1972 Triumph

Mark III Hatchback

6 - Cyl.

Manual

KF10822L

Gasoline

1972 Triumph GT6 Mark III in original Damson maroon (17) color, never hit, 5 owners since new, car was originally sold in Salt Lake City where it had 2 owners through 1997. The third owner purchased the car in 1997 and eventually moved to Lander, Wyoming. He had it garaged through his ownership. In 2010, the car was sold to a collector from Long Island where the car was also garaged. He subsequently sold the car to me in October of 2010. This is a fairly rare car. I recall seeing that somewhere near 2000 to 3000 made it to the USA in 1972 and I don't think too many have survived in nice original condition. Here's why we bought this car: My teenage son and I had purchased a rusty old Mark III Spitfire earlier in 2010 with the intention of welding in new sheet metal...including floors and rockers. That car had sat for many years. We paid $200 for the Spit, but my initial estimate to make it a drivable, running car was well in excess of $5000 (probably more). To make it as nice as this GT6 up for auction, we probably would have needed to spend $10,000 (again, probably more and not including all our labor). My son realized this was a losing proposition and decided to dismantle the Spit and sell parts. He actually made quite a bit of money. In October of 2010, we went to Hershey for the annual meet. I never go to Hershey to buy a car since they usually are more than fully priced. However, on day one of the car corral, I spotted a dingy, faded GT6. The paint was quite oxidized and the owner had tried to wax it...leaving wax residue everywhere but making little progress with the oxidation. The seats had sheep skin covers. I figured there was a reupholstery job hiding under the covers. The carpet was faded and dry rotted. The car looked pretty solid and had a reasonable price. However, when at Hershey on day one, nothing holds my attention for more than a few minutes since there's so much to see. It's kind of like an 8-year old walking into Disney World for the first time. After walking around an hour or two, I couldn't get the GT6 out of my head. I had restored a '68 over 20 years ago and always liked this model. Plus, since my son and I had started with a Spit...why not move up to a GT6? I went back to the car and started looking for rust. In the time-honored ritual, I went straight to the driver's side floor and lifted the carpet. No rust at all. I went to the other side. Not only no rust, but a nicely painted surface with no flaking paint, no bubbles and no evidence of welding. Now I moved onto the rockers, wheel wells, and underneath. I could not find ANY rust or bondo evidence. OK, I thought, it's time to call the owner...fast. I asked my son if he wanted to invest his Spitfire money into this car. He said yes. The owner arrived quickly. He told me the car had come from Wyoming earlier in the year. Since I had lived in Colorado, that explained the lack of rust to me. Most Triumphs from the Mid-Atlantic ended up with a lot of rust and bondo. The owner went on to tell me that the car had been driven little in the past decade and had been taking up space in the previous owner's garage. The car did have a lot of nicks and dings that were consistent with accidents in the garage (I think most of us have had a few of these accidents...dropping things...things falling onto the car). The car also had the many little paint chips on the hood that occur with driving in the Western US. When I lived out west, I always had to get my hood repainted and windshield replaced every few years. We looked under the hood and found a very clean and original looking engine with no modifications, no wiring mods, original looking hoses and clamps and even the original cardboard pieces alongside the motor. All of the original trim pieces were there. The original emissions sticker was still under the hood and there was no sign of body work on the bonnet. I started to think that this was the original paint job. I could not find any sign of masking and overspray. We fired up the car. It started immediately and roared to life with a throaty growl. The owner had the carbs rebuilt during the summer and had commuted with the car on Long Island during the summer. The car showed 69,000 miles. I'm always very skeptical about odometer reading on old British iron, but this looked potentially legit. My 14-year old son consummated a deal with the owner. We would have enjoyed a 'Peter Egan adventure' driving back to Maine in the car, but I had to get back to work and my son had school. We did drive the car around Hershey and to the shipping staging area. It ran strong, shifted well, drove straight, and didn't make any unwanted sounds. The sound of the Triumph six was music to my ears and it turned a lot of heads. This engine always sounds good, but this car had the muffler replaced by a glas pack and it sounded better than any TR6 I've owned. The only British iron I'd owned that sounded better was my old Austin Healey 100-6. The car also had that smell that seems unique to old Triumphs. It's funny to realize that these old cars have a unique smell. I recently had a Porsche 914 and I found it to have a distinct old VW smell. The car arrived in Northern Maine just in time for dry indoor storage during the long winter. I prepared a shopping list. I bought a high quality carpet kit and NOS style rubber Triumph floor mats. I found an NOS driver side seat cover from a defunct dealership. Thus the interior is all original OEM material...not like some restored cars where upholstery jobs just don't look right. Best of all, I located an overdrive transmission and driveshaft within Maine from a 1973 GT6. This overdrive is correct for the year with the engagement switch on the gear shift knob. The overdrive and driveshaft are included in this auction. I also will include an original style muffler. I think the carpet was original. I hated to replace it, but it was dry rotted and faded. The front mats were missing anyway. I did keep the piece over the transmission tunnel. Removing the carpet and seats revealed pristine factory floors from the hatch to the front floorboards. The driver side floorboard had the paint worn off because the previous owner(s) didn't use a floor mat. There was also a minimal amount of surface rust under the driver seat. I removed the rust and put some Por-15 on the spots where the original paint had been. It's in the pictures. The cardboard transmission tunnel was so solid that I thought it was a fiberglass replacement at first. All of the cardboard pieces in the interior were solid--not warped or rotted as I've often experienced. Nor had an enthusiastic teen tore up any of the panels with speaker holes. The sunvisor were solid and not disintegrating. The tool kit was in place with all the pieces in the original wrapper. The jack handle was still attached to the bottom of the spare tire cover. The spare tire appeared to have an original style thin whitewall tire from the 1970s, was not dry-rotted and still held air. The original white headliner was also in good shape with no stains or dry rot, and a functional interior light. I imagine the exact original headliner material may be hard...or impossible to find. Best of all, all the little trim pieces were there and in good condition. If these parts are missing or in poor condition, the expenses can really pile up with good old Moss. I did source a new arm rest cover from Rimmer Bros. as there was a tear and I bought a dashboard cover. That's the disadvantage of a western car. Of course, I'm not sure I can remember an original early 70s British car with an original uncracked dash. As for the paint, we polished it out. It became clear that it was lacquer paint and that the car appears to have been repainted once...presumably in the 1970s or early 1980s. It looks presentable for a driver and I think it has a nice patina. If you want a true #2 show car, you need to paint the car (I doubt any GT6 has reached an honest #1 rating yet). I never found any accident damage. I did find a little 1 inch crack in the paint on the right rear fender...suggesting a thin layer of bondo...but nothing evident looking on the inside of the fender from the interior. As mentioned, there are a lot of little dings, nicks and scratches that would be paint of the paint job. The chrome is all excellent with no pits except a few on the door metal (cheap pot metal!). However, this is available as a reproduction very cheaply. One of the headlights is even a Lucas. The beautiful thing about this car is that all the exterior brightwork and trim is good and doesn't need replacement like most GT6s. This includes bumpers, wheel trim, etc. As you know, the trim and chrome will bust your budget (while enriching Moss). All the rubber trim is really good too. The only exception is a strip along the bottom of the door jam could use replacement. I'd never even seen this strip on past GT6s because it was long gone and never replaced. The doors close with an almost German-like 'thunk.' Looking at the engine compartment, it was clean when we got it. It was a pleasure cleaning a thin layer of grime on the underside of the hood to reveal beautiful original paint. There was a lot of nice original paint under the hood...spoiled only around the master cylinders...where the inevitable leak had compromised the original paint at some point in the past. Both master cylinders had been replaced in recent years. The original paint on the valve cover, engine block and painted parts look good. Removing the battery revealed a little surface rust on the bottom (and I do mean just surface rust). I removed this rust with professional rust remover and coated the bottom of the tray with Por 15. As I mentioned, the carbs were professionally redone last summer...and don't leak. There are no leaks on the side of the engine. I have found an occasional drip on the garage floor but haven't traced it yet. The car runs and drives very well. It starts immediately on the first crank every time. It doesn't smoke or use oil. It has a lot of power. This is the original motor. The transmission is crisp. The Wyoming owner had some work done to the transmission a few years back. And don't forget, you can install the overdrive transmission included with the car. I have the owner's manual, the original GT6/Vitesse repair manual (see photos), and maintenance records going back 15 years. All in all, I think this represents an excellent opportunity to buy an excellent original GT6 to drive and enjoy immediately. It's also the perfect starting point to make a concours car without having to replace everything. As my son and I started to learn with our Spitfire, the most expensive way to restore a car is to start with a cheap car that's ready for everything. Why are we selling? There are many reasons. First, my son is still a couple of years away from driving and wants his money out of this car for other interests such dirt bikes and snowmobiles. Even if he kept the car until driving age, he can't drive this car in Northern Maine except a few months of the year. Furthermore, he's likely to be about 6'4" by the time he gets his license. That's a bit tall for this car. We've had a lot of fun with the car this year and he's learned a lot. The sale of the car is the final lesson. I'd like to keep the car, but I have way too many antique cars right now. I've been buying British iron since the 1970s and I know I won't have another GT6 like this ever again. That's sad, but I always find something different that captures my interest. As for transportation, I think you can drive this car home. Since it's nearly 40 years old, there's always the chance of an adventure. As for shipping, there's a couple of trucking firms that come up here each week. These companies can get the car back towards Boston...or to points southward along the Atlantic seaboard cheaper than anything you'll find. I can provide the names of these firms upon request.