KwS Marina Coupe

[Flash]

Well done on the WOF. What an amazing result. I've been following your Marina journey from the start and must compliment you on the way that you have phased this restoration. From a motivational point of view it's way easier to tackle the beautification phase on a vehcile that is already running and road legal. Too many folk dive straight into the paintwork and bling and then run out of steam when they realise that on top of this time consuming and financially draining bit they still have all the mechanical work to face. I'm looking forward to the next phase of your journey. Happy motoring. 

[Sunbeam]

Well done. It’s a good feeling getting an old car back on the road. Mine was only off the road for 17 years but when it clean sheeted its first wof I nearly passed out. I’m now finding lots of little things I want to fix…

[locost_bryan]

Congratulations!

That steering wheel isn't too dissimilar to the optional factory leather wheel

[thegreatestben]

Hard work always pays off in the end! Well done mate.

[Nominal]

Good news. Sounds like the new WOF shop is happy to look at an older vehicle and not judge a book by it's cover.

It's nice to get something back on the road, I managed it with the Morris Oxford Traveller and it was quite satisfying.

[westy]

Nice work fella!

[fuel]

must be an amazing feeling to finally get it road worthy after all these years

[kws]

18 hours ago, Flash said:

Well done on the WOF. What an amazing result. I've been following your Marina journey from the start and must compliment you on the way that you have phased this restoration. From a motivational point of view it's way easier to tackle the beautification phase on a vehcile that is already running and road legal. Too many folk dive straight into the paintwork and bling and then run out of steam when they realise that on top of this time consuming and financially draining bit they still have all the mechanical work to face. I'm looking forward to the next phase of your journey. Happy motoring. 

Thanks everyone, it does feel good to finally have gotten over that massive hurdle that's been so daunting for years. The closer I got to it being ready for a WOF check, the more scary it got.

I think you might be giving me a little too much credit there @Flash. The order i've phased the work really comes down to the fact that I enjoy mechanical work and utterly loathe bodywork There is definitely something to be said for having an ugly, but drivable "rolling project" as you say. I'd be even further behind schedule had I decided to tackle more of the bodywork; the work I had to do set me back way more than expected as it was but was necessary to move forward.

I've only driven it for one "for the fun of it" drive so far, since insurance isn't sorted yet, but I wanted to take my wife for a quick spin (she won't go in any of my cars until they're road legal). Starting to hear and feel things I haven't noticed before, but I'm sure there'll be plenty of small things that pop up. As we parked up for photos a mum and her kids walked by, and I heard the little boy exclaim "look at that it's so cool!" and that made me real proud.

Looking forward to bolstering/being the Morris Marina showing at British Car Day, and hopefully the MGCC runs their grasskhana at Threntham again next year as I'm real keen to throw this around it

[ajg193]

Do you know what the story is behind the plates on it? Carjam doesn't show any earlier plates, but it seems strange someone would put new ones on just as it got taken off the road

[kws]

59 minutes ago, ajg193 said:

Do you know what the story is behind the plates on it? Carjam doesn't show any earlier plates, but it seems strange someone would put new ones on just as it got taken off the road

Sadly not. I asked the seller/son about it and he wasnt sure and with his dad gone the story was lost to time. I have the original re-rego paperwork for it, but no reason why it was dereg in the first place. The son has the original black plates, and im trying to get hold of them from him for histories sake but he's older and a bit hard to get hold of.

[ajg193]

I reckon those white plates suit it,  especially with how they still have the old white plate font. Would be a shame to get modern black plates on it (I'm assuming your posts in the plates thread referred to this car)

[RUNAMUCK]

No added value from me, but those are Chrysler key blanks. They're a facsimile of a factory pentastar key.

[jakesae101]

If you want to borrow a colour tune to help with the tuning let me know as i have one although i did most of my tuning by road tune on the mini but it ended up rather close to when i put the colour tune in. Playing with different dashpot oils 30w in it currently, i have the genuine su oil if you want to try some of that 

[tortron]

I once tinned a slightly worn SU throttle shaft with solder and lapped it into.the housing with jewlers rouge. Good for when they are just starting to get too much slop.

[kws]

9 hours ago, jakesae101 said:

If you want to borrow a colour tune to help with the tuning let me know as i have one although i did most of my tuning by road tune on the mini but it ended up rather close to when i put the colour tune in. Playing with different dashpot oils 30w in it currently, i have the genuine su oil if you want to try some of that 

Thanks, I do actually have one on the shelf, just haven't got around to using it. I too used it on my Mini when I had it. I just changed to the Penrite dashpot oil, but was previously running 20w oil. Probably changed too much in one go...

8 hours ago, tortron said:

I once tinned a slightly worn SU throttle shaft with solder and lapped it into.the housing with jewlers rouge. Good for when they are just starting to get too much slop.

This carb is only a short term solution anyway, so its not worth me spending time or money on. The goal is to get the twin carbs on sooner rather than later.

[VitesseEFI]

On 28/12/2024 at 09:46, kws said:

The goal is to get the twin carbs on sooner rather than later.

Agree. HIFs are a more elegant design than HS….

[tortron]

Try some wheel bearing grease smeared on the outside of thr throttle shaft to help keep the air out when tuning 

 

Also keep.all your worn out carbs in a nail box for me thx

[tomble]

I love how stubby this car is.

[kws]

Well hell, it might almost work...

Thanks to @locost_bryan for the lower arm for mocking up

[Nominal]

Pity the MECCNZ were so rude, we were members for a few years, until we moved up this way and found them an OK bunch mostly.

Maybe it was the old 'Morris 8' guard there on the day.