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Doullama's 1977 Marina van


doullama

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Better start at the start I suppose. At the tender age of 17 I bought a 1977 Austin-Morris 10cwt (ok, its a marina) from some barry in rukuhia for $1200. 4k motor, 5sp, disc front, air shocks rear, certed in 94'. Had it for around 7 years, and had a blast in, on & around it. Painted it repeatedly, and had to fix everything on it myself as my beer, ciggy and tinny budget was tight. Sold it to a mate of mine, he ran it for around 2 years until the intake gasket went, it then went on a suburban lawn & had the windscreen pinched for a marina ute, which was the last I had seen or heard of it, so assumed it had become poor quality refrigerators. Caught up with the mate on facebook, hadn't spoken in years. Asked him about the vans fate, turns out it had been shedded with the rego on hold since a few weeks after I last saw it, and would I like it back? Apparently the footwells were now pretty rusty etc.  Was pretty keen for nostalgia's sake, so sold the 48' superpoise to make space.

 

Went to have a sharn & pick it up today, was pleasantly suprised by it's condition. The fancy paint job ain't so fancy anymore, but the van is still very solid. footwells only have rust on pass. side around one of the drain-holes, and where the old (now discarded) toyota seat reinforcing plate sat against the floor.  Came with heaps of parts, i'd given the guy a good cond but woefully hopeless mk3 marina estate at the time I last saw the van, he'd dismantled it for anything useful, so should have just about everything to put back together, and then some! His kids had been using it as a playhouse, they've painted the inside rear of the van with clouds, rainbows, dinosaurs etc, I think i'll leave it as it'll be brilliantly creepy. Also found my marlboro lighter that had been m.i.a for a decade haha

To do:

-patch pass. floorpan, clean & paint entire floor & underside (cbf dependant, doesn't look too bad.) 

-chuck driver door on, was removed to make it easier to push haha

-few dents to beat n bog

-new sprayjob, colour to be determined, probably black again for nostalgia

-jam in one of the windscreens, even has good rubber

-hook the rear brakes back up, he had planned to put the estate diff in as its taller, however its marina stud pattern (4x95?) and I wanna keep my cheviot 6x14's.

-set tappets, bolt on exhaust & intake manifolds 

-new fluids etc etc ETC, get er running

-brakes, bearings etc if needed

-wof & escapades

-presumed death by piano

 

-

 

 

 

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Had work today, didn't stop me hitting up eBay though. nos rh tail-lamp on its way from blighty, along with a marina key-ring. On the lookout for Leyland mud flaps, perhaps a 4k inlet manifold with single carburettor for initial ease, may get the twin Aisans overhauled. A set of good rear doors would be nice, the ones on there have seen a few inattentive drivers over the years. Has a meaty steel step about 1 1/2 ft wide to go on the tow bar, which ought to prevent further damage.

27/6/17 Have ordered a one piece 7kc manifold gasket, the reason it was parked up was it kept blowing manifold gaskets between 2 & 3, measured up and seems it's fallen victim to the ol' 12mm intake flange, 10mm coby extractor flange scenario, plus crappy acl 2-piece gaskets. I could get the intake machined down, but that's not bodgy enough for me so i'll just chuck a few cut down 2mm washers on there. Need a smaller feeler gauge set for the tappets, mine only goes down to .010 nyaaah. Finished removing and tidily-ish storing the van-load of spares from van finally too, even has a fully siiick chin spoiler from estate

edit: also all fluids, belt, plugs, feeler, ground strap, filters, extra bodging supplies etc. Thanks supercheap with yo free delivery. Will try 4rage oil filter, better startup oil pressure the 4k foamers say. Can't wait to get this motor buttoned up.. luckily found manifold & rocker cover bolts in parts mountain. studs would probably be better, see how it goes.  Better get a battery at some stage too I suppose.  

Cheap bunnings compressor has finally died after years of abuse, plus theres a "mysterious" 6" piece of air-hose missing, probably an 8mm socket too. May spring for a fancier 2nd hand unit, though it did provide great service! painted 4-odd bedfords, several cars and a good deal of my house over the years. Am kinda leaning towards heinous mustard or satin black for its initial repaint at this stage

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  • 2 weeks later...

We have a runner! Set, tappets, shimmed up the exhaust, set the timing and away she went, runs nicely stationary anyway. Once new h/brake cable turns up can commence "round the block" testing. Thought for sure i'd have carburetor trouble since the twin aisans have been shelf-bound for so long but so far, so good. Can now hack into the body in earnest

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  • 3 weeks later...
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Well, tits. Hooked up the speedo cable (bodged ke20), a vacuum gauge (epic bodge involving the cut down end of an old grease gun extension, v proud) and a new temp gauge. Had the thing running for a while (perhaps 10 min) when I plugged the temp sender in, oh f**k its boiling! turns out the thermostat was seized shut, didn't even think to check if the radiator was getting warm. Binned thermostat and now theres oil/compression bubbles in the water, hooray! thankfully only a half hour job to tear it down (realistically 15m of which was smoko). Never would have happened with a leyland product, thermostat would have been binned decades ago! 

Will get head reco'd & planed, some new head bolts & round 2

 

 

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Getting so close to wof-attempt time now, got windscreen squirters & fuel gauge going, chin spoiler on (+10 bhp) seats, door cards etc. Hopefully just re-attach the earth to the horn and a pair of tie-rod bushes (which I should really order) to go. Brakes work well with new fluid and various levels of abuse to free them up

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Van is now road legal for the first time in a decade :-D  Just needed a couple of bits & pieces, wiper bolts tightened, one plate light out, rear brake balance, rear door weatherstripping (chucked some random stuff on, effective and s&m looking) and headlight aim.

Still heaps to tutu with as I go

Next on the list:

-get a needle point grease nozzle/ maybe jack van up on random angles so I can grease front & rearmost universal

-halogen headlight conversion

-pair of 70s house speakers for GWAR and slayer only (and jethro tull's aqualung)

-keep tidying the body

-idle past educational institutions

etc

 

 

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New fanbelt, vented the cap, re-oiled the front shocks.. turned out what I thought was diff backlash clonking was actually the u-bolts being loose a.f clonking, phew! also much less rattly in general, not that it matters as I now have giant speakers :-D All I can really think of now to suss out before random upgrades/neglect is a non-working heater blower motor (though enough crap came flying out of the vents during test running that i'm hopeful it will work now) and a non-working front interior light. Idles a little erratically too, sometimes steady at 700rpm, sometimes steady at 1000. Probably carbs a bit out of sync or timing but no big deal, she runs good! 

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Sussed out my interior light tonight, and plugged in the heater blower switch. Flicked the switch and plenty of current draw but no go.. After staring at it thoughtfully for a bit, gave the heater box a judicious kick and with a Whrcrunchsqueaksqueakwhirrcrunchsqueakwhirrrrrrrrrrr It came back to life, meaning that at this point EVERYTHING WORKS. Place your bets on what will break first now

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  • 2 months later...
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Been mucking around a bit with Hz, rot-hunting mostly. Water blasted off heaps of primer and filler, no more than expected really. Worst of it (so far) is probably the belt line where the turret mounts onto the "ute" bit at the back, pulled the carpet off inside & looks like the windows have leaked over the decades & rotted out the junction of upper, lower & inner skin, in fact someone's added an overlay inner skin to brace the sides (glued on even) , but the 6 inner pillars are more or less floating. Some welding has been done here but some has been subject to a space-age solution. (Panel steel glued on & filled) Will probably have to remove the inner bracing & extra inner skin to patch the original. Would dare say this will warp the sides a bit but they're already pretty warped! Bit hard to see in the pics as the inside looks awful with various paint/glue/fluff/80s pubes etc. should have just fixed the lil bog-blowouts & called it good haha. Unfortunately most filler is over bare metal so will be an ongoing thing unless the body is blasted/dear god no

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