Hidden Rust Problems on the Frame

October 2010
When I got my frame back from being stripped and cleaned, I checked over the metal with a critical eye and looked for problem areas. On the under side of the frame, where the trailing arms attach,  I found these small holes....

I figured I could weld a patch over the area and I'd be good to go....WRONG !   Fortunately, one of the 6-Pack guys was repairing his frame at the same time and revealed that these important sections of the frame have internal stiffeners to help support the rear suspension.  His stiffeners were nothing but a pile of rust, and as I viewed his thread pics, I got a bad feeling in my gut. Well, I couldn't just hope this was not a problem for me, I had to look for myself, and a few minutes with a metal cutting tool showed this....

Yep, my internal stiffeners were also a pile of rust !  Fortunately, new replacement sections are available, so I called "The Roadster Factory" a.k.a "TRF" and ordered a new section for each side of the car.

Notice the stiffeners built in the channel...these also double as guides for the bolts that hold the rear suspension / rear trailing arms to the car...pretty important !

I'd like to tell you that I removed the old sections and welded in the new ones, but this is too critical an area for a novice welder like me to be messing with, so the pro's at Mitch's Welding in Maumee, Ohio, were called on to do the job.

 Mitch's team did a super job !  Thanks guys, and thanks to 6-Pack member Mark P. who tipped me off about this problem !!

Stiffening the Differential Mounts on the Frame

One of the weak points of the TR6 frame is the area at the rear of the car that holds the differential and rear axles.  A previous owner of my car had the front diff  mounts reinforced, but Ted from TSI has a kit available to further strengthen this important area. Besides, this gave me a reason to buy another tool that I really need, namely a MIG welder !  I did a little welding with my Dad while growing up, but that was a long time ago, so practice and reading how- to books was in order.  Hind sight being 20/20, there are two things I wish I had learned before leaving high school....how to type and how to weld !!

Here are the front diff mounts that had been previously reinforced.

My new Hobart MIG welder...

Here is one of the rear stiffeners...gee, I guess welding over a plastic tarp wasn't such a great idea !  DUH !  Again, I don't know why I didn't do this welding before painting !

 Finally, the additional metal added to the front diff mounting area.

Frame Prep and Paint Time

Sept. 2010
It's late September, and that means cold weather is on the way. Since the Man Cave is not insulated  and has just a basic forced air propane heater, I need to get my newly cleaned parts prepped and coated with the POR-15 like now !

 After two coats.

Some of the smaller parts:

The frame after applying the POR Top Coat .

Eastwood makes a product that you can spray into the hidden channels of the frame, thus stopping rust from the inside out....too bad the Triumph factory didn't have some of these products available back in the day.  The joke amoung British car collectors is that these cars started rusting on the ship while being transported to the USA. !

Since this is my first rodeo as a car restorer, I'm learning the hard way about the sequence of doing things. (see the overspray above)

A Better Way to Clean Up Metal

Sept. 2010

I'd been using solvents, power wire brushes, and elbow grease on smaller parts and  managed to splatter dirt, grease, and gunk all over the Man Cave...there had to be a better way, besides, I can't imagine doing the whole frame this way !
I happened to mention my dilemma to Ted at TSI while on the phone with him ordering his frame stiffener kit. As usual, his answer was just what I needed to hear..."you're in Toledo, just call Laura at American Metal Cleaning, take your parts and frame over, and have them dipped. Oh yeah, and tell her Ted from Pandora told you to call her".
Well, a quick Internet search revealed that American Metal Cleaning uses an alkaline process to clean and strip the metal, and this  process is approved by the US Military and NASA...good enough for me !
This stripping / cleaning process takes about 7 days as it goes through several cycles of being dipped in the various solutions, however the metal is not degraded or made brittle...just clean !

Well, an appointment was made, the truck was loaded, and away we go !

Frame before.

 Parts before.

Delivery !

A happy guy with his cleaned frame:

Cleaned Parts:

Another frame pix..looks like new !

By the way, when I mentioned to Laura that Ted from Pandora sent me, she went on and on about what a great guy he is !

POR-15...The Rust Solution !

Pulling apart my "LBC" (Little British Car) and seeing all that rust made me wonder how it can be prevented from happening in the future. One solution that collector cars guys have embraced is a product called "POR-15". This product is a moisture-cured coating that dries better in a damp environment, but once it's cured, provides a non-porous coating that keeps moisture away from metal permanently. It's not cheap and requires the proper preparation, but the end result is well worth it.
I "restored" a horse drawn cultivator in Sept of 2009 and used POR-15 for the first time...a good trial for my TR6 project.
Here are some pixs of the cultivator project.

Before:

During:

After applying the POR-15

Completed

Cleaning and Painting Parts

July 2010,

A commitment to a full restoration means  that every part that is not being replaced must be cleaned and painted. This doesn't seem like such a big deal until you start looking at all those parts and realize that they are covered with 37 years of road dirt, grease, and tar , not mention all the undercoating gunk the factory / dealer applied.
Here are a few pics of parts that need to be be removed, cleaned, prepped, and painted.

Oh well, nothing is going to get done by just looking...time for wire brushes, solvent, and elbow grease !  Again, the 6-Pack folks have a vast amount of experience on what works and what tools will make the cleaning easier...I'll heed their advice !!

Documentation

I mentioned in an earlier blog how much I relied on my digital camera to document the various parts. Picutres are good, but words explaining the pictures are yet another critical element in any restoration. Thankfully, the British car community has a lot of terrific books, manuals, how-to guides, etc., to support the do-it -yourself restorer.  Here are just a few examples I have collected over the  last year.

The Bently's shop manual ( Blue above) is 600 pages of everything you would want to know about the mechanical workings of the TR6.  Roger Williams' How to restore Triumph TR5/250 & TR6 leads  you around all the pitfalls that await the novice restorer with many before and after photos, and  it gives words of wisdom.

Here is a view of the detail in Bentley's shop manual.

The vendors that provide parts also have catalogs that give great detail on what goes where all the way down to bolts, nuts, type of washers, etc. Of course there are the non-Triumph specific companies like Eastwood that provide everything from cans of spray paint to MIG welders and media blasters for the DIY restorer.

More Parts Come to Light !

June 2010,
 Once the tub was lifted off the frame, I got a whole new look at the rear suspension and drive train. Fun to think that some of these parts have been hidden from view for 37 years !

Seeing all these exposed drive train parts reminds me that now that I'm committed to doing a full blown frame off restoration, I'll need to make a lot of decisions regarding things like the gearbox, differential, fuel lines, brake lines, rear axles, etc.  Thankfully there are many vendors that can provide everything from stock type parts to upgraded components....this should be interesting! 

Here is a pix of a cart I made to move the frame around...very handy !

We Have Lift Off !

One of the cool things about this project is all the great tools that a guy "needs" to do the work...like a engine hoist / cherry picker ! 

Ok, let's start lifting stuff !!

Another tool I couldn't do without is a good digital camera !  I've taken literally hundreds of photos of how the small bits and pieces go together.  I don't know how guys did restorations before the invention of a digital camera ; I sure couldn't remember how everything goes back together, and with digital there is no film to buy.

Frame Off Restoration....The Start !

May 2010,

Once I accepted the fact that a rolling restoration was not possible, it was a small jump to "let's do a complete  frame off restoration" !  I already had a lot of the car pulled apart, so it didn't seem like such a huge job to separate the body tub from the frame.

It's really pretty amazing how many parts are involved with even a simple car like the TR6...here is just a sample.