MK3 GT6 Restoration

[JonJenks]

Hi, decided to have a go at making a new door hinge pin and the result was I think quite good - no play and very smooth and saved me a few quid!


Old hinge, with lots of play, and a new high tensile 3/8ths bolt.


ground down the bolt head, cut it to length and drilled out the hinge with a 3/8th drill.


After driving in the new pin and rounding over the end it is complete - seems to work really well, no play at all and smooth - cost less than a quid.

[JonJenks]

Started work on the second hand N/S rear wing this morning, started by cutting off all the bits I didn't need. I have decided to use the inner wing that it came with as the one on the car is a bit rusty.


Second hand wing with unwanted bits removed


Outer surface cleaned up - came up really well


inner surface cleaned up but a few areas will need reparing


decided to make a start on the front inner section


As I had a drain that needed to be filled in, I decided to teach my 14 year old son, Thomas, how to weld. So after forming a repair panel, Thomas did a really good job of welding it in.


Then Thomas cleaned up the weld and the final result was great - well done Thomas!

[Rubce]

This is developing into a fascinating read. I look forward to the next instalment.

Regards

Bruce

[Sheepy]

Looking good, and it's nice to get your son involved (great that he wants to, my friend has two boys and neither are interested in working on the cars!)
But I would suggest to buy a automatic welding helmet, it will improve and make it easier to weld! They are not so expensive, my old one is over 15 years old, it still works fine but I treated myself to a new one last year!
Keep up the good work!

[JonJenks]

Many thanks for that Shaun – a new auto darkening welding helmet is now on order.

Spent most of Sunday trial fitting the N/S door and N/S rear wing and trying to get them both lined up with the bonnet, took ages to get them even close, it’s going to be a case of a bit/lot of give and take in all areas! Once I am happy with it I will weld on the rear wing, but before I can do that  there is a bit of tidying up to do to the surrounding areas.



Last night I made a start on repairing the N/S rear lower corner just in front of the rear wheel arch. There had been an attempt previously to ‘patch it up’ and it looked a bit of a mess.


Lots of rusty old repairs


Started off by cutting out all the rusty metal


Temporarily fitted the rear inner and outer wing so I could make a cardboard template


Then made a template for the inner wheel arch repair


The finished template


All the pieces made using a large vice, hammer, couple of dolly’s and a chisel


I then tacked the repair pieces together, removed the rear wing and welded it all together ready for when the rear wing goes on for good

Next I need to prepare the rear body area to fit the inner and outer wing. The trial fittings so far have indicated a fair amount of work in getting everything to line up.

[JonJenks]

I found out from a guy at work that he had seen an immaculate GT6 Mk3 at a local show over the weekend and that the owner had just finished a home restoration and he was local. So after a few enquiries I got his phone number and gave him a call. He was more than happy for me to go round and have a look and chat, which I did on Tuesday evening.

He had a lovely and well restored 1971 Mk3 in bright red, was signal red but is now a bright ford red, he really had done an amazing job on it over the past two years.

We had a good look over it discussing all the problems he had come across and the remedies, he even let me take it for a spin which was great fun. To top it all he offered to lend me his spit, or turny round thing, what ever you call them, which I took him up on as I had intended to make/buy one anyway.


Seeing and driving this car has inspired me to crack on with mine

Yesterday my new very cheap (£45) N/S sill arrived. This was after being told that the one lesson learnt in restoring a GT6 was not to buy repro parts because they won’t fit. So with an air of caution I started to trial fit the sill, door rear wing and bonnet.


£45 repro part!


First impressions were not good, big gaps etc.


But after a few of hours of trimming bending and adding, numerous trials, it all fell into place quite nicely, and on final assembly I will be able to get an even 4-5mm gap all round. Havn’t yet decided on 4mm or 5mm – any suggestions welcomed.

Anyway I also burnt the midnight oil and finished off preparing the inner wheel arch flange and started on a few small areas of rust around the rear wing area.


Before

After

[don cook1]

Thank God our wives/sweethearts don't read this or all your hard work would get us...me, in serious trouble.

[byakk0]

Quoted from Don Cook

Thank God our wives/sweethearts don't read this or all your hard work would get us...me, in serious trouble.

No joke. It's been roughly 18 years since I started my resto!
Good work, btw. Loving the progress. Wish I could find the time to devote to mine.

[Encom]

What a great rebuild! Love your work

[JonJenks]

Worked on the new N/S rear wing this week end, started by cleaning up and painting all the areas that I won’t be able to access once it is fitted. I have left the boot area as I am going to replace it at a later date.


Inner wing area ready to receive new wing and inner wheel arch.


Thomas using the new welding mask (thanks Shaun)


Tacked into place – will finish off the welds when the sill is fitted


Next job was to clean up and paint the inner sill area


New sill welded on – gaps will need a bit of adjusting to get the bonnet and door gaps perfect

Next up was to replace the missing upper B post, but first I needed to make good the upper wing area where it will attach.


Before


and after


New upper B post tacked into place, attached the quarter light to make sure it was in the right position


Inner plate welded in


Just a reminder of what it looked like before!


The finished job – I feel a lot happier about the restoration now as the car is beginning to look a bit more complete

[RobPearce]

It's great that Thomas wants to get involved, but... welding without any gloves on? Really? Ouch!

[JonJenks]

Has been a while since the last update as I have been very busy profiling the sill rear wing and door areas in order to get the perfect shut gaps. I have decided to go for a 3-4mm gap all round so that when painted it will be around 3mm.

Anyway that’s still ongoing and I will post some pics when I have finished. In the mean time I took some time away from the block sanding to sort out the problem of the missing fuel cap housing in the near side rear wing. As I used a second hand rear wing from a Mk4 spitfire, the filler cap housing was missing. Fortunately the previous owner had saved what was left of the original wing, which along with the fuel filler cap was in one of the boxes that came with the car.


Original fuel filler housing as found – looks like it has been cut out with an axe!


Cut down to size and cleaned up.

On the way home from work on Tuesday, I stopped off at a guys house to take a template off his Mk3 to get an exact position for the location of the fuel cap housing. His car still had the original rear wings so the location of the fuel cap would be correct.


When I got home I taped the template I had made in to place and marked out the area to be removed.


Then cut it out.


All the welding done – took my time over this, doing lots of small welds so as to cause as little distortion to the panel as possible.


All cleaned up and finished – now back to the block sanding!

[toolmaker]

aye get the lad some sleeves on, even if he doesnt get burnt from spatter, he will be sunburned. believe me cover up.

[Sheepy]

Cracking work, nicely done and even better because it's father/son time!

I do also agree, gloves and sleeves when welding, I learnt the hard way when I started out. Keep up the great work and pace!

But you do realise once he is old enough to drive you won't see the gt6 anymore! 😉

[Sidewaysste]

I saw the photo at the top of the red one and did a doubletake!

[RedRooster]

Me too!

[spittyholly]

great pictures looking good what toosl are you using to make repair panels for example on the roof to get the curves and bends just vice and dollys or do you have some bending eqipment

[JonJenks]

Hi yes just a vise dollys and some hammers - the red gt6 is actually a ford red and looks great.

[JonJenks]

At last I have finished getting the N/S bonnet, door, sill,  and rear wing gaps roughly in the right places and at the right sizes. Final adjustments will be made once the body tub has been totally restored and is back on the finished chassis.


I have given the whole area a quick coat of etch primer to protect it from the elements, this will all be removed prior to final prep and painting.


Once the gaps are given a final finishing touch they should look ok.


Next step is to start on the driver’s side.


I have made a start by re-pinning the two O/S door hinges as before with home made oversized pins. They are now smooth with zero play.


Yesterday I picked up a ‘spit’ from a fellow GT6 enthusiast – it is home made but seems to have been made to a very high standard and specifically for a GT6. It attaches to the front chassis mounting holes and rear bumper holes.

[Sheepy]

Those gaps look great, well done.

Seems to be moving along quite well, going to be nice when done.

[JonJenks]

As I am off on my holidays to France for two weeks I thought I would get a couple of hours in on the car before departure, but before starting I purchased two second hand panels, the first being a complete heritage O/S floor section with heritage inner sill and sill stiffener along with jacking point, cross member and radius arm mount. The second was a boot floor and rear valance. All these items were new but had been fitted to a restoration project that was never completed and had then been cut out.
As I had purchased the rear wing and B post assembly from the same seller I was confident that the panels would be good, and in any case, more to the point, they were a third of the price of new ones.


Floor section


Boot floor assembly

Started off today by turning the car around in the garage so that I can make a start on the Drivers side and boot floor when I get back.


Ready for work


Decided to strip the O/S door and see how rusty it was – didn’t look to bad from the outside


The underside was a different story though


All the rust cut out ready for repairs, so I gave it a quick coat of red lead to protect it until I get back

Whilst I was removing the paint I tried to count the different layers – looks like it was sprayed yellow over the original colour and then purple its present colour over that with several layers of primer in between – it was thick and took a fair bit of removing.



Next update will be in three weeks!

[JonJenks]

Now back from my holidays, I thought I would start by finishing off the repairs to the N/S door and get it back on the car so I can start fitting the new floor and sills.


Started by making new sections for the door bottom and skin.


Door bottom welded in and drainage hole cut.


Door skin repair welded in.


Welds cleaned up and given a light skim of filler before being temporarily coated with a red oxide primer and then re-hung using the repaired hinges.


My next job will be to clean up the second hand floor and inner sill panel, deciding which areas to keep and which to remove.

[JonJenks]

I have finally got the new floor, inner sill, sill strengthener and rear track rod mount welded into position. It took a lot of work and would have been easier to have fitted them all individually rather than as a whole as I think there would have been a bit more room for individual adjustments, perhaps next time!

All that is to do, is fit the outer sill and make a few small repairs to the lower rear wing area and it is complete.

I will finish off all the welds when I get the body tub onto the spit, which should make it a lot easier.









Next job is to cut out the boot floor and rear valance before fitting the new-second hand sections, after they have been cleaned up. I will start this while I wait for the delivery of a new off side sill – still havn’t decided whether or not to go with cheap and cheerful at £45, or original at around £80! The near side sill I fitted was a cheap and cheerful and was ok but needed a fair amount of work to fit correctly.

[Richard B]

Ah Damson, lovely colour. 😎

[Mercian]

Marvellous work so far, really enjoying the thread.

Best of luck with the restoration.