Hope you all enjoy what we've been up to! Bit of fiddly non-grinding stuff today... not sure how I feel about that 🤔 ... but oh well, plenty more to come in due course! Have a great weekend and thank you as always to all our awesome Patreons for your support! 🙏
I love how this is an amazing build being done in a tiny garage with real person budget and time constraints. It's turning out amazing and the videos are really entertaining.
Yes! This is one of my favorite channels! You and Ronald Finger. You have style and a great talent on screen and editing. This is first rate channel content! Very well done.
So a minute and change in...those classic words, "Bolt right in". Great to see the latest upload! All the best to you and you Dad . Thanks for sharing.
Considered it! Dad managed to talk me out of it though 😅 Love heated seats, but it's not really necessary for the time of year we'll actually be driving this thing! 😊 Thanks Dan!
You have developed a style of videos that I can only describe as the perfect mix of Project Binky meets Ronald Finger! Yet you still come across as totally original. Well done, the contents is getting better by the video 😁
I agree about Project Binky. It will be interesting to see who gets their car plated and on the road first. Keep up the good work guys. You win over Binky in one way, you do not have a big shop with lots of tools and metal working equipment. I hope you are not going to use that knife on a May 24 weekend dinner.
I really look forward to these videos. I was about to go down the miata route to replace my totally worn out original GT6 seats. Your videos have been a great help. Thanks!
It would be a very tight squeeze with the factory frame living in the middle of the floor FYI. Not sure you'd be able to make them fit without more modification to the seat frames. Everything's possible though! Check out "greasemonkeygaragewatson" on RU-vid ... he did a hybrid of some MX5 seats with the original Triumph ones 👍
Great Job on those seats! I find some of the most satisfying projects are ones where afterward it's as good as new, and only you know you fixed it. Now every time you sit in those seats you'll be happy about it
Watching this episode reminded me why I started my car building consulting company, because after 40+ years of building cars you learn a couple of things and while most people either want free information or let there ego get in the way there are those that don’t mind paying me to advise them! For things just like your seat issue.
Haha, I wouldn't say these are the most ideal solution to seating in our car, but they worked out well and fit the budget, so I'll take it 😅. Interesting business, how do you market your services, and who are your clients usually? Individuals, or shops?
What a true craftsman! I just love how you work though all the challenges of the build, not very many people can do that and have it look right and function correct. I personally love fabrication, this is coming from a 40+ year Machinist/ Gearhead.
Im still amazed at how much detail you guys put into all of your work and design. In contrast, my truck is purely held together with hopes and dreams. Super glad to see more progress on the car!
@@FanatikBuilds Yeah ofc man, I’m hoping to get some of the detail work done on the old Toyota pickup this summer but as you’ve probably found, doing quality work takes a lot of time😂
@@FanatikBuilds Car build channels are ten a penny, but this stands out for your share bloody mindedness and determination too package that engine and running gear into that tiny little motor, and being a British motor helps me relate 😂 Maybe if u have the time u could take a gander at ‘FabCo UK’ TY channel. He’s got two of the ugliest rot boxes ever to roll off a British Leyland production line. He’s building the “cheese wedge” as we called them, the Austin Princess 🤮and an Allegro, or AGRO again as they were commonly known. The Agro was reputed too be more aerodynamic going in reverse 😂 and was a god awful motor all round. But that’s being turned into a sleeper with a K series engine out of the Honda Civic Type R with added turbo bolted on and a space frame front end. It could be worth a look see. All I will say is dong drag it on too long, as the attention span of a YT viewer is short too say the least 😂🤣 But I really want too see her (your Triumph) on the road, so the very best o British ✌️❤️🍀& much respect too u and yours mate 👍✌️🇬🇧
I don't believe I've seen their work before, so thanks for the heads up! Looks like some good stuff! 👌 Really appreciate the support and encouragement Mark, all the best to you as well! ✌️🇨🇦😊
Great work on the seats. All of these 'simple' little things are what really take a whole lot of time and thought on a full custom build like this. Very nice work.
You'd know buddy! So good to see the little things getting crossed of your list these days, the Alfarrari is turning out amazing, just as I knew it would! 🥳
Finally a new episode. I’m getting old quickly! Hopefully I live long enough to see the completion of this car. I have followed you from the very beginning. 😊
Gotta admit, I 'm kinda sad to see all those classic gauge placements (and likely the gauges themselves) disappear. I so love the dash of a 60's British sportscar. Awesome work, tho... nice hand-stitch work. Getting even tension across the seam is hard. Your channel is my favorite.
The cardboard layout is still just for concept (which is why I didn't actually say anything about it) ... I like the factory layout, but it really doesn't leave room for that many gauges, and I like information! So we'll see 🤔 Thanks man, means a lot!
@@FanatikBuilds Sent you some $ to help pay for new gauges... I know I'll never own this car, as much as I wish I could, but I can have a stake in its completion.😁 I remember the elation I felt when I finished my big build, and I know you'll feel the same... and you get to share it with your dad. Priceless.
That was extremely kind of you Chris, really appreciate the help! Been playing around with the layout more over the weekend and although not original, I'm trying to incorporate ques from some of the other great period classics! Hope you'll like it 😊
The factory seats were probably a better choice from a room standpoint, but I like the idea of newer, stronger, seats to go with the vastly increased performance.
Dad had a chance to sit in a friend's restored GT6 recently, and as it turns out, we've got about the same amount of headroom while also being more comfortable (in his opinion) ... so yeah, pretty happy with how it turned out! 😊
Thanks buddy! It's nice to be able to sit in the car again finally! 😊 Dad even had a chance to sit in our friends GT6 recently, and he actually feels we have just as much headroom - if not more! Winning! 🥳
At 53yo, most YT channels bore me. I've seen quite a bit in fab over the years. Your low buck approach amuses me and keeps me coming back for more! Reminds me of Project Binky. Thanks for your hard work.
As always you amaze me with the outcome. This is going to be such a sweet ride when you are done with it, assuming that the Canadian government will allow you to drive it on the street!
Not fully familiar with the Oak Island mystery, but I can assure you we intend on getting this thing done and on the roads as soon as we can! 😊😅 Cheers Michael!
Always enjoy you guys, your trials and tribulations mirror mine (and I'm sure most people who actually build themselves). Nice to see issues getting solved. Mine get thrown in the corner for a while until I've calmed down. Or bought another project. whichever happens first!🤣
Love the craftmanship and stretching the rules. I think I would have gone for Lotus Elise seats though. They are actually quite comfortable. I think if you keep the seats tan then two colours would work great with this. Aston Martin Balmoral Green Metallic or Lotus Storm Titanium metallic. Whatever you choose it will look fabulous.
Hard to find and quite expensive around here! No doubt would be amazing seats though! Either of those colours would be gorgeous, but not quite where we're headed 😊✌️ Thanks man, all the best!
Great to see a new video! When I saw the seat shenanigans I thought, wow, this is just like most projects my Dad and I do as well - do it once, then the second time to fix things, then sometimes sadly the third time… ah well. Looks great now!
Thanks, awesome to hear! It may not be as interesting as some of the metalwork we've done, but it's still been a challenge and I'm glad it all worked out 😊😅
I found a long pair of princess auto side cutters (more leverage) made cutting the hog rings so much easier, and like you did zip ties are so much simpler, they don't rust, you can make them any size, just makes sense.
We'll see if they hold up with all the in-and-out of test fitting over the next while! 😅 $20 for some hog-rings and pliers might be cheap insurance to avoid having a zip-tie fail later on! 🤞 We'll see!
Hey, another epic episode. I do get the headroom issue. One solution to consider is to replace that low pan and big chunk of foam with rubber seat diaphragms from a Triumph Tr6. Roadster Factory Part number 612251. My Gt6V8 is all ready for another driving season in Victoria. Keep up the good work. Al
Thanks Al, that's a good idea - we actually had a chance to compare our new seats with a friends factory GT6 and were surprised to see we've got slightly more room though! So I think we'll leave it as it is for now at least. Glad to hear your GT8 is running strong, hope you're well and stay safe with the wildfires out there! ✌️ 🇨🇦
I had a Legacy a while ago with an all black leather interior ... just about burned myself getting into it in the summer! I think a two-tone interior could work out pretty well ... still considering options! Cheers man 👍
You should've made a social media post asking about the foam. A friend of mine has a business parting out na/nb miatas here in MN, USA. I would've sent you a replacement foam for the cost of shipping.
Very kind of you! I have a pretty small following on FB and Instagram, so don't tend to think about asking there ... but it's a good point for the future. As it happens, shipping from the US is pretty unbelievable though, and even with free foams, I'd imagine we'd be spending ~$100 to get there here, and that makes our $20 fix sound pretty reasonable! 😊👍 Thanks again though Justin, I appreciate it!
I admire your tenacity, upholstery is a trade onto itself and you did a decent job considering what you had to work with. By the way…. leather conforms better with steam, not heat
Thanks man, gave it my best shot anyway! Yeah I know, all I had available was the heat-gun though ... I don't think a clothing iron would be much help! 😬✌️
Mmmm, look at a Caterham, small, all carbon seats that have no weight OR thickness to them. Ok so no padding to speak of but they are surprisingly comfortable - 2 hour drives are ok. This is a tricky one though and it's your build and choice, and finances! Really enjoy these videos, well done, and your dad deserves an award for his patience and camera work!
Going for more of a long-distance cruiser with this (I'd love to drive from coast to coast someday) so comfort was more of a priority here! 😊 Thanks Bob, he's a trooper!
Last week an new episode of Binky, and now you come in with a new episode. While the repair sections for my '74 Alfa Gulia Super mock me in the boot of my car.😊
@@FanatikBuilds it's just arches and I'm like quite handy with a welder. and if you'd see the workshop I get to work in, not mine but my best mates, you'd probably be beating me with said welder. Just with job, kids, wife and life in general..... That's why, so much respect for what you do, with the tools, time and space you have.
Good to know about the Summit one, thanks! A lot of the cheap shifters out there for the T5 seem to be the same model, so I just filtered Amazon for the least expensive and got that one! It's really not bad now after the tweaking, so we'll make do with it ... the T5 already has a pretty nice shift action to it! ✌️
Nice work! Kudos for using zip ties instead of those horrible hog rings! Also, kudos for some very clever bracket work making those Mazda seats work in the Triumph. A real pleasure to watch as always! Thanks for sharing your awesome project with the rest of us.
Hey Michael, its good to see you and your dad back. Man you had some patients with those seats, I've built a few cars in my time and the one thing I really have noooo patients with the interior. Thankfully I have a good friend who is so that helps, take care buddy, look forward to the next one. 😀👍
Thanks Steve! I certainly enjoy fabricating with metal more than foam, but it was interesting to have a change of pace - still have to come back to the rest of the interior at a point too so wish us luck! 😂✌️ Hope all's well your end!
This very knife was a wedding gift to my parents in 1977, so you’re pretty spot on there! Thank you, I’m quite pleased with how they look in there too! 😎🙏🤜
So happy for a new video. I like this build because its a cool/unique car choice and your attention to detail. Wow good job finding a seat solution. I do however have concerns the 2004 T-5 transmission won't handle the engine torque. Atleast not for long. I believe the 5.3L LS4 already has over 300Lb-Ft of torque, and unfortunately even a new world class T-5 is still rated at 300Lb-Ft Torque I mention this because I know from experience working on a friends mustang. We broke his T-5 At first it seemed to handle the torque, but it broke shortly after putting better tires on for improved traction off the line. I hate being a downer. I really want your project to be successful. It's a great looking car.
Thank you, glad you're enjoying it! 😊 You're correct on the torque limits going on ... we expect to be closer to 380-400lb/ft so well over what the T5 was expected to cope with. On a hub dyno, I don't think it would be happy. However, here's why I'm not too concerned... there's very few times I honestly believe we'll be able to make full power with this thing! At ~2300-2400lbs, with 205/50/15's, and ~400hp/400lb/ft ... the tires are going to be the first thing to let go! As Jay Leno says, tires are just a cheap form of clutch! 😂 Time will tell though! Absolutely worst case, we could upgrade to a TKX without too much modification, so at least there's a fall-back. 👍 Cheers man, hope all's well your end!
@@FanatikBuilds Yes I agree with your thinking on that. You definitely want to be able to enjoy the car after years of hard work. It would suck if you felt you needed to baby the car constantly. I'm definitely not saying you should be overly hard and wreckless. I'm just saying have some fun with it. The back end on my friends 90 mustang was light but the Triumphs is even lighter. You also don't have a back seat and a contributing factor to why my friends transmission broke was my brothers extra weight in the back that day. My friend launched the mustang hard and with approx 200lbs more in the back that caused extra stess on the transmission and it went pop. Fortunately we were extremely close to a gas station and managed to pull in. If your T-5 unfortunately does become a issue the TKX would be a pricey (yet awesome upgrade). I don't know how sticky the tires you have are but, the TKX upgrade would also allow for sticky compound tires. Basically a street legal drag tire since width is limited. However they will wear down faster, then if you were able to run wider high performance street tires. If traction is an issue and you did upgrade the transmission you could consider a tastefully done widening of the wheel arches. This would allow for more wheel and tire options and improved drivablity and safety. Just something to think about. My project has been on hold for awhile. So it's been very cool to watch a car project being built by a fellow Canadian. Keep up the amazing work.
Oh I agree it deserves to be driven properly! I don't claim to be a great driver though (am used to Subaru's AWD, so RWD is new to me) so we'll both be cautious as we get used to it! (hear too many stories of freshly finished projects being wrapped around light poles! **eek**...) ... It seems like hard launches, and 2-3 shifts are what generally break these things, so considering our launch will be a clutch-feathering operation to avoid wheel spin anyways, and I'm not much for powershifting, it should (fingers crossed 🤞) last a while! The Falken Azensis RT615K+ are a 200 treadwear, so reasonably sticky, but still more street than track oriented, as we plan on driving the car as much as we can. The rear wells are large enough that with different backspacing and a wider wheel, we could probably go up to a 235 if we want to, and leave the body alone! Just thought I'd run 205's on the front and back so we can rotate them. We'll see how things go though, and I sure want to be able to enjoy it with some degree of confidence! Thanks man, rock on and hope things get moving with your project again soon! 🤜🇨🇦
@@FanatikBuilds Sounds like you got a good plan. Common sense can slip when excited to drive a new car. I definitely did some stupid things behind the wheel that could have turn out bad when I was younger. It's good that you're very aware that going from AWD to RWD will take some adjustment. One big adjustment is that the back end will want to kick out rather easily with that much power & torque in that light weight car. Kicking the back end out is alot of fun once you know how to control it. However it can be easy to give too much throttle and spin. That can be scary. Definitely take the cautious approach you mentioned. Learning how to maintain enough control when the back end kicks loose or starts spinning is very important for both safety and eventually lets you maximize the fun of driving a RWD car. When the Triumph is drivable I suggest finding a wide open parking lot or other area as clear as possible of anything you could hit with the car. Then cautiously practice putting the car sideways and reining it back in. This let's you know how it will behave under different throttle conditions so your not caught off guard on the street. Based on the qaulity of work on the car its clear you're a smart guy. So I have no doubt you'll learn and adjust just fine to RWD. Take care
Thanks Peter! I actually considered doing that, but ultimately realized it wasn't really needed ... the majority of time we'll be using the car will be hot, so the AC is a more welcome feature! Cheers 👍
@@FanatikBuilds Having lived in Toronto working at Roy Foss Pontiac in the '60's I know hot Canadian summers can be, and I'm sure the car would be a handfull in your big snows of winter! I'm really enjoying your build. Excellent craftmanship.
I think the shifter will loosen up after using it for a while, usually the lower to mid quality parts don't maintain high tolerances for their parts so they make them tighter in the beginning and use a sacrificial material in the joints so they will form to one another over time and work smoothly for some amount of time after they get too loose😂
I have a feeling you're right, the transmission isn't full of fluid right now either, and the input/output shafts aren't spinning ... so hopefully it will feel pretty good once we get rolling! 🤞✌️ Cheers man!
Hog rings are cheap from farm supply stores. Honestly, they are cheaper than zip ties, & zip ties won't last long on the razor sharp seat pans! There was a recall on seat ass warmers (in a vw), so I was doing several cars every day, for weeks. Remove the seat, pull back the seat cover, r&r the heater, put it all back… I'm having flashbacks of those seat pans slicing up my fingers…superglue was the best way to avoid blood stains in customer cars!
The zip-ties were more just to get us moving again quickly, and the seats will likely come apart one more time so some new hog-rings are still on the table! 👍 Ha, I don't doubt it - I was somewhat surprised by how razor sharp the edges were from factory! 😅
I guess your garage, like mine, isn’t heated, leading to little progress through the winter? Thanks for the update - still a way to go, but don’t give up!
Correct, that and life just being busy has limited our work this past winter. Which is unusual, because it's normally the time of year where we get the most done! Going to try to crack on and make up for lost time though, so thanks for the encouragement, it's needed and appreciated! 😊🙏
@@jamieforrester7108 There are loads of other great builds, notably Stanceworks and Retropower but I chose the three I did because they are all massively modified road cars
@@FanatikBuilds I'm an engineer and your engineering skills are excellent. Plus who doesn't love a GT6? It's not a poor man's F type It's much nicer than that.
I always enjoy watching your videos. Informative and always entertaining 😊 A nice fix for the seats and less involved than having to redesign both the metal seat base and the base foam too. Also weird how the CNC machined parts of the shifter didn't have a nicely dished area in the shifters baseplate.
You got it! That was our only other potential option really ... so I'm glad this worked out! I think you give the shifter manufacturer too much credit though, by suggesting they CNC'd the part 😉 At least it works pretty alright now! 😂👍
I have picked up a pair of AC Cobra seats that I hope is narrow enough. My Spitfire already has the SBC motor mounts. The car is finally arriving from Arizona where I left it when I moved. Yippee!! I am looking forward to sharing your pain. Lol. Mike
Upholsterers now??? You crazy Canadians! Love the update and feel your pain! I have the same issues with my daughters 1984 Ford Capri Mk3 and the BMW seats we bought for it! Might have to be a lowered floorpan to fit them in!
Your tenacity is incredible . I am slightly puzzled as to why you made the choice to replace the standard seats but there's no turning back now 😅 l must say that l had a very similar experience with my "e" type ( the original seats were missing ) and l tried Jaguar XK8 seats first, but like you my head was hitting the roof . Then a pair of Miata seats like yours which again were a "snug" fit . I finally tried a pair of Miata "tombstone " seats ......perfect ! ......lf at first you don't succeed .........🤔🤔🤣 Thankyou guys .
More info on why we replaced them in the last Episode, but ultimately it was WAY cheaper to do this, and we've also gained real leather, and better ergonomics! Win-win! 😊 Awesome to hear that some Miata seats worked well for you too! Dad actually had a chance to sit in a friend's restored GT6 recently and mentioned that our seats are more comfortable and still have about the same amount of headroom - good to know! Cheers John, appreciate the encouragement! ✌️
Nice! I'm quite pleased with them. Paid about $500 CAD for ours, but although massively more than you paid, you're right in that their going for considerably more than that now!
@@FanatikBuilds LOL, this was last December, the local Foreign Auto shop (English/Miatas) had a pile of them from people that race, got to pick the 2 nicest @ that price
Thank you for sharing the joys of Mazda seat construction, how to bodge it and how not to. Seriously though, I have a 72 Spitfire, so the same floor pan and constraints. I looked at the Mazda seats as a friend fitted them to his TR4, but I’m wondering about Toyota Aygo seats at present. The trouble is that most cars have grown wider in the last fifty years so finding some thing available and narrow is not simple.
Cars these days are incredibly wide in comparison for sure! Even the MX5 is 6" more than our car, but a lot of that is in the doors ... glad we made these fit, but I'd be hard pressed to imagine them working well in a "more standard" GT6! Check out "greasemonkeygaragewatson" on RU-vid ... he made a hybrid out of some MX5 and original Triumph seats. Might be a good option if you're interested! 👍
It is a difficult problem. If you "dry sump" the seat base (by making it flat) then the seat won't sag, and it will feel better when you sit and you will get slightly more headroom. Of course, you will have to probably alter the seat brackets to take advantage of the shallower seat pan.
i know this might sound controversial now that you've done the seat this way... but you still dont have enough headroom yet. yeah. as ~2 inches off the bare metal means your hair will be collecting static electricity in the headliner... and the helmet will scrape. you want at least 4 inches overhead without a helmet. 1 for the belt strech and comfort, 3 for the rollcage clearance (as per nhra rules, the cage must be 6 inches away from the sides and the rear of the driver's helmet, be within an inch of the headliner... and as wide as the shoulders, or within one inch of the driver's door). not that you absolutely need a 6+ point rollcage; but a 4 point would be a great idea given the tightness of the interior. and i remember you saying you'd add one. that aside i would sink the floors into the frame itself, cutting it off where it interferes. it's not like it's coming off anyway. any inch gained from the floors downwards will help. At that stage, doing the double hump could help, provided you get very creative with the headliner. that transmission tunnel is going to take at least two episodes. especially with the seats overlapping it.... and the bolts holding the transmission are going to be a major pain in the ass (with the tunnel on, they wont be removable without a special dummy tunnel !), so might as well flip the mount over, or flip the bolt. you will also want to prepare some clearance for a wrench, for that bolt... yeah, captive nut or bolt above the transmission, sunk in the floorpan, sounds less annoying, all things considered. good luck.
Actually, Dad had the chance to sit in a friend's restored GT6 recently and mentioned that our seats are more comfortable and still have about the same amount of headroom - so, winning! We don't intend on tracking the car much (if at all) ... so helmet and roll cage are of no real concern to me. Oddly, we can't even legally run a roll-cage on the streets here in Ontario... so there you go! 🤷♂️
Great job on the seats bud , as for the gear shifter you would prob get better results just sticking a desert spoon in top of gearbox 🤣🤣 they would certainly be getting a email of complaint about that product . Keep plodding on bro , good to see the old man looking well too 😁😁🤘🤘
Haha, when we first got it, that's pretty much accurate! 😂 Much better motion now though thankfully! I'd send an email or ask for a refund, but honestly it's a design flaw, and I doubt the manufacture cares too much anyway! lol ... easier to fix it in the long run! Thanks Karl, appreciate the encouragement and hope all's well with you! ✌️🤜
There you are! I thought I was gong to get a trifecta earlier in the week- Built by Jeff, Binky and Fanatik- you only missed by a couple of days, but then the upholstery wasn't "on spec"- and Fantik, somedays your OCD shows more than others! IDK hos it is in Canada, but here in the States it's not uncommon to see "low riders" laid back so far you can't see them driving and blue haired ladies who can't see for the steering wheel center! Why would you think you ought to be able to see the road to drive? It's the "cool thang" to be seen a cool- and the GT LS has got a lot of that! BTW, it's good to see your dad- he is well I hope! And now you understand what a doctor is trying to do to expand or diminish a bustline! And you really need to talk to Nik about the "all the invisible work thing"- being the God of All Bracketry, he would know how that feels! BTW, I hated the OEM seats when BL delivered them to us in the Port of New Orleans when I worked for Over Seas Motors receiving in the Free Trade Zone. Ya' dun good!
Lol, my OCD takes on a life of its own sometimes Fred! It's not often that I see lowriders like that around here, but I know what you're talking about! Shifter poking through the rag-top and everything 😄 ... Thanks for the concern for Dad, he's getting over shingles at the moment unfortunately, but at week 4, he's at least a bit more active again! Had it pretty bad unfortunately as the early warning signs were missed by a few days. 😬 Yeah if there's anyone to ask about invisible work, Nik would be the guy! I hope he'd like what we've done here, the new seats are a marked improvement on the factory ones for sure! All the best to you Frederic, hope things are well on your end!
Those cable ties under the seat will not last long, after time they become brittle and will snap under load. Not a criticism, just shared experience. I really enjoy your work and commentary!
Not the last time the seats will be together I have a feeling! So we'll likely spend the $20 to get some hog-rings and pliers to do it right later 👍 Thanks David! ✌️
I saw this video and thought "hey this looks similar to a build I saw someone working on a long time ago I wonder if it's like that one and what ever happened to that build?" Then I realized "Hey this is THAT SAME BUILD!" LOL.
