Built by one man in a small garage in the UK, this rare Sunbeam S8 is part restomod, part quirky custom.
There’s a magic to shed-built motorcycles. Sometimes it’s in the obscurity of the machine itself; other times, it’s in the idiosyncratic mods and details, each with its own story. And sometimes, it’s all of that and more—as with this Sunbeam S8 restomod.
The bike belongs to Stuart Bruton, a UK-based hobbyist who recently found himself in the crosshairs of Del Hickey’s camera. An ace photographer and regular Bike EXIF contributor, Del has a nose for motorcycles that are rare, vintage, peculiar—or all three.
The Sunbeam S8’s history is fascinating. Built when BSA owned the Sunbeam brand, it was preceded by the S7—a bike that was loosely inspired by World War II BMWs. Produced up until 1956, it featured a 487 cc parallel-twin engine, good for around 24 hp, with telescopic forks and plunger-style rear suspension.
Stuart found this particular Sunbeam S8 on eBay. First registered in 1957, it had already been modified to some extent—but Stuart stripped it to its bones and started over.
The initial hurdle was restoring the Sunbeam’s abused bodywork, starting with its tool, electrical, and battery boxes. “They were full of 70 years of holes, modifications, and dents,” Stuart tells us. “After a couple of months of repairing them, it was more cost-effective than buying new ones and gave me more satisfaction.”
The fenders weren’t as lucky. Stuart binned them both, along with the original turn signals and taillight. A slimmer, shorter rear fender was fitted, held in place by a custom-made sissy bar that sparked a side quest of its own…
“My first thought was what material was I going to use,” he says. “I decided on stainless steel, which was ordered in 12 mm square sections. I then had to find out how I was going to bend it; the obvious answer was to make a bending fixture, which meant welding two plates together.”
“After numerous hours of making sissy bars from wood, I finally came up with a design I was happy with, which in turn gave me a better idea of where to fix the rear light.”
“I had a great idea of using a brass fire extinguisher as a taillight. Of course, the next problem was how to put the electrics in it. Having bought a Sparto rear light, I found I could mount it on my 1948 Atlas lathe and turn away most of the casting, which left a round light mount. That, in turn, fitted inside the part of the fire extinguisher I had made into a housing.”
Moving to the fuel tank, Stuart ditched the bulky Sunbeam unit for a modified Harley Sportster 883 unit, topping it off with a handmade gas cap. He then re-fitted the boxes that he’d restored—but while bolting them in place was easy, rewiring everything had him spending more time studying wiring diagrams than actually working on the bike.
“For the seat, I bought some mild steel for the pan and then had to figure out how to bend it—which took a little while,” Stuart tells us. “After a couple of hours of heat and a ratchet clamp, we got there. I then made my seat out of leather with a foam insert, which was partly hand-sewn and finished on my old Singer sewing machine.”
Stuart’s lathe had more work ahead of it. He used it to modify the Sunbeam’s headlight bucket and to turn a new set of bushings for the aftermarket springer front-end on the bike. The headlight was liberated of its aging paint, and then polished, and the forks were treated to sections of stainless steel tubing to cover damage to the chrome without sacrificing integrity.
Harley Sportster handlebars were repurposed for the cockpit, fitted with no-name-brand grips, Lucas switches, and reverse levers. Lower down, Stuart moved the foot controls forward, thanks to handmade mounting tabs and linkages.
Other changes included new Borrani rims, a tulip silencer on the Sunbeam’s restored exhaust headers, and new fasteners. A handful of quirky design details ensure that Stuart’s handiwork represents his personality.
In true DIY spirit, Stuart also tackled the paint job himself. Armed with rattle cans that were painstakingly matched to an original Sunbeam green by the friendly folks at Automotive Paint Supplies, he soon realized that he may, yet again, have bitten off more than he could chew. “I had to do it twice,” he explains, “as I found out from my son-in-law that I needed to use a different primer, since the original had caused a ripple effect.”
“I’d set myself a target date for getting the bike finished so I could show it at The Kickback Show at the Sammy Miller Museum—which I achieved. It was really the first chance I had to stand back and look at the bike from a distance, as all the work was done in the confined space of my garage.”
“The bike attracted lots of admiring glances, with conversations aplenty about my non-standard Sunbeam.”
Images by, and with our everlasting gratitude to, Del Hickey
