Colour
The stripdown of the GT6 body is finally complete (it's only taken a year!). The last things to pull out were the wiring harness and heater. In theory I could send the body off to get soda blasted now, but I'll wait until the wheels arrive in case the guards need 'adjusting'.
In the meantime I've had a great time cleaning up the wiring loom and labelling all the loose ends. No seriously, it's pleasing to clean decades of grime off wires and gauges to reveal original stickers and wire colours. The loom's been chopped around by previous owners to fit a new ignition switch, but the rest is in very good condition. As the car's ex-USA, the harness is different from the UK-spec diagrams in the Haynes manual, but the wire colours are the same. It'll need extra wires grafted in as part of the conversion to right hand drive - that'll have to wait until it's back in the car, so I can see where the extensions have to reach. Other planned modifications are a modern, pre-engaged starter motor, larger alternator, electric fan, headlight relays, an electronic tachometer and speedometer, and modern fuses. All those mods will have to wait until the car's getting rebuilt and I can decide how to proceed.
Another bit of progress is getting an adapter brazed into the sump so I can fit an oil temperature gauge. The 13/60 has one, and it's proven that even on a hot, steep mountain road the oil temperature never gets above 80 degrees. Any decisions on an oil cooler in the GT6 will wait until I've seen how hot it gets.
My Rimmers order arrived on Friday. The New Tan door panels are beautiful - Newton Commercial do a brilliant job - but the paint pots, the real reason I put in an order, weren't there. Apparently the international carrier now deems Conifer Green, BRG and Mallard as hazardous! In theory a paint shop should be able to mix them from the codes, but in practice they don't have recipes for most old cars. A bit of research is in order.
In the meantime I've had a great time cleaning up the wiring loom and labelling all the loose ends. No seriously, it's pleasing to clean decades of grime off wires and gauges to reveal original stickers and wire colours. The loom's been chopped around by previous owners to fit a new ignition switch, but the rest is in very good condition. As the car's ex-USA, the harness is different from the UK-spec diagrams in the Haynes manual, but the wire colours are the same. It'll need extra wires grafted in as part of the conversion to right hand drive - that'll have to wait until it's back in the car, so I can see where the extensions have to reach. Other planned modifications are a modern, pre-engaged starter motor, larger alternator, electric fan, headlight relays, an electronic tachometer and speedometer, and modern fuses. All those mods will have to wait until the car's getting rebuilt and I can decide how to proceed.
Another bit of progress is getting an adapter brazed into the sump so I can fit an oil temperature gauge. The 13/60 has one, and it's proven that even on a hot, steep mountain road the oil temperature never gets above 80 degrees. Any decisions on an oil cooler in the GT6 will wait until I've seen how hot it gets.
My Rimmers order arrived on Friday. The New Tan door panels are beautiful - Newton Commercial do a brilliant job - but the paint pots, the real reason I put in an order, weren't there. Apparently the international carrier now deems Conifer Green, BRG and Mallard as hazardous! In theory a paint shop should be able to mix them from the codes, but in practice they don't have recipes for most old cars. A bit of research is in order.
posted by Nick Moore at 9:10 am
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