Tech Hack: Bill Bulpitt’s Sunbeam Tiger

Among the many gearheads in the Georgia Tech community, Bill Bulpitt manages to stand out.

Bulpitt, ME 70, MS ME 72, restored a Ford Model A when he was 12; rebuilt a flathead Ford V-8 at age 16; served as chairman of his fraternity’s Ramblin’ Reck committee; was captain of the mechanical engineering team in the 1970 Clean Air Car Race, a coast-to-coast low-pollution vehicle contest; wrote his master’s thesis on the Wankel engine and set up a dynamometer lab in the process; rebuilt and restored a 1966 Sunbeam Tiger, which was featured in Motor Trend; supervised restoration of a replica Ramblin’ Wreck for the Georgia Tech Hotel; and has participated in almost every Georgia Tech Auto Show. (For more on the Auto Show, click here.) Most recently, Bulpitt bought a second Sunbeam Tiger from a late friend’s estate. It had been off the road for 20 years. Here, Bulpitt explains how he returned the Tiger to its previous glory.

When I was in junior high school in 1962, Carroll Shelby introduced the Shelby AC Cobra, an aluminum car powered by the new small-block Ford V-8. It was an absolute sensation. Of course, the car was expensive. A few years later, Shelby helped the Rootes Group of England develop the “poor man’s Cobra” by putting the same small-block engine in the Sunbeam Alpine. Suddenly a car that performed like an MGB had acceleration and speed as good or better than an Austin Healey or a Jaguar.

After I graduated from Tech, I began my quest for a Sunbeam Tiger and found my first one (a 1966 Mark 1) in Fort Walton Beach in 1973. Sunbeam Tigers today are relatively rare—they made just more than 7,000.

I acquired my second Tiger (a rare Mark II—only 533 examples) in March 2011. It looked pretty sad, with three flat tires, shellac and other foul substances in the gas tank, the remnants of what was once antifreeze in the radiator and engine and locked up brakes from slow seepage of brake fluid onto the drums and disks.

The first step was to get the car running to make sure the engine made the right noises and there were no broken connecting rods. That was relatively easy after cleaning out the gas tanks, fitting a new fuel pump, rebuilding the carburetor and fiddling a little with the ignition.

After firing it up, it became clear that the clutch was beyond hope, so that became the first priority. In a Sunbeam Tiger, clutch replacement requires complete removal of the engine and transmission, which can be quite a chore.

With the engine out, I did a general cleanup of the engine bay and components, fitted a new flywheel and all new clutch parts, and added a complete set of valve springs and valve seals.

I painted the engine and added and re-installed new dress-up items. The radiator was re-cored, and all new hoses for the radiator and heater were fitted. A new carburetor was obtained when the rebuilt one proved troublesome, and solid-state ignition was added to the distributor and a new ignition coil and ignition wires were added.

Some shorty glasspacks were added just to get it running, and the engine was restarted.

Redoing the brakes was more troublesome than expected—the calipers needed some new parts and refinishing.

After some run time it was clear that I was just postponing the inevitable by not completely hot-tanking and resealing the gas tanks, so that had to be done—a dirty and time-consuming job.

There are still some challenges remaining—getting some rare stainless trim straightened, probably redoing the clutch since the one installed is much too stiff. And eventually the paint job.

The first drives were just short bursts around my friend’s driveway, but it was clear the car had power. When I was finally ready to drive it the 49 miles back to my house in Dunwoody, Ga., it was really a little scary. Since the tires had been sitting flat for at least 10 years, they were not happy getting on the highway. The front end vibrated so bad at 60 mph that I could barely hang onto the steering wheel. As soon as I got it home a new set of tires were installed, along with a new (barely legal) exhaust system.

I must admit, though, I felt like a teenager again.

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