Ken Blackney and his sons have restored a sporty little Sunbean Alpine
Greg Wane
KEN Blackney reckons Hillmans were built like tanks
But he claims “they wouldn’t take the cream of a rice pudding” when referring to their power.
“All my children had Hillmans as their first cars for this reason,” the 85-year-old Belmont resident said.
“The cars were slow, they weren’t very quick.”
About 10 years ago Ken and his third son, John, bought an old 1963 Sunbeam Alpine, a car based on the Hillman Minx and built by the Rootes Group in Britain.
The car was bought from a farmer at Freshwater Creek on the Anglesea Road. It was all in one piece but needed a serious restoration.
“The car was all there basically but we had to strip it right down and put oil right through the system to keep the rust at bay,” Ken said.
His youngest son, Craig, a qualified panel beater, was able to do the full ground-up restoration.
“We sand blasted the whole car, took the dash out and redid the complete dash – it was a comprehensive restoration,” Ken said.
“Miraculously, the seats were trimmed and in good nick, so we didn’t have to do anything with them but the rest of the car wasn’t much chop at all.
“We put in new sill panels and patches and the right hand fender had been crunched at one stage, so there’ some new panel repairs. We had it painted in a two-pack paint job.”
Ken said the car was as close as he could get to the original red colour was used by the Rootes Group in 1963.
The car was unique in the sense that it was sold as a convertible – literally. A detachable hard-top roof is bolted to the body and Ken said that in summer he removed the roof, which was usually a two-person job and used the car as a soft-top.
“I had a canvas top but it was really awkward to pull up, so I just put a tonneau cover, like the MGs, across the seat area.”
The Sunbeam Alpine was launched in 1959 and styled by Kenneth Howes who based the design on the Hillman Minx, Hillman Husky and it used the short wheelbase of the Minx estate car.
The 1963 Series III model was introduced with a 1600cc engine with an alloy head. About 5800 cars were built at the Rootes Ryton facility in England.
Ken believed the car had been driven by its Modewarre owner for about two years.
Prior to then it was thought to have been owned for some years by a Leopold resident.
“I think it is the only one in the Geelong area and was probably bought new here,” Ken said.
The restoration work took more than three years to complete.
“The car actually belongs to my third son who has left the car in my care while he works overseas in Dubai. He’s been there for five years,” Ken said.
“I’m the caretaker of the car and I do the driving, which is good.”
Ken, a retired motor parts distributor, is a member of Western District Historic Vehicle club, which allows him to drive the car in the club’s rallies.
But he admitted he loved the bigger-style American cars.”
If I had my time again I’d probably get one of those big yank tanks they made in the 1930s; a big Chev, Pontiac or Oldsmobile,” he said.
“You could drive one of those cars to Darwin and back. They were built for long distance motoring – they were big, comfortable and well-sprung.
“But you wouldn’t want to drive to Darwin in the little Sunbeam. You’d get a sore backside to start with.
