Bullitt's 1970 Triumph GT6

[Bullitt]

So after 6 years of not owning an oldschool car I thought it was time I did something about that.  I decided at the end of last year I'd try to buy a GT6.  However, I wanted a Mk2 as I preferred the more 60s styling, the problem being these are stupidly rare.  But luckily I managed to be the first to offer money for the one that briefly appeared on Trademe last weekend.  I picked it up from Whakatane/Rotorua/Tauranga (its a long story) yesterday.  Drive back went well other than the speedo doesn't work and the headlights are dangerously bad for the last two hours in the dark,

 

Its a 1970 and has had quite a lot of money spent on mechanicals recently.  It needs the interior redone and theres a small amount of rust in both rear guards and the drivers door.  Given I bought it site unseen I was pleasantly surprised.

 

Its reasonably standard though has a few upgrades like brand new Mikuni flatsides, electronic ignition, hotter cam, GAZ adjustable shocks etc.  Goes well though it is rather loud at 100ks despite having overdrive.

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If you look closely in this photo you'll see a piece of wood holding the tailgate up.  Its supposed to be held up by a torsion bar by the hinges but like most this isnt working anymore and they're no longer available.  So it has gas struts except these are just as broken.

It has the factory option rear seat.  These are like hens teeth apparently and having now experienced it I can see why noone chose them.  Single worst rear seat ever, theres no leg room, no shoulder room let alone head room and you have to climb over the back of the front seats as they dont go forward enough to go around them.

 

 

Here is the rust in the rear guards.  As you can see drivers side is the worst of the two though the passengers is worse than this photo makes it look.

Plans are to do not much to it in the short term as my mortgage is looking a bit sick but medium term plans are to continue tidying it up.

[Bullitt]

Discussion thread

//oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/48710-bullitts-1970-triumph-gt6/

 

I also have a set of Dunlop LP923 5.5" steels I bought a few months ago that wil give me an alternate wheel choice once I do them up:

[Bullitt]

Pictureless update:

 

When I bought it the speedo didn't work so I ordered a new cable.  It also came with a new carpet set so I figured I'd pull the interior to bits and do both at once.  Found a bit of surface rust in the floorpan under the drivers seat but nothing difficult to fix, theres primer under the passengers seat so its obviously been the same at some point.

 

Previous owner was proud that he'd replaced the transmission tunnel with a new fiberglass one. Unfortunately the bolts he put through the firewall were a nightmare. Brass dome head screws with nuts on the firewall side (surely it'd be easier if Triumph had made them captive). With flatmates help since my arms arn't long enough to be in the footwell and engine bay at the same time I couldn't get any of them undone.  Only way I could shift them at all was putting a ratchet spanner on the nut and vicegrips on the wrong end of the screw/bolt.  Had to do a combination of cutting the bolts in half or driling them out - none of which were easy to get to.  Took me 5 hours to get 6 bolts out and none in one piece.

 

Then took the old speedo cable out and turns out there's nothing wrong with it so put the new one in anyway and still no speedo. Guessing drive off the gearbox or maybe speedo itself causing the problem.

 

Also replaced the rubbers between the tail lights and body.  I do like that pretty much everything is available for these.

[Bullitt]

Before:

During - still lots of steel there:

Note how the carpet across the cross member fell to bits so the previous owner painted the cross member black 

[Bullitt]

Spent the afternoon mucking around with lots of little things.

 

Replaced the windscreen wiper/washer switch so the washers now work again so it'll be wofable.

 

Replaced the second tail light rubber.

 

Finished off the floorpan so will be able to start interior reassembly tomorrow.

 

And replaced the wiper arms.  The new ones look almost the same but they have the correct angle on them so the drivers side one now doesn't overhang the outside of the screen. Terrible photos, my phone doesn't like the sun streaming in but stops it being a pictureless update.

Before:

After:

[Bullitt]

Got it back together.  Not sure I've fixed anything other than replacing the carpet but still progress is progress.

 

Here's a video just for a change.  Its running on the choke hence why its filing the garage with smoke.

https://youtu.be/84gIGYihwiQ

[Bullitt]

Latest update makes me wonder why I bother.

 

Lights are now all working again.

 

Turns out despite the previous owner telling me that the brakes had been fully rebuilt they hadn't and the rear brakes were seized on and the wheels were only turning because the shoes were coming away from the friction material.  So they've now been stripped and rebuilt including lots of new bits and remachining the drums.

 

Turns out the steering wheel (its an aftermarket one) doesn't fit the taper on the column which the previous owner must have realised when he locktited it to the column then locktited the nut on.  Luckily it hasn't badly damaged the column so I just have to replace the boss kit so I might as well upgrade the wheel at the same time.

 

Then comes to the speedo. Turns out the problem was the right angle drive out of the gearbox so I sourced a new one.  Just put it in and made sure the new cable was turning which it was then tried to fit it to the speedo and found the end was damaged and wouldn't fit so put the old cable back in. Drove it to the corner and back and the speedo still wasn't working.  Pulled it all to bits again and this is what I found:

Old angle drive on the left, new on the right and the drive in front of it is the new one or at least it was Note the extra washer on the top that was a service item to stop them breaking so often but was missing when I pulled it to bits (which is apparently quite common).  So plan now is to order another cable and angle drive then try to work out what is breaking them

 

Also my mechanic tells me the rust in the rear guards is a WOF failure.  I was intending to fix it anyway but not before the WOF ran out at the end of August so guess that will have to be done now as well.

[Bullitt]

Put my steels on just to see what tyre sizes I would need.  The ones in the photo are 165/80-13 which is bigger than the stock 155/80-13 and bigger still than the 185/60-13 on the minilites.  They're not actually black they're just painted in rust kill, they'll be a lighter colour with a chrome hubcap if/when they make it on.

Ideally I'd like a 155/75-13 though I don't think that size exists.

[Bullitt]

If you look back to the top post you'll see what the guards used to look like.  Here is what the drivers side looked like this morning:

So obviously there is a bit more cutting to go before new parts can go in.  But given how much bog was in the lower guard it could have been a lot worse. I expect the other side will be similar.

 

Booked in for a WOF on 6 October so hopefully it'll be driveable after that.