1967 Triumph GT6 Mk1 - Rust, dodgy brakes and idiotic previous owners

[MikeKnight]

Hi guys, been meaning to start this for a while now but never got around to it. My GT6 is laid up over the winter for a lot of work so I thought I'd make a build thread. Maybe not the kind of car autoshiters would be more interested in but some of the things I've found definitely classify it as a special kind of shite.

 

List of things to do:

• Rebuild suspension front and back because all the rubber bushes are turning to powder and pretty fucked.
• Rebuild brakes front and back because the idiot previous owner never changed the shoes and put completely the wrong pistons in the early Type P callipers, leading to no dust boots, leading to them seizing absolutely solid inside the callipers.
• Rebuild the steering rack as it has a lot of slop in it.
• Fix leaks on the engine coming from the pushrod tubes.
• Fix leaks on the gearbox coming from a knackered speedo cable housing.
• Fix leaks on the diff coming from a knackered paper gasket.
• Put a new copper solid fuel line in to replace the crumbling steel and ancient rubber one, with flexible parts to account for engine movement.
• Rebuild the Delco Remy D202 distributor as the vacuum system is completely shot.

The only good things are the interior is okay minus a few scuffs/rip on the seats and the chassis/underbody is fairly rust free, probably due to the copious amounts of oil covering it.

 

This is how she stands at the moment.

 

Apologies for the poor pictures, the only camera I have is on my phone.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The only thing I've been able to get on with so far, due to being away for New Years and a short illness before that, is to remove the rear leaf spring.. which is a grimy lump of rust.

 

 

Then I went outside for some fresh air and decided to take some pics of the other projects I have waiting in the wings, including one in the workshop.

 

The workshop can comfortably fit two cars with enough room to walk around both. The other car in at the moment is a 1972 Alfa Romeo Spider Kammtail. It's just had a full respray, brake system rebuild and suspension rebuild front and back. It's just waiting for me to get bored with the Triumph and go back to fitting the road springs to get it back on its wheels. Then fitting the engine (which is fine, no work needed on it) and get it off to the trimmers for its new red leather interior. Mmm, tasty.

 

 

Also have another Alfa outside, this god-awful 75 which we're just stealing the engine out of for a track car. Anyone want the shell for a reasonable price? PM me.

 

 

... and this ghost of a 1969 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud II which is haunting the workshop grounds.

 

 

Anyway back to the Triumph, I went in a few days ago and made a start on the brakes. You can see how utterly grimy with crap they were before.

 

 

... and half way through cleaning one.

 

 

I'm going in later today to finish these off and paint the road spring, will update whenever I remember to if anyone's interested.

[HMC]

More updates please!!

 

Those GT6s are lovely things, a real mini E type in my mind. Respect to Harry Webster and his team for making so many interesting cars on what was a very limited budget.

 

Whats the story with the R R Sliver Shudder?

[MikeKnight]

Whats the story with the R R Sliver Shudder?

 

That actually belongs to my father, not me. It's complete but requires dismantling, cleaning/fettling, a full respray/interior and putting back together again. On a car of that size that's not a small job at all. I fear it will never be done, but my dad might surprise me and do it. I certainly don't have the time to spare.

 

I finished the brakes today. I may have utterly ballsed them up since I had to seal them and some sealer may have got into the internal fluid channels, but we'll see. I might be a jammy git and actually get away with it.

 

 

Also refurbed the rear drums and painted the new front discs to match in Halfords finest* red caliper paint.

 

 

Removed the dizzy and ignition system, this will be getting totally replaced as the cap, rotor, HT leads, coil etc are all bloody ancient.

 

 

... and here is the offending dizzy. It's getting sent away to be completely refurbished. The vacuum system doesn't work at all.

 

 

Right, back to the spring! Dismantled it...

 

 

... pulled out all the knackered rubber spacers...

 

 

... got some of these nice new nylon spacers to put in it, which should bring it back to life..

 

 

... cleaned it up to nice bright shiny metal...

 

 

... and painted it.

 

 

That took me quite a bit so I left it to dry and will put it together tomorrow. Also started on the front hubs and suspension but I'll do pics for that when I actually have something to post about.

[rml2345]

Excellent stuff! Those wee sporty Trumpets look like lots of fun.

It'd be nice to see the Cloud tackled. I know its terribly un Autoshite but I sort of fell in love with them when I was a nipper and it's never really gone away.

Interesting stuff though. MOAR PLZ.

[cobblers]

I love GT6s, especially the early ones. I'm always surprised by how small they are in person, despite a couple of mates of mine owning them so they're hardly unfamiliar.

 

PS please sell me the wheels off the Alfa, I need some three spokes in my life (obviously for a budget price)

[vulgalour]

VULGALOUR DELIVERY SERVICE IS AVAILABLE.

[MikeKnight]

PS please sell me the wheels off the Alfa, I need some three spokes in my life (obviously for a budget price)

 

I happily would, but we don't have any others to put on that would fit and it needs to be a rolling chassis for when we remove the engine and weigh the rest in. If you had some appropriate steels that would fit with tyres that keep their pressure I'd just do a straight swapsies for you. They also don't have any centre caps, the PO already took them.

 

I did some more work today but it was all bits-n-pieces work, prepping stuff, removing bits of the suspension that you can barely see, nothing exciting.

[cobblers]

Damn, the lack of unobtainium center caps on top of ferrying some steelies up the country with poor old vulgairlair makes it probably more work than is worthwhile. Anyway I will sign out of "shit 3 spoke wheel negotiations" and let you get on with your thread about nice cars!

[dugong]

VULGALOUR DELIVERY SERVICE IS AVAILABLE.

Ideally emulation should omit the full stop.

[vulgalour]

I'm obviously a massive fake.

[Junkman]

I never dared to ask on this here forum, because I was afraid getting beaten up for mentioning a GT6, which in my part of the world is squarely in the thick of Autoshite. But a friend of mine is in the process of restoring one of those in Austria and he asked me to send him some spares.

 

Not being a Trummy man myself I don't even know who to turn to, maybe Moss across the street from where I live?

The thing I don't get at all is the stuff he told me regarding the rear axle. The way I understood his bafflegab is that there is a useless early type, a later type that is useless in a different way, and a method to modify an early type to combine the disadvantages of both setups, which he seems to be after.

Can you explain, please?

[red5]

I suspect he is referring to swing,Rotoflex and Non-Rotoflex axles? Ask him if that rings a bell?

[Junkman]

It rings a bell with me, because I think that's what he said. Can I have that with a small portion of chips, please?

[vulgalour]

I believe Mike's has the Mk1 Useless Axle, but that he was told by the previous owner it had been upgraded as your Austrian friend would like to do on his.  Mike hasn't ended up skidding off the road backwards into a tree, so I suspect Mk1 Useless Axle is actually moderately competent.

[Forty-two]

I remember hearing stories of these MK1s tucking the rear wheels under when cornering hard, then springing back violently at which point the driver becomes a passenger and waits for the journey to end...

[MikeKnight]

To clear things up:

• GT6 Mk1 had a swing axle design, which as Forty-two said has the unfortunate ability to tuck the wheels in while cornering hard. It's not a terrible design, just not all that great.
• GT6 Mk2 had a rotoflex design, with rubber donuts that cost about a billion pounds each and most of them come from china and are shit unless you can find new old stock.
• GT6 Mk3 had a swing spring design, which was like the swing axle except there's a modified spring with an integrated pivot point to stop the wheels tucking in so much.

My car has the swing axle as it's a Mk1, but I discovered it has an overdrive (which was never an option on the Mk1 unless you had Triumph retrofit it later) and a Spitfire differential. At first I thought this was the wrong diff entirely, but later discovered that the Spitfire diff has exactly the same ratio as a GT6 overdrive diff. Whichever PO put that in is a clever little bugger.

[Junkman]

So what would one need to modify in order to improve the handling of a MK1 and where can one buy the necessary bits?

Is there a kit or something, or does one have to know what one is doing (which is obviously what everyone except me does)?

TBH, nothing of what was mentioned hitherto makes any sense to me.

[Inspector Morose]

http://www.canleyclassics.com

 

?

[Junkman]

Looks like I'd bin a lot of tosh and replace it with a Dolly axle on rose-joints and coilovers, me.

Still don't understand what needs to be modified to achieve what he wants.

[MikeKnight]

I wouldn't bother improving the Mk1 suspension unless he plans on track days, even then I wouldn't bother as an experienced driver should be able to compensate once they understand the feel of the car. Might take a few skids to do so, but that's all part of the fun*.

 

I think any other GT6 suspension is a straight fit but he'd have to buy the complete rear end. If you found a Mk2 or Mk3 wreck you could likely salvage the rear end from those and have the scrap man pick up the rest.

[MikeKnight]

Only did a few bits today because I'm prepping the workshop for a two post car lift.

 

I did finish the front hub refurb, they were pretty caked and full of ancient, black, grease. They're getting all new bearings and races.

 

 

Also removed most of the front suspension but having a horrible time with one of the brass trunnions which has its pivot bolt completely seized inside it. Probably going to have to carefully drill it out. No amount of smacking with a lump hammer was budging it, was simply mushrooming the thread.

 

[MikeKnight]

Been a while since I updated. Mostly from picking up and sorting out the two post car lift. Good God my back hurts now. If one of those posts fell on you, you'd simply be dead.

 

Finished the rear spring and polybushed it. It's been finished a while now, just never got around to posting about it.

 

 

Completely refurbished the Delco Remy D200 distributor. All my own work. Just waiting for the reconditioned vacuum unit to be returned from H&H Ignition Solutions (plug for an awesome and friendly company), as this was the one part I did not have the capability to fix.

 

 

Front suspension is completely dismantled. Rather than powder coat everything, which can turn horrible if it chips (and it will), I went with Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black instead which is some of the hardest chassis paint you can buy if applied correctly. Needs four coats, two of primer and two of topcoat, with 24 hours minimum between each so four days in total. Here's a picture of everything cleaned up on my magical wire wheel machine.

 

 

I'll post again in four days when the paint is dry. 

[MikeKnight]

UPDATE TIME.

 

Anyone want to install a car lift?  This is a good old twin screw setup, no hydraulics, just need to get it installed.. one of these days..

 

 

I got the prop shaft off. Guess what! If you guessed that it was holding the entirety of the gearbox oil in, you win! I was directly under the gearbox and its lack of a working end seal at the time. Oil does not taste nice, nor is it good for your teeth or eyes.

 

 

Front suspension components all painted up nice. I really like this Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black, it's tough as nails and doesn't chip at all, it just dents. I may or may not have found this out by dropping said items several times.

 

 

Cleaned the underside of the bonnet for a "before" shot before I paint it. Pretty shitty looking isn't it.. the PO didn't bother finishing the paint on the underside. Sigh.

 

 

Removed the head from the block so I can get it over to the engine guys for conversion. The block is in remarkably good shape and held compression perfectly before head removal.

 

 

And here is said head in its box waiting to go to the engine guys. This and the rocker cover is also in remarkably good shape. I am well chuffed. Parts for the Mk1 engine can be expensive and difficult to find.

 

 

Of course removing the head meant I had to remove all this shit too. My cleaning and painting duties for the next week right here folks.

 

 

The suspension was pretty much dry by this point so I went ahead and blackened (stone chip paint, not underseal) the underside of the bonnet, wheel arches, and some of the chassis. I'm not a big fan of painted underbonnets but it's a damn sight nicer than the shitty red paint and visible blisters that were under there.

 

 

Also did the bulkheads, I was dubious but eventually pleased with the result. They could do with one more coat though.

 

 

Then started to put the front suspension together. It's going well!

 

 

I'll post more when I have more things to post about. 

[vulgalour]

That's looking lovely, I was dubious about how you'd described it but it looks really smart.  You can do mine next

[MikeKnight]

Been a few weeks since I last updated, I've mostly been cracking on with stuff!

 

Vulgalour, I'm more than happy to stonechip your arches and underbonnet next time you're at the workshop, but you'll have to a) buy the stonechip, it's not horrendously expensive and do the horrible mucky work of cleaning the surfaces beforehand. You will need a shower afterwards. 

 

I got to taking the rear drive shafts apart. They've been on there since the dawn of mankind so needed a hell of a lot of heat and force to remove the flanges, they did eventually come off with an almighty clang. It was a good workout and managed to bend a few wheel studs in the process. They've since been replaced.

 

 

Finished the front suspension completely! Woot!

 

 

Here's the complete rear suspension (minus leaf spring) all split apart, cleaned of all rust and ready for paint.

 

 

Time to tackle the gearbox leaks, unfortunately this means taking out most of the interior, fortunately the interior of this car turned out to be two seats and a smattering of carpet.

 

 

Interior all out! I didn't take pictures of the leaks or me fixing them, but they've been fixed. Was a) a blocked breather knackered speedo pinion seal and c) knackered end seal.

 

 

Rear arches cleaned ready for stonechipping. This took me forever and there was all sorts of crap behind there, sometimes literally, with ancient horse shit and goat poo coming out. Lovely* job.

 

 

And stonechipped. Much nicer.

 

 

Split the rear diff while it was off in order to check for damaged teeth and inspect its overall condition for wear etc. It's a pretty simple diff. Weighs a ton though because it's housing is cast iron.

 

 

Diff put back together and cleaned up. I uncovered a lot of identifying info on the casing just from cleaning and de-rusting it, I felt like an archaeologist uncovering ancient hieroglyphics.

 

 

Diff painted with super tough resin paint and all put back together. Lovely. The end caps seem to be nothing more than a friction seal so I added some liquid gasket for good luck.

 

 

The rear suspension was painted with the same resin paint in the meantime, then the back end was all put back together. The cheap chinese brake shoes needed some sanding on one side in order for the drum to fit. This is pretty common for newly produced stuff, they're not as good as the old (albeit now known to be dangerous) asbestos shoes.

 

 

Got all the front hubs etc fitted with new bearings and whatnot. Was at this point I discovered more previous owner bodgery as the brackets for the flexi lines were on the wrong sides of the wishbone! This meant when at full lock it was stretching the lines. What an arse! This is how they fit on the Spitfire though so the PO probably thought it was the same.

 

 

Lines properly fitted on the correct side of the wishbones after rectifying the previous owners bodgery. I made up my own brackets and lines.

 

 

And this is how she sits currectly. A bit high, but is sitting on new springs and will settle. Also remembering the head and ancillaries were not yet refitted and those weigh quite a bit.

 

 

I picked the head up a few days ago so that was refitted. Originally quoted £300 for the job of unleaded inserts, the cost spiralled to almost double at £595 because there were some problems with the head I hadn't clocked. It required skimming, valve grinding and new aluminium pushrod tubes manufacturing as the old ones were quite crushed internally. I wasn't ripped off though, the bloke doing the work is used by companies throughout the area and his work is top-notch, if he says it costs that then it costs that and shows you his work step by step. We've used him before when building an Alfa Romeo 105 race engine.

 

Head refitted, left hand (electrics) side.

 

 

Head refitted, inlet and exhaust side. Much prettier than it was and rust free. All I have to do now is complete the fuel line from the bulkhead to the carbs and I can test fire her up then get her timed.

 

 

Now for a bit of bad news. While rebuilding the rear end I discovered some of the threads on the drive shafts were damaged. I cleaned them up with a die but they were still damaged, making it very difficult to fit the flanges. So I MIG welded the flanges to the shafts. Yes, I know this is a bodge, yes, I understand the risks. It was mostly so I could get it back on its wheels in order to get it tuned and the geometry set up properly. I will be getting new drive shafts and flanges before taking it any distance under its own power.

 

Except for that hiccup, this has all gone surprisingly well.

[RichardMoss]

That's looking rather nice.  I've tried GT6s in the past and they're just too small for me, so I'll have to stick with my (relatively) large MGC GT.

[mat_the_cat]

I remember hearing stories of these MK1s tucking the rear wheels under when cornering hard, then springing back violently at which point the driver becomes a passenger and waits for the journey to end...

 

Like this?

 

[vulgalour]

Goodness, that's way, way better than I expected you'd get it all to look and far more involved than I realised you were going.  It'll practically be a new car when you drive it.  I'm actually quite jealous of how clean and finished and lovely looking that all is.

[MikeKnight]

That's looking rather nice.  I've tried GT6s in the past and they're just too small for me, so I'll have to stick with my (relatively) large MGC GT.

 

Thankfully I'm only 5'7" so it fits me snug as a bug in a rug. The cockpit is pretty much the perfect size for me, it's lovely and snug without feeling claustrophobic and has plenty of leg room complete with a foot rest. I love driving this more than the Alfa Romeo 105 Bertone Coupe I drove last week, the Alfa felt too constricted and claustrophobic despite it being worth over double the value of the Triumph. The Triumph is far comfier and will be even better once I save up enough to re-foam and re-cover the seats.

 

Goodness, that's way, way better than I expected you'd get it all to look and far more involved than I realised you were going.  It'll practically be a new car when you drive it.  I'm actually quite jealous of how clean and finished and lovely looking that all is.

 

Thank you, but it took far longer than my original estimation of three weeks. A lot of late nights as you discovered with me barely being on Skype for several weeks, and a lot of elbow grease. The build didn't cost a huge amount and I probably could've got it down even more as I discovered I had accidentally doubled up on things like bearings and high tensile suspension bolts (which I now have quite a lot spare of). The room also helped as I was working throughout the very high winds and rain we've had this winter, though the wind-induced rattling and clanging of the units roller shutter did almost drive me to madness.

[Squire_Dawson]

Great thread, and I've always considered Triumph to be autoshite, pretty chronic autoshite, even.

 

The Alfa-Romeo spider you have there is truly a beautiful car.