Alongside the eBay RESTORATION LIVE Range Rover pit at Silverstone Classic this week, David Newell’s gloriously restored Triumph GT6 Mk3 was on show.
David was one of three amateur restorers selected to take part in the first ever eBay Car Challenge. David and the owners of a Volkswagen Beetle and Riley Kestrel 1300 secured a £4,000 restoration budget from eBay and set about restoring their classics in painstaking detail in just three months.
David told me how he blew through his budget replacing both inner and outer wings, sills and the boot floor which were some of the most expensive parts along with a new distributor, coil, starter motor, radiator and clutch.
Some of the trickier parts to source were the beautiful new chrome wing mirrors and more mundane but essential seals for the windscreen – half the pillars had to be rebuilt to eradicate the rust gremlins using parts from a Spitfire screen surround.
Naturally David sourced all his spares on eBay – like the RESTORATION LIVE project, the eBay Car Challenge was designed to show the public that every motors part and accessory you could want can be found on eBay.
When I saw David on Friday he was brimming with pride at his beautiful little Triumph. It’s not show room ready but it’s an honest restoration ready to become a daily runner that David has literally poured his heart into along with bucket loads of blood, sweat and tears.
I asked if it started and if we could hear the motor and David answered by pulling out the choke and with a twist of the key the engine spluttered once and burst into life. Pretty lucky it’s running really as what David didn’t know is that eBay had already arranged for him to take his beloved Triumph for a parade lap around the Silverstone circuit on Saturday with the other Triumph motors in front of 100,000 festival attendees.
A triumphal lap fitting for a Triumph and a fantastic reward for the love and affection David has heaped on his little motor.
