February with its cold and wet weather and short days is probably my least favourite month of the year. More particularly, getting out into our unheated garage to work on the GT6 over the past month has proven to be a bit of motivational challenge – on some days even dressing up in my ‘onesie’ (actually a set of coveralls) hasn’t entirely managed to keep the cold at bay and the desire to stay out there fiddling with the car has definitely been limited. Emigrating to warmer climes or getting the use of a heated workshop in which to work would solve the problem, but as neither seems to be even a remote possibility I guess I’ll have to soldier on. Note to self – make sure the next (?) project is timed to take advantage of all those long, hot summer days (some hope!).
That said, I’ve made quite a bit of progress since my last Triumph blog and I still seem to be on target for getting the car back on the road in early April. The tub and bonnet came back from the body shop looking very shiny and, with the exception of one or two minor things that will need to be sorted by them once the car can be driven down to Gloucester, I’m very pleased with the quality of their work. Reuniting the tub with the chassis was less of a hassle than I’d feared and once that was done I was able to start the pleasurable task of starting to re-fit all the mechanical and electrical parts that I’d refurbished or replaced whilst the body was being re-sprayed.
Monday of this week was a ‘red letter day’. After a couple of minor glitches, which included managing to replace the plug leads in completely the wrong order, I started the engine for the first time since the rebuild got underway last September. In fact it started remarkably easily and ran pretty smoothly considering that the timing was a bit adrift and the carbs will need to be adjusted. No nasty knocks or grinding sounds and as far as I can tell the oil pressure seems to be okay; on the subject of which I’ve decided to fit an oil pressure gauge to keep an eye on things in the future – I can’t understand why on earth they didn’t fit one as standard when the car was built. If the MGB could have one, why not the GT6?
On Sunday I’m off to the Triumph Spares day at Stoneleigh to collect the new carpet I’ve ordered (at huge expense) and pick up a host of bits and pieces that I still need in order to finish the car. How much excitement can one man stand?