Without further ado, lets go to town and get rid of most of the rust on the passenger side. We might lose all reference points but we are going to figure out how to get them back. There weren't many to begin with anyways LOL
Fairly sure this car originally belonged to my father. He purchased it new in Germany and imported in to Canada when he moved back here sold it around 1999 or 2000. Lots of memories… was a daily driver for many years. Glad to see it getting a new life!
I never had my 1966 original GT6 (Dark Blue) long enough for rust to set in. But I had to put shocks in the back after 10k miles. Sold it before I left to fly helicopters in Nam in 1968. A sailor just back from Nam crashed it and totaled it. Thank goodness I never had to deal with the mess you have on your hands. Thanks for the videos.. Great job.
Well done Elin it’s coming together nicely. Boy oh boy that thing sure is a very rusty beauty, you must have taken about 30 pounds of fiberglass out of it so far
My TR6 had Rivets and fiberglass and lots of Brazing , but not as much of the Rivets and fiberglass you have found in this GT6. Looks like lots of work but your moving ahead pretty quickly now. Great video.
Was that plumber's tape under the right rear wing? Lol. You never know what you're going to find working on these cars! My '70 was almost this bad - watching your videos has kept me from lapsing into despair, Elin. You're an inspiration!
I agree, but sometimes it better if you do a lap joint. Keeping such a long seam in the middle of such a big and shaped panel straight and not warp it is almost impossible with a butt joint. At least for me. Jedmuttley told me once that I should do lapped seams in such repairs. I will seam seal inside after it is done. I did that on the 74 TR6 doors. It looks like it is going to hold
As Nik Blackhurst said regarding the mini in Project Binky, “there’s a technical term for a car in this condition - scrap!”. Still it didn’t deter him, and not you either!👍 Oh, and try not to get in more trouble with the Triumph gods!
You have your work "cut out" for you! (Pun intended). Great video, as usual. I think you should look into some upbeat blues music for your soundtrack... lol. This isn't a wedding... but a wedding of new metal. Great work!
Upbeat music is for those American muscle cars....that look like cruise ships. These beauties are classics and what is better than classical music for classic cars :) Well, I like it and as far as I can see from the comments most people like it too.
Most people do not realize what is involved in replacing entire panels. Often they are overlapped by other panels and replacing them is a huge adventure. Also removing an entire panel turns the body into a flexible pile of sheet metal and putting it back together requires a lot of prefitting and matching with other panels, while keeping that shaky body in the right shape. I am already at a point where I have parts mounted to thin air :) So, I prefer to replace just the rotten area than replacing the whole entire panel.
@@RustyBeauties . So much of the sill/floor structure has been cut out already, it's not contributing much to stiffness, regardless of whether or not you put in a full floor or make a dozen patches. The car is still bolted to the chassis, so a cross brace would help provide more stiffness. With the new floor, you'd have to do the same fitting work to weld the outer flange to the sills and heelboard as you would with the patch panels, in addition to the standard butt welds to fit in to the tunnel, but it will take less time than having to form up and fit all these little patch panels in the first place, and then weld them to what's already there.
@@praetorious I agree for the passenger side. Not much left of it so a full floor makes sense. If this is a job with labor costs, a full floor would be a savings in labor to the customer. The driver side seems to only need patching at the front, so replacing rotten bits makes sense there. The car is already flimsy because of all the metal cut out, doing a full floor won't change that.
Have you seen Fitzee’s Fabrications, Elin? He shows a technique to cut into a panel at 45 degrees, rather than perpendicularly, to reduce the gap between the panel and a patch. It makes it much easier to produce a smooth butt weld with minimal dressing required. He’s on RU-vid. You should take a look. I’ve included a link below.
Yes, I watch him and I tried his technique on my Jeep. It works well for small patches. For long joints it I figured a lap joint is best to avoid warpage.
I don't know if you watch Fanatic Builds...but their GT6 was in about the same condition when they started...People patch these together about as bad as people did to VW's in the 70's. lol
Yes, we know each other. I remember when they bought the car and didn't realize what rust bucket it was. This one here at least we knew what to expect.
I just finished removing the fiberglass from the floorpans in my TR6. I found pounding on the fiberglass before prying it up made the job a lot easier.
@@RustyBeauties also I wish you could come to Oklahoma and replace mine they aren't too bad but I'm terrible at welding. You do such great works. It makes me want to take some classes.
It clearly earns the title of Rusty Beauty, but we have all seen worse examples. I don't know what is more disheartening, the fiberglass or the pop rivets. Well, you will remove both and the beauty part will overcome the rusty part. Thanks much for sharing, Elin!
BTW did you see how the orange hose inside the car tangled itself into a treble clef shape :) I tried to highlight it to see if anyone will pay attention. I though if anyone noticed it would be you :)
@@RustyBeauties Yes, I was going to mention it, but then forgot after watching you chop off all of that metal! I guess if it had been a TR6 it would have been a bass clef! :-)
He bought it pretty cheap. I am sure at the end it will be the same cost as if he bought "a good condition" GT6. Except many cars in a "good condition" hide the same rusty holes under the nice looking paint. I don't think he should regret buying it. Yes, I will rustconvert and paint the inside of the panels and patches before I put them back on the car.
Brings back memories of when my GT6 was similarly rusty. Question though. With the patch panels on the rear wing, why not just fit a new complete panel?
I'm not sure about the quality of the repair panels, but often it can be hard to fit a whole panel when the dimensions are off in multiple areas. The general rule is to leave as much original metal as possible (if it's not rusted).
Oh, I agree. I had one that needed some cutting and adjusting. Many aftermarket panels require work to get them to fit right... Any car, not just Triumph. It just looks like there would be less welding thus less chance of distortion
@@drivewayshop Most people do not realize what is involved in replacing entire panels. Often they are overlapped by other panels and replacing them is a huge adventure. Also removing an entire panel turns the body into a flexible pile of sheet metal and putting it back together requires a lot of prefitting and matching with other panels, while keeping that shaky body in the right shape. I am already at a point where I have parts mounted to thin air :) So, I prefer to replace just the rotten area than replacing the whole entire panel.
@@RustyBeauties that's fine. I know how fragile these are when you start removing panels. I was just curious. My quarters were so shot and full of surface rust in the inside it was just simpler to do a full replacement.
