what he was doing when he decided to leave this heirloom to his grandson. Sam also had a treasure house of photographs, hope they are preserved as nicely, hopefully digitised for posterity, film having a tendency to fungal growth. he had boxes of prints and slides.A very important record historically.

[Jehan-Sam]

Originally Posted by thebulletboy

And she looks fabulous!
Unfortunately there are very few parts suppliers for Rootes group vehicles in the UK. It has taken me two years to find some critical parts for my 66 Sunbeam Minx.


They definitely appear to be originals.
My 66 has similar hubcaps and the wheel trims were optional accessories. Here's a grab from the 66 Sunbeam accessories brochure.

Attachment 1060293

Those are the originals. There was a long time when one hubcap was missing, and my brother was studying in the UK, and the case of his never getting around to bringing Sam back a hubcap used to be a great source of entertainment at the dining table.

The Sunbeam club has a supplier, you can pm me for details, but I would suggest you ask Mr. Ananth about his experiences with the guy.

I think we need to get around to identifying a reliable fabricator of various sundry parts, send him the old originals, and ask him to make us a copy from hubcaps to gaskets. The carburettor and fuel pump gaskets and cork/rubber washers they sent for huge amounts were not satisfactory, and we ended up basically using them to create our own.

Now, where does one show her off? :-) Still have to run the overhauled engine in properly.

Jehan