The Creation Of A Spit6

Finished up both doors today.
What a task it turns out to be. If you are going to use parts from other cars, sometimes what seems OK are not.The passenger door lock had internal problems and would not latch solid, the catch had play in it. So if you are putting together doors, take the locking mechanism and push it on the latch on the body to see if any play is there.
I had all kind of wasted effort getting the window in the channels, that turned out to be another part I should have checked. The grove on the window was bent slightly, just enough the roller part would not go in the grove, but not enough so you could see it. Took it all out. Just glad I had not put the inside seal on.
The vents need to be left a little loose until the rear channel is installed as the GT6 window has a bit of curve in it.
There are two different window frames on the bottom of the GT6, one has an extension that goes into the bottom restrict-or and the other doesn't, so you have to play with the old bracket to keep the window from going down past the seals. I like to have them just below the surface of the door edge, stops most of the rattles you hear on most British sports cars.
The door locks have a few tricks of the trade. If you are going to adjust the screw on the plastic striker be very careful. When the latch is in closed door position, (you do need to close the latch, it stops in two different spots, the final is difficult to get to) that flat parts of the latch that is pushed by the screw on the door opener needs to have some play in it on the lock position. I gave it a good 1/8 inch clearance in there.
The two rods that run form the outer door latch could use a bit of grease where the plastic keepers hold them in place, just put some on your fingers and rub it on there while working back and forth. while you have some grease on your fingers, rub the locking slide and other bracket with a smear and also the female part of the lock. Not too much or the madam will let you know she got grease on her coat just getting in and out of that damn car. Clear silicone might be better on that part. LOL
Close the door to make sure all the extra weight has not dropped the door or it's not out of the alignment. I guessing you have done that door dance, if not that is another whole kettle of worms.
On the receiver latch on the "B" post, tighten just enough to hold in place and you can move with a little effort and slowly close the door, moving it around until there is very little metal to metal.
By now you have checked to make sure the latch opens and closes by the handles in and out.
I now installed the inner seal on the door. I waited until now because if you have to take any parts out, like I did, you will tear heck out of everything. I placed the clips on the door, marked the seal and pushed down into the clip while holding with the tool. A bit of a pain to move it back and forth, but I used a plastic body tool to hold the window out of the way. Time to install the window channel at the rear, take the window up most of the way, holding and pushing it forward, push on and adjust for smooth operation. Hope you sprayed it with some silicone on the front and back before install.
If you are lucky the gap going down the windshield will be the same all the way down, with luck you paid attention to that and it stayed in place.
Hope this helps and should be about the same with a Spitfire single window.

Installing the GT6 windows and vents in the Spitfire doors is interesting. One thing you notice right away is Triumph didn't get rid of the holes required for the vents.
The outer seal will need to installed after the rear window guide is placed in the back of the door and the Window crank is installed, a note here. The Spitfire has 3 bolts on the little triangle bracket at the back where the GT6 only has 2, , top and one towards the rear of the door.
The channels on the window need some moly grease on them before install in the door, I put it in the male part of the bracket and rolled it down out of the way. Don't worry you will be rolling it up and down to get the clips off the bottom shelf after dropping them. Just be careful and keep it in the channels.
Now install the outer seal, if you don't have the tool, get or make one. I used old clips and it was fine.
The vent is next, it will not just slide in but a 3 inch wide breaking bar will let you ease the opening up just enough to get the vent in and it will spring back. Please don't get mad and really pry it. The outer seal wants to catch up on the outer part of the vent, so a fine screwdriver blade will help keep it pulled in place. Take it slowly.
The brackets need to be inserted now and even then some effort is required.
Tomorrow I will put the inter seal on and see if I can get things lined up.
Note the rear channel is still laying against the back of the door. I have seen where a 1/4 inch drive with a universal will be needed to tighten all the adjustable brackets.

The newer type pull handle door mechanisms are a little over engineered. Many moving parts to accomplish two functions, lock and open the door. My opinion, others my differ.

ADDED FOR THOSE THAT JUST WANT TO REPLACE THE GASKET
Here is the scoop on just replacing the gasket. Even the paper one can be replaced without taking the handle completely out, but not removing the bracket holding it in place won't be a good idea, just a little to close to get the gasket in or take the old one off.
The hardest part of the job would be getting the window handle off, but like most things, a way around that. Once you get the clips off the panel and door handle echelon off, very carefully rotate the panel around out of the way. Careful the clips can scratch the paint, so do at your own risk.
Roll window up all the way.
The outer handle bracket has two 5/16 inch locking nuts and more than likely the whole stud will come out . A 1/4 inch drive with universal will bet right too it.
The handle will become loose at this point so be ready to grab it. Clean the old gasket off and in stall new and improved Tilton replacement. Pull it out far enough to place the gasket over the small end and it will have enough room to get it over the big end. I tried it both ways and this put less stress on the paper gasket and
Brian's is much more flexible. This will work for even the old type.
Important, get the nuts and washers off the studs and thread the studs into the handle, you do not want to try and get the studs in up in that corner of the door. Also note, snug is good on those nuts, the thin pot metal will break out if you get excited about tightening them.
Just for checking your work, run a light around that area on the inside and see if you see any coming around the gasket, if so might need a half a turn more on the nut.
That's about as easy as I could come up with. Hope your door card doesn't fall to bits when you take it off.

BACK TO THE REST OF THE STORY
The plastic parts on the outer handle are made pretty good, but catch a lot of heat and become brittle, read break a lot. We have a member that is 3D printing these parts and my test with them is proving they are much stronger than the originals. All that said, getting these apart is a challenge, if you have small hands a plus.
First off the window will need to be all the way up. The door card needs to come off. For those that are being initiated into this little chore, here is what you will have to do. Most of the clips will be rusty, if not, lucky you. A tool with a "Y" on it, used just for this purpose, will pop them out with no effort. To remove the chrome around the inside handle, remove the screw in the middle of the echelon and it does come off if turned in the right position. The window handle will be a real pain if you have never done one. The black rubber washer is covering a pin and there might be a spring behind it, if the PO didn't take it out. To get the pin out, a small punch 3/16 inch would be great. I've tried a bunch of ways to get the black washer out of the way, but with some long needle nose pliers and run between the washer and the handle, so you can get a clean shot at the pin, it will be easy to punch out and will fall between the forks of the pliers. You will still need to pull the punch out as it's trapped by the spring. Now the door card comes out of the way. You may have a plastic sheet that covers the inside of the door, generally glued on, so just pull it away from the handle area and the large hole just in front of the interior handle.
Are we bored yet.
There are two bars attached to the latch. Pull the clips down and that will release the arms, no need to take them out unless you are replacing the inside door handle. Here is were a sequence of events in the proper order will make your life easier. The three screws holding the latch on come off, note a large Phillips head. The latches have two holes to get it out, turn it to get the locking parts out of their hole, you will see the locking rod that is attached to the key of the outside handle. It's a funny looking spring lock on a split pin. Taking the pin out by using the needle nose again by squeezing the spring together and reaching through the big hole in the door to get your hand on it, pull the pin out of the clip. You can take the spring washer off the latch rod, but you will suffer badly trying to get it back on. You have a lot of mobility on the latch doing it this way. Just pull it out of the door.

Here is where I need to Edit this post. I had to do some adjusting of the screw that pushes the arm, so needed to take it apart. Did not have the wife to hold the outside handle, so getting her to keep the handle from banging the paint, I had to change my approach. The little washer had to come off to get the arm out of the split pin. It goes back on with the concave side facing toward the outside of the shaft, do not flatten this little locking washer, it will never go on.

The outer door handle has two 5/16 inch locking nuts on a bracket. When you take them off, wrench will work, a universal on a 1/4 inch drive will do better. If yours is like most the stud will come out. That's OK for now, but get the nut off the stud, as you do not want to try and line that up going back in there. One I did had one of those locking nuts that was tight and it ripped the housing off and left a big hole in the outer housing under the handle. Note here, do not tighten these nuts other than snug. I learned my lesson and now use a lock washer with new nuts. Oh, it's another 10 32 thread with 3/8 nut size if replacing. If you are going to do much work on this car, get a box of 10 32 nuts, washer and screws. They are all over the place.
Back to the drawing board, the outer handle will now come out. Note, it is wedged on the other side to hold it in place from the bracket.
Depending on what you are in there for, your next step might be just putting a little oil on the sliding parts.If you paid for a new handle because of a broken part, that's OK, as for some that is all the choices they have.
Some of the plastic parts should be available shortly, there well a few changes along the way, but they are covered if all works out.
The originals had some grease on the sliding parts, and I use that term loosely, work some oil in there and a drop of grease on the parts that touch. Such as the screw on the outer handle that touches the plate on the outer latch. You get the picture.
I'll do a complete latch repair when we are sure the parts will stand up to heat and lots of use.
Don't forget the inside latch for a little oil. Hope your pin is not too worn.

I took a long time to get to this point after completing the work over a year ago.
Took several days, as I had to lengthen some wires to reach the new switches and gauges. So when you think they are long enough, add 6 inches.
I have added a 10 fuse spade panel and that took lots of length away from the horizontal under the dash.
Still have some cleaning up to do, left the lights in for a lot of the safety lights.
It will try your patience getting all the wires in the right place and I had to extend a few, some under the dash, that was fun.
Wayne

Been installing the wiring harness I made off a '79 Spitfire. Had a couple of handfuls of wires and relays and stuff left over.
Couple of things were added after taping it all up, such as the duel gauge (temp/oil), so that left the wires for the sender sensor and under dash wires. All taped and tied up. Using a double connection at the oil sender, so the light will still be in the speedometer. Added driving lights, so a switch and light had to be installed, light will go in the RPM gauge Demist light socket.
Checked the heater out and works great, right now it's air conditioning, 39 degrees in the garage.
Once I get everything working off battery power I will install the fuses on the 10 fuse panel. Almost everything has it's own circuit. Right now all is being isolated.
Will check out the headlights (H4's) tomorrow morning before all the eating begins, I won't be worth anything after that.
I did see I have to add a light with ground on the voltmeter, easy enough out of the car, a challenge under the dash to solder it in. I'll look to see if I can get one out of a gauge hole to cut and solder up.
I need to make up a ground wire for the gauges, should be OK with brackets but why hope.
I did tape it up too tight under the steering column, those wires need to have room to move around. I'll unwrap it and use some ties to get it up.

Oh, the lights are fine, should do just what we need to be visible.
Had to re thing the how and when.
Without a switch, they were going to run off the ignition. That's OK, but sometimes they would not need to be on. So installing a old TR4-6 fan motor switch and I printed out a new plate for the knob. Kind of a bumper with two lights under it. clear coated it on.
As I'm using GT6 gauges, I installed a light in line and will go in the demist socket in the tack.
Checked it all out, works as planned. Get lucky some times.
Sorry, didn't take a picture, 42 is too cold to be worrying about that.will get some later.
Wayne