This is from Cathy Young @ ssiwest....
Oh joy! Oh wonder! I still can't believe it when I think about
it, much less stare witlessly at the gorgeous '70 GT6+ in my
driveway. To think, there was a car still out there for me, in
perfect condition (except for the cobwebs and the dust and all
the cleaning that needs to go on in the engine and the gas tank)...
...and to think I found that car right in my own hometown!
Unbelievable! And at less than $1000, I feel GUILTY for taking
it from it's previous owner!
Robbie (that's his name, he told me) had been sitting in a barn
for four years, and in the driveway of someone's architectural
design firm for two before I saw him during my walk to farmer's
market one Sunday. His pseudo-brg paint was faded, and the spiders
had tied him to the ground and the chain link fence with their webs,
but still he shined with true Triumph attraction. Chrome everywhere.
And not a piece of it missing. Upon closer inspection two weeks
later, with my boyfriend Mitch (owner of '70 TR6, Torrington),
we discovered it was a GT *plus*, and, through the grimy
driver's side window, saw the gleam of an overdrive switch on the
steering column! We left drool in puddles around the chain link
fence, and I think Robbie woke up enough to notice his visitors
this time.
There was no "For Sale" sign, though. I told Mitch I bet the owner
knew what he had there and probably wouldn't sell it. The only
place you can find real good british cars for real good deals anymore
was Kansas, as far as I could tell. Of course, the value on the GT6's
hadn't skyrocketed yet, but no doubt people on both coasts would be
hanging on to their Triumphs of any make in hopes of making better
investments out of them. Sigh. Boy it was neat to see another
Triumph in Livermore, though. Besides Torrington, there was only
one brg Spit in town, and that belonged to a high school student.
But last Thursday Mitch called the guy at the architectural design
firm anyway and asked if he was willing to sell his GT6. "If the
price is right." The price was RIGHT!!!! So Mitch calls me up
at work, "Can you come home right away? We gotta problem." I race
home on my bike worried about parents in plane crashes or cats flat
in the road, but instead, when I arrive, Mitch packs me into the jeep
and we take off for the gas station. I try to guess where we're
going. Somewhere that needs a can full of gas. Ha! "We're gonna
go look at that GT, right?" "No," Mitch smiles. "Okay," I continue,
"How about a boat? We're gonna look at a boat, but god knows why
we need a can of gas unless we're taking it to a lake where we can
use it's engine. You were talking about getting a little drift
boat this morning." "Nope. No boat." He has this glint in his
eyes, though, like I'm close with my guesses, so I try the GT again.
"No we're not going to look at the GT." "Rats," I say, but nonethe-
less we are headed toward that certain architectural design firm
downtown...
"We ARE going to see the GT!!!!" I crow when we pull up in front of
it. The bonnet is up and its owner is draing old gas. I grin. Mitch
gets out of the jeep and says, "We're not *looking* at the GT, we
BOUGHT it!!!!"
What a day. :-)
So now we have cleaned it up and discovered all sorts of nearly-new
parts under the dust. The tranny still has bright yellow crayon
marks on it from the parts house! The radiator was stuffed with
brown mud, but it got a good flush. The overdrive is an A-type.
The plugs look in great shape --only the no. six has a bit of soot
on it. One carb has a leak which can be fixed easily. We went
down to see Dorene at 14th Street (NOTE**** they have moved to a
new location!!! They've combined with another yard down near
the San Mateo Bridge. Call the old number for directions.) and
got a carbon-cannister bracket, some smog hose stuff (I'll say
it's hosed! ;-), and a seat belt for the tri-point harnesses.
We have yet to find a new dash top, though. Victoria British
says the last GT6 (and early Spit) dash tops disappeared off the
shelves eight years ago, and no doubt the wrecking yards have all
been scoured by now. (A call to Dorene confirmed this.) So,
what's a good way to refurbish a dash top??? There are dash
"covers" out there of polyesther or plastic, but we're a little
doubtful that these will look good. Any experience/ideas out
there?
The little car looks 100 times better than a week ago, and all
we've done is the easy stuff. All the "hard things" that we
took apart to check looked in great shape! Amazing! So now
we have to go get it smogged and, providing a cop doesn't pull
us over for having '84 registration tags, go to the DMV and
register the newest member of our family.
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indi (Cathy Young) |"ssiwest!young"@lll-lcc.llnl.gov
Supercomputer Systems, Inc | or: uunet!ssi!young
Livermore, CA | (415)373-8044
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There are two hotels in Djang: the Hotel Windsor and, across
the street, the Hotel Anti-Windsor. --Bruce Chatwin
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P.S. If I got any of the engine-part-names wrong or anything,
forgive me. This is only my second brit-car, and I'm still
learning...
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