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The Lobby
Enjoy the blog this week with Pink Floyd, Run Like Hell
I threwback on my electrical being sorted, rear light lenses being cleaned, and driving dusk listening to Run Like Hell. For me, truly a song that ties this mark together for me, and odd that I didn’t use that song for that blog. So, to get it on my playlist, here it is.
This entire blog is dedicated to those that can organize, sort, recall, store, and find. I’m good with this in work, but look at my garage or even this word document folder to see, not much in real life. On a personal note, I have this inch and a half scar on my right cheek from basil carcinoma surgery. Healing better than I expected. But still, salty, biker bar like. Maybe I’ll get faster service in places. I’ll have to learn to stop smiling so much.
Girls had a safe trip to the beach – no significant injuries except number 2 sprained her ankle. Decent tans, refreshed, and a good week. Our Tr6 group, D6, had a very nice breakfast outing last Saturday, and a lovely cars and coffee outing today in Van Alstyne, Texas and their historic downtown. 4 D6 cars, parked together.
Whats new
Lovely progress at the shop last week. More cutting in, now the engine bay and trunk area. All that is left is the front valance body work, finish massaging the panels, then in the booth for the whole car, hard top, and extra trunk lid. That sounds like there is this team of body work guys on a moving assembly line prepping this car while a wizard is mixing paint. This is event season, and even if that car rolled out of that booth today, I am covered up in sorting before I bump the starter. And at this pace, that car won’t leave the booth as Lexington starts. This shop, like the hotels we support, struggle with attendance and we all have friends with covid right now. This is simply the landscape. I did get out yesterday today and pull my muffler. They can paint around it, but why bother. Plus, this gives me a chance to clean that up, shoot it with some satin black engine paint, and have that ready to bolt on with the rest of the chaos.
Lastly, my dash project, which involves a piece of 7 inch wide, 5 feet long custom flooring with a unique grain of composite pieces, is soon to be more than 1 board. My flooring guy dropped off this 8 foot board a few years ago, during covid, and swore it was the last one. Txts me yesterday, he has another piece of it. Hallelujah. Now I don’t have to scrape to make the back of the glove box panel.
Did you put gas in your car? Go do that, even if it’s a gallon.
The Wax
Organization is a good thing. I could use some. Most who restore stuff start with an organized plan. Many would have tubs or shelves, or bags, laid out with all their parts for a car that is in the shop, being massaged back to straight. I have a windshield and frame leaning up against my dining room wall. My hard top glass is wedged in a sofa cushion. A few boxes of parts on that sofa. Parts on an ad hoc work table outside my back door. And the space where the school car normally parks, is a litter of bumpers, trim pieces, soft top and frame, and my konigs, stacked. I guess my konigs are about the only thing organized in this phase of school car phoenix.
I keep this blog now in a word doc on my laptop, with simple names like Guvna blog and a date. That’s great except that I have talked about silver wheels now 3 times. I’ve reshared Journey’s Loving Touching Feeling twice, as well as other songs. I mean, for someone keeping this sorted in their head, that’s not bad. But, I’ve begun this process of organizing all that, so that I can sift thru. And a nice by-product of this clean up is I now have all my lead in songs in a youtube playlist. If interested, that link is at the bottom with my signature.
When this started, I had one place where all of it was – in a forum area on 6-pack. Sadly, in a web reboot, I lost much of my content there. Before that storm, I would go there, refresh, look for ways to keep the journey on track, if you will. Whats left of that original stuff is the lead in commentary and a few paragraphs. Gone are the last 30 percent of each blog – I think in that reboot, the storm killed excess in those posts – and not just mine, but everyone. I still go there and sort, but I miss stuff like great throwbacks from a younger brain waxing away. Today, with this new and improved me, I hope to be a better document steward, just like I am going to be a better TR6 steward. That’s a nice pledge, I reckon.
Tech: Tidbits
Nuance
Throwback. Reverse Gear
Tech: Some of the common stuff
In the parking lot last weekend, an owner asked 2 of us – how do you get the steering wheel off? I reached over, and peeled off his foam donut. 6 bolts exposed, both of us shocked. Me thinking, I thought everyone knew that. Him thinking, wow, that was obvious. But as soon as we think it is, it ain’t. Here are a few of mine, from recent chats with other owners.
The trip odometer reset is a twisty knob directly under the speedo. You can feel it right next to the knee pad by the ignition. Turning this will click the trip odometer back to zeros.
On original seats, the passenger seat had, or has a prong on the side of the seat, next to the hand brake area. Its used to snap the full tonneau strap down for driving so it won’t flap around.
Your glovebox key fits the trunk lock. I didn’t know this until my second TR6.
The dash won’t come out unless you remove the speedo and tach separately. This requires removing 4 thumbscrews on the backside of each gauge.
If your car smells like gas when you fill it up, you most likely have a bad sending unit gasket.
If your visors are loose and won’t stay up, take some pliers and a towel, and squeeze the areas where they meet the pins going in each end. This will bend the internal form that should grab those pins, and keep them firm.
Good luck.
Back in the day
I caught myself remembering the little things we used to do on the road as a TR6 driver back in the day. Stuff we don’t do anymore, frankly, cause we don’t pass each other much. If we see a TR6 today, its likely we just pull over and talk shop for a few minutes.
Here are some memories and observations crossed over from NC to TX, driving in the 70s and 80s. My assumption was, there was this underground of information that got around to all TR6 owners during production. Saying that, I have no idea howI figured this stuff out, unless I stumbled on it. I never got pulled aside by some guy in a trench coat. These won’t be earth shattering, but in the spirit of lost rituals, here are a few that came to mind this week.
If you passed another TR6, you flicked your lights at them. This is simple, as all years is a simple pull on the light stalk – in case you didn’t know this….and realizing now, when I say things, I should say it like some don’t know this. If you pull back on the stalk, it flashes the lights. If the lights are already on, they flick high beam. Or should.
When your top is down, your visors need to be up like eyebrows. Always. Seems foolish to type this now, given that I might be driving into the sun, and I might need that visor down. To this day, even with my hard top on, I’ll push my visors up. I use visors in other cars to shade the sun while driving, even use them forward to reduce the sunlight in the car. Today’s visors are big enough to do that. A TR6 visor, is well, kin to dental floss, so having them down does very little. If I picture a TR6 driving, top down, the visors are up in that outline.
The floor panels were designed to drain water if a car got very wet. The holes in the floorboard are meant to do that. Only a teenager would look at the holes, and think – dang, this is perfect for when, not if, I get pulled over. I can remember taking a Budweiser, and putting it thru that hole – realizing its still not touching the ground, but close enough that if you do it right, it should land straight up. Brit engineers with one focus, and young fools thinking, damn, the brits like to drink and drive. Ok, so maybe not everyone thought that, but a few of us did....
Throwback. Handing the keys
One of my favorite throwbacks is about Charlie Rich – well, his doppelganger. Clown talking on and on about his Jag, how much he knows expertly about british cars, then sits in my 72 car for an hour and can’t get it into reverse, while everyone inside thinks he has been to the store, and is now back. While that is funny, what is common, at least for me, was that other people I knew went thru this ritual, so I thought I would share that now.
Roommate in college Dan, had this issue once. I had just met him, and he and his girlfriend GiGi needed to go to the store – beer store most likely. We were at this big pool party, doing what college kids do – drink beer and make up stories. I was never a prude about my car, and I guess I offered him the keys. Enough time goes by, and maybe something said – you know go out and check to see that he got away ok. Nope – he and GiGi sitting there, staring at my dash like it was the space shuttle. In this situation, I show Dan where the reverse is, and they take off. But most of us know the next part – anyone who is new to this car, knows that with stock rear springs and shocks, no newbie takes off without squatting that rear end. And that’s exactly what Dan and GiGi did – bucking away, and returning later with some skill in that drivers seat.
Years go by, and with my second 6, at a local brewery, I am confronted by a nice couple, and we talk the car – they are very interested, and tell me their story around the TR6 – and I have had enough beer to say, take it for a spin. I don’t know these folks, but they light up thinking, omg – are you serious – and I was. Keys were in it, and by now, in recent years with better clutch recipes, my car is easier to drive, with stiffer rear springs, and a much improved shock system. She backs out, rolls out of the parking lot, and return 20 minutes later, park, and got out like they won the lottery. This woman would approach me a few months later, reintroduce herself and remind me she was the one I let drive the school car. It’s a nice way to end this story – knowing that once me, as a young selfish steward, enjoyed tribulation of Charlie Rich, the Jaguar expert, grew later into a sharing comfortable steward focused on helping others.
That’s enough for today. See you on down the road,
Thank you for caring for your Triumph TR6. Lets also thank those considering one. This is a great mark for young and old. This mark is blessed with an amazing network development, parts, owners, experts and car availability. A TR6 helps people everyday, lifting spirits, bringing smiles. A TR6 brings happiness to the father and son at the repair shop. Please start your car with it out of gear and foot off the clutch to save your thrust washers – they struggle with oiling at start up. Please pop your hood and have a good look around the engine bay. Please put fresh gas in your car each week, even if just 1 gallon. Please have good insurance, and review your policy regularly. And please drive your 6 defensively, as if it was a 4 wheeled Harley.
And remember. Smile when you drive, and whenever possible, take a kid driving.
Please join me and the journey here:
The Guvna Blog playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAFyvePcR_o&list=PLnzWxFWr_jTmzyj1tVXs0Bdm ZZZOK5B5H
The D6 Facebook group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/d6tr6
The Guvna Blog Youtube Channel
I am the steward of CF50460UO, born September 1975 with current paint code 19 and 11 black interior. Nicknamed “the school car”, is now over 100K in miles, in the paint shop, moving to Cayman Blue Mica 2 stage paint. I am the 3rd steward. Car was delivered with original hard top and factory overdrive. Current upgrades include Volvo overdrive gearing, König Rewind 16x7 rims, Falken 205s, 4Runner calipers and 7/8 rear wheel cylinders. Poolboy carbs, FlexAlite electric fan, Patton Machine Fan Eliminator, Pertronix ignitor ignition, TR5 cam, pacesetter header, 70amp Lucas direct fit alternator, Silverstar Halogen headlights, WBC blueprinted oil pump, Bastuck 9LB flywheel, Goodparts suspension on all 4 corners, Goodparts sway bar, Goodparts trailing arm brackets, Uprated Armstrong lever shocks with cycle fork oil, JVC audio with 4 speakers, high torque starter, solid state Rheostat, pending LED dash gauges. Adding Vietnam bumpers, flip up scuttle vent, hidden antenna, window tint, custom gear knob, and several more bits
My to do list
New carpet, new panels, custom dash.
r200B diff with goodparts cv joints and hubs
fresh head with roller rockers.
At some point, a fresh motor with lightened crank, cam bearings,
Hard top inside insulation, and dome light.
Oh, and AC.