My GT6, the story so far.. (part 1)

Back in February 2006 I purchased a 1972 Triumph GT6 with a view to getting it back onto the road in three months. The car was a abandoned resoration, it having had quite a number of new panels fitted and then a full re-spray in dark rover British racing green.
Along with the car came a set of four spoke revolution alloy wheels, a reconditioned MkIII GT6 engine, a three rail overdrive gearbox and a pair of fixed back bucket seats.

Having trailered it out of the previous owners garage and back to the farm where I am working on it, the first problem I noticed was that one of the rear wheels was rubbing on its shock absorber. Taking off the wheel revealed somebodies attempt at repairing the upper shock absorber mounting, while the repair might be strong it was in the wrong place, pushing the shock absorber too close to the wheel, so there was one of the fist jobs on the list. Fortunately by turning the shock absorber upside-down there was enough clearance to move the car around the workshop, but it would be no good to drive it like that.


A few days later I recieved a new pair of rotoflex drive couplings from T.D. Fitchett, as the ones on the car were well cracked and ready for replacement. These were soon fitted, the hardest part being the refitting of the transverse spring and rods onto the upright. For about a month after this other jobs around the farm, busy (paid) work and other projects I have running prevented me from working on the GT6.

Getting back to the GT6 after this break I moved it around the workshop, only to notice that my new rotoflex couplings had already started to crack, I could tell these were not going to last long. Around this time I had been following the Club Triumph Forum and developments made by Josh Bowler and Nick Jones, their set-up uses constant velocity (CV) joints instead of universal joints and the rotoflex coupling, this had to be the way forward. The CV rotoflex conversion uses a Volvo 340 CV joint in place of the universal joint, a metro driveshaft and a MGF hub and outer CV joint in place of the rotoflex joint. To enable use of the MGF hubs, the rear uprights were machined out to accept MGF bearings by Ariel Machine Products in Caerleon.

Line 'em up

Not having enough to do with trying to keep a Spitfire 1500 on the road as well as finishing my GT6, on Sunday I picked-up another GT6 body shell. This shell came from a Triumph GT6 that is in the process of being changed into a convertible GT6, where the GT6 shell is replaced with a Spitfire shell.


The long term prospect for this shell is that it will become a trailer to go behing my GT6 (once I get it on the road)
I shall either make a custom chassis to go under it or instead utilise a old caravan chassis.

The shell would be in need of quite a number of new panels to use it on a car again, all of which are available but at a cost.

So for now the shell has gone into storage with a view to start wokring on it next year. The picture shows the new body being unloaded by my Nuffield 10/60 tractor, a toll which has become very usefull for moving car parts around.

Here it begins

Hopefully the first of many postings to my new blog.

Just a brief bit about me, I have owned a Triumph car for the past nine years, starting off with a Spitfire 1500. For much of that time I could not afford the insurance, but since getting a job, things got a bit easier allowing me to use my Spitfire as a daily driver.

My Spitfire 1500 has prooven to be a reliable car when, for one year, I would drive to Northampton for university and back to South Wales for work every week. It is in no way a concours car and has always been a running restoration.

In February 2006 I bought myself a Triumph GT6, a two litre version of the Spitfire with a fastback roof, this I have chosen to be my new project car. Plans include updating of the car to aid modern driving.
More about this car soon...