Start of the strip down

It was the Wye Dean Triumph meet near Coleford last week and on the way back I decided it was time to make a start on the body swap. Work started on Saturday with only as much interiour removed as required, so it can be stored in the body for now, fuel and brake lines disconnected and the inlet manifolds removed to give enough space fot the body to be lifted pass the engine. A set of steel wheels were also fitted to keep the alloy wheels in good condition and make the car easier to roll around.

My method was to lift the body up and roll the chassis from underneath it, complete with the bonnet and running gear. Doing it this way means it is easier to disconnect the running gear as you hae much better access to it.

By the end of Sunday the body was completely free and the chassis almost stripped bare.

The plan is to replace the outriggers on the chassis that the front of the body mounts on as they look somewhat home made and then repaint the complete chassis with something a bit better than last time as it has not faired so well. While I have the good access, the gearbox will be changed for one I had re-built a few years ago, which has a large tip mainshaft and better synchro rings. Then it's just a matter of re-assembly, easy eh?

Keeping the rust at bay

Having put so much effort into the replacement bodytub, I really wanted to make sure I was not going to have any bodywork issues for some time. Waxoyl is a commonly know make of cavity wax, but while looking around for the costs of it, I found things have moved on and there are other products, which perform much better. Based on cost, availability, and reviews, I went for Dynax S50 from Bilt Hamber. Along with a five litre can I ordered a injection lance, which is a length of tube with a diffuser on the end to make sure the 'wax' is thrown out 360degrees to coat all surfaces.

I didn't take any pictures while using the Dynax S50 as there isn't a lot to see really, but all the usual areas, such as around the wheel arches, in the sills and in the windscreen surround (especially over the top where GT6's like to rot out) were suitably coated.

With the inside and top side of the body all protected, there was just the underside to do, the job I was least looking forward to. As before, I wanted to coat the underside in something which would last, but all of the products I considered using required a clean and preferably bare metal surface. The headache I had here was that the underside had been coated with some form black Schultz underseal, which has a nasty habit of trapping water underneath it, but remains sticky, making it a pain to remove.

The process of stripping the underside took me quite a few evenings and weekends, it can be hard to motivate yourself to go and lie on a concrete floor to scrape off underseal and paint. The process I found most effective in the end was to scrape as much off by hand as possible, then use a bevel twisted knot wire brush on a angle grinder to get into the nooks and crannies to remove any last underseal. After that, it was a mix of strip & clean discs and flap discs to get the underside stripped.

After a bit more research, I had whittled it down to POR15 and Rust Bullet for the new underbody paint. I chose Rust Bullet this time as the overcoating did not need a primer, this paint is also UV resistant, unlike POR15, but I wanted to paint the underside in body colour anyway.

Rust Bullet needs two coats within four hours of each other, so the whole area I wanted to paint had to be accessible at once, this meant supporting the body from the extremities, not something I would recommend if you have any doubts about the strength of your body.

Screwfix sell single use paint brushes, which were just the job as I doubt it would have been worth using good quality brushes when there was little chance of cleaning them properly again. Eye protection and rubber gloves were also used, I did get a bit of paint on me and that took ages to remove, so I just hope it sticks to the car just as well.

24 hours after the second coat of Rust Bullet was applied I gave it a coat of green so it stands out less. The body has now been put aside while I prepare the car to remove the old body and carry out a few changes.

Back to the GT6, more paint

With the replacement GT6 body safely back on it's stand in the barn, I set about painting the interior. I've done this to of course protect the steel, but also to put all of the interior in one solid colour, to make any modifications and previous less obvious. It's been painted using sythetic paint as it was readily available and could be brush painted, I really did not want to have to mask-up the car to spray paint or risk over-spray on the good paintwork.

While working on the body, I've been servicing some of the smaller parts and I turned my attention to the rear lights. Compared to modern vehicles, Triumph lights can look a little dull, not helped by the condition of the reflectors. Mine were looking particully dull as the majority of the relective coating had fallen off over the past 40 years or so, so the reflectors were carefully pushed out of their holders and first given a coat of primer.

And then 'Chrome' paint, which doesn't seem to have the same shine as the stuff I have used before, but should be a vast improvement of what was there.

Once the paint was cured, the reflectors were fitted back into the light unit and I set about re-assembly, with a new gasket between the unit and the lenses. Unfortunately, the curretly available gaskets from one supplier are too small in both length and height, it seems as if it has shrunk.

I'll try a few more parts suppliers to see if anyone has lamp gaskets that fit, but I fear they are all being made in the same place, so I may have to find some suitable material and cut some out myself.