1963 AP5's dirty old '82 Sigma SE

[1963 AP5 829]

Well I haven't been very good at keeping you all up to date with what's going on in my shed lately so I thought I should try a little harder and share this with you.

 

A few weeks ago I spotted this 1982 Sigma SE on the side of the road in Ohope and decided that it had to be mine. It ran like crap, but it is very tidy and most importantly is rust free. I have been busy working on getting it running properly. The car was on LPG for many years and the factory carb was pretty much useless. I have fixed this problem by installing a 32/36 Weber and she runs sweet now. Photos and details to follow.

Discuss the project and/or mock me for my ridiculous life choices here

 

[1963 AP5 829]

The first task was to replace the factory carb. I pulled the plugs and it was obviously running super lean and on top of this i am sure that the vacuum secondaries weren't working. I couldn't find a rebuild kit for it so replacement seemed like the best option. I went for a 32/36 Weber because I have had good results with Weber's in the past and I find they are easy to configure and tune for different applications.

[1963 AP5 829]

And here it is installed on the car

[1963 AP5 829]

I managed to rework the throttle cable hardware from the original carb so it would work with the Weber.

It was a little fiddly but ended up working very well.

[1963 AP5 829]

The throttle cable bracket took some figuring out but I got it all working with the factory cable.

[1963 AP5 829]

In the 1980's car manufacturers seemed to think it was a good idea to supply their customers with unnecessary and unsightly additional ride height. Last weeks project was to correct this with new springs and shocks all round. The car didn't drive particularly well so I did a back yard wheel alignment with string and a tape measure. I found that the front wheels were actually toed out so I also corrected that problem and it drives heaps better now. I will get it in for a proper wheel alignment sometime soon.

[1963 AP5 829]

Here you go @MaxPower

The front springs were just a little loose with the car jacked so I made them secure the oldschool way with some locking wire.