Triumph Sports Cars

You might want to take a look at this: www.bowtie6.com - a lot of what I see here has already been done...

The rear disc brake setup has been on my TR6 for over two years now. No problems at all and it works flawlessly... I did not want the extra weight of the V8, so my bowtie6 uses a 60* V6. I've made a number of improvements to the engine such as a COMP hot cam, roller rockers, modified intake (using an LT1 throttle body), new lifters, pushrods, springs, etc.

I noticed a similarity on the gussets added to the frame to the ones on my TR6... You can see all about them on my website. The shocks/springs conversion here is very interesting, but if you want to see something unique, check out the adjustable coilovers on bowtie6...

Check it out...

joe

PS Calvin, your ride is looking good...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/30/2008 12:16AM by bowtie6.

Calvin,

I was staring to think you had dropped off the list based on your last posting, but now I know why.

You have beeeeeeeeeeeen very busy!

Outstanding!

Curits, Is there a way we can archive this thread from time to time and when Calvin has her done, repost the content to "How it was Done"???????

Joe,

Terrific work! Great ideas all around. Thanks for the pics and descriptions of the work.

You definitely get the welding award of the year! That TIG work is some gooood stuff.

--Martin

:-)... I do appeciate the words (freak,awesome,looking good,outstanding, impressed, and "flag" this message) because it shows me I'm accomplishing what I set out to do in posting for others to see. I want the web lookers to know "you" can do this too with your own cars.

I'm a crappy speller, that has a 1 car garage and some hand tools from "Harbor Freight". I don't even have a drill press, made all my metal cuts with a sawsall or a jig saw or hand drill, have several different grinders, and a dual welder.

I have a 12 megapixel camera and photoshop CS2 software that does take time to reconfigure all pics, but it is worth it to me to share and get others involved in their own british cars and the comerodery that this site has to offer. It is nice when you are all alone working in the garage with the project, and you can post here or other sites and get other peoples feedback in several ways.

Joe , It would be way Cool if you would do a "How it was done" for the bowtie6 here in British any engineV8.org

As for Martin "Do it" we are all here for Ya.

I will post later some other mods I'm doing later today.

Calvin

Finished nylatron bushing installments yesterday. I could'nt believe after un-bolting the ball joint, the movement from side to side that the red bushings allowed (soft and gushy and would bind). After the nylatron bushing were installed, checked movement again, an only up and down movement and smooth (big difference).




I installed a quick ratio steering rack, which makes a 3.5 turn (from left to right) to a 2.5 turn. My old rack, I rebuilt but was still pretty worn out (was'nt smooth turning). I did some research through my contacts and was not able to find the UK made. This rack and all made now are from South America in Argentina. The cheapest price on the martket is through victoriabritish.com.

Just above the rack you can see the front swaybar mounted above the front skid plate. I did'nt like the fact of bumping the front swaybar on parking curbs anymore (happened to many times with the TR250). "Yes" this idea was from Ken H and remembered this one and applied to mine.




Slotted skip plate and made a small plate to reinforce what was cut out, used 4 bolts to hold it in. The other side tow circle had been ripped out, so took and made a little piece to match and welded in and ground down.




Richard Goods front swaybar mounted in the same holes (just on top of the skid plate). The only problem with this, it throws the measurement of the swaybar back a little, so link is not straight down from wishbone bracket.

Note* These pics are 34 megs in size (4000 pixel) reduced down to 349 kilobytes (500 pixel) in size to fit here in this forum. The 12 megapixel camera does take good pics. The first postings, was using a 5 megapixel camera which is OK.

Note 2* My frame, I sand blasted for about 35 to 40 hours total with a little box of sand that has a hose out of it with nozzle, hooked up to 15 gallon air compressor. Had plastic stapled to the sheetrock on the ceiling hanging down around the frame. Nastyest job to do so far but the results was worth it getting all the grim off the frame (sand was cheap). Have a very small blasting cabinet for all small parts. The end results from old to the new look was worth the effort.

AN couplers for 3/8" gas line and return vent line. I know a little over kill on return line, but won't need to replace rubber hose later.
SS line is very hard to bend , bent these by hand, had to buy a special aircraft 37 degree flaring tool. Dealing with high pressure fuel line, was well worth the effort down the road for maintaining service.


X-pipe rewelded with gas mix to fit between frame rails.

Yes, tight fit.
X-pipe in frame. Not the best placement for an X-pipe (best place would be closest to header collectors as possible, not having sharp turns in exhaust) but looking for the ground clearance for end results. I'm going to use 2 1/2" ss wrap around clamps that are 4" long, 2" of exhaust pipe inside clamp both sides. This way exhaust can be taken out instead of cutting out for later service.




The bottom 2 holes in this pic, I will make a 1/4" thick piece of metal to bolt in across also to re-inforce this area where the transmission mounts. The original TR6 mount will use the back 2 holes.

What brand is the X pipe being used and where did you get the rear sway bar?

tr6lt1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> What brand is the X pipe being used and where did
> you get the rear sway bar?


I picked up the X-pipe at a local muffler shop. I will call them Thursday and ask for you what brand. (OK the X-pipe is made by magnaflow)

The rear sway bar is a matching pair with the front swaybar. I picked them up at the roadster factory when they had a good sale,otherwise they were made by Richard Good at goodparts.com

[www.goodparts.com] Here is the link to the sway bar pair.

Please read the last paragraph on the site page about swaybars. Read The (CAUTION) (qoute, do not use this rear swaybar with the stock front swaybar. May have dangerous oversteer).

Calvin



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 04/04/2008 01:06AM by 74ls1tr6.

Busting my arse! Fabricated the SS exhaust from headers to X-pipe last 2 evenings, will post pics soon. I was able to keep the exhaust tucked in under frame with only 1" below frame rails all the way back passed transmission mount, then up into X-pipe. The end results was better than I thought. Not bad with 2 1/2" SS exhaust pipe.

I wouldn't want to be a welder by trade, It burns you out.

ZZZzzz

Welding SS exhaust pipe was not an easy task since it is so thin walled. I found it to be very easy to blow a hole in it while welding. Had to fine tune the welder with the feed wire and the gas, so it wouldn't pop and splater. If there was to much gap where the exhaust would meet, had to be carefull not to blow a hole and if it did, had to fill in.

I went through 2 4" griding wheels to clean up the welds for the whole exhaust system. I would have to call this exhausting work and laborous.

I will post some pics later today of how the mufflers were mounted and how clearance was achieved.











Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2008 11:31AM by 74ls1tr6.

This pic is where a plate was made for the trailing arm mount bolts on the inside of frame box.



This is another pic of the plate welded in for the vertical section that was boxed in to strenthen the front diff tower area.





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/06/2008 11:29AM by 74ls1tr6.

The bottom of the flowmaster 40's are about the same distance from the ground as the attachment link for the rear swaybar.

"Yuck" the mimosa yellow that my TR6 body has (I dislike)..... needs to go bye bye!!



As far as clearance concerns with oil pan and exhaust pipe....oil pan is 1/2" below frame...exhaust pipe is maybe at lowest piont 2" below frame...I'm sure it will be fine on normal road conditions. I can take this whole exhaust system apart without cutting any pipe. Also when the car is on a lift, no one will know there is an X-pipe installed, unless you look real closely into frame area.



Another pic that was closer to skid plate to show clearance.

I used exhaust hangers that you would find on most later model cars. The only difference here is that I put the mounting pin facing forward instead of backward. The reason for doing this....is that an exhaust will expand and contract about an 1/2'' or so from heat. My thoughts with them facing bacwards....it would cause the mounting bracket to bind and possilbly break due to the pipe expanding lenghtwise.



Had to shave down a couple of cooling fins on the diff cover to alow clearance for the driver side muffler. I may need to do one more for movment of the muffler. The exit side of the muffler is real close to the swaybar to keep ground clearance. There wasn't any room to spare but the 1/2' expansion for heat.



The mounting pin facing forward. Installed the rubber mounting bracket right up to the rear diff bolt pin.



The same ss wrap clamp before muffler for easy service.

I will be using these USA made 2 1/2" tail pipes. Probably will mold into rear of TR6 body so they don't hang out like some TR6's I've seen before...... and keep them up close to body. Will need to wait until body is mounted to finish exhaust.



Kind of looks like Corvette style exhaust setup.

Nice job on the pipes!

I'm bringing my TR6 V8 out to your place for a little "exhausting work"!

So when you see that Blue TR6 in your drive way, don't wake the driver until your ready to weld.

Keep Rock-n! Keep posting!

Don,

:-) ....If you are willing to drive from east coast to west coast with the gas prices the way they are,...I will do the "exhausting work" for free and just come on in, have an extra room for ya! :-)

Hi Calvin,

Still watching! Lookin' good! I'm at work planning mine. Plenty of work to do just getting the garage in order for such a thing.

Exhaust certianly looks super.

On those backing plates (in the chassis legs) for the trailing arm mounts, are you leaving them free as sort of a giant washer or are you going to weld them? Any thoughts on the advantages of either? I know on the front suspension lower A-arm brackets, the aftermarket backing plates are left free and not welded.

Good luck!

Martin,

Very good question? I did what others have done here at the trailing arm area ( Joe's bowtie6 did this ). Now that you have asked the question about it made me think more about it. I may make another 3" square plate (4 of them) to install where the bolts come through... since I have extra thread there. Thinking again here... I will weld in the long plate and used the 3" plates as a large washer. In the frame box, the factory put bracing inside so that the frame won't crush when tighening the bolts. I have used all grade 8 bolts (fine thread) for the whole car so far.

I thought I was done on the frame! OK Martin you have great thoughts and questions, keep them coming, and incorporate your thoughts into your TR6 and start posting your progress. I can't wait to see :-)

AS for the front A-arm lower mount box, I did make plates for the mount area and made vertical plate that ran inside the box and all the way down to the bottom of the frame box. I welded this all in, so end results was double thickness for the whole box. Plus ran more weld on the outside of the box. "Made this strong" because I have broken this area with a previous car.

Calvin
Martin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Calvin,
>
> Still watching! Lookin' good! I'm at work
> planning mine. Plenty of work to do just getting
> the garage in order for such a thing.
>
> Exhaust certianly looks super.
>
> On those backing plates (in the chassis legs) for
> the trailing arm mounts, are you leaving them free
> as sort of a giant washer or are you going to weld
> them? Any thoughts on the advantages of either?
> I know on the front suspension lower A-arm
> brackets, the aftermarket backing plates are left
> free and not welded.
>
> Good luck!

Rats!

My electric fuel pump went out yesterday on a great spring day drive. ( near the end of the run, so not so bad, I did get home)

Just another little project.

Thanks for the offer of the room and drive way parking! I might take you up on the offer when I retire, cause I would take the long way there!

You do great work! (I AGREE WITH YOU ON THE YELLOW COLOR)

Don,

I hope you have had time to get your fuel pump replaced and you can get some driving time in for me.

I guess the weather is getting better there for you!

Heck I'll take that yellow on your avatar...I just can't seem to get a grasp on the Mimosa yellow.....maybe its just the word "Mimosa"that I can't handle.

I've been working on the driver side inner fender well. Cut out the fender to match the other fender (for the carb clearance).
The driver side needs the clerance for the alternator. I welding in the hand bent piece of sheet metal (weld & grind weld & grind).
In the end results It will look like the factory did it I hope.

I will post some pics soon!