Sitting here at the PC when I should be out in the garage, however it’s a tadge parky for any spanner action!
Having got the GT6 back from Dave Picton’s establishment I am overjoyed by the work that he and his team have done. However this has had one major downside, the engine bay now looks crap! With this in mind I have stripped out the engine bay valances down all the wiring and cleaned the cables with whites spirits and will bind them using expandable braided sleeving. At present a lot of the bullet connectors for that connect the bonnet wiring are those awful insulated blue bullets, once I can afford the proper crimping tool, I will replace those with the correct OE bullet connectors.
For many years the car has had alloy engine bay valances, these are now in an awful state, so I will clean these down and paint to attempt to make them more presentable. On the subject of engine bay valances, I see that a chap on e-bay sells new units that look to be very good. Two types are available, one set with louvres and one set without, both sets look very jazzy and at £60 a set not a bad price! One or two GT6 owning friends think I should not fit the valances as they deflect the heat from the engine and radiator into the gearbox tunnel and then of course into the cockpit, I can see the logic of this argument, but the majority of the heat that enters comes from the exhaust so I will continue to use the valances as they do keep the engine bay cleaner.
I have now stripped down the front suspension units that I bought from Dave down, I will be taking these to my brother in laws powder coating establishment next weekend to get them painted. Hit a snag though as the OS lower wishbone is not useable, but as usual the CT jungle drums have resolved that problem and Clive Senior will let me have one, ta, Clive! Once back from being painted, they will be polybushed and put onto the car. The turrets I have will look good when painted, of course, the snag when fitting the OS turret is that the steering column has to be dismantled, still a good time to check over the steering system.
Once this has been done, I will turn my attention to the bulkhead area around the master cylinders, battery etc. This whole area looks very shabby and needs some serious attention from the spray can. So it’ll be out with the wire brush and get stuck in cleaning and then paint it, thinking about satin black or maybe grey. On the CT forum, I see lots of people rave about Por paint, I am not so sure and will probably go for rattle cans! Richard Brake has just told me that Halfords mix up Triumph colours, blimey!
Then, it is time to get stuck into the interior of the car. A layer of sound insulation needs to be fitted under the carpet and then I need to clean up the luggage bay side trim panels and fit them. Unfortunately the luggage boards were damaged in the accident, I have a new OS board for the petrol tank side so will cut and fit a 8mm mdf board over the spare wheel. These will be bolted to the long bridging bracket that fits between the wheelarches. Once done, I will re-fit the roll over bar.
The drive back from Dave’s place at Waltham Cross, was very instructive. I still have the rear end vibration, so I will have to tear down the rear suspension and get that looked at before June as I desperately want to take the car to Scotland for the IAE. However the car drove straightly and seemed so solid, this all bodes well for some fast road action!
One of the snags of driving the car back from Waltham Cross was that I spent a lot of time looking in the rear view mirror with the dread that some plum was going to hit the car up the arse again, gawd, I was nervous! The rear of the car has been hit twice in the last 3 years and I half expect to be going through the whole accident process again!
I have attached two photos that show the car as she now looks. I must admit that at present I am in two minds about the bumperless look that I opted for, I think it makes the car look like a mk1. However it will cost a fair bit to change back to the original look, this cost would include the new bumper, from what I have seen these are dead pricey, £200? Of course, one attribute to the lack of bumper is that I have got rid of some front end weight, little less understeer? I do like the stick on number plate and this will stay, of course this means no front bonnet badge, but hey, more weight saving!
Once this chunk of work has been done I will then just use the car!
Overall I am really pleased with the outcome of the accident shenanigans. I must use this space to publicly thank Dave Picton, he guided me though the repair process and I think has done a great job on the car. Of course, one could say that Dave (hopefully) made some money out of the job, but it was a risky job as the car was very badly damaged. As we both discussed, the car is well known within CT circles and does seem to have a degree of notoriety, therefore anything other than a great job will be sniffed at by some of the experts within the Club. One or two who have seen her think she looks better than ever and I must agree, check out the gaps! Therefore, I would not hesitate in recommending Dave and his business.
All I need now is some good weather to enable me to go out into the garage and get stuck in!
Having got the GT6 back from Dave Picton’s establishment I am overjoyed by the work that he and his team have done. However this has had one major downside, the engine bay now looks crap! With this in mind I have stripped out the engine bay valances down all the wiring and cleaned the cables with whites spirits and will bind them using expandable braided sleeving. At present a lot of the bullet connectors for that connect the bonnet wiring are those awful insulated blue bullets, once I can afford the proper crimping tool, I will replace those with the correct OE bullet connectors.
For many years the car has had alloy engine bay valances, these are now in an awful state, so I will clean these down and paint to attempt to make them more presentable. On the subject of engine bay valances, I see that a chap on e-bay sells new units that look to be very good. Two types are available, one set with louvres and one set without, both sets look very jazzy and at £60 a set not a bad price! One or two GT6 owning friends think I should not fit the valances as they deflect the heat from the engine and radiator into the gearbox tunnel and then of course into the cockpit, I can see the logic of this argument, but the majority of the heat that enters comes from the exhaust so I will continue to use the valances as they do keep the engine bay cleaner.
I have now stripped down the front suspension units that I bought from Dave down, I will be taking these to my brother in laws powder coating establishment next weekend to get them painted. Hit a snag though as the OS lower wishbone is not useable, but as usual the CT jungle drums have resolved that problem and Clive Senior will let me have one, ta, Clive! Once back from being painted, they will be polybushed and put onto the car. The turrets I have will look good when painted, of course, the snag when fitting the OS turret is that the steering column has to be dismantled, still a good time to check over the steering system.
Once this has been done, I will turn my attention to the bulkhead area around the master cylinders, battery etc. This whole area looks very shabby and needs some serious attention from the spray can. So it’ll be out with the wire brush and get stuck in cleaning and then paint it, thinking about satin black or maybe grey. On the CT forum, I see lots of people rave about Por paint, I am not so sure and will probably go for rattle cans! Richard Brake has just told me that Halfords mix up Triumph colours, blimey!
Then, it is time to get stuck into the interior of the car. A layer of sound insulation needs to be fitted under the carpet and then I need to clean up the luggage bay side trim panels and fit them. Unfortunately the luggage boards were damaged in the accident, I have a new OS board for the petrol tank side so will cut and fit a 8mm mdf board over the spare wheel. These will be bolted to the long bridging bracket that fits between the wheelarches. Once done, I will re-fit the roll over bar.
The drive back from Dave’s place at Waltham Cross, was very instructive. I still have the rear end vibration, so I will have to tear down the rear suspension and get that looked at before June as I desperately want to take the car to Scotland for the IAE. However the car drove straightly and seemed so solid, this all bodes well for some fast road action!
One of the snags of driving the car back from Waltham Cross was that I spent a lot of time looking in the rear view mirror with the dread that some plum was going to hit the car up the arse again, gawd, I was nervous! The rear of the car has been hit twice in the last 3 years and I half expect to be going through the whole accident process again!
I have attached two photos that show the car as she now looks. I must admit that at present I am in two minds about the bumperless look that I opted for, I think it makes the car look like a mk1. However it will cost a fair bit to change back to the original look, this cost would include the new bumper, from what I have seen these are dead pricey, £200? Of course, one attribute to the lack of bumper is that I have got rid of some front end weight, little less understeer? I do like the stick on number plate and this will stay, of course this means no front bonnet badge, but hey, more weight saving!
Once this chunk of work has been done I will then just use the car!
Overall I am really pleased with the outcome of the accident shenanigans. I must use this space to publicly thank Dave Picton, he guided me though the repair process and I think has done a great job on the car. Of course, one could say that Dave (hopefully) made some money out of the job, but it was a risky job as the car was very badly damaged. As we both discussed, the car is well known within CT circles and does seem to have a degree of notoriety, therefore anything other than a great job will be sniffed at by some of the experts within the Club. One or two who have seen her think she looks better than ever and I must agree, check out the gaps! Therefore, I would not hesitate in recommending Dave and his business.
All I need now is some good weather to enable me to go out into the garage and get stuck in!
Here are a couple of pics of the Spittie!
