1968 Triumph GT6 barn find: too far gone?

I apologize for cross posting. Please correct me if I offend, but this is both a classic and a GRM dream of mine to create a badass track rat from something like this...

https://flickr.com/photos/64574314@N05/sets/72157654024475468

GT6 album on Flickr

I was offered this car for free, but it will take some doing to extract it from its current location.

My dad had a TR4A, I drove a spitfire throughout high school, and I always wanted one of these. I have been looking for a project car, but this one may be too far gone, having sat for 20 years.. Single owner car, though!

I believe I would have to tear this one apart to remove it, just to get it light enough to load it onto my truck. I can't get a flat bed or even my pickup into the yard anywhere near to the car except from behind it where there is a church driveway on the high side if a 3foot retaining wall.

One of those lumber pallet delivery trucks could probably just pick the thing up from that driveway. But I dare not guess what that might cost me, including the 35 mile delivery. I might call around to some of the stone sales places.

If that is too expensive or not an option, I would use some scaffolding to remove the engine tranny, wheels, guts, bonnet, hatch, and then drag it across the grass to the curb out front. Or get five buddies to lift it to the parking lot.

Anyway, the owner wants it gone. Assuming I can extract it, do I even want it?

It would be a frame off restoration, since I will need to separate them just to assess the integrity of the frame. But one of the only places I could access, behind the driver side front wheel, I could put my fingers through holes in the piece that sits just below the drivers footwell.. Granted, that's the place that gets the salt spray. 20 years ago.

Rockers are gone. Floor panels... What floor panels? Rust everywhere. Tires shot, of course.

And if/when I remove the wheels, you know more than half of the lug studs are coming off with the lug nuts.

Seems to me there are better projects available for certainly less hassle. My goal for a project at this time is to build a track car, and I was thinking eco boost 4 cyl would be bad ass. Pie in the sky, I realize.

Just hoping the wise could weigh in here.

Thanks!

Take it and sell for parts. Fund a better car. Take it from someone who has been there, rebuilding a rust bucket requires a huge commitment to financial irresponsibility. It is going to take years to build a car that is worth half what you spend.

The truth is that other than emotional commitment, there is no need or reason to restore rustbuckets.

If you just want a challenge, ignore the above.

Do you own a welder and know how to use it.

What is your timeline.

To me it is a parts car but you really need to get it on a lift to inspect it better.

The free aspect of it is deceptive. It will most likely cost you less in the long run to get a better one and use tgat as a doner car.

For a restoration, hell no, they aren't THAT rare, parked on dirt in what looks like a wet climate, it was probably too far gone 20 years ago. If you're talented it might make an ok candidate for the old "weld up the missing bits of outer skin and drape that over a tube frame(or an old S10) " treatment.

Having seen first hand just how badly a well cared for gt6 can rot under the surface and still look good on the outside I am doing the eyes shut tight, fingers in the ears "lalalala" scream thing right now.

There is no way in hell I would touch that project. For what you would pay for all the heritage panels you will need you could buy a decent car.

I started the restoration of a bn2 Healey this week that was stripped in 75 and stored in a barn that flooded several times over the last 40 years. I cannot believe anyone would consider it a viable base, but the customers pay the bills so I do what they say. I wouldn't wish it on anyone who wasn't being paid by the hour to do it.

Seriously, save up. Buy yourself time, reduce your headaches. You can be so patient when you're just saving up cash.

Ok, it's definitely not a smart move to rescue it with any intent of restoration, and it might cost more to rescue it's worth in parts, but that thing has some seriously cool patina going on. If you could drop it over a Miata chassis or something small/cheap/easy and leave the appearance as-is that would be awesome.

That's a dead GT6.

I have a Bugeye that looked very similar. Here it is:

It looked rusty, but intact. When I moved it however, it crumbled, literally breaking apart. Dis..integrated:

Find a better car.

What they said. There isn't enough tetanus vaccine in the world to prepare you for fixing that. If the cost is moving it, it may be worth the effort for a parts car.

I agree with everyone telling you it's too far gone, but I'll take a different approach.

Go get it and drag it home. If a car nut doesn't grab it, it'll go straight to the scrappers. If you grab it, you can at least grab the three to four pieces that are salvageable (optimistic?). Even some rusty garage wall art can be fun! It'll never be a car again, but you'll have some extras when you find your actual project car. I had fun scrapping a couple vehicles like this.

Look up roadkill rotsun.

Do that.

The car, as it sits, ain't even worth much as scrap metal. Its way too far gone to fix as a triumph. A rat rod locost body on the other hand. ..

Yup. sometimes free is too expensive. I have a friend in CA that wants to get rid of a perfect, rust free GT6 for a few grand. Call Mike Pierce at Pierce manifolds and tell him Tim Sent you.

Sometimes, junk cars are junk.

Get it. Pull the drive train and the vin plates. Find a donor car and swap the parts over. Trying to bring that body back would be a serious drain on your financials and time.

Having said that, did I miss the cars location? If if is in middle GA I'll help you get it...but I would not be interested in it for myself.

Yup. Leave it in peace. I found two rust free GT6's without looking too hard.

Tim Suddard wrote: Yup. sometimes free is too expensive. I have a friend in CA that wants to get rid of a perfect, rust free GT6 for a few grand. Call Mike Pierce at Pierce manifolds and tell him Tim Sent you.

This, not that.

Looks like it has good glass. That and maybe some little bits could be salvaged. Not much left otherwise.

Get the car, then evaluate what you have.
Pay a wrecker to winch it out to the road, only weighs about 1800 lb.
Could jack it up and put a dolly under to help with dragging.
Spitfire/GT6 have separate chassis and body that are very easy to separate (14 bolts).
The lower body is rusted out, it's just what they do, and it's PITA to fix.
BUT, finding a good body for sale is not uncommon, and both GT6 and Spitfire body will fit.
Pix of the chassis and attached suspension don't look that bad to me.
I've seen worse. I've OWNED worse. I've DRIVEN worse.
Chances are the motor, trans, diff are intact and perhaps don't even need a rebuild.
Although the main reason these cars were parked like that is broken diff or tranny.
Point is, these cars are kind of modular, bolt together affairs.

Sorry but that's not even a parts car. Every single bolt that I can see in the pictures looks rusted solid. Nothing sucks worse than breaking every single bolt that you try to undo. That's soul crushing.

With that said, with it being free, haul it home if it's easy for you and grab what you can. Just don't expect much.

If it is free, and you own a trailer, haul it directly to the scrapyard and collect $200. Win.

If for any reason you need THAT car to live again, pull the ID tags off, order replacement part in the shape of an entire car, and screw the VIN on the new part. You would not be the first to do that.

Thanks everyone. I have declined the offer. I had hatched a plan for how I'd remove it, and I've shared my ideas with the owner and others that might still be interested, just so they might have a better head start.

But that bugeye pic really did it for me. I'd have to load it atop my pickup truck bed to catch all the "droppings" if I wanted to get it all home. I have a feeling that if it weren't a hardtop, it would break in two just like that bugeye if I even tried to jack up a corner.

And I also found other more suitable projects out there. I'm confident that when I'm really ready to begin, I'll be able to find something that's "just right" for my purposes.

Thanks again!

You should rethink your decision.
Unlike most cars, the body of a Spit/GT6 is a disposable component.
You don't even NEED a body to drive the car.
This, based on 45 years with these cars in the humid, rusty, salt laden South Florida environment.

I might would take it if it had an OD transmission, the engine wasn't stuck and I could get it home without paying for a wrecker. Pull the drive train and scrap the rest. I don't think it's worth parting out.

You should be getting paid for hauling this off.

More enablement:

http://www.triumphexp.com/phorum/read.php?8,1295517

as someone who has owned two rusty GT6s and restored one of them (the other being too rusty for my effort), I can say:

that one is about 100x more rusty than the one I decided not to do. I wouldn't touch it with a 10-foot pole.....and I love GT6s. Could be some parts of value, depending on what's under the hood. GT6 diffs, trans, and engines are getting pretty hard to find these days.