Engine bay component black

[tigerguy2]

I am sure this topic has been beat to death in the past, so hopefully someone can point me to a thread with the answers. I have not had much luck with the search function. Operator error I am sure.

I want to repaint the various black items in my engine bay. I am inclined to go gloss black on everything, but want to be prepared for any criticism from the Tiger police who will feel obligated to point out something is not "correct". Tis better to knowingly do something different than through ignorance. I have repainted things over the years and do not remember what shades of black they were originally. Was just not important at the time!

I know chassis components were a semi-gloss black. What about the radiator, shroud, expansion tank, oil breather cap, generator bracket, generator, fan, fan pulley, and booster? BTW, when my car was new, the booster cover plate (I am original owner) was a silvery, plated like finish. I have never seen that on any other tiger. Has anyone else? The canister part of the rebuilt one now in my car is gloss black all over.

Thanks for any and all help! Gene

[garyv8tiger]

stuff them ,do it how you want its your car i,m doing my next tiger tango orange ,and fitting a audi q7 diesel engine

[michael-king]

Gene,

I think you will find they are a semi gloss (satin) black. The oil caps are closer to matt, but have a slight sheen (they are a ford part off the shelf vs the rootes parts which you have mentnioed, hence the difference in finish) If you do a search on the SAOCA board it was discussed for the alpines a while back, and some people even came up with good recomendations as to which paint to use.

[tigerguy2]

Michael, thanks so much for the information. I will be doing that search in just a moment. I may just try the semi-gloss/satin first and see how I like it. I can always go to full gloss later. I noticed in some of the National pictures a couple of engine bays seemed to have black parts done in gloss black and am thinking it looked very sharp. Yes it is my car and ultimately it will be to my personal liking. But I at least want to know if I deviate from what is correct in others' eyes, I have done so with knowlege, not out of ignorance. Cheers, Gene

[gvickery]

Gene

Here are three photos of a new late MK1 or an early MK1A. These colour shots are not perfect but they tell you most of the story. I can't claim to be a 'judge' (as per Norm Miller) but as Michael says almost everything installed s/b black - excepting air filter. valve covers, plastic caps, hoses and a very few aluminium parts obvious in these images. Bracketry fitted by Jensen s/b in in body colour - for header tank, steering column and the like.

Some items were finished in satin - such as the generator body, fan and oil filler cap. The 'black' wasn't high gloss but there is a shine to it.

This Tiger was shipped to New Zealand and is photographed at Todd Motors wearing, I think, NZ registration plates. I believe it must have been an RRO FE machine (right hand drive in a right hand country other than the UK) but the Alpine side flash puzzles me as I thought 'Tiger' was the brand in NZ not 'Alpine 260'.

Can any of our 'Kiwi viewers' shed any light on this and on the machine?







Graham
STOC Editor

[Mal]

Graham,
my Tiger is a RRO car but was in Germany since 1966 to 2008 until I bought it. It had Tiger scripts on each wing but other badges were alpine 260. Also on the bulkhead specification plate it has,
Alpine - 260 - V8 - 1,224,888. Also has it,s chassis number stamped to it,s firewall.

The car in the pic has NZ rego plates, I will see if I can find more info on it.

Cheers Mal

[michael-king]

Graham,

For info on the NZ Tigers i would touch base with David Craw, i believe he had quite a bit to do with the importation of rootes cars and the tigers into the other great southern land back in the day. He is stioll very active in the NZ sunbeam scene.

[Mal]

I have been in touch with our spare parts coordinater and he has given me the history of the car.

The Tiger photo from UK. Yes we know the car. It was imported by Todds as a demonstrator car . An Xmember drove this when he worked for Todds . The Tiger was sold by a Todd dealer in Palmerston North. It was then as shown in the photos . Another Xmember Brian purchased the car it was then painted white in the early 1980s he got the car from another xmember Alan who then purchased a Mark 11 Tiger. Another Brian painted the car British racing green and sold it to Japan in 1988. Japan drive in the left which makes our Tigers attractive to them.


I have had another look at that Tiger. It is a Tiger Mark 1 not a 1A. It has SUNBEAM above the rad. intake Mark 1A did not have this . Our Tiger is a very late Mark1,about 150 of the last Mark 1 did not have SUNBEAM above the rad. air intake . I also note that the Tiger has no service plate attached to the fire wall in front of the driver . It must have left the factory like this. You can see the tops of the rivets that should hold the service plate down .Our Tiger was like this . I have found that Jenson run out of the service plates . They did not tell the worker that drills holes that there were no service plates left so they just filled the four holes with spot rivets or screws as in the photo .

I hope this helps Mal

[Tim]

These photos are really useful to me as it helps me work out what is and isn't correct on my Mk1 car.

Way off topic I know, so apologies, but is the white bottle at the front of the engine bay on the drivers side (UK/NZ) the windscreen washer bottle? My car has it's bottle fitted behind the wooden plate in the passenger footwell, which I always thought was a strange - and inconvenient - place for it.

[martin172]

To get it out of the airflow coming into the engine compartment I would imagine, but a strange place nevertheless.
Then again, where else is there to put it?

[Mal]

Way off topic I know, so apologies, but is the white bottle at the front of the engine bay on the drivers side (UK/NZ) the windscreen washer bottle? My car has it's bottle fitted behind the wooden plate in the passenger footwell, which I always thought was a strange - and inconvenient - place for it.

That is where my washer bottle is fitted. It's not nice and white like that one though. Your bottle certainly is in a strange place. That plate in my car is pressed steel, not wood as well.

[gtsmrt]

I am sure this topic has been beat to death in the past, so hopefully someone can point me to a thread with the answers. I have not had much luck with the search function. Operator error I am sure.

I want to repaint the various black items in my engine bay. I am inclined to go gloss black on everything, but want to be prepared for any criticism from the Tiger police who will feel obligated to point out something is not "correct". Tis better to knowingly do something different than through ignorance. I have repainted things over the years and do not remember what shades of black they were originally. Was just not important at the time!

I know chassis components were a semi-gloss black. What about the radiator, shroud, expansion tank, oil breather cap, generator bracket, generator, fan, fan pulley, and booster? BTW, when my car was new, the booster cover plate (I am original owner) was a silvery, plated like finish. I have never seen that on any other tiger. Has anyone else? The canister part of the rebuilt one now in my car is gloss black all over.

Thanks for any and all help! Gene

Hi Gene,

No need to be embarrassed, we all repeat a topic at some point. Adding our own personal touch is what makes things different from others. I'm with Gary, if you want to do it, go for it. The only reason to make it factory correct would be for concourse but it sounds like you just want the glossy look.

Regards, Robin.

[gtsmrt]

To get it out of the airflow coming into the engine compartment I would imagine, but a strange place nevertheless.
Then again, where else is there to put it?

Sounds like they just wanted to hide it. If it was over heating, you want the air through the radiator, not bypassing it. As you said though, very strange.

[michael-king]

is the white bottle at the front of the engine bay on the drivers side (UK/NZ) the windscreen washer bottle? My car has it's bottle fitted behind the wooden plate in the passenger footwell, which I always thought was a strange - and inconvenient - place for it.

Tim,

On the RHD cars LHD cars the washer bottles were at the front RHS in the engine compartment, as for the "wooden board" i assume at some point your original "toe board"/false floor in the passengers compartment has been lost at some point and a home made replacement has been fittted, they are actually a pressed metal time secured by two metal tabs mounted the the floors.

[michael-king]

To get it out of the airflow coming into the engine compartment I would imagine, but a strange place nevertheless.
Then again, where else is there to put it?

While it would be a pain to fill it mounted down in there, i guess having it closer to the manual washer pump and to the nozzels would require less tubing and less vacuum effort before you got the nozzels to spray.. so perhaps it would make them system somewhat more effective... (though an electric motor does a much better job)