In the paper and rotten arches

A little bit of fame for me and the GT6 this week, the weekly classic paper, Classic Car Buyer did an interview with me over the phone a couple of weeks ago. The TSSC had put them on to me to find someone who had a few years of GT6 ownership to talk to so I decided I could help!  Anyway after a 20 minute telephone interview about what it's like to own a GT6, what I've done to mine they asked me to send in some pictures of me and the car.

That's not that easy, I have lots of pictures of the car but most are taken by me so don't have me in them, others are mobile phone selfies with me and the car which are not exactly of good quality. I also have a picture of me and the car from practical classics magazine photo shoot that would be copyrighted. In the end I opted for a picture from a few years ago of me working on the car taken by my ex missus when we were still married!  Anyway, my bit formed a small part in a larger article about GT6s and Spitfires, here it is.

As the picture is not particularly good quality printed on newsprint, here's the original...

I have a couple of issues with the GT6 at the moment. I was checking it over last week prior to a forthcoming MOT. For the last 4 MOTs there has been an advisory note regarding some corrosion on the inner wheelarches on both sides, not excessive enough to fail but within the "prescribed" area of a seat belt point. Anyway having checked this year I found that the bracket for the top shock mount had rotted right through. The bracket isn't used on my car as I have the chassis mount conversion fitted but the rot would still be an MOT failure due to the proximity of the seat belt pivot point.

Hole rotted through on the redundant shock absorber mount bracket

My welding is rubbish however my cousin's husband John owns a small car servicing and repair business locally so I asked him to take a look as he does welding repairs. He said he could repair it and I booked the car in to have the bracket removed and a plate added to repair and also to have the other side plated where the bracket has already been removed. John asked me to remove the trim and carpet inside before he takes the car in for the work to save time and cost.

On taking the carpet and sound deadening out I found a couple more issues on the inner arch. The drivers side has a large split that had been bodge repaired with filler. This must have been done before I owned the car as the sound deadening has never been off before so the filler has been there about 30 years! The split is within a couple of inches of the seat belt mount so definitely an MOT issue.

Split and filler on the drivers side rear inner arch.

On the other side I also found a less serious split. I suspect this may have been a result of the off road excursion on the 2010 RBRR as there is a bit of damage to the arch around the split. The split has also started to corrode.

Split in passenger side rear inner arch.

Anyway both are repairable so the car goes into Fleet Mobile Auto Services for repair by John next week for some welding to add repair plates.