67 Mk1 GT6 restoration

[John Bonnett]

Quoted from byakk0

I threw all the rotisserie bits together into a video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OR_gikw0hI&feature=youtu.be

A great piece of work Hazen really well thought out. Probably like me you had a buttock clenching moment when you rotated the tub for the first time. For me, it was a leap of faith.

[byakk0]

It certainly was, John. As you saw, I tested it out before removing the support cart.
I've been building it little by little since Sept, but have been thinking up the design for years. As I mentioned earlier, mounting to the radius arm points was your idea, and actually the key to my design.
I didn't include the bits that didn't work along the way.

As far as being well thought out, only parts of it were. Some it was just winging it and getting lucky. Those angled braces on the open end I just stuck in place with no thought of tyre clearance for the rolling chassis. It was only after I had them in place that I realized I may have a clearance issue. But, with the casters in place I had 24" of clearance an only needed 22. Whew.

[byakk0]

Got a lot of work done this weekend.

First of all, I built a bracket for the underside of the trunk for the spare tire mounting.

Finished product.
(I know, the stock one is not welded but pressed steel)


The building process:






welded the underside of the transmission tunnel. I overlapped the metal by about 3/4" and have welded the top. This will seal the bottom and double up on the welds.



Some random holes in the rear floor I needed to fill. Not sure what these are from, but theory is a po tried installing a roll bar.



worked on the underside near the rear valance. Discovered rust in the joint, and I didn't like the looks of the po's welds. Both the trunk floor and the valance have been replaced and are new steel, so I was hoping to be able to leave them as is, but I realized at this point I'd be better off to remove the valance and replace with the new one I bought many moons ago and properly weld it up.
Removing it was easy as I only had the bottom and sides to free, I hadn't yet welded the upper portion of the valance to main body of the car.





'old' new and 'new' new side by side.



I also need to rebuild part of the inner wing. Should be too tough. A little 16 ga steel goes a long way.

[byakk0]

Got some more time in today.
Looks like I got a little gung-ho removing the old hacked-up quater panel and removed too much metal instead of just the spot welds. It was too thin for my liking so I guess I'm a DCO, for a small moment anyway.

Removing the old QP, pic from earlier in the job, complete with the slave labor (my bro, who has a GT6+ )

.



Picked up some 18 ga to repair it with.
First thing I did was overlay it with tape to get the correct shape, and for ease of transferring the shape to the steel.


Cut away the old


Ready for welding


And, completed.


Moving on to the rear valance. I only got as far as test fitting it.
The valance I removed is in excellent shape so I decided to re-use it as I have already prepped it with the brackets needed for the GT6. I'd have to remove these and transfer them to the newer valance otherwise, and it would have been as much or more work to do so. I just cleaned up the edges and prepped it for reinstall with weld-through primer, didn't realize I was nearly out, so I need a new can before I can continue. I'll just stash the other valance away for future use and hope I never need to use it, unless it is on another car.

Here the tub is upside-down. (Boy, the rotisserie sure is nice for jobs like this)
You can see the lower flange of the valance sticking up above the welding flange of the trunk floor, contrasted between the silver primer and the rusted trunk floor.
The edge of the floor should be a gentle curve that matches the contour of the valance, not straight. That would explain partly why the PO's welds were easy to break.


I added a 1" (ish) inch strip of metal


fit the valance, and trimmed the excess. Fits nicely now.


That's it for now. I won't get much chance to get back to it till next week. Going skiing tomorrow with my boy. It's a school activity I 'have' to chaperone. (all fees paid for me.)

[byakk0]

so I discovered that only a small portion of the crud underneath is actually rubberized undercoating. Turns out most of it is a mixture of oil and road grime, and the real coating is just the factory thick tar sealant.

Got a good portion of it cleaned off this weekend. Just need a few small areas and then to do some paint and light rust removal before hitting it with epoxy primer.

Driver's side mostly cleaned off.
About the only rust I have to deal with in any amount is around the seat mounts. See the wide radius around the two that have rusted?


passenger side for comparison


This is just from the driver's floor pan.


Rear axle tunnel. Just a little left to work on here. The rest I de-greased and it cleaned up nicely.


Just this odd line here, rust then paint.
Also, the PO had replaced the floor pan but did a terrible job welding it. Glad I don't take my vehicles to his shop for bodywork.


A little more cleaning.




I am aware my rotisserie design will impede my progress on the bottom. But, given the fact that many rotisseries do not tie to the radius arm mounts, I don't think I will have any troubles if I cut the boards off right there. I will just make that it will not be long thereafter when I transfer the tub back to the chassis.
The only other option of to finish the side strips once the chassis is back on. NO an ideal situation, but no one would ever no the difference, except for me.

Another item of interest. Not exactly sure what happened to the transmission tunnel in the past, but ever since I have owned this car it has looked like Dr. Frankenstein (Fronkensteen?) tested his theories out on it first. Just look at the staples!

[Phwoar]

Love the staples, they add character! Don't be tempted to plunge a scalpel into your quadriceps!

[Paudman]

So there I am in the garage helping him remove a gearbox and I cut my chin, and my mate says to me: “Don’t worry, I know a guy who did an invisible repair on my gearbox tunnel, I’ll see if he’s free….”

[byakk0]

lol. I'll probably end up glassing over it. Or make one from steel or aluminum. I'm not set up to weld aluminum though, so if I went that rout it would be full of rivets instead of staples.

[byakk0]

Welded up some small holes and cleaned a bit more on the bottom. Have it down to the bare metal in a small area.
I'mg getting close to primer on the bottom!

[John Bonnett]

Quoted from byakk0

Welded up some small holes and cleaned a bit more on the bottom. Have it down to the bare metal in a small area.
I'mg getting close to primer on the bottom!

It's going well Hazen and what a boon the rotisserie is. A great piece of work and worth all the effort of making it.

[byakk0]

It certainly is. The only issue I can see at this point with my design is the two rails that cover the floor pans. I've got the doors braced, so I may end up cutting the boards off at the radius arm mount and boot floor mounts should be sufficient, based on all other designs I have seen.

[byakk0]

Got the underside bracket for the spare tire (tyre?) hold-down welded in place today.





Also played with transmission tunnel to check for fit and to know where to put the holes on the passenger side as some trimming is in order.







I think you'll enjoy the condition my tunnel is in. In the end I may spring for an ABS or fiberglass one, but I may try straightening this one somehow and fiber-glassing it, or attempt building one out of some sheet steel, if nothing else just for the sake of doing it. I get steel remnants for a local fab shop for cheap, so it shouldn't cost much to go that route.

[byakk0]

Finally got some good work done on the tranmission tunnel area. As I have posted before, my tranny tunnel is the offspring of frankenstein-very beat up and stapled together.



Doesn't help any that it is mishapen. I can make it work for now, but I will probably either replace with a fiberglass or ABS or, or I will simply build one from scratch with sheet metal.

anyway, I got ahold of a good one and was able to make the proper cuts to the floor and firewall and get the new mounting holes drilled.


With the better one in place I discovered the cuts I made with frankentunnel were 1/4 too short, so I added a strip of metal and made the proper adjustments.



the tunnel fits nicely now.

You may be wondering why, at this point. I had to repace the bulkead with that of a spitfire, and spitfires have the starter on the driver's side (for a LHD car) and GT6's on the passenger side. I did not realize this until I made a random what-if post about welding captive nuts instead of using speed nuts for the mounting points for the tunnel. Good thing too. I'd have to get the body painted and try to set it down on the chassis and discover it won't fit over my starter.

With that taken care of, I can return the borrowed tunnel, get the rear valance cleaned up and welded back in place, and then continue with the cleaning of the bottom. Primer comes after that...

[byakk0]

Got the rear valance welded back in today

[byakk0]

Cleaned a portion of the bottom today, down to bare metal. As it was warm enough I went ahead and primed those portions. 2 part epoxy primer.
In the cleaning and 180 grit sanding I discovered the seat mounting points had stress cracks, so I left them unpainted so I can deal with them next time. 

Ill clean, strip and paint the parts under the rails later. 

I bought some aircraft paint stripper today only to discover I already had a can of stripper. Good thing though, the blue can I bought today worked much better.

[byakk0]

Got a good bit of cleaning done today, as well as welding up some spot welds and stress cracks. The seat rail captive nuts on the one side were in bad shape so I removed them and fabricated a new pair. Boy, I forgot how big of a pain it is installing seat rails (I had to to get the captive nuts properly located.)
Now I am wondering if I should just do the other two. I'll probably get out there tomorrow and do as much. It certainly can't hurt.









Also got the e-brake cable and bracket all cleaned up. I'm sure I have a new one somewhere, but this one looks to be in decent shape. Brand new cable at the back though.


Got the approval from the Boss, too. Abby likes it.

[byakk0]

Spent the last 2 days stripping the rest of the underside and the bulkhead, primed them today.
Tried a new route (sort of) with de-rusting this week. Used Kleenstrips Prep and Etch. It is very similar to Por-15's metal ready (now called prep n ready), but much cheaper for a larger amount. 1 gallon cost me $15. I let part of the floor soak in it for a few hours. The rusty half is how the whole floor looked when I started.




The rest of the stripping continues: Lots hard work. Wish I had access to a media blaster, but I'd need the whole setup, from air compressor on. Instead, it was stripper, wire brushes, and a lot of elbow grease.

[Nick Moore]

That all looks very familiar. I used angle grinder wire brushes, which gradually threw off their bristles so that I looked like a steel hedgehog. The 'strip-it' nylon pads are great too, but wear down quickly. And it took a lot of showering to get the muck and debris out of my hair! Oh yes, very familiar.

[JohnD]

Good for "KleenStrip" in the US!
Their product is the Phosphoric acid that in the UK we have had to buy from Farmers Suppliers or similar agricultural outlets, as "Milk Stone Remover" for cleaning milking machines!
And at $15 it's the same price as MSR, about £10/5L.

John

[byakk0]

I've looked for milkstone remover here, even at farmers agriculture stores, but no ever knows what I am talking about.

Yup, the much is a pain sometimes. I've been through three or four wire brushes, and those little bits of wire sure hurt when they sometime hit at the wrong angle!

[Nick Moore]

Wire brushes are brilliant but very dangerous (much like some people). I don't find wires sticking out of my hide until later, and a few have ended up hiding in my beard. Make sure you protect your eyes with safety goggles or a face shield. Also, don't wear anything loose that can get caught up - a flapping T-shirt or even gloves can catch on the brush, and it'll start ripping out skin in about a tenth of a second.

[tintapper]

leather welding coat and face shield for power brushes. got one right in my eye ball once. off to the hospital and two weeks before i could see properly. looking goo though. all the hard work is paying off.

[byakk0]

Absolutely. I've had enough other mishaps not to take safety seriously. A dull bit broke on me a few years ago and I stabbed/drilled through my thumb. No more cheap drill bits for me. (No worries.  Aside from a small tingle periodically its back to normal)

[byakk0]

Just a little bit of work this week as I went on holiday for a few days to the Oregon coast. The day we were able to go the beach it was raining and windy like crazy, coming in sideways and soaked us faster than jumping in the water would. Cold too. The water was too cold to go swimming anyway, too early in the season, but it would have been fun to roam around the beach for longer than 5 minutes, especially as we drove for 8 hours to get there.

Anyway, I bought a custom mixed aerosol can of BMW Space Grey Metallic, the color I will be using.

I will paint under/behind the dash so when it comes time to actually paint the car I won't have to tear the dash completely apart, as I now plan on getting it running before I paint it. Its a time and space thing, coupled with budget and a desire to drive it again.

Here is a photo of a BMW with the same paint job, for reference.

[John Bonnett]

It's really coming on when you are thinking about paint. I'm going to do the same as you Hazen and get the car on the road before it is painted. For much the same reasons as you. I'm itching to drive it and there is just no time to have it painted before Tours in June. Also, if there are any issues with the bodywork these can be addressed without thinking about damage to the paint.

I like the colour Hazen; classy.