Triumph GT6
GT6’S appetite for chops and repairs remains unabated
The GT6 body keeps on surprising me, and not in a good way. Every area that appeared a little rusty has in fact needed far more repair work than we anticipated. Last month the roof and top of the screen frame were finished – this month Jamie at Complete Car Care has moved on to the left side of the screen.
Windscreen removed and crusty gutter cut away, multiple rust holes appeared in both sides of the A-pillar and the recess behind the screen rubber. No repairs panels being available, Jamie’s only option was to carry on chopping out rusty metal in small sections, making up repair pieces, welding them in then moving onto the next hole.
Once the pillar was sound, the finishing gutter panel was welded in place, though this raised a question of exactly how the tab below the gutter attached to the scuttle.
A quick phone photo of the Triumph Sports Six Club’s museum GT6 provided the answer and the gutter repair was completed true to the factory finish. It’s a great help to have a totally original, concours master-class winning car nearby to use as a reference point. Creating this series of repairs around the windscreen has taken hours but such is Jamie’s skill with welder and grinder, the joins between new and old metal are all but invisible even before any filler has been applied. It’s a notorious rot-spot for GT6S and Spitfires, so I’m pleased to know the whole area is now solid, and should remain so for years to come.
Wings and things
Continuing on the nearside, the next tasks were to repair the lower edges of the inner wings ahead of and behind the rear wheel arch. The rot behind the wheelarch extended into the boot floor, so Jamie has had to cut back to solid steel, fashion more repair pieces then weld them in and grind flat. I would love to be able to do this myself, but I’m only too well aware of my limitations with a welding torch.
Once the inner wing and boot floor had been returned to a healthy state it was time to fit the new Heritage rear wing. As mentioned in my previous Saga, GT6 wings including the fuel filler hole are no longer available, so TD Fitchett supplied the next best thing… a Spitfire wing that comes minus filler hole. Jamie salvaged a section of the old wing with a few inches around the
filler. The next stage, cutting a big chunk from a brand new wing, seems like sacrilege, but it had to be done. The new wing fitted well and was soon spot-welded in place. The rectangle of old wing for the fuel filler was welded accurately into place and following a little grinding it was finished off with the thinnest smear of filler. It looks great.
The list grows…
So the left-hand side of the car is now totally solid and ready to be prepared for paint. As we had a good look at the rear panelwork, Jamie’s to-do list grew. There’s a previous repair that has on ominous crack running up towards the tailgate, a moth-eaten tailgate flange and pinholes in the rear end. And the tailgate itself is worse than expected, necessitating a search for a good secondhand replacement as new ones are, you guessed, no longer available.
After that, there is a series of repairs that we know need to be done to the offside rear wheelarch corner and the windscreen frame. Seasoned restorers won’t be surprised but I’m appalled by the extent of the hidden horrors we’ve unearthed, considering that the poor little GT6 didn’t seem too bad before starting the project. Some of the problems no doubt stem from an earlier restoration that was, to put it politely, a bit less comprehensive than it could have been. I hasten to add that was before the GT6 came into my ownership.
There’s absolutely no point in applying a lovely coat of paint over a layer of filler, only to have rust break through a year or two later. We are going to be thorough and make sure the GT looks as great as it possibly can. nigel.clark@practicalclassics.co.uk