Triumph GT6 Mark II
Restoring of an Amazing 1996 cc Triumph GT6 Mark 2 Two door fastback sports car
We at Marque One Detailing were part of a dedicated team who undertook the mammoth task of restoring this amazing Triumph GT6 Mark 2.
But first a bit of historical background to the Triumph GT6 Mark 2.
In early 1963 Giovanni Michelotti was commissioned by Standard-Triumph to design a GT version of their recently introduced Spitfire 4.
An unmodified “Spitfire 4” was delivered to Michelotti’s design studios in Italy and late in 1963 the prototype Spitfire GT4 was returned to England for evaluation.
The styling of the vehicle was a success but the extra weight of the GT bodyshell resulted in extremely poor performance from the Spitfire’s 1,147 cc Standard SC engine, and plans for producing the Spitfire “GT4” were shelved.
Michelotti’s fastback design for the “Spitfire GT4” prototype was adopted by the Triumph racing program for the 1964 season, as it was deemed to provide an aerodynamic benefit over the standard Spitfire body shape.
Fiberglass copies of the “Spitfire GT4’s fastback” were grafted on to the race-modified Spitfires destined for competition.
The Spitfire racing program was successful, and in 1965 resulted in 13th overall and a 1st in class at the prestigious 24 Hours of Le Mans – beating their main rivals, the MG Midgets.The Spitfire’s competitive success and the continuing commercial success of the production vehicle led Triumph to re-evaluate its shelved plans for a GT version of the Spitfire.
To overcome the lack of performance inherent in the heavier body style the Spitfire’s 4-cylinder engine was replaced with the more powerful 2.0 L Triumph inline 6 originally derived from the SC and then in use in the Triumph Vitesse (which shared a similar chassis with the Spitfire and Triumph Herald).
The car was further developed and refined and eventually launched as the Triumph GT6 (dropping the “Spitfire” prefix) to emphasis its GT styling and its 6-cylinder engine.
Contemporary Triumph marketing advertised the GT6 as being developed from the “race winning Le Mans Spitfires” to capitalize on their aesthetic similarities, whereas the Le Mans Spitfires and the GT6 were actually two entirely separate development program (the GT program pre-dating the racing program).
However, the marketing spin was so successful that many people erroneously believed the Le Mans Spitfires to actually be GT6s.
Restoring of this amazing 1996 cc Triumph GT6 Mark II
This particular Triumph GT6 Mark 2, was stored for a very long time and had seen better days, the paint work was not in great condition, as well as the body work was also showing signs of serious deterioration with as a result of neglect over a number of years.
As a result of the condition of this classic Triumph GT 6, bonnet was removed and taken back to the bare metal, as well as a number of repairs were undertaken before being re painted, as well as undertaking some “paint touch in’s”, which was required on further inspections.
The restoration of the body work was then under taken, which involved completely sanding down all of the body work panels, using a well establish sanding process, starting with 2500 grit abrasives, stepping down through the grit sizes, finally finishing with 8000 grit abrasives, in preparation for the next stage of the paint restoration process.
A “three stage” polishing process was then applied to all of the body work of this old lady, to give her paint work a truly amazing lustre, and bring it back to the levels that one would expect of a car of this pedigree, finished off with hand applied coats of wax.
The wheels and spindles were then removed, these were in the end replaced with new wheels and spindles, to ensure that this old lady would look her best.
The engine bay was deep cleaned, after the full engine bay cleaned, it was noticed that there were a number of superficial rust spots, as well as a few areas that looked like they could develop into potential rust spots, as a result of this inspection all of the areas as identified as being a rust spot or looked like developing into a rust spot area, was treated, primed and re painted.
All glass areas of this GT6 were polished and finished to ensure that all glass areas were finished to the same standard as the rest of the car, giving an overall amazing appearance and finish to the exterior.
The interior of the car was in a terrible state, with the wooden dashboard all suffering, as the wooden veneered panels had dried out and splitting.
These were removed and sent away to be striped back to the original veneered surface, before treating and restoring the veneered panels that made up the “dashboard” of this GT6 to their former glory.
The various dials that were situate within the dash board, where all cleaned and refurnished, to compliment the newly restored veneered wooden dashboard, along with a new “dash trim”, which was also remade, as the old one had seen better days.
The leather seating was also cleaned, restored and sealed to bring all of the leather work in the car back up to its former best, as well as the deep cleaning of the carpets within this Triumph.
New “door inserts” were also made to replace the old and worn ones, which were originally on this particular car, all of the rubbers on this car received the deep clean treatment to finish of the restoration of the interior of this amazing Triumph GT6 Mark 2.
The transformation from when this beauty came into us, to where she is now is amazing.
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