Got another GT6! (build thread)

My patience in not picking up every POS $500 random project car that came along finally paid off when I found this posted (for $500) on CL the other day. '71 Mk3 with Rotoflex rear end.

Expecting the worst I went to check it out only 5 miles from my house and was surprised to see that the body has very little rust (floorpans and rockers are good and solid), could only find one small section with bondo (rear fender), and the engine starts right up and idles smoothly. Car has no working brakes so didn't drive it, but suspension appears original (even the original wheels complete with chrome trim rrings and hubcaps are still there!). Most of the interior is there, albeit with a Mk3 seat and a Mk2 set (both lousy...I have a pair of good Mk2 seats in the shed). Underbody and frame are in very good shape and engine bay looks complete. Even has an OEM exhaust in good shape on it.

So far I've taken one seat out, vacuumed out, and ripped out most of the carpet and very happy with the body condition under all that. All glass is there, though all the rubber seals are shot. Whole dash also there, though crash pad is badly cracked and headliner is no good. Must have been a garage-kept car for most of its life, because there is no evidence of leakage - even the battery box is in good shape, and we all know those rust out like crazy.

Downside: there's about 4 coats of lousy resprays on the car, peeling and chipping. Eventually just need to pull the body, strip it, and dip it to bare metal.

The plan is to stash this in the big shed out back for a while until other projects are done, and then gut it and cage it for vintage racing. I can't bring myself to put the '70 + on the track now that I've "niced it up" for a weekend driver.

Anyhow, more on this over time. Guess I'll make this my "build thread" when I finally do some work on it.

Guy I bought it from was a trip - gas station attendant, 50-something black guy who wanted to talk my ear off about cars from the 40s to the 80s and also rock'n'roll. ONe of the most entertaining people I've met in some time. At the gas station he had a midget around the side that was getting body work done and looked bleh on the outside, but had a gorgeious interior and a fully built engine by Ted Shumacher at TSI.....

a few pics:

my '70 Mk2/+, for those who haven't seen it:

couple more pics since you guys like details:

only aftermarket part I can find is an electric pusher fan

Great Fine!

Love it.

dang..worse shape ones up here are over a grand. good find

sadly, I only get to keep it in the main garage for this week (my wife wants her parking spot back)...so it will be moving to the "big shed" out back, with wood floors, no power, and no lighting. Guess I need to get going renovating the "3rd bay" first :D

great find!

Great find! I always liked the 2nd gen GT6 best (lean strongly toward the I/II/III Spitfire, though) and the Rotoflex rear is a plus.

Great find! My favorite GT6.

Jensenman wrote: Great find! I always liked the 2nd gen GT6 best (lean strongly toward the I/II/III Spitfire, though) and the Rotoflex rear is a plus.

is the Mk3 considered "2nd gen?"

Mechanically/suspension I would think that the Mk2/3 are more similar than the Mk1/2 are.

On a side note, was just out under the car and: - passenger side floor front and rear is in excellent shape with zero rust - passenger side rocker is good except for rust-through at the front section - that'll need replacement. - driver's side rocker is ok...some rust, but nothing that will be hard to fix. - driver's side floors both are strategically patched with fiberglass - he did a clean job and at a glance it looked stock, but it isn't. May just replace that whole side floor. - looking at the inside of body panels, no signs of rust, bondo or fiberglass anywhere else, except some bondo on the top at the extreme rear of the left wing...covering some kind of dent obviously. - the hood is definitely a goner, at least the front 6" of it or so. Will see what to do. - amazingly, all electricals seem to work - warning lights, wipers, all lighting except the headlights...even the license plate lamps work. - roto donuts are cracking and axles rusty as hell. Luckily, I just happen to have two "like new" roto axles with new donuts that came off my Mk2, since that one just got Canley CV axles :D - under a seat I found a brand-new heater control valve. Convenient, since I was about to order one of those for the Mk2, whose is all rusty and partly seized (yay)

looks like the "black chrome" finishers on the rear wings are new...they're in perfect shape. Also, the rocker chrome finishers at the bottom of the car are still there, amazingly. Definitely original though.

Overall, pleased with what I got. The need to replace one floor section will finally give me the reason to learn how to weld, which I've never done....

Also, anyone know how big you can go on rear wheels on a Mk?. It has WAYYY more room in there than my plus, thanks to those big fender flares.

On the plus, the 14x6's just barely fit in there with 185 rubber. Mk3 may be better track car since it looks like it can stuff a bit more rubber under there.

A Rotoflex Mk.3! That's an early production number, right? When did they change to the ol' Mk.4 Spit "swing-spring"? I really like the rotoflex suspension better (mine was a `69 6+).

^^ I think the swing spring came in '73...the first couple years of Mk3 was rotoflex before BL cheaped out.

^ Hmm. I never realized they started that late in the production run. It seems every Mk.3 I've ever seen has the later pieces. I guess I've never seen a 71..
Nice find! Now you can keep the Mk.2 for the street, and give folks a little heritage lesson.

EDIT: If you haven't done it already, get yourself some CM action. The restoration articles from rebuilding the Gp 44 car are hitting print, and there's a guy with a seriously clean Mk.1 over on the CM message board.

ugh..I know. I meant to renew last month and keep on forgetting to call. Will defeintely do this week and get them to ship me the last issue as well.

The guy with the Mk1 I assume you mean Andre with the light blue GT6? I've been following that car's build since at least 2005 or so, lol. If you haven't seen his site, you need to. Talk about extensive documentation of everything he does! I've learned alot there.

Man, that's an awesome find. What colour was it originally? (Looks like remnants of BRG in the foot well.)

yep, BRG, but the doors and hood aren't original...they look to have been red.

I'm having a hard time imagining why you wouldn't fix the brakes and drive it. Looks complete enough to patina your way around and have a couple of smiles.

Very nice!

Especially for $500 -after remembering I spent $900 on one years ago with Flintstone-friendly floors and a bad cluster gear...

Congratulations on your find. This is the way I like to get cars. Wait long enough and the right one will show up. I have passed on several GT-6s in the past. Most are in real need of work and I don't want to start from scratch ever again.

Streetwiseguy wrote: I'm having a hard time imagining why you wouldn't fix the brakes and drive it. Looks complete enough to patina your way around and have a couple of smiles.

well, there is that whole thing about not wanting to pay for registration/insurance on it, for one. I'm in the burbs, and the police don't look kindly on that :)

Really I don't know that I'll have time to go over the whole braking system and getting it going before the wife forces me to get the car out of her garage spot :)

then there is the fact that sitting on the other side of the garage I already have something to take out for smiles tha probably handles alot better.

ick....just found the mysterious gasoline smell filling my garage. P/O didn't put a clamp on where the line below the fuel filter attaches to the hardline going to the tank. drip drip drip .........

happy I didn't run the engine before noticing that..would not have been fun to catch on fire.

fixed now :)

irish44j wrote: ugh..I know. I meant to renew last month and keep on forgetting to call. Will defeintely do this week and get them to ship me the last issue as well. The guy with the Mk1 I assume you mean Andre with the light blue GT6? I've been following that car's build since at least 2005 or so, lol. If you haven't seen his site, you need to. Talk about extensive documentation of everything he does! I've learned alot there.

Yeah, Andre Rousseau. I just saw how pretty the car was, and didn't even realize there was a build thread/page/whatever somewhere. I think I'll go look for it!

friedgreencorrado wrote:

irish44j wrote: ugh..I know. I meant to renew last month and keep on forgetting to call. Will defeintely do this week and get them to ship me the last issue as well. The guy with the Mk1 I assume you mean Andre with the light blue GT6? I've been following that car's build since at least 2005 or so, lol. If you haven't seen his site, you need to. Talk about extensive documentation of everything he does! I've learned alot there.

Yeah, Andre Rousseau. I just saw how pretty the car was, and didn't even realize there was a build thread/page/whatever somewhere. I think I'll go look for it!

Here you go:

http://www.justdrive.ca/gt6/index.html

I think he put as much time into his webpage as he did into the car!

irish44j wrote: Here you go: http://www.justdrive.ca/gt6/index.html I think he put as much time into his webpage as he did into the car!

Agreed. I'm glad to see he's also posted his Fiat up over there. He's bought a 124 Spider that he intends to vintage race.

Oh, and while we're photo whoring (suggested filter word for "whore"..Lindsay Lohan), here's my old GT-6 back in 1984 or so: