Locost Bryan's 1972 Morris Marina TC Coupe

[locost_bryan]

Discussion thread : //oldschool.co.nz/index.php?/topic/45304-locost-bryans-1972-morris-marina-tc-coupe/?p=1395483

 

Back in my "youth", I was an avid reader of UK magazine Cars and Car Conversions.  One of their stories was to make a club rally car from the humble Morris Marina Coupe, as an antidote to the ubiquitous Ford Escort.  They ran a series of articles documenting the build, using parts British Leyland's Special Tuning outfit had homologated for a class win on the 1971 RAC rally - 8-port Cooper S engine, LSD, turret kit, fibreglass body panels, minilite wheels, etc.

 

I did briefly own a Marina Coupe, a basic Super model, not the sporty TC, which did a few car club outings (Canterbury Car Club 1600-200cc motokhana champ one year), but it never got the minilites wheels or any performance mods.  Priorities changed, and it got replaced with a Falcon ute...

 

Anyway, 30 years later and the obligatory "mid-life crisis" had me yearning for my lost youth, and a desire to own something that I lusted after in my younger years.  Sadly, a Falcon Coupe or Charger E49 was too expensive for my budget...

 

But a Marina Coupe was in the right price range, if only I could find one...  Being a bit unloved, there aren't too many left.  A bit of waiting and finally the start aligned...

 

Here begins Ozzy's story...

 

Firstly, why Ozzy?  Well, nothing is ever simple when it comes to British Leyland.   

 

When the Marina was first conceived in 1968, the newly merged BL needed a Mk2 Cortina contender, and a reskinned and stretched Minor seemed the simple route.  Er, not quite.  Turns out the tooling was stuffed and spare space at the factory had been "borrowed" for other uses.  Management had a sort through the BL parts bin, and found some useful Triumph parts to use - the diff and gearbox from the Herald.  Initially choice for engine was the OHC Maxi, but the product planners decided the Maxi was going to use all the production (it never came close), so the venerable 1275 A-series and 1800 B-series got roped in.  Ideal for a cheap as chips repmobile.

 

So in 1971 the British public got the Marina, in a huge range of trim and body styles, and bought enough to keep it in the Top 5 sellers for most of the decade.

 

At the same time, Leyland Australia were developing the P76 big saloon, and had the X6 Tasman & Kimberley, and the 1500 & Nomad variants of the Austin 1300.  The fwd cars weren't selling well, and had high warranty claims, but a simple rwd car seemed just the ticket to increase market share and profits.  But they couldn't just import the Marina from England, due to import tariffs, so they had to fettle it for Australia.  First problem was they didn't have the B-series engine, as their tooling had worn out, and they'd geared up for the OHC Maxi E-series engine and it's 6-cylinder cousin.  Simple solution, do what the Poms had originally planned, and fit the 1500 and 1750 OHC engines.  Job done, and 20-50kg lighter to boot.    Interiors got a makeover, with locally made high-back seats and door trims.  The rear axle was sourced from Borg Warner, the same Model 68 as fitted to the local Cortina, Escort, Corolla and Datsun 1200.  The bonus for customising was that it used the Ford 4&1/2" (108mm)stud pattern, instead of the UK Marina's unusual Triumph 3&3/4" (95mm) PCD.

 

So having shipped a crate of body panels halfway round the world and bolted in a truckload of Australian bits, on to Auckland came Ozzy...

 

When I bought him, a previous owner had had the rust repaired by a panelbeater, and he had been repainted in the original "Bold as Brass" yellow.  The interior was still in it's worn state, dirty and water stained.  The guy I bought him from had tracked down a number of new or good condition trim items, such as lights and dash.  The original twin carb motor had been replaced with a single carb version, but the TC motor came with the car - will get that rebuilt, polish up the carbs and get some new Ramflow filters (the original ones are looking a bit tatty).

[locost_bryan]

Ozzy as he was :-

 

 

At the panelbeaters (anyone recognise the place?)

[locost_bryan]

And after he came back from the panelbeaters...

[locost_bryan]

Here's what needs doing to the interior.  The seats and door cards need a little work, as would be expected after 40 years in our sunlight.

 

The vinyl on the door cards has got stained, and the clear plastic coating on the "chrome" trim is peeling off.  Have to decide whether to stay with the original "parchment" beige trim, or change it to black to better match the yellow paint.  Also have to decide whether to stick with vinyl on the seats, or upgrade to cloth.  Vinyl was standard in '72, but the "posh" models were upgraded to cloth from '73.  Have an image from the brochure that shows the later cloth seats, should be able to get something to match the pattern/texture.  Will then get a set of moulded carpets from the Auckland crowd who advertise on TradeMe, in a colour to suit the seats.

 

The steering wheel needs replacing, as the spokes are separating from the wooden rim.  I have a good Nardi wooden wheel, but with the "wrong" spoke style and no boss kit. A three spoke leather wheel was an option, so a 15" Motolita or Mountney should be ok.

 

Unfortunately the headlining has been ripped where it is perforated over one of the air outlets on the "C" pillar.  Will have to see what the auto-upholsterers can do about that.

[locost_bryan]

Long time since the last update.

Engine was sent off to West Auckland Engine Reconditioners for a freshen up.  Turns out it had been bored out .040", and just needed a hone plus new rings and bearings.  Cam had been reground at some point, but was a bit worn, so was sent off for some attention.  Required new cam adjusting shims to be made, as the correct ones couldn't be found in the required thicknesses to suit the reprofiled cam.  Also required repairs to the backing plate, as this closes off the rear coolant gallery and had corroded badly. Had to be welded up and ground smooth.

Mysteriously, the dipstick and tube were missing.  Fortunately an acquaintance in Invercargill with a restored TC Coupe, had found a rotten TC in a paddock and was able to supply the missing parts.  Gordon was also able to salvage the hinge blocks for the rear quarterlight windows, which are no longer available new.

Also missing from the engine was the original distributor, so I opted not to get the original Lucas 29D recurved, and ordered an electronic 43D from Powerspark in the UK.

[locost_bryan]

After stripping the engine, WAER found the cast iron manifold had been badly repaired in the past and was beyond salvation. Thankfully there was a spare in my stash of parts, so that saved the day.

Fortunately the worn ring gear was easily replaced.

[locost_bryan]

As with most projects that have been through several owners while dismantled, a few odd things went missing and required a global search to find replacements.

The rubber seal for the front passenger's quarterlight window had gone AWOL, I eventually found a NOS one in Arkansas, from a guy who had acquired the parts stock from a mid-west MG and Austin dealer.

A set of new TC wheel covers came from another NOS parts collection in Australia.

The engine was fitted with the wrong oil filler cap, a tall vented Mini one, rather than the correct short non-vented one. A Facebook search eventually sourced one from an Austin 1500 owner in Aus.

A replacement for the worn oil pump drive was sourced from the UK, fortunately one of the few Maxi parts that Leyland Australia had used and retained the original part number. 

[locost_bryan]

All the missing parts have finally arrived, and been delivered to WAER.  Dropped box at the COVID barrier at the front door, rang Eric to let him know, then had a brief socially-distanced discussion about the next steps.  Waved to @piazzanoob when he walked out into the workshop just as I was heading off.

Marina was sent off for a new exhaust, as the front pipe had rusted out and the rest of the system was heading the same way.  Decided not to get too carried away, as the biggest restriction is probably the outlet from the stock cast iron manifold, even though it has a 4-2-1 layout.  Did a bit of research on what MGB folk recommend, as it has a similar power range, and my cam is similar spec to a fast road MGB.  Consensus was that the stock 1 3/4" was too small, and that 1 7/8" gave the best drivability and throttle response, but 2" gave a slight boost at the top end.  Anything larger was found to give less power.  Should give a little more power and a sportier exhaust note, as Leyland fitted the same piddly exhaust to the TC as they did to the single carb 1500 and 1750.

Might have to save up some pennies to put it on the rolling road and see how it compares to the stock 90bhp at the flywheel.

[locost_bryan]

Still waiting to get the Marina back (not that I'm concerned, sat long enough like most old school projects lol).

Last update the engine had been started up, after fitting a new battery.  Old one had died, strangely it was dated from the noughties but I'd bought it less than 5 years ago. Not something I'd thought to check when buying from Ripco or Supercheap.

Had a little drama when they tried to move it, and the brakes had locked on.  Traced to a seized caliper.  More fun and games as it is fitted with Australian Girlock calipers, instead of the Girling LF14 calipers fitted to virtually every small British car in the 60s and 70s.  None of the suppliers had details for them, so while I suspected the Girlocks should be identical to the Girlings, no-one could be certain, so they got sent off to a Hamilton outfit who specialise in overhauling the Aussie stuff.

Ordered new elements for the factory-fitted Ramflo filters, took two weeks to cross the ditch.

[locost_bryan]

After delivering the filter elements just before Christmas, discovered the base plates were missing, and had to order those too.  So another months delay, but what the heck, it's been a while already. 

Delivered the base plates, and the engine guys were finally able to run the engine safely, without worrying it would suck in a lose bolt or some such.

Due to the time it had been there, they had been having to move it around a bit, which wasn't doing the engine any favours, so was recommended to run it under load on the dyno to bed in the rings.  Getting it to run properly turned into a bit of a drama, when carbs were set correctly at idle it ran very rich higher up the rev range.  The temporary solution was to wind the jets down to lean out the mixture. The permanent solution will be new jets and needles. Might get some leaner BBR needles from the Maxi HL, to compare to the Marina's BAD.

Finally got it home today. Nice to hear it running, and to reverse it off the tow truck and drive it into the garage. Clutch working well, no trouble engaging first or reverse. A couple of things will need attention, lots of travel in the brake pedal, despite the calipers being overhauled, no doubt the rear cylinders will need looking at. Rev counter not working, supposed to be ok with the Powerspark distributor, will need to check the wiring.

Pulled out the back seat, which is a brown cloth one from a later car, since I want to keep the original vinyl seats for authenticity, and the matching cloth front seats have completely different mounts anyway. Underneath I found two of the quarterlight rubber hinge blocks that I'd spent a year scouting the world for, and had finally found in a paddock near Invercargill. Wonder where the other two ended up.

Anyhow, here are a couple of videos of the engine running.  OCD will require turning the filter mesh and clips to line up properly.

 

[locost_bryan]

Oof, 2 years since the last update. 

Finally pulled finger and ordered four sets of Superpro suspension bushes. Ordered them from an Aussie crowd on Trademe, who offered a package deal that was pretty good. Ended up getting charged about 20% more, because they quoted in Aussie dollars. Decided not to complain, as it was still cheaper than I could get from anywhere else.

Took a long time to arrive, as they had to order some in from the UK.

But they're here now, dispatched from Aussie on the weekend and delivered today.

Also used a Supercheap voucher I got from work to buy a new grease gun.

Now I need to make time to go into the store to get some rubber lube that I couldn't seem to order online. Then I can put the rear quarterlight windows in.

And make a trip to the transfer station to get rid of some old furniture that has cluttered up the garage.