Time to give an update on the GT6.  Here we go.  

So to recap where we are, the frame is powder coated, the suspension is done, the differential is in, driveline is in, and transmission is done.  So, as I mentioned the next step would be either paint the body or get the engine taken care of.  I was going to get the body painted but an opportunity came along that I had to jump on.  After obtaining the parts car I thought it was a good idea to get that engine up and running quick while I took time and saved some money to get it done right.  So Bry and I pulled the engine from the parts car.  Here's what it looked like:

It didn't look too good.  So the thought was to pull it, run some tests on it to see if it was good and see if we could throw it in the car in the meantime.  Oh, and if you want a better look at the pictures just click on them so you can see them in better detail.

 Here's another view. 

Here it is on the engine stand and we're taking all the peripherals off like the distributor, fuel pump, intake manifold, and exhaust manifold.

 Here's a shot of the fuel pump.  It still had suction and looks like it will work.

 It all checked out.  The pistons were a bit crusted with carbon deposits but when we cranked it it turned really smooth.  So I was excited that this idea was going to work.  I bought a gasket kit and started cleaning it up.  

 Then, Bry was having issues with his truck and took it in to the station on the corner that's halfway between our houses.  As the guy was looking at his truck they got talking about the triumph.  Rod told Bry he was familiar with the cars and Rod said we could bring the engine by and he'd take a look at it.  And it's a good thing we did.  He looked at it and said a few things needed to be done before we could throw it in the car and expect it to run.  So we left it with him.  He was as excited about working on it as we were.  We were missing a few parts, a few springs were broken, but he got it all done.  So, I picked it up on Friday morning before playing golf and got it set up to throw in the car.  Painted the motor mounts and got the clutch and transmission ready.  And, are you ready for this?  Here you go!

 Have you ever tried to install an engine by yourself?  Even with no body on the frame or anything else on the car it was so hard!  The motor mounts weren't cooperating, the engine itself is very heavy.  But I can say right now no fingers or toes were smashed.  

 I had a hard time putting the transmission on the motor as well.  I couldn't find the bolts needed, I lost a gasket, and with trips to the local hardwares store to get the bolts needed, it took 4 or 5 hours just to get the two together.

 And here you go!  Rod painted the rocker cover blue as he was working on it.  It actually looks pretty good because the water pump housing is blue and the cooling fan is blue, so it could work.

 It was raining yesterday and with the garage door open it was blowing in the garage.  My floor got wet. Oh, and as you can see we've had a change of venue.  Even though it's a small car it fills up my garage.  

 So, next steps are to get the intake manifolds on and clean up the carburetors.  They look ok, but between the two cars I feel confident we'll have them good to go.  Then the radiator and cooling system goes on.  Alternator and ignition are just about it before we can try to start it and get it running.  

So, there's your update.  And progress is being made.  

Decision Time

Ok, I'm to the point where a critical decision needs to be made.  The frame, suspension, and drivelines are installed, cleaned, painted and assembled.  So one, maybe two decisions need to be made.  First, I can't do anything else without an engine or the body ready to go back on the frame.  If I decide to do the body first the final decision on the color.  I think I've decided to paint it the same color as dad's old car.  

 

 But I'm toying with the idea of putting a decal on it that is on our parts car.  Here's a picture of it.  Click on the picture for a larger view.

It has the stripes down the fender behind the door and "GT6" at the bottom with the stripe across the bottom.  I haven't seen it on any other cars I've looked at so I'm still deciding on whether or not it's original to the car.  And if I decide on doing the decal, what color do I do it?  

So, engine or body, and stripes or no.  

But while you're waiting for that decision, here's some pictures of what we've done so far.

 

Here's one of the new brake rotors.  One of the few parts I've purchased beyond bearings and stuff.

 

Here's the passenger side front assembly on the frame.  I am using the 5 gallon bucket as a stand and as you can see it's slid way over on the frame because the front assembly weighs a lot compared to the frame and it almost tipped over on me.

 

Here's a top view of it.  Even the spring is from the original car.  About 90% of the pieces have been individually wire-brushed or sand blasted then primed and painted.  That's one of the reasons why it takes a lot of time to get what seems like a little bit of work. 

 

Here's a picture of one of the rear brake assemblies before disassembly and cleaning.  The gear you see on the right side of the rear cylinder is a self adjusting mechanism that is unique to this year of car.  This is why I got the parts car.  It had 2 good rear assemblies that had this mechanism and my car only had one.  But it sure has been nice to salvage nuts and bolts off the other car and to seen how things go together.  It's already paid for itself.

 

Close up of the front assembly.  It looked like the picture above of the rear assembly before I got to it.  Not anymore!

 

Here's the frame with transmission, drivetrain, differential, and rear suspension and braking.  Looks good if you ask me.

 

Here's a view of the front.  Now the bucket is in the center again because both sides are on and it's balanced.  The wood block is there to support the transmission.

 

Transmission cleaned with new gaskets and mounts.  I did not paint the transmission, it cleaned up nice with just a wire wheel and toothbrush.

 

Here's it's on the car.  It's small compared to modern transmissions.

 

And here's the rear differential.  Didn't paint it either.  

So there's an update.  Sorry it's been so long, but things have been busy around here.

Progress

So I've kind of stalled out lately.  It's been a busy summer and I've hit a few snags.  I was working on the rear suspension and stuff and discovered that I've got different sized axles and brakes.  Then I started working on the front suspension and got a lot done until I found I need new rotors and I'm waiting to order those.  So I started working on the transmission and driveline.  Got that done and on the frame.  So I've had a lot of time to think about what I'm going to do.  Then I realized that after I get the suspension done and the rear part of the drivetrain together the next step is either the engine or the body.  And since those are pretty big steps I stalled out.  

Ever since I found the problem with the rear end I've been casually looking to see if I can find a solution.   I've spent lots of time on the phone, posting questions to forums, looking at classifieds, ebay, and whatever else you can think of.  Opportunites came up and even a few parts cars.  Lindsay and I have gone to look at a few and then we found a guy that had 2 GT6's an hour away.  So we thought we'd go up and take a look.  He was asking $2000 for both.  The first one we looked at was maybe a 5 out of 10.  The body looked good, it had the rare overdrive option, but he said the engine was frozen and it didn't have the same rear end pieces that I need.  The other was maybe a 3 out of 10.  It had been rear ended so the body was pretty much toast.  The interior was unusable as well.  But when I peaked under the car it looked like it had the rear end pieces I need!  I wasn't quite sure and I couldn't get in a position to take the wheels off to get a better look.  So I started looking at the rest of the car to see what else would be usable.  It looked promising so I asked if he would split the cars and he said yes, then I made him a low-ball offer of $300.  He said $350 and I said sold.

Here's the car.  

During my research I found I could get all the pieces I need, but Mk 1 rear end pieces, for $450 to $500 before shipping.  So I figured $350 for a whole car that might have the pieces I need is worth it.  

Tonight I pulled the rear wheels off and guess what I found...

It has the same setup as my car!  HOORAY!!  Now I can finish up the rear of the car.  That is so cool.  

Another reason I bought the car was so I can use it as a cheat sheet on how to put everything back on my car.  In all the hubub and excitement of taking everthing apart I kind of forgot a few things, so it will be nice to be able to take a peek at the parts car.  Plus I now have an endless supply of nuts and bolts that I can scavenge.  It's going to be great.  

This car has a cool decal setup on it.  I think it's pretty cool.  It says GT6 in front of the rear wheel and has the stripes up the back of the door.  I think I might try to incorporate that into the finished product and maybe even try to find some original decals somewhere.  But I'm getting way ahead of myself.  

I asked the guy about the engine and he said he didn't know, but it does rotate so it's not frozen.  That's a good sign.  So I might be able to get some money for the engine or maybe even use it.  We'll see.  Bryce think's it needs to be fixed and he told me that he would fix it after I left.

So, all-in-all it's going to be fun.  I'll be able to finish up the rear part of the car and get that done.  I'm so excited and I just can't hide it.  Now if I just had more time to be a grease monkey it would be great.  Maybe this winter.  We'll see.

Work Has Resumed!

So I've got more to share on the progress of the awesome car.  I've been working on the suspension and driveline.  The engine is still in pieces so I've started putting stuff back on the frame.  So I decided to start at the rear and work my way forward.  The process is basically scrape or sandblast the old dirt, oil, grease, and paint off the pieces, prime and paint, then put them back on. 

Here is a picture of the rear differential.  This was hard to clean.  As you can see by the amount of dirt and grime on the work area there was a lot caked on.  I can't use the sand blaster on the parts that have little moving parts because the sand gets everywhere.  So a lot of this I have to do by hand with a wire wheel attached to a drill or with wire brushes and a flat head screwdriver.  It's fun!

Here's my paint table.  The long skinny grey piece is my driveline.  My brake caliper is on the top left and the rest are front suspension pieces.  Good thing it's been nice here lately so I can paint outside.

Here is one side of the front suspension.  You can see the brake rotor, the hub and all the connecting hardware.  When Bry came out and looked at stuff the other day he asked me if all of this was new.  I guess it must look ok then.

So here is what the rear end looks like so far.  The differential that is shown in the first picture is in the middle of everything.  This is a unique rear end because it only has 1 leaf spring setup for both rear wheels.  This is called a swing spring.  Sure does make it easy to work on.

Now the fun part.

If you look at the above picture you'll notice there are no axles or anywhere to put wheels. 

These are the axles and brakes that came off the car.  Both off the rear.  Notice anything peculiar?  Take a look at the drums in particular.  THEY ARE DIFFERENT SIZES AND NOT FROM THE SAME CAR!  

The setup on the right is what should be on my car.  The setup on the left is from a Spitfire.  The Spitfires aren't as cool as the GT6's therefore they have smaller brakes and weaker axles.  Now the great part about that is according to all the Triumph experts throughout the country (I've been on the phone with guys in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Oregon) the original parts for my car do not exist anymore.  You can't find them anywhere unless you get lucky and find a parts car sitting around that has them.  Or you meet somebody in a back alley dressed as a salty sea dog.  Oh boy!

 If you look closely you can see the differences.  So the rear suspension has been put on hold for a little bit.

Here's the transmission.  It's tiny!  The bell housing is the "bell" shaped thing behind the transmission.  That's the part that holds the clutch and secures the transmission to the engine.  When I was taking it apart, I found a socket inside the bell housing!  I couldn't believe it.  It wasn't one of ours.  Weird.  I bet Inspector Clouseau didn't have sockets inside the bell housing of his Triumph.

Ok, maybe he did.

I wanted to replace the gaskets on the transmission so I took a peek inside.  Looks pretty good to me.  No metal shavings or worn gears.  Sweet.

So, that's where we're at.  It's a slow process, but I like the way it's turning out.  I just have to keep reminding myself of the possibilities.

Engine in Pieces

So I picked up another piece of the car today.  I got the engine back!  It's all there, but it's all in pieces.  It's a good thing I like LEGOS because this is going to be the mother of all lego builds.  I just need to find some good instructions.

Here's what the engine looked like when it came out of the car.  The blue you see is not factory Triumph engine paint.  So that tells us that this engine has been out of the car before and has been painted before.  

Another picture of what it used to look like.

Here's what it looks like now.  No paint.  No grease.  It's been sitting for a while so you can see a little surface rust.  That's no big deal, it will clean right up.

Here you can see the oil pan on the left, the block in the middle and the end tin pieces below the screwdrivers.  The box on the right has the valves and springs in it.  It's going to be fun to work on it while it's all clean.

Here's the refinished cam shaft.

Here's the refinished crank shaft.  All nice and pretty.

A shot of all the pieces.

Here's what the head used to look like.

Here's the manifold side of the head.

Now it's all nice and spic and span.

Head on the bottom and crank shaft standing up.

And of course, a box full of the rest of the stuff.  Here you see the rockers, pistons, bearings, oil pump, timing chain and sprocket, nuts and bolts, and everything else. 

So I think there's going to be a little bit more machine work that we're going to need, but other than that, just a little bit of clean up and we can start putting it back together.  Going to be fun!