Got another GT6! (build thread)

looks like an advertisement. Love the sweater

Nice, FGC

Yeah. Great car, great girl, great times. I had a brand new Canon AE-1, and wondered if I could shoot. She was beautiful, and wondered if she could model. I should go open a Facebook account and see if I can find out what happened to her.

Can't remember if I ever told the story about the car..a buddy of mine in Mississippi let me store it on his dad's property (about 50acres, IIRC) when I moved to Atlanta in 86. Heard from him in 94-95 or so, his dad was selling the land as a retirement plan, and was moving all the cars off (he and his dad were both enthusiasts, there was a bunch of stuff out there) the property. The car was still there. He towed it out here, and doncha know...I got divorced before I finished it. The guy who owns the shop I used to race out of let me park it on his property "..until I get situated.." And of course, since I actually paid my child support, I never did. Until about 2yrs ago. The damn thing may still be there..

Man, I gotta get busy on this Alfa. I know I'll never rest until I find out one way or the other about my GT-6, and SWMBO is pretty firm on the "no more until that one moves"...at least for the moment.

Or you could sell one of those Volkswagen things. Really, who needs two Corrados . Then you'd also have a bunch of cash to dump into rehabilitating the GT6.

Luke wrote: Or you could sell one of those Volkswagen things. Really, who needs two Corrados . Then you'd also have a bunch of cash to dump into rehabilitating the GT6.

I'm really thinking about it at the moment..problem is, after last year, I'm finding autocross no longer give me the thrill it used to before I actually went circuit racing. Autox is still fun, and I'll probably do a few events this year just to keep trying to shake the rust off, but it's just not very satisfying for me at the moment. I'm thinking of taking the green C and building a HPDE toy. I can't afford to go road racing again at the moment, but I've got to get back onto a racetrack, instead of sticking my head into the local autoxers' "knife fights".

rolled it out today and took some full-car pics. Managed to drive it up the driveway under its own power. Unfortunately it kept rolling back down before I could throw wheel chocks in, since the brakes don't work and the ebrake provides minimal holding force :/

Also took a closer look at the roto axles to find that the donuts are completely shot, and on the driver's side it is actually completely split in two places, just being held as one piece by the axle bolts. Long story short, it will not be getting a "test drive" before it goes into residence in the backyard shed, even if I do fix the brakes.

I think the main thing I hate about replacing the Rotos is de-arching the spring. IIRC, the Bentley had instructions for fabricating a tool from bar stock and angle iron.

It's been a long time, but I seem to recall using about five crazy fellow gearheads, some jackstands, and some roll cage tubing a friend of mine with a shop had laying around. I'm sure it was dangerous..

friedgreencorrado wrote: I think the main thing I hate about replacing the Rotos is de-arching the spring. IIRC, the Bentley had instructions for fabricating a tool from bar stock and angle iron. It's been a long time, but I seem to recall using about five crazy fellow gearheads, some jackstands, and some roll cage tubing a friend of mine with a shop had laying around. I'm sure it was dangerous..

wow...five guys?

I've done it 2 or 3 times now by myself with two SUV-size jackstands, a 48" Thule roof rack bar, and a couple brackets made of bolts and random metal....I'll have to make a video when I put the driver's side upright back onto the GT6. It's really pretty easy and all about leverage :)

My bar is simlar to the Triumph WS manual and bentley "tool" but didn't require any welding or buying anything. Just made it out of stuff I had sitting around. Also it being a square-profile bar makes it sit better on the spring than round stock.

In reply to irish44j:

IIRC, about three of those guys (the biggest ones) ended up being rear ballast. We set up four jackstands (full height) just fore/aft of the spring (on each side), ran the tubing between them (that's probably the "dangerous" part.. ) and then started lowering the car until the spring bent enough for us to get the half-shafts loose. Took awhile, since the damn thing was now pretty low to the ground and the rest of us didn't have much "wiggle room" under there. Again IIRC, we never took the stub axles out of the uprights, but just dropped the inner sides from the diff.

If you have any pix of the tool you made with the Thule, I'd almost pay money to see them...

Yeah, arching that spring is at best dangerous without proper tools. I did it once with a piece of tubing a few inches shorter than the spring, four flat plates and four bolts. Jack the car up and slide the tube over the top of the diff. Then raise the rear of the car and put the tires on stands. Park a couple of fat friends in the rear to preload the spring, then use a flat plate on the top of the tube and the bottom of the spring at the outside ends. Snug the bolts up and voila, the spring is now in the full up position. Get your buds out of the car and proceed. As the Bentley manuals say, 'reassembly is the reverse of assembly'.

I did a Spitfire once by just jacking up the rear and letting everything hang but that doesn't work real well with the RF rears.

If you are planning to R&R and reuse an original Rotoflex, they will 'spread' when removed, making them VERY difficult to reinstall. BTDT. Get a couple of big ol' hose clamps from LowesDepot, then put them around the RF's and snug them down BEFORE you take the bolts out.

IIRC GT6 'Marks' ran 1 behind Spitfires, i.e. the Mark 1 (low bumpers, small taillights) was the same as the Mark 2 Spit, the Mark 2 (high bumpers, small taillights) was the same as the Mark 3 Spit and the Mark 3 was the same as the Mark 4 Spit (flat tail, big taillights).

irish44j wrote: looks like an advertisement. Love the sweater

And that '80s hair...

moved it to the "rear yard garage" today :)

my wife is happy to have her parking spot back.

Had to navigate a muddy hill and a couple sharp turns downhill, all with no working brakes (and minimally-working ebrake). I love small cars and how little room they take up in the shed/garage...

irish44j wrote:

Looks like the shed was made for it.

BTW: Didn't you recently say you were looking for an excuse to use the thing for cars anyway? IIRC, it was shortly after your main workspace was in one of the mags, and we were all being jealous over here...(can't recall if it was in GRM or CM)

shadetree30 wrote:

irish44j wrote: looks like an advertisement. Love the sweater

And that '80s hair...

I like 80s hair. After pondering what such stunning women like Jennifer Anniston, Courtney Cox or Lisa Kudrow would look like with something other than the droopy, pasty ironed-straight locks down the sides of their heads, I often wish I had my 80s hair back...I've still got a little left, but suppose I could just go "shaved" if my head gets any worse..

Update: I found her on Facebook. Not going to share the link here for privacy reasons, but she's a moderately sucessful artist and photographer in Memphis, TN. She and her husband are beginning to making films as well. Their first real project is a documentary on the old "Antenna Club" in Memphis, one of the few places in the American South where punk rock bands played during that era.

When she saw the pic, she immediately asked if I could send her the best resolution I had of it...

friedgreencorrado wrote:

irish44j wrote:

Looks like the shed was made for it. BTW: Didn't you recently say you were looking for an excuse to use the thing for cars anyway? IIRC, it was shortly after your main workspace was in one of the mags, and we were all being jealous over here...(can't recall if it was in GRM or CM)

lol, indeed I did :D

actually, the previous owner of this house used the shed to store his vintage restored Camaro, supposedly. The neighbors tell me that he would be out there every saturday morning at 7am grinding rust and welding stuff, lol.

I try to be more considerate!

Hey Irish,

Do you live in Little Rocky Run? I ask because those pictures could be from my neighborhood.

Nice find, BTW. If I had a shed like that, I'd own another TR6.

JoeTR6 wrote: Hey Irish, Do you live in Little Rocky Run? I ask because those pictures could be from my neighborhood. Nice find, BTW. If I had a shed like that, I'd own another TR6.

Joe I'm in Cherry Run in Burke about 10 minutes from there. We've met before I think, I used to run CDC events in a big black Maxima and also ran into you and Ed Chan a while back down at Potomac Mills outside of Harbor Freight. Always love seeing your TR6 in action, it's so quick!

There's another guy, Gene Ulm, who has a British Green GT6+ who lives out in Clifton on the Centerville side, though. He also has a vintage 911. Both his cars are much nicer than mine :)

Irish44j Do you have a build site?

It'll be here once I start working on the car. Might be a while though...gotta finish up the Mk2 first, and do some work on my WRX.

'71 Mk3 build thread eventually: http://club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/forum10/Blah.pl?m-1269907885/

'70 Mk2/+ build thread, which I need to update! http://club.triumph.org.uk/cgi-bin/forum10/Blah.pl?m-1206842587/

as you can see, this isn't the first GT6 that has temporarily resided in that shed!

Enjoyed the build thread, irish. Thanks for posting the link! I never realized you'd switched to SUs. Everybody I've heard from that's done the swap raves about them..more reliable/more adjustable/etc. Do you feel the same?

I never got the Strombergs on mine right, seemingly because BL's attitude was to adjust each individual application until it would pass, and then glue the adj. screw holes shut.

EDIT: pass emissions, I meant..

friedgreencorrado wrote: Enjoyed the build thread, irish. Thanks for posting the link! I never realized you'd switched to SUs. Everybody I've heard from that's done the swap raves about them..more reliable/more adjustable/etc. Do you feel the same? I never got the Strombergs on mine right, seemingly because BL's attitude was to adjust each individual application until it would pass, and then glue the adj. screw holes shut. EDIT: pass *emissions*, I meant..

I was NEVER able to tune the strombergs well, and the SU's were a piece of cake (and carbs are not my forte'). Plus they're 1.75s (vs. the 1.50 ZS's) with a bored IM, so they definitely provide noticeably more power, per the butt dyno....

I did initially have some issues with flooding of the fuel/float chambers but I worked that little issue out and it's been all good from there....

Can't say anything about emissions since I don't have to get tested with vintage tags on the car Of course, it has no emissions gear on it, so it undoubtedly would fail...

In reply to irish44j:

I've heard of a few guys who have luck with the Strombergs, but they started w/pre 68 bodies, so that you could actually use the adjustment screws. Personally, I never knew the SUs had a bigger throat..but I always wanted to make that change because I was tired of the rubber diaphrams tearing in the S'bergs.

friedgreencorrado wrote: In reply to irish44j: I've heard of a few guys who have luck with the Strombergs, but they started w/pre 68 bodies, so that you could actually *use* the adjustment screws. Personally, I never knew the SUs had a bigger throat..but I always wanted to make that change because I was tired of the rubber diaphrams tearing in the S'bergs.

There are SU 1.50s as well....I just got bigger ones

In reply to irish44j:

Well, every racer I know wishes they had `bigger ones' from time to time..