GT6 Finally Finishing

[Richter12x2]

After 3-4 years, (and the State of Texas forcing our hand a bit), we're finally finishing up the GT6. After getting it to run, pass inspection, and registered for another year, since we had to get it running to get it inspected, finally convinced my wife to let me finish colorsanding the paint and reassembling everything rather than just waiting and repainting the whole thing (which I was not motivated to do, since I was sure most of it was going to be fine anyway.)

There are some spots I'm not happy with, and the sills and hood will probably get resprayed again in the future (maybe another 2 or 3 years) I think it looks darned good compared to the bucket of parts we started with.

 

[PeterK]

Yup. Beauty.

 

[trrdster2000]

Well done Rich. Do you have the chrome strips that fit on the body seams under the doors. They do collect water, but most of these cars don't see much water any more. I have a pair somewhere if you are so inclined. Yours looks great, you should be proud.

Wayne

 

[dklawson]

That's looking very good! Congratulations on the progress.

 

[Richter12x2]

I think we're going to hold off on the chrome door strips for now. Now that you mention it, I do remember having to chisel that rusted channel off of there when I installed the new pieces, but I must have never gotten around to actually welding it back on. It doesn't seem to suffer much without them. Thanks for the offer though, I'll remember you if my wife changes my mind later.

 

[TR3TR6]

Another labor of love completed, well done.

 

[Don_R]

Looks great...What was the Blue you painted it.....I like it..

 

[3798j]

Nice! Congratulations.

 

[Richter12x2]

Looks great...What was the Blue you painted it.....I like it..

It's a Mazda RX8 color called Aurora Blue. I'd recommend against it, though, actually.

The Aurora Blue paint uses an expensive toner, and runs about $800 a gallon just for the paint. (Not counting all the chemicals to reduce it and spray it)

The other car in the picture I painted using a Porsche color called "Nachtblau Metallic" and added some blue pearl to the clear. I used too much blue pearl, but the paint was $150 a gallon and the pearl was $15, and you just mix it in with the clear. The lesson I learned here by the way is, if you want MORE pearl effect, don't add more pearl to the clear, just shoot extra coats of clear until you get the pearl level you want, then swap with regular clear and coat it. Adding too much pearl to the clear will end up looking cloudy and mottled if you don't spray it just perfect (and I sure can't spray it just perfect).

But they came out so close to each other, you'd be hard pressed to tell they're not the same color in the sun. The pearl one just darkens up a lot when the light's not on it.

 

[Scot1966]

Looks nice Rich. I love the color !

 

[HerronScott]

That looks great! I love wire wheels on a round-tail Spitfire/GT-6.

Scott

 

[Richter12x2]

Surprised the wife today and drove the GT6 15 miles away to Denton to get a new exhaust put on it. After the work that was done recently with the fuel system, it ran GREAT. Got the new exhaust done, and made it about two blocks away, then all of a sudden the exhaust got REALLY loud, like one of the mufflers came off, and I was down on power. Drove it back to the garage and everything looked fine.
Still ran okay, but more like a Sentra rental car - you put your foot on the gas and wait for revs to build - nothing like the more or less instant throttle response I was getting in the morning, where (still haven't got the speedo working) I had to back down because the speed built up faster than I was comfortable with.
Finally, about 2 miles from my house, as I'm cruising in forth, all of a sudden the revs drop and I've got nothing on the gas pedal, so I coasted into the Exxon station and checked it out - I kinda knew as soon as the gas pedal went all the way up, but one of the nuts on the linkage had come off. After taking a break for a Coke, I managed to steal a nut from the hood brace and get the throttle working again, limped it back home.

Turned out my second carb was clogged up again - this time I took the needle valve out and there was a piece of something behind it. Blew out the needle valve with carb cleaner, as well as the whole fuel line going into it. Got it back up to temperature and colortuned it to get something approaching normal. It was too bright to get a good reading.

Also broke out the timing light to do a quick check, since it felt like it was down on power and hadn't noticed the carb was clogged yet, and discovered my #6 spark plug wire was loose, so even as good as it felt in the morning, I was probably down a cylinder.

After freeing up the carb (and managing to put the stupid float bowl gasket on backwards for what must be the third time.) I took it for a run around the block and was totally impressed by the power this thing has now. Unfortunately it's also got so much torque that it's very easy to squeal the tires, which makes my neighbors shake their fists and yell at me to 'slow down'. (I'm only going like 20. If the tires didn't break loose, it'd be going faster.)

Now just mostly cosmetic things to get ready for the ABCDE show next weekend. Everything else seems fine (knock on wood). The valvetrain still seems loud, but from what I can determine, that's just the way these things sound.

Interestingly, at idle sometimes the oil pressure light will flicker, too, but it goes away as soon as you touch the accelerator, and it's idling at 500 rpm or so according to the tach, so that's probably a bit low. Oil level from the dipstick is fine.

 

[trrdster2000]

Rich, glad you found all the problems and power is back. Jack the idle up to 750 RPM, you and the engine will be happier. Everything must be good to get the 500 RPM but surely it's laboring.
Great job.

Wayne

 

[dklawson]

At least temporarily... put a mechanical oil pressure gauge on (with a T piece) so you can monitor the oil pressure when the light is flickering. It's been a while since I read all the things you did with the engine. Does it have a new oil pump and bearings?

If you haven't already done so, put a fuel filter inline, right before the carbs. I use the disposable ones they used to sell for air cooled VWs. Since the car has been sitting, expect rust/silt to come through the system. Therefore a pre-filter before the pump is also in order to protect its check valves.

At least you didn't have to call a tow truck to get home. I had to do that during the first month our car was back on the road. Just like with your car... the fuel system plugged up.

 

[Richter12x2]

Rich, glad you found all the problems and power is back. Jack the idle up to 750 RPM, you and the engine will be happier. Everything must be good to get the 500 RPM but surely it's laboring.
Great job.

Wayne

Is the best way to bring the idle up just to adjust the stop screw on the throttle linkage, or is there a better way to do it?

 

[trrdster2000]

Rich, Yes and you will still need to use the balance gage. If you have trouble it will be the idle screws bottom, they get high and low spots. Take them out and get the bottom flat, then put a slight angle with a small point in the center. Make sure the choke cams are hitting at the same time.

Wayne

 

[dklawson]

There should be idle screws on each carb's linkage. Turn them equally to raise the idle to your desired speed. Ours will not idle near as low as yours, due to the cam we installed. I have our idle set for a touch over 1000 RPM. Wayne's suggestion of 750 for your engine sounds good.

 

[Richter12x2]

It could also just be that the tach is off, too. But that's where it landed, and dialing it up a bit so that the oil pressure sensor stays off seems like a good idea anyway.

 

[dklawson]

I would still add the mechanical oil pressure gauge (at least temporarily) so you know what's going on. It's only April. When the Texas summer heat arrives that 20W50 is going to thin out more and the oil pressure is going to drop lower.

 

[Richter12x2]

Just finished taking a few more complete pictures to update my classic car insurance, so I thought I'd share them here as well. Mostly together, just a few holdouts, like the trim ring on the passenger headlight doesn't want to snap on, and one of the rings on the passenger turn signal as well. The driver's turn signal bulb doesn't want to flash correctly either, so it just needs cleaning up.

Also it pulls to the left when you step hard on the brakes, so I'm thinking (hoping) my rear brakes are out of adjustment. I don't remember ever setting them after putting it all back together, so hopefully that's it. Hopefully that'll tighten up the ebrake cable as well, if not I can tighten it up while I'm down there. The brakes don't seem to want to lock up, so they may still need to be bled some more, but I'm not losing any fluid at all. They stop, but not as well as they probably should.

Looks like we're going to have good weather soon, so planning to get out to the Pate swap meet on Saturday, and then take the Triumph out to the ABCDE at White Rock park on Sunday, for the first show in public.