Triumph TR6: low budget weekend toy build

I've always wanted a TR6 since I was a little kid. In the early-'80s, there was a local MG/Triumph specialist in town that always had a bunch of TR6s out front. Something about the small proportions, (relatively) giant wheels, and general boxyness drew me in. Not pretty and swoopy like a Spridget or Austin-Healey. It had the butch, upright, slab-sided look of a German car (I later found out why).

I've been casually scanning CL and ebay for a while now. My plan was to build the roadster equivalent of something like a stripped-down bobber: lightened, simplified, and de-chromed. Race seats and basic roll-bar. Maybe some fender flares. This car is part of the inspiration:

The original plan was to swap in a compact, twin-cam engine (Toyota 4A-GE, Ford Cosworth YB, Honda F20C, or maybe even BMW S14B23) fed by twin Weber side-draughts. So, the goal was to find a TR6 with good body and frame, but bad engine and/or rough interior. Price is most definitely a factor, especially considering that this would be just a weekend toy.

Found just what I was looking for in Ann Arbor. Starting the build thread now.

Awesome, will be watching this build with interest. I went "old school"and put a Rover V8 and T5 in my TR4A, will be interested in seeing which engine you end up putting in this, much more room than my current project, so you will have multiple options. I looked at many JDM engine/transmissions and wanted something more exotic than the Miata 1.8 but had to "settle" due to packaging reasons. A turbo will make things more interesting... watching with interest, congrats on the purchase, let the work begin!

I always thought an inline Z-car six cylinder engine would be the perfect transplant for these cars.

2.8 liter with side draft webers

Here's the car as it arrived. The body is rough, but basically solid ...

Engine bay...

Came with some spares...

She's not running right now. That's step 1

Found a set of Weber down-draughts complete with TR6 manifolds, throttle linkage, filters, and hardware all NIB for about 1/3 the normal cost:

I was on the fence about rebuilding the stock Strombergs, upgrading to SU (maybe even triple SU), or swapping in a pair of Weber DGVs. When these guys fell into my lap for less than the cost of having the Strombergs professionally rebuilt, it pretty much made the decision for me!

Webers installed. The car seems to run. 

Great news!

That tr6 in the firs post makes me have very impure thoughts....

Great to see you have it running with the webers. If you are going to keep the TR6 motor for the short term, make sure the thrust washers are intact. You can test it by levering the front pulley back and forth. If it moves in and out and makes any kind of "clunk" you will need to check and replace the thrust washers before the end float damages the crank or block. Other than that, assuming you have decent compression, you should be good to go. The other thing on TR6's is the clutch fork pin can shear, which will cause the clutch to not fully disengage. Both are common TR6 engine/transmission issues.

Congrats on getting it running, I also admired a TR6 when I was a teenager, there was one behind the local Chevy dealer that needed work but when I inquired as to the price, they wanted $2,000 which was much more than I could afford....

'Similar project going on here too. It's a blast to autocross and run these TR's on curvy roads. 

Stopped by the garage to see if I could get my spare Momo bucket to fit

yuck

nope

That rust looks familiar, my TR4A had a 35 MPH street sign as the front floor pan when we tore it apart...... Fortunately new floor pans are not too expensive, but they do require you to do some tricky welding and if the floors are bad, the outer and inner rockers may also need attention.   Brace everything before you start cutting. Of course if you are just looking to get it running you can just patch it, but it does not look like much metal was holding down the drivers seat. 

As far as seats that fit, I ended up using some vintage racing seats (Cobra?) that were narrow enough to fit the car.

I'll take the Z-S carbs off your hands if/when the time comes.  Might be interested in the engine as well, because... I don't seem to have enough Triumph engines in my shed (currently one 1500 4 and two 2L 6's). 

In reply to Ian F :

You’re welcome to the carbs. I got a good deal on the car, so I’m happy to “pay it forward” (as they say) to a GRM member ... except for z31maniac LOL. He was a jerk to me in the econobox thread, so no free carbs for him!

How far are you from Bergen County, NJ?

In reply to dherr :

I got lucky with that: found a guy selling both left and right floor pans for less than half the usual price. 

As I’m getting into the build, I realize that this may actually come in at more or less a Challenge budget. It depends on whether I’m allowed to get credit for parts I’ve been giving away. Is there a goodwill clause in the Challenge rule book?

LanEvo said:

In reply to Ian F :

You’re welcome to the carbs. I got a good deal on the car, so I’m happy to “pay it forward” (as they say) to a GRM member ... except for z31maniac LOL. He was a jerk to me in the econobox thread, so no free carbs for him!

How far are you from Bergen County, NJ?

Sweet! I work in Somerset, NJ so not terribly far away.

That is one of the issues with the challenge budget that while there is not a direct ruling on it, there is the reality that you could have sold those carbs for $75 on Ebay to Ian F, so taking a FMV of $75 for them would be considered fair by most challengers. Since the rules for parts you are "given" is to use FMV, it makes sense that parts you also give away, should be at FWV as far as the budget is concerned. Of course, not to start a bunch of problems, but there is nothing to stop you from documenting the parts you "sell" and getting a receipt for each of them from the person you sold them to, as long as the pricing is reasonable. I don't think there is a goodwill clause since it would be open to abuse, but there is not any reason you could not sell them for FMW even if you gave the money back later on..... Truth it is more the spirit of the event that matters, so you would not be cheating by my definition in the above example. 

Got some more work done his week.

The windshield was cracked right down the middle. Went ahead and ordered a new one with all the fixin's from Moss Motors. Surprisingly big, difficult, and annoying job.

When we removed the windshield frame, there was a pretty significant amount of surface rust under the weatherstrip. No surprise, really. But it turned out to be not as bad as it first looked: all very superficial. Took care of it with a wire brush and some POR-15. There are some benefits to the black finish when you're trying to resurrect a car on the cheap!

I'm pleasantly surprised by how "not completely awful" the paintwork is. Except for the areas of rust scale, it's not bad at all.

I'm kind of digging the whole windshield-delete, Mad Max kind of deal that's going on right now.

New floorpans arrived. Dropped them off at the shop along with a fresh radiator. 

Wow. That floor is really something! 

I can’t understand how the whole floor can be made of dust but the frame looks totally fine underneath. Weird. 

New floors going in pretty smoothly. No major surprises so far. 

Floors are basically done...

She cleaned up pretty good...

Are we going to see this at the challenge?

In reply to Indy-Guy :

The floor repair was more extensive than expected. That’s going to push the cost up past Challenge money. 

Besides, it’s just a restoration of a TR6. Nothing crazy or innovative. Probably not even all that interesting, other than the low-buck nature of the build. 

Almost done with floor repair. All of this was a lot more time, energy, and money than I had planned. But I guess that’s the risk you take when you impulse-buy a 40+ year old British roadster sight unseen. 

I know it’s not very Rock’n’Roll, but I was persuaded to apply some heat/sound insulation. This is going to be mainly street-driven, so it makes sense

Surprisingly clean underneath.

Need to decide how to protect it. Is POR-15 good enough, or should I go with spray-on undercoating?

I did both when i replaced the floors in the elky

In reply to LanEvo : if it were me I'd put one of two engines in  

either the 4.0 Jaguar six  or (it's GM derivative the 4.2 found in Chevy Trailblazers GM Envoys Buick, Oldsmobile, etc.  ). Up to 285 horsepower, 4 valve heads all aluminum, reliable as heck 250,000 + miles near zero trouble.  Nope, timing chains instead of belts

They  even had a supercharged version!!!! 

Two problems!  1st, it's massively lighter than the cast iron six it replaces so you'll have to cut the front springs.  

Second only a few of the Jaguars came with 5 speed manual gearboxes.  On the other hand the GM versions will probably accept the 5 speed from a Camero without a lot of work  

Or my other choice would be the Jaguar V12. 

It would slide in place like a well tailored suit.