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September 6, 2022
Engine Valances
GT6 cars and their sibling Spitfires had baffle-like partitions on
either side of the engine. Called "engine valances", their purpose
is open to question. Some opine that they had some cooling
function, by directing airflow. Others say that they were more
like splash guards to keep road spray off the engine. I personally
don't know, but neither of these theories seems convincing to me.
Possibly it had something to do with the way the Spit/GT6 bonnets open,
but as far as I know, no other Triumphs had similar fittings.
Whatever their purpose, their execution wasn't stellar. Like the
front radiator cowl, they were made of some fibrous substance akin to
cardboard, and their longevity was dismal. At this late date, many
survivor cars have no trace of them left.
My car had remnants of the valances still hanging on. They
consisted of a dog-leg "L" bar on each side of the engine, from which
hung the remains of the panels. This is what they looked like on
the bench:
Even though I don't know their original purpose, and even question their
necessity, I do still have a certain fondness for originality to a
point, so I set about to replace the valances. They can be bought,
but it seems that the design flaws of the originals are faithfully
duplicated in the replacements. This left fabrication as the only
avenue left. I thought I might be able to improve on the
originals, as many others have.
Drilling out the remaining rivets separated the metal bar from the curtain material.
The bars were rusty and deformed, so I decided to remake them, but from
aluminum. This is just plain hardware-store aluminum 1" x 1"
angle, but I did rip one leg down to 3/4" to match the originals.
Then notched and welded them to form the dog-legs, and trimmed to fit the car.
My panels were in such bad condition, I didn't even really have good
patterns to work with. I was able to find some pictures online
that showed the correct shape.
I could also get some clues from what I had.
So, working mainly from forensics, circumstantial evidence, and hearsay,
I started with some paper and then poster board patterns. It took
a few iterations to get this far. There were a number of
obstacles to work around.
I dithered a while on what material to use for the panels, but only
seriously considered sheet steel, aluminum, or plastic. I landed
on aluminum for the same reasons I used it for the radiator cowl.
I really wanted to include a bead rolled detail in the panels to help
stiffen them, but they were too long for the throat of my cheapie bead
roller. My solution was to cut each panel in half, roll the beads,
then splice them back together. Those are Clecos holding the
panel together. They are like removable temporary rivets.
On the car...
I believe the original fiber panels may have had tabs at the bottom that
were somehow clipped to the frame rails. I installed some rivnuts
to secure the bottom.
Added some L brackets at the bottom of the curtains to attach to the frame.
After I finished the two side curtains, this left only the sections at
the front that but up to the radiator brackets. They were more
complicated. They had more shape in a smaller area, and had to fit
to other pieces on three sides. There were iterations.
The whole enchilada for the right side.
Disassemble again, prep, and apply a two part epoxy primer.
Then a semigloss black topcoat, and re-assemble.
Before installing, I put some caulk-like sealant around the rivnuts to keep water out of the threads.
And then took her home.
The other side followed shortly. There had to be an extra cutout for the trick oil filter adapter. I think I can actually remove and replace the filter from the outside of valance.
This job took a while. There are a few areas that I think I could
make fit a little better if I started over, but I don't think I
will. In many ways, this car is just a collection of prototypes
anyway. Cost was maybe $20 for the aluminum and the rivets.
Comments to Ed at elhollin1@yahoo.com
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