1972 Triumph GT6

Mk III Hatchback

6 - Cyl.

Manual

KF13845

Clear

Gasoline

1972 Triumph GT6 Mk 3, professional frame-up restoration. This car has won numerous awards at local British car shows and is quite immaculate. I am a former automotive technician (current automotive instructor) with ASE Master Technician certification, 15 years experience, and a former employee of a British Sports Car specialty shop. this car was fully restored by myself from 2002 to 2004. All rusted body panels were replaced with NOS or Heritage pieces and all rust was cut out. .All replacement panels were welded in, there is no filler or fiberglass, or riveted panels in this car. From the pictures, you can probably see that the US spec side marker lights were eliminated from the car during the restoration. This is what the Euro-spec cars had and I liked the look so the openings for the lights were filled with metalThe body has been painted inside and out in an original French Blue color (Triumph paint code 126) although this was not the original color of the car. The exterior paint is a clear coat system, interior paint is single stage. The body gaps are very nice and the doors close with little effort and a solid sound. Not that it matters a whole lot with these cars at this point, but this is a numbers matching car. The body, engine, transmission, and differential are all original to the car. If at some point in the future, the values for GT6s skyrocket, matching numbers could mean something. All mechanical components of the vehicle were stripped and repainted during the restoration. All mechanical assemblies were completely rebuilt including all of the brake components, engine, transmission, differential, suspension, etc. This car rides on new Dunlop tires, Minilite wheels, all rubber suspension bushings were replaced with polyurethane, the brake hoses are braided stainless steel, differential mounts are polyurethane. It has Koni adjustable shocks in the front and GAZ adjustable shocks in the rear. The front springs have been lowered 1 inch, the rear is the stock height but has settled so the car sits nearly level. The engine features ARP fasteners for the head studs, nuts, and rod bolts. 9.5:1 domed pistons, 270/272 cam, double roller timing chain with steel sprockets, head oiler, tuftrided rocker shaft, unleaded spec valve guides and exhaust seats, NON emission control Stromberg 150CD carbs (no pesky temperature compensators or decel bypass valves...just easy, simple adjustments). The interior is completely new, new carpets, new headliner, new seat coverings and foam, all rubber seals in the car have been replaced, it is really a brand new car, it smells new, it drives like new, it looks like new. It has only covered around 1500 miles since the restoration was completed and has been meticulously maintained. It has never been in the rain since the restoration and has always been garage stored. You could literally eat off of any part of this car. This is a real restoration, not a backyard job. As with any car, it has a few flaws but nothing major...here's what I know of: The car is not 'over restored' in my opinion so I kept many of the original pieces even though they weren't perfect. For example: the windshield is ORIGNAL but that means it has some chips, scratches, and dings. The front bumper is original so it has some scratches in the chrome. some of the trim is like this too, but it's stuff that you would only notice as the owner or under close inspection. The headliner has some wrinkles. This is a cosmetic problem only and could probably be fixed by a reputable upholstery shop. It never bugged me enough to fix it. the odometer doesn't work...I didn't have the gauges rebuilt as part of the resto...they all work but the odometer crapped out and I haven't pulled the speedo to take a look at it. The speedo reads about 10 mph fast, the tach around 500 rpm fast...see above note. The car has a couple of paint blemishes (mainly from things bumping it while in the garage) but nothing major. Due to the fact that the engine has the additional head oiler and theses engines did not have valve stem seals, the engine smokes slightly at idle. This is due to the extra influx of oil into the head to lubricate the valve train and the fact that the valve stems aren't sealed. The engine has excellent compression on all cylinders (around 160-170 psi if I remember correctly) and runs great. these engines had issues with head oiling and would wear rockers and rocker shafts quickly so I figured I could live with a little smoke instead of replacing valve train parts all the time. A few non-original items: the carbs (as previously mentioned) The seats are from a 1978 Spitfire because I liked the moveable headrest, and cloth houndstooth pattern The grille is a mesh style that I made because I liked the look. I also have the original The chin spoiler is from a 1980 spitfire spin on oil filter adapter gear reduction starter Custom exhaust from the down-pipe back. The muffler exits the center of the rear valence and has a nice note without being overly loud. additional gauge nacelle in the passenger parcel shelf with mechanical AND electric oil pressure gauges and a volt meter That's about it. Like I said, this car is really as close to new as you're going to get. I suppose you could drive it anywhere. It has been a fun and reliable car for me and will probably one of the nicest GT6s you'll see anywhere. I have most of the receipts for the resto, as well as a nearly complete before and after picture file that I can email to serious bidders. It kind of pains me to part with this car but I've also got a TR4 to maintain, a young daughter, and bills to pay. I'm asking what I think is a fair price for this car, I'm not going to give it away. If the right buyer doesn't come along, it's paid for and it doesn't hurt me to keep it. If you have questions, and would like to talk, I can also email my phone number to serious bidders. Shipping costs and arrangements will be the responsibility of the buyer. I could arrange to meet a buyer with the car within a reasonable distance from the northern Colorado area. Please note that there is no warranty expressed or implied with the sale of this vehicle. This car is sold AS-IS. Keep in mind that even though it's restored, and it's a very nice car, this is at heart a 38 year old car so it will drive and run like cars did 38 years ago and not like a new Honda. Thanks for looking and good luck. On May-26-10 at 12:42:57 PDT, seller added the following information: Ok, I'm going to add a little note here about the engine smoking issue because some have raised some concerns... First: This engine doesn't have valve stem SEALS...read the description carefully. No Triumph engine that I've ever seen or worked on had them (Can't remember about the TR7/8, or Stag...those were slightly more modern designs so it's possible). ALL MODERN engines have either a rubber 'umbrella' valve stem seal or an O-ring that goes between the valve seat and guide to prevent EXCESS oil from running down between the valve stem and guide and ending up either in the intake port where it can be burned in the combustion chamber causing smoke. A problem with Triumph's design on this engine was that oil was fed from mainline pressure in the block up through passages in the head and through the rocker shaft where it would hopefully drip/ splash out and oil the valve train components in the head which included the rocker shaft/ rocker interface, rocker/ valve stem interface, and valve stem/ guide interface. Reality was that though this may have been adequate 40 years ago when everything was brand new (or even now when restored to 'brand new') wear in the lubrication system, deposits, etc will reduce oil volume and pressure to the head and cause not enough oil to be pumped into these critical areas. If you want proof of how poor this lubrication system is, take the valve cover off a TR or Spitfire/ GT6 engine with it running...not a whole lot of oil happening on the moving parts. Now take a valve cover off a Chevy 350 with it running and you'll be doused with oil in no time. The answer to this problem is the head oiler which is simply a line which taps into the main oil gallery (at the oil pressure switch location) and routes oil directly to a plug on the back of the head which feeds oil directly into the head, increasing oil volume and pressure at the valve train components. TR experts have different opinions on adding the head oiler system but after some research, I decided to add it. The head oiler has a couple of disadvantages...First: since it taps into and diverts oil from the main gallery, it has the effect of lowering overall oil pressure by a little bit but don't worry because oil pumps are typically designed with a little 'overhead' built in and the pressure is still within spec. Second: since we now have this literal 'flood' of oil into the head area, lubrication is great but without valve stem seals, some of the oil may wash down between the valve and the guide getting into either the combustion chamber or exhaust port where it can cause a little smoke. Since there is vacuum present at the intake valves (and therefore intake guides) during certain throttle positions (especially idle) you can get the effect of engine vacuum 'sucking' oil down the intake guides and into the combustion chamber. Since there is usually pressure on the exhaust valve side as the exhaust leaves the head past the valve...this effect isn't as pronounced on the exhaust side unless crankcase pressure increased above exhaust back pressure and since cam timing can change all of this, well, it gets a little complicated and I don't have all the answers. I was somewhat concerned by this at first ( as this was the first GT6/ TR6 engine I had put this device on) but I can tell you this: Compression specd out where it should be, leakdown is where it should be, a boroscope reveals no issues in the cylinders, there are no deposits or fouling on the spark plugs, and the oil level doesn't go down between changes (which isn't saying much because the oil has probably been changed every few hundred miles). The smoking is very minor and really only occurs at idle when the engine is warmed up. Sometimes it smokes, sometimes it doesn't ...I suppose it depends on the temperature and viscosity of the oil and the movement of the car and whether any oil has 'sloshed' it's way over some of the valve stems and trickled down into the engine. I have never noticed any smoke while actually driving the car. I believe there are folks out there who have machined the tops of the valve guides down in order to get them to accept umbrella seals. I didn't want to go there as since this engine wasn't designed that way, you now have the effect of taking all lubrication away from the valve guides which leads to big problems. The head oiler system is easily removable which should solve all of these problems if you're concerned about it. On May-26-10 at 14:46:08 PDT, seller added the following information: Here's a link to an HD video of the car running taken today. The sound is pretty lousy because I only had the mic in the little handheld digital camcorder that I used. It should give you an idea and you'll notice there's no smoke. The whole smoking thing is minor and somewhat intermittent. http://s743.photobucket.com/albums/xx77/mrgone955i/?action=view¤t=GT6Video.flv