BritishV8 Forum

Some body cuts for more header clearance in the engine compartment on both sides. Will weld in 45* sheet metal back in these areas.
Driver side.

Passenger side. Still need to reconstruct passenger side foot well area.



Driver side foot well. Did this welding while body was on the frame. Very hard on me and my Knees,ribs trying to do this(Note all the clean up on the frame from welding, did not want extra work repainting). This pain I went through drove me to build the rotisserie. Tons easier to see and access all areas of the body tub.

What was found because of body tub on rotisserie.

This photo shows the welded bolt and tab that is  for the driver side (door side in the back under body side view) seat rail slider. Shows the stress that the body has with how it bolts up for the seat slider. Had 3 bolts on the passenger side break from rust at the time of taking everything apart. I was able to remove two of the three. One left gave me the idea to do something better.




This photo shows where thsese bolts line up to the frame. The extra gusset plate that was welded shows where the bolt was. Will drill through the gusset plate for frame mounting seat rail. Will weld on center section of frame another mounting plate for other back side of slider mount.

The two holes in the frame  where the bolts would protrude into frame on the front side of the slider, will weld fill in or weld in washer and re-drill for bolt size so in the end results all four will be frame mounted for rigidity. Body in this area will not stress fracture again. Will take off all bolt and tabs that the factory installed. Will be able to use air craft nuts + antiseize paste under the frame. Also just another place for the body to mount to the frame using a rubber mount between body and frame.

I guess this car has been hit in the front end. This photo show someone tried to fix the latch for the hood rod that holds the hood up for the engine compartment. Need to re-do this.

Underside photo of hood latch in fender well passenger side. Can see the undercoating that has come off.


Shows  the drive shaft area of the 2" of sheet metal added for drive shaft clearance.



Drive shaft tunnel is kind of oval shaped for the clearance.

Calvin,

Don't forget to re-spray MY rotisserie after you're done with it!

Thanks for the reminder on the photo contest, I forgot!

S-Pack was from days gone by, before the conversion, although I still post from time to time.
(that's how all this illness started, at a 6-Pack National Meet, sucked a valve, smashed a piston, bent a rod, so I dropped in a V8)

Keep those pictures and progress posted, you do great work and provide motivation for us all!

Anyone heard or seen this mag?

Don,

On re-spray should it be blue??  :-) rotisserie in midnight blue should match OK.

Kind of the same thing happened to me, when doing this resto and ran into a frozen 6 engine. I still have it setup on the engine stand wondering if I can get the head off. The crank won't turn, probably rings are rusted to the cylinder walls. Was very bummed out until re-programing the brain for a V8 :-) . This was when the big illness started.

Since you posted the Triumph World Magazine, went into the website and checked it out. Have you subscribed to the mag yourself?. It looks to be related to the UK area but I'm sure it has a wealth of info.

Noticed the license plate wraped under the bumper on the photo above and the 5.0 emblem instead of TR6. Hmmm that plate is from BC not the UK interesting.

Calvin

Your ride is going to be so solid!  You'll be able to pass it down to your boys with pride.

Midnight Blue is a great color, just don't nick it up!

The Triumph World Mag was different and I had never seen it before. I did not subscribe as I was looking for possible readers on the forum to see if it's worth it?

Speaking of BC, our friend and road warrior, Ken Heibert and Katie from Canada are out on the Highways again this week, Toronto to Townsend, TN for 6-pack
National, then maybe back to spend time in my garage and a brew before heading back home.

Hey, I got another TR6!


Keep up the solid work!

Triumph World magazine.  Great publication; I have every issue starting from the first.

Matter of fact, my ride - bowtie6 - was featured in the Jan/Feb 2008 and March 2008 issues.  Two articles were ran including quite a few pictures.  They were kind enough to send me a very nice set of spanners...

joe
www.bowtie6.com

Congrats, Joe

I'll have to see if I can get a few back issues( Jan/Feb, March 08) before I sub.

How's the TR running? I have not seen recent updates from you on the 6-Pack forums.
(hot cam on the 3.4, etc.)

bowtie6 is running better than ever.

The whole cam upgrade was certainly worth the trouble.  In addition to the cam, the intake was altered substantially and it has a much better breathing capability.  Power is very, very nice as well as torque.  Bottom line, the whole setup is working very nicely.

joe

I second the congrats, Joe

Your resto should be in the magazines. I would also like to see the back issues on your ride. I did get the sub (Triumph World) just the other day myself to check it out.

And always thank you, Don for your ongoing support.

Posted in the body section on removal of undercoating a while back. So below are some photos of removal of undercoating.

These 2 ice cream buckets full of undercoating (1/2 half of the body tub) came off using a 1" wide putty knife using the portable torch. Waving the torch about 4" away from fender well (Right on the coating) surface to warm the coating, not to hot to melt, pealed off 6" sections with very little effort. Took about 1  1/2 hours to do half the body tub.


For half the body tub, it took almost a full bottle of gas. Had to keep the torch lit while pealing off the coating which had the torch on for 1 1/2 hours.


Used this stripping wheel on an angle grinder which removed the paint, primer down to metal fairly easy, but very dusty work.


Cleaned the front fender well the same day of removal of coating. Spent about 3 hours taking of the coating and cleaning down to metal front and back fender wells.

Photo of rear fender well.


Photo of rocker panel after heating coating and using putty knife to remove.


Ok didn't go refill the torch bottle up, so pulled out the 2500 psi pressure washer and did the other half of the body tub. Took me 5 hours to do and the clean up was also fun. A better and higher than 2500 psi probably would have been much faster. Once started went to the end + did the whole body tub to relieve some of the oil and tar.


The foot wells are close to being done. Weld and grind, weld some more and grind some more to get the finish desired. Also welded in the 45 degree sections for header clearance.

Photo of the foot wells from inside the passanger compartment. Left myself good room for the throtle pedal.


Used a drop cloth so this could be seen better.


Will need to do the fine prep and get all the little tiny holes filled, surface smoothed out but coming along OK.


Next will be soda blasting and maybe some abrasive blasting soon. I will need to make some kind of booth out of a pop up 10X10 shade tent. The fun begins always with a smile.


Signing out for now,
Calvin

Boy that engine bay shot brings back memories!

By the way, after the 6-Pack Nationals in TN, we had some visitors from Toronto and it provide a great feeling having TWO TR6 V8 in the garage at the same time.

I told Debi to grab the keys and hide them, but Ken and Katie could only stay the night.

Maybe someday soon we can try stuffing 3 V8 TR's in that garage of yours.

Ken & Katie look like they always have a great time on the road "Great folks".

OK Don, gotta tell me whats on that set of 1000lbs dollies on the garage floor. Could that be new differential setup you are going to put in your six, Vet or...??

Looks like Vet IRS, nice setup. I remember you posting somewhere on this site about it.





Put the body tub back on the frame and engine in to check for clearance, header, trans area. One header needs a little more room, passanger side head needs more room from the firewall. I'm glad I checked before spaying primer. Re-do work in always fun. Used a body panel dent stud welder to slide hammer some dents out. Very easy tool to use. Took some dents out of the rear lower coul section with little effort + right in front of the windshield where something dropped on it.

Just keep posting those pics of having fun, a great motivator for me and others.

Hey, with a small garage, everything is on wheeles, tools, spare parts, event the ice chest is on piano dollies. Move it out to clear space to work, then move it back when your done.

I had the stock differential go south on me, but it was my own fault.

The stock differential can't take burn outs....for very long!

That's a 1984 C4 rear IRS  that I pick up and was going to modify for the TR6. But the C4 would need to be cut about 12" and she cleaned up so nice!
(rebuilt, new brakes, new calipers,new ring gear, seal, new fiber spring)

I could not bring myself to use the torch! So I went for the Nissan 300z R200 differential and decided to reduce my showing off with smoke!

It's for sale if you know of anyone that wants an IRS setup for their hot rod.


Here is a shot of the first outing of the TR6V8. I did not even wait to install the hood or exhaust. Just Headers, Down Pipes and and 3' section of exhaust pipe. I could not even hear myself thing. It was GREAT!


With over 3000 hits on your thread, people are watching and waiting,..........so get back to work!

dwtr6v8 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> That's a 1984 C4 rear IRS  that I pick up and was
> going to modify for the TR6. But the C4 would need
> to be cut about 12" and she cleaned up so nice!
> (rebuilt, new brakes, new calipers,new ring gear,
> seal, new fiber spring)
>
> I could not bring myself to use the torch! So I
> went for the Nissan 300z R200 differential and
> decided to reduce my showing off with smoke!
>
> It's for sale if you know of anyone that wants an
> IRS setup for their hot rod.

Is the C4 rear a Dana 36 or 44?

The C4 is a Dana 36, not a 44

I had to move the front skid plate forward about an inch, so that the sway bar would be correct on the suspension (vertical link).

This also gave me the room I needed for the radiator to fit down in the skid plate and clear the hood(with radiator straight up vertical). In doing so I hacked up the front body mount on the frame. So I reinforced both mounts and still have clearance for the front body attachment bars to go through.It started raining here in California and the winter time is here, so Mondays I have off so made some headway.

Front view.



Top veiw.


Extended the frame about 1 1/4" out.


Then reinforced body mount. Need to clean up and paint.

The fan shroud is right up close to the steering rack. Will need to cut the body mount on the tub at a 45 degree to miss the radiator.





The 2002 Camaro condenser I will also use which is very wide, but will fit notching the front mounting bars with reinforments on the other side of the bar. Will be installing a Vintage Air II mini.





I will use a  brackets under the radiator with rubber in the bracket.
 
I will list some other stuff I have been doing soon.

Calvin

Received some Ls1 goodies. Have a Spec clutch stage 2 + ,good for 625 lbs orf torque. A aluminum Fidanza 12.5 lbs fly wheel with changable clutch surface. A nice front runner with 140 amp alternator, 508 ac compressor, all in polish finish. Also received all the parts with the Vintage Air II mini to install the AC. A crimping tool for AC lines too, and a trinary safety switch.






The front runner will have all the covers on all accessaries and dampaner. Just mounted some to see what it would look like.



I won't need a heavy fly wheel, will not be running the dragstrip or 5000rpm dumps. At 12.5 pounds should work well with a 2500lbs car.

This bugger here(the ac compressor) made me move the other fender well out about an inch. This will be about even with the other side for the alternator, and I thought I would be done with the engine compartment. Made the firewall adjustment for the passanger side engine head clearance. Made the adjustment for the steering shaft on the body right in front of the spark plug on the driver side(under the alternator). Made the last adjustment in the body for the passanger side header.






In the photo below, took the stock clutch, and flywheel off. The pilot shaft needle bearing was toast. It looked like a thin ring that was left.


I found the pilot bearing photo. The old one is toast.

The steering is going to be tight, but it will fit and work. I made wooden dowels(3/4" od) and drilled the ends out to put in the weld on spline in the ends, to mock up the steering route.

Wow! between the body and under the coil pack


Will be making a plate on the back side (in the wheel well), and a plate on this side to mount the heim shaft support.


The body needed to be relieved where the shaft was touching, oh it will be close. The second heim shaft support is in the suspension tower box. Everthing is so close, that I'm thinking of installing a torque rod from the block to the frame will be needed.

Calvin,

"Get out the micrometer and measure that hair"

Will the steering shaft clear the headers?

Keep posting!

The coil pack on the valve cover is the problem that I'm faced with. Since the steering shaft has to go under the coil pack, it makes routing a little lower. Yes the header does fit. By relieving the body in front of the spark plug, this will give the clearacnce for both the spark plug removal, and more header clearance. The spark plug should have about 2" clearance and the header will have about 1" clearance.

I'm waiting for a internal slave cylinder to arrive, so I can put the flywheel, clutch, and pilot bearing back together. Then the transmission will go back on the engine. At that point I can put the body back on the frame plus engine & transmission back in and check all clearances once again.

Was abrasive blasting today on the floor boards. It did help taking some of the rust pitting going on. The bottom side of the floor boards are fine. It must have got water in there in one of the rains when it was a planter box.

I have fixed some bad dents in the engine hood + been doing some body work. This is where some major labor comes in sanding. Have both doors striped and trunk hood striped. Passenger door has a bad tin can in it, may need to re-skin it. I do have the skin already.Right door in good shape. Right front fender is OK. Left  front fender is toast, so have a replacement for it. Left rear fender had a ton of bondo on it,  don't know if I want to try and fix it. Right rear fendr is OK. So may be looking for left rear fender.

Need to mock up ac evap in the dash when the body is on the frame.

Calvin

Don is your plan coming together yet?.... or is it still in the thinking stage?

Past the thinking stage as the frame arrives Nov 22!

I need to decide if I'm going to fab up your design of the body lifting frame and engine hoist or the rafter option.

Kenny in Canada left the door open so our weather is down from 70 to around 30 with first snow yesterday.

Time to fire up the garage heater and crank up the tunes! (my neighbors love me)