John,
I have a Series I and I love it. I used to have a Series II
but it was a basket case. I sold it to a local friend and he
is putting a major restoration on it and it should be on the
road soon.
What everybody says is true, the Alpine will seriously slow
down the Tiger regestration. My motives for buying the Alpine were
very similar to yours, gee I need a car to have fun in while the
Tiger is being restored. Uh huh!
The grinding would worry me but as you probably know there is no
synchro in first gear so there is a potential for the tranny to
take a beating into first. My first is loud but I wouldn't say
it grinds. Kind of sounds like the noise you expect from a straight
cut type gear which it might be, I don't know.
I paid $400 for the basket case, it was mechanicaly poor but had
a mostly rust free body and was pretty "original". The Series I
car cast $2200 and was seemingly a pretty good deal. The body
looks great and the car runs good. Unfortunately after a month or two
the motor developed a rod knock which I am about to deal with.
Under closer examination I also found that I have moderate rot in the
rocker panels, caveat emptor indeed!
All in all I am very happy with the Series I car but there is this
little voice that keeps saying "What do you need to do all that work
on the Tiger for when you have this qute Alpine? Sell the Tiger...
Sell the Tiger..." I won that internal war and now have two full
time projects so just beware.
As to prices, What I saw were quite a few Seies V Alpines in good to
great condition for $3000 to $5000 and up. Not a lot of finned cars
for sale for some reason. Lots of parts cars to runners for the
$300 to $750 range. It sounds like the car you are looking at
is better than mine but maybe could be had for less? Hows the
interior?
Enjoy and keep us posted!
Frank Marrone at marrone(at)optilink.dsccc.com
1965 Sunbeam Tiger B9471116
1960 Sunbeam Alpine Series I B9009330
1966 Ford LTD 4-door family barge.
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