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!

Frame!

So this is just going to be a quick update because not much has happened since the last post.  We took the engine to a local shop and had it cleaned and a little machine work done, but more is still needed, so we're waiting on that to put the engine back together.  The real update is we got the frame back from the powder coater!  It looks awesome!  I'm so excited to start putting the suspension and drive train back on the frame.  

This is my "let's get the frame off the trailer" look.  I think it needs some work.

The new powder coated frame!  Looks awesome.

There's this thing in Washington called "rain."  It tends to get a lot of things wet.  

Here's a few of the motor mounts and suspension pieces we had powder coated as well.  I like it.

Now ALL this stuff (except the stove, but it would be cool to have a stove in the car) goes back on the awesome looking frame.  Do you think it will fit?  Do you think Bry remembers how it all goes back on?  I sure hope so!

Progress

So, this blog thing is not for me.  I can't remember what I posted last even though it's been one post.  So here's where I think I left it off:

Looks like a mess, and it is.  This was the most time consuming process of the whole project so far.  There is so much crammed into the little dash, it's hard to tell what's going on.  Just wait until we have to put it back together.  That's going to be fun. 

As you can see we've got most of the interior out now.

 

Both doors are off, the windshield is out, and the rear hatch is off.  

 

Here's a view of the transmission (gear box) from inside the cab.  It was actually pretty light.  I lifted it out of the car by myself because I am so strong. 

 

Here's a view of the cramped garage.  On the left with the reflector is the hood, or the more correct British term is bonnet.  The 2 doors are below it, and the windshield is on the ground to the right.  If you look closely, the exhaust is hanging on the wall behind the broom but above the plywood.  We've had to be creative on where we put stuff.  Adds a little excitement.

 

Here's a close up view of the steering column.  Most of these pictures are taken so we can see how things go back together.  The awesomeness of digital photography is displayed.  

 

Here's a view of the driver's side floor.  You can see the clutch and brake pedals.  Very little rust.

 

So now everything is out of the interior of the car.  The sheet metal is in great shape.  The rust color you see is just flakes on the floor.  Structurally it feels pretty good.  We'll know for sure after it's sandblasted.

 

Another view of the stripped interior.  At this point, the body is ready to be separated from the frame.  This involves 12 bolts.  They came off with no problems and this is what we were left with:

 

This is what the car looks like without the body.  Just frame.  Bry and I were able to pick up the body, one on each side, and walk it out of the garage.  We set it down on the driveway.

 

The body itself is 9' long.  It was a bit heavy, but nothing we couldn't handle.  

 

Here's a view of the rear end of the car, or the fat butt as Bry would say.  It's got one leaf spring that supports both wheels for the suspension.  If you look close, you can see the shocks with coil springs on them.  Those are not stock.  Those were added by the previous owner.  I'm not sure why.  I wonder if they helped.

 

Here's a front view of the removed body.

It had been raining this week, so we decided to pull the frame out of the garage and put the body back in.  So we removed the rest of the components off the frame so we could take it out and put the body back in the garage.  Here's what it looked like moving the frame:

 

  

As you can see, the frame is pretty light.  Even though Bry is the beefcake, the frame couldn't have weighed more than 200 lbs.  Talk about easy.

 

Here's a view of the whole frame.  The next step for this is to have it sandblasted and powder coated.  It's going to look super nice when we're through with it.

 

Another view.

 

Our work space.  It's actually not as bad as it looks.  This was before cleanup.

 

RUSTY!!!!!