Going a full circle into a Marina again. KwS's 1973 Morris Marina Coupe.

[kws 4,769]

Many years ago, about 14 years or so, I bought a car off a friend so I could learn to drive and get myself to work. It cost me $400 with reg and wof, and was awesome.

That car was a 1976 Morris Marina 1.8 SUPER. It was green ("Spanish Olive"), and it was damn near immaculate at the time. The only issue was that it drank about as much oil as it did petrol and the second gear synchro was slow.

I thrashed that for a while, but eventually the Japanese bug bit and I sold it when I picked up a dirt cheap N/A BFMR Familia. I sold it to a young kid who wanted it to learn in like I did, but it was soon sold again and as far as I know its been sitting in a barn since. Rego on hold, but probably a pile of dust.

Being the complete sicko that I am, despite owning many cars, and bringing a few other classic Brits back from the dead, I've always pined for another Marina. Hell, my Wife tried to buy my old Marina back a few years ago, but that fell on its face for various reasons.

I figured if I can't get the old green machine back, the next best thing would be to keep an eye out for the ultimate version, the coupe.

Coupes are rare. Well, Marinas, in general, are rare thanks to the (misguided) unpopularity of them, but coupes are just something you never see. Before I went and looked at a wrecked Twin Carb (TC) coupe in a field over Xmas, I hadn't seen one in person.

The coupe in the field I ended up passing on because of its location (middle of nowhere; expensive to get a truck to pick it up), and the fact someone had pinched the plates and tags from it (probably to rebirth another Marina that had a dead rego) and it couldn't legally be put on the road again. If it's still available I might end up buying it for parts, we'll see.

Anyway, back to the story at hand. The other day I had a PM from a fellow Old School forum member that knew I was looking for a coupe, letting me know there was one just listed on Facebook Marketplace. Sure enough, there it was.

That's the one and only photo on the listing (and it's not a TC), but that didn't matter to me. I got in touch with the seller and within an hour of being listed, we had agreed to a sale and it was mine.

The next day seller sent me more photos showing the current condition.

The worst bit (that the seller knows of), the rust in the sill

And the AUS spec OHC 1750cc E-Series single carb power house.

As the story goes, the sellers dad has had the car for years, and the father and son started to restore the car to former glory. Unfortunately, the father passed away and the car has been in limbo since.

The seller was happy to hear that I intend on returning the car to the road and undertaking a restoration of sorts. It may not go back to completely original, but I'm not going to chop it up and hot rod it.

I have no doubt the car will be a hell of a lot of work and a lot of money. The first job is to even get it here, as it's currently across the Cook Strait in Blenheim and I'm in Wellington. Not far as the crow flies, but a large body of water that can only be crossed by plane or boat blocks it. A truck is arranged to pick it up at the end of next week, and then I'll get to see what the heck I've got myself into.

This particular car is a little interesting just in the fact that's its an NZ Built, Aus spec car, meaning it gets the E-Series Over Head Cam engine, instead of the A or B series pushrod engines the UK cars have, but also has various bits of local content such as brakes, suspension and interior. Decoding the VIN it appears to be a Deluxe spec, with the 4 speed manual.

The plan is to sell the TVR to make space and money, get the Marina going and stopping, and then cut out the rust. New sill panels are available off Trademe, so will replace the whole sill, and cut out any other rust I find. Once its solid, going and stopping, then its just a case of taking it for a WOF inspection to see where I'm at. What happens after that depends if I can get hold of the TC in the field.

Oh, did I mention the rego is on hold? Well, it is, and its been off the road for almost 25 years. This will be the oldest save of any I've had before.

The cool thing is that the rego is super optimistic...

Yeah, its a "Sports Car", just like the TVR. I dont think anyone has called a Marina that before.

I've started collecting things that might be important, such as an original BLMC workshop manual, in original Marina branded binder

Ideally, I'd love to get this on the road, tidy up the interior, repaint the exterior (original paint, which I think is Bold As Brass yellow, or a different colour...?) and then rebuild and fit the twin carb engine from the field car to it.

I need to have the car in my hot little hands first and see what it needs and what it's missing. I could be over my head in rust issues yet, who knows. We'll see soon enough.

Discuss here

[kws 4,769]

Well, in a shock turn of events this arrived today. Didn't even know it had been picked up until Brent messaged me saying he was a couple hours away from delivery. Wasn't expecting it until the end of the week.

Once again Brent from Classic Towing is a legend. Laid the bed of the truck flat down my steep driveway and winched the car straight into the garage. 

Its going to be a TON of work, but it seems like a decent solid base to start with. Found the re-rego documents from 1995 in the car, and its been owned by the family since at least then.

"Movers of fine automobiles" - Damn right

[kws 4,769]

Here I was, Monday night, sitting watching a movie with my Wife when suddenly I get a text message... "I'll deliver the Morris off tonight about 9:30". A few days ahead of schedule, awesome!

I wasn't expecting the car to be picked up until late this week, but with the potential for chaos due to the latest Covid19 level change and risk of the Ferry being booked out or cancelled, my job was pushed forward and here we are.

Sure enough, a couple of hours of completely cool, calm and collected waiting...

I hear a truck pull up and calmly walk outside to greet Brent.

Of course it was pouring down with rain and pitch black, but that didn't matter. It was Marina time.

"Movers Of Fine Automobiles" - Yup, not wrong there!
One of the many good things about Brent is that he is very experienced and has the right gear. When I asked if he might be able to winch the car straight into the garage he barely flinched; of course he could. He backed the truck up to the drive

And then just laid the whole deck down my steep driveway, meaning the car only had to be winched off the deck and then down about two meters of the drive before it was in the garage. So easy. Better than pushing it with flat tyres and no brakes.

And then I got a first look at what I had. Brent scared me a little when he asked if there was no engine in it! Of course there was! it's just, small.

Meet Alex, the 73 Morris Marina Coupe.

We had a good chat about cars, and he had a look over the TVR we pushed off the truck 18 months ago, which attended its second British Car Day just the day before.

After bidding Brent farewell, I had a poke around.

The interior was full of bits that had been removed from the car, and the seats aren't bolted down. Unfortunately between the leaking windscreen seal and the window partly down, the interior was a bit wet and stinks of old wet stuff.

The boot was tied down (as requested) as the boot lock is missing

Overall it doesn't seem that bad. There is rust, and its a shame there is so much shitty primer over the existing paint, but it looks fixable.

Of course, having the two Brits in the garage I had to take a photo. I'm aiming for the most "interesting" two-car garage in the neighbourhood. I think I win.

I was going to leave it until the next day but curiosity got the better of me. What was in the boot?

Goodies. That's what. More parts that had been removed from the car, the spare wheel, and a bunch of old spares like a carb, inlet/exhaust manifold, starter, and alternator.

I then tucked the cars away for the night and dreamt of bashing Marinas around the back roads, like the good old days.

The next day I got stuck into pulling the parts out and seeing what was in it, and what I'm missing. I also needed to get the parts in the footwell out of the water that was sitting in there.

The good news is that most of the big stuff is there. All the wheel trims appear in good shape, and the air box, RH outer door handle and window winder can be reused. There were also a couple of strange items in there too, like this Lucas Electronic Ignition box of magic. I'd love to know more about it but nothing comes up on google. It has three wires on one side, and a toggle switch and led on the other.

There was also this "HOT SPOT engine water heater" that plugs into mains. Obviously, its to preheat the coolant, but I haven't come across one of these in NZ before. It's generally not cold enough here for them, but they are common in the likes of Europe.

I did find a curious pair of paving slabs under the driver's seat though. They aren't high enough to touch the seat, so they aren't "support", but now I'm concerned about what's under them. My wife thinks its a big spider.

The boot has a whole bunch of treasure in it. Icecream containers of... stuff. Some of it has come off this car, like the badges, which all seem to be present and correct (too many if anything), but also a whole lot of random screws, bits of metal, plastic etc. I'm sure some of it will make sense.

The big box in the boot was made of wood and had been carefully built to fit around the wheel arch.

It's full of all the heavy stuff. Most of it is quite rusty, so probably useless, but I might be able to refurb some bits if needed.

One thing I didn't expect to find was the two exterior mirrors. The reflective coating on one has failed, but the other doesn't seem too bad. Both need a good clean, but it would be awesome to refurbish and retain these mirrors.

I'd love to know more about these mirrors if anyone has come across them before. The only marking is this on the back; DR.

Having cleaned some of the muck out, and knowing that I wasn't going to be eaten by spiders, I jumped aboard, onto the wobbly unbolted seat, and plonked myself behind the wheel for the first time.

The driving position is... interesting. As mentioned in the HubNut review of a MK1 Marina, the steering wheel isn't flat. It's centered in front of the driver, but the LH side is closer to the driver than the RH side. It's subtle, but noticeable.

 

 

Just part of its charm. The clutch is seized solid, and the brake pedal goes to the floor, so there is some work to do there. The throttle is actuating the carb, but the pedal seems to sit low and has little travel.

Once I was done with sitting and making brum brum noises I assessed what else was going on with the dash.

The gear knob is in good condition, and the gearbox although a bit vague goes into all gears OK. No doubt there will be a bush I can replace.

The cluster is partly disconnected and the center dash speaker is currently hiding behind it. The old gutter mount antenna is sitting on the dash.

Like most, the dash plastics have aged and cracked. Other than the missing corners on the ash tray it's quite minor though. No factory fit radio here.

The driver's door card is awol, so I'll need to source, or make, a new one. The passenger's side is a custom fibreboard job. The linkages have been bent from people trying to open the door, since the exterior handle has been removed. The RH door has quite a bit of play in the top hinge, so I'll need to weld in a tube to address that wear.

Both little vent windows open and latch though, which is awesome. Can't wait to drive with these open. The top hinge on the RH side has a bit of play in it but seems secure. It'll probably vibrate in the wind or something.

They need a damn good clean, but the gauges look good. 91,137 original KM. Note it is a KM speedo too, being NZ New and Aus spec.

Unfortunately the longer I poked around, the worse it got. The front floors have had some creative patching with plates and rivets, and there are some holes showing in the driver's side, so both floors will have chunks cut out and new metal welded in.

In the big scheme of things, thats easy to do.

The harder to fix rust will be this little section in the B-Pillar on the LH side, which will require the window to be removed

There is also rust under the bottom of the rear window, so that will need to be removed too (and the front windscreen needs a new seal, so I'll probably remove all the glass)

The boot has its fair share of rust too, thanks to various leaks and traps. The bottom of both rear quarters are showing bubbling, as is the rear valance panel. Those will be a pain to fix, but the lip for the boot seal is probably the worst, I don't think there will be a lip once I remove the seal.

The obvious rust is really the LH sill. Its the whole way along, so definitely a whole sill panel, but shouldn't be too bad to do, hopefully.

I haven't had a poke around under the car yet, but from what I could see kneeling on the ground, it looks vaguely ok. Its got to be done, so wherever the rust is, it will be fixed. At the end of the day though, for a 48 year old car that's been off the road for almost half that, it's doing pretty well. Much better than it would be had it lived in the UK, no doubt.

The last thing I did before packing up for the day and letting the car dry out, was to trial fit some of the badges and check I had them all. It appears I do, even if a couple of the holes have been filled.

There should be another MARINA badge on the Lh side of the boot lid, but currently there is a just a large dent filled with cracking off bog, so I'll need to bash that back out first.

Looking at the primer all over the car, I suspect it's painted straight over the yellow. Its also had another respray at some point, because there is a ton of yellow overspray, and things like brake lines in the engine bay have been painted. I'll want to clean all that paint off the various bits it shouldn't be on.

Since the paint is a mess I suspect it will be going to bare metal at some point, or very close to it. I'm still in two minds if I paint it myself, or outsource it to someone with more skill than me (but also more cost). I'll see how I go once all the good metal has been glued in.

This will be a slow project, initially. All my money is tied up in the TVR and Corolla, so the only progress here will be things that don't cost money. I do want to get the engine started soon, just to see what condition that's in, but I need to source an oil filter first.

Oh, and if you're wondering about the name earlier, yes, the Marina is called Alex. We've been working on names for it since I bought it, but nothing really stuck. Alex comes from Alexandra, which according to the paperwork I found in the car, was the town the previous owner had the car re-registered in back in 1995.

Unfortunately, the paperwork doesn't mention why the car was re-registered, but what I can tell is that it has done 1400km since it was re-registered back in 1995, and hasn't had a warrant inspection since. I've reached out to the seller to see if he knows the back story of why his dad re-registered it, and then it never got used again.

Once again, a HUGE Thank You to Brent at Classic Towing. He never fails to impress. If you need a car moved anywhere in NZ, give him a bell.

[kws 4,769]

Today has been the first real day of work on the Marina. I got some important prep work out of the way, and had a good look around under the car.

The first task on the list for today was to remove what was left of the interior and give it a vacuum out. I had to wait for the muck to dry first, and now that it was nice and dry I donned my gloves and mask and went to work.

The boot got completely stripped. The carpet was old house carpet and was rotting. Thankfully the metal under it is in good shape.

Cleaning the boot also showed where the rust is. The worst rust in the rear guard is where this little strip (to support the spare wheel?) is attached. It's basically rusted along that seam.

The other side is solid.

With all the seats removed the whole interior got a good vacuum. So much grot. Cleaning the floors shows the repair panels that have been riveted in and then sealed around.

There are about four patches on the passengers side alone, including one against the inner sill, which will need some work where it joins to the floor.

It's all pretty straight forward stuff to fix from what I can see. I'll need to work out how to press some strengthening ribs into the new panels, but I have a press and a welder, so I'll make something.

The RH side was no better, so that got a good clean too. I did find a lot of screws under the driver's seat, but no surprises under the paving slabs.

The rear wasn't missed. There was quite a bit of old mouse poo here too.

With most of my chances of catching Hantavirus sorted I got the car up on axle stands, which is where it will live for a while.

This gave me my first real look at the underside. The good news is that its extensively undersealed, which seems to have saved it from too much underside rust. The bad news is that its cobweb city.

Oh, and the rust that does exist. Like the LH half of the rear valance.

The RH side is almost perfect

The big Borg Warner diff. Need to source a LH bump stop, and probably shocks.

The exhaust has seen better days. Will patch it to get through the WOF and then look at the condition of the rest of the system and whether to just replace from the muffler back, or replace the whole thing.

One annoying thing is the driveshaft center bearing has collapsed, so I'll need to drop the shaft and replace that. Will also assess the Ujs and see if they need doing too.

Removing the driveshaft will give me the chance to replace the clearly leaking rear seal on the gearbox too

It's OK, the tyres are only flat on the bottom.

Cob webs. Everywhere. I took a broom to them, and they resisted my attacks.

Moving forward, we see the ancient Ryco Z83B filter. I ordered a replacement and picked up it this morning. There is a high probability this filter is from the 90s.

I think the moisture on the bellhousing is gearbox oil leaking forward from sitting. Its that, or the rear main is leaking, but since the car hasnt been driven anywhere it would be hard for the oil from the rear main to spread like that instead of just leaking straight down. It's amusing how HUGE the bellhousing is, and how small the gearbox is.

Around the front and I'm greeted by this thing. I worked out from the owners manual that its a "Hinged Kerb Guard". Well, it was seized solid in the sticky outty position.

It made a lot more sense once I freed it up and folded it back where it should be. I suspect it got caught at one point, maybe moving the car off a trailer or something, and overextended forward.

What it does, is protect the sump, which hangs way down under the car. This is a tall engine.

This is directly behind the guard. Yes, that hose in the front is the fuel hose from the pump...

Once freed up and folded back it looks like this. It has pins on either side that stop it from going further back.

I'm not sure why they bothered to "hinge" it. The "hinge" is just that it can rotate on the two bolts that attach it. If it was to make servicing easier, it would've been just as easy to make it fixed in place and removable. I'll just tighten the bolts in the furthest back position.

Next, I drained the engine oil and removed the old filter. The old oil stank and was the darkest black oil I have never seen. It was like draining treacle.

While waiting for it to slowly drain, I removed all the old spark plugs. The 4th plug was damaged at some point and the top was stuck in the (also damaged) ignition lead.

Luckily the OE Champion plugs cross over with NGK BP6ES, which oh hey, I happened to have on the shelf. I gapped them down the specified 0.6mm gap, but before fitting I used my awesome Castrol oil can to put a little oil into the cylinders to help the dry cylinder walls out a bit.

And now the new plugs went in

The oil was still draining, so I fit the replacement filter in the meantime. Because the engine hasn't run for about 10 years, I prefilled the filter before spinning it on. I don't normally, but this made sense to me.

Next was to replace the old fuel hoses from the carb back to the tank. The hose that had been put on the car from the pump to filter was... odd. I don't even know if it was fuel hose. Looked like a small garden hose, and was "food quality".

I replaced all the hose with 1/4" ID Gates and Codan hoses (depending on what was on hand at the time). All R6 rated, so not rated for EFI or Ethanol, but not an issue for me as its carb and I won't be running E10 in it.

When I did the Mini fuel system I got a filter at the time but didn't have the space to fit it. I've had that filter on the shelf since, so its good to finally put it to use.

As per the above photo, I took the top off the fuel bowl to see what was in there. There was a little bit of old perished fuel in the bottom but otherwise looked OK. This was cleaned out with a rag and brake cleaner.

I removed the dashpot and piston to clean. The inside of the carb was filthy, so that got a good clean. The old oil was drained and new 20W60 poured in on refitting. I may play with this dashpot oil if it's too thick, which I think it might be.

It's not all nicely polished, but its clean inside, and that's what matters. I'll look into a rebuild kit later and redo the whole carb.

Now it was finally time to pour in 3 litres of Penrite's finest HPR30 mineral 20W60. This stuff is gold for old cars. Total capacity is 3.4L including filter.

With the level checked, and between the marks, I moved onto the cooling system. I knew there was water in the expansion tank but appeared to be nothing in the radiator. I sucked out the old rusty water from the tank and cut the old hose off. I fit some of my spare rubbish J30 R9 hose from the radiator to overflow (all that hose is good for since its no good for 40+ PSI EFI).

I removed the bottle and gave it a damn good cleaning with the garden hose. Lots of chunks came out, but the lower outlet was completely blocked. It took me shoving a screwdriver through the outlet to clear it.

Now that I had free flow between the radiator and expansion tank, all that was left to do was fill the system and see where it all comes out again. One of my recent tool purchases came in handy for this. I've been wanting a coolant funnel for ages, but they're usually so expensive, but I scored this off Trademe for cheap, near new. It increases the head height of the coolant, making it easier to bleed, and has a tap to stop me making a mess when the funnel is still half full but the system is full.

Almost immediately there was a leak as soon as the level reached the top radiator hose. This isn't an original hose; someone has cut and shut it with a steel pipe in the middle. It should be one big S-shaped hose. I turned the pipe over which revealed why it was leaking.

Mmm, crusty. It was damp down one end.

I decided to try the other recent tool purchase, a radiator pressure testing kit. Its second hand and a bit rugged, but it still works. This highlighted quite clearly where the pipe had rusted through

The rest of the system handled 15psi happily, once I applied duct tape to the pipe. Even the radiator, despite having a bunch of missing fins and generally looking haggard, held pressure fine. I need to work out a way to pressure test the heater core too, since it's been bypassed and removed, but that may just involve hooking it back up to the car cooling system and pressurising it all again.

With all that work done, there was nothing left to do but see if the engine actually turns over. I refitted the damaged/old leads just in case it wanted to fire. I have replacements on the way though.

I borrowed the battery from the TVR

Turned the key and got dash lights!

The indicators also kinda worked, although they are flashing super spastically, probably due to the missing/blown bulbs in the rear and not being used for 25 years. No horn or headlights though.

Next, I turned the key further, and sure enough, the engine reluctantly turned over. It was kinda like an old man (me) getting out of bed in the morning. Very slow and kinda "eh, do I have to?". Adding a jump pack made it turn a little faster but it quickly ran out of juice and even then "faster" was still slow.

I need to get the car its own battery, but I'm also wondering about the engine grounds now as that is apparently a common reason for shitty slow cranking. I'll try again and see if we can get it fired up this weekend.

To celebrate its uh, not starting, I gave the car its face back. The center painted section still needs to be repainted and fitted, but otherwise, the difference with just the grille surround is quite large. Makes the car look proper. It'll come off again to see why the headlights don't work and to fix some minor rust in the panel, but it can hang there for now.

Damn, I've just noticed the bumper is on the piss too. Guess thats something else to fix.

[kws 4,769]

What more is there to say? It's not even the weekend yet and already the achievement is unlocked.

I popped down to the garage this morning not so much to work on the car, but to test the theory that adding a ground to the starter might help. It didn't, but having the battery in the car again also allowed me to check clearance for the battery and order the Marina its own one. NS60SMF, the same as the TVR but with the terminals swapped.

After cranking a few times the poor jump pack just couldn't keep up, so I resorted to hooking the Corolla up with jump leads and giving it a boost.

This did help it crank a bit faster, but it didn't matter, it still wouldn't kick into life.

I had the genius idea of checking the points in the distributor using a method I saw on Youtube at one point. Turn the ignition to ON, and then use a screwdriver to open and close the points. If they spark, it's good. If they don't, no good. Mine didn't spark.

A small file was used to clean both sides of the points and sure enough, now I had a big healthy spark between the points. That might do it.

The very first time I cranked it after cleaning the points, this happened.

It coughed. It didn't start, but it coughed. You can tell because the start disengaged (as it does when these old engines cough or start). It was close.

Some more Start Ya Bastard down its throat, and magic happened. It started.

Off the road for 25 years, last started about 10 years ago. After a few more coughs and splutters, it finally started and ran. Not very well, but it idled. The throttle is zip-tied half open and the choke was wide open. I think it was running off fresh fuel as there is fuel in the float bowl now, so the fuel pump is working (despite the fuel filter looking empty). I drained the tank yesterday of its 8L or so of super old varnish smelling dinosaur juice and topped up with some fresh new 98 octane.

It blew a whole bunch of junk out of the exhaust when it started. Big chunks of rust.

I'm happy with that. It needs new leads, and probably a whole carb rebuild, but I know it runs and the oil pressure light even went out. It's a win.

[kws 4,769]

After picking up the new battery, I couldn't help myself. It still cranks the engine fairly slowly, but after starting it a couple of times with Start Ya Bastard, it started to run on its own fuel. Not only that, but after a cough and splutter, it now runs as smooth as a modern engine. It's amazing.

It even starts easily and runs with no choke. The oil pressure and charge lights are off, indicating good oil pressure and the alternator is even charging.

I'm well chuffed. So much more work to be done, but knowing the engine seems to be in good shape is a huge boost to morale.

[kws 4,769]

One thing I love about buying old and neglected cars is getting all the electrics working again. The Marina is no different.

Much like the Mini and the TVR there were a few things that weren't working. None of the lights work, the wiper motor is disconnected, the washer motor doesn't work and the horn is silent. Basically, anything that is electric, didn't work.

Before jumping into the wiring I had to fix one thing thats been bugging me. The boot latch and lock.

When the car arrived the boot was tied down with string because the boot lock had been removed and was missing. As it turned out, the boot lock was there, in bits, scattered throughout the boot.

I found all the bits and using the workshop manual figured out how it all went together and damn, even the existing key works. I did a couple of test fits to make sure the lock was complete and would work, hoping I wouldn't permanently lock the boot closed.

The actual latch assembly was completely seized and would not latch. Soaking it for a bit in CRC seems to have done the trick and it latches and unlatches nicely now.

Digging through the icecream containers of stuff that came with the car turned up two of the three bolts that secure the latch, so I refitted it.

And BAM, the boot lid shuts, and even opens again with the key. Flash. You only get that kinda luxury with the Deluxe.

The lock action is simplicity in its self. The key barrel turns the plastic cam and the cam acts directly on the release tab on the latch, pushing it across and popping the lid. The cam is sprung to return the key to center when released. There is no internal release, so as the car came with a spare key for the locks, I've taken that off the keyring and located it somewhere safe, just in case.

Now, back to the task at hand. Wiring. My first port of call was to look at the headlights and see if we had power going to them. I removed the grille surround and sealed beam headlight. Well yes, there was power there, but something wasn't right.

There should be about 12.8V there.... Little bit of a voltage drop.

Moving back inside, whilst checking the indicator/dip switch, I noticed this purple while hanging down, connected to nothing.

It turns out this is for the horn. Well that will explain why it doesn't work. This is the same issue Tess had with her washer jets. The wire just flexes every time the stalk is moved and eventually snaps.

After removing the steering wheel, disconnecting the wiring and removing the switch assembly I carefully disassembled it. Once you remove the metal plate, this is all the gubbins inside it. Be careful though, there are a couple of ping-fuckkits in here. The three arrows indicate the three items of interest. These are little plastic mushrooms resting on top of springs. Under the one on the right is a small metal bar. Don't loose these.

Once you know where everything came from, gut it.

This is where the wire should join to; that little scrappy bit of bare wire above the purple/black wire.

To fix this you strip the broken wire back, knock the indicator stalk out of the white block, and refit the block back onto the spline of the stalk with the wire jammed in between the block and stalk. It's dumb.

Some creativity (and abuse of cheap tools) was employed to knock the stalk out without damaging the block. DO NOT STRESS THE CIRCULAR EARS.

I used a very fine punch to knock the stalk through

Jam the wire in, line it up (the correct way around) and hammer the block carefully back into place.

It all sounds too easy, doesn't it? Well yes, I just touched one of the ears after knocking it into place and the ear fell off, rendering the whole stalk useless.

Not to worry, a broken stalk assembly from a Princess came with the car. The high beam wouldn't latch, so I couldn't use the whole assembly, but I could strip it and harvest it for parts to make one good from the two.

It turns out despite being the same part number the two stalks are slightly different. They probably work the same, but the difference was enough for me to use the original Marina as the base for the repair. One of the changes though was to the exact issue the original stalk failed for; the wire now loops from the other side of the block and is supported when in place. BL obviously knew it was a problem.

This is why this stalk wouldn't latch. The center part on this is where the latching is done, it was broken off this stalk.

This is the Marina one for comparison

After some more bashing with hammers I finally had a good stalk, now all I needed to do was to join the wires again

I soldered the wires back together and fed it all through the base again. The base got a good clean and the contacts cleaned up with a fibreglass brush.

To aid reassembly I rigged a box to support the assembly and keep it steady whilst I put the bits into the base

Lots of dielectric grease was used during assembly, both to lubricate the movement and to keep everything in place. Don't forget to polish the bar that bridges the indicator terminals. I spun this up in a drill and used the fibreglass brush to polish it.

Once reassembled, making sure everything stays in place, the high/low beam contacts got a clean and grease. These were really oxidised.

Now I suddenly had front park lights, and a horn! What a solid toot it makes too.

No headlights, tail lights or dash lights through. I noticed when the headlight switch was moved from park to the main beam the park lights would turn off. Something wasn't happy.

I pulled the headlight switch out and disassembled it.

This was very dirty. Lots of corrosion, old grease and even some serious pitting on the sliding plate.

The contacts and sliding plate were thoroughly cleaned and polished with the fibreglass brush.

You can see the pitting at the top of the sliding plate. I refitted the plate upside down with that wear at the bottom, meaning the contact points are on nice fresh solid metal now.

Reconnecting the switch and now the headlights work. One of the sealed beam bulbs has a blown low beam so a temporary H4 was used to test.

High beam worked too

The action on the refurbished switches is lovely. A nice firm click. A+ would refurbish again.

The taillights were a bit more of a pain. First I wanted to remove the trailer plug that had been screwed into the rear panel (ugh), so had to strip back a whole bunch of old insulation tape, which revealed to me that old mate Twist-N-Tape had been here.

So many twisted wires and so much old sticky tape.

Glad to see the plug gone though. It was an eyesore. I'll weld the holes up and refit the MORRIS badge in the center where it belongs.

With that mess tidied up and a ground reconnected we had tail lights.

Once I cleaned up the bulb holder, which was very rusty, I even had a number plate light. It amuses me that it's just a single, unprotected little bare bulb. Seems to do an OK job though.

Unfortunately no real improvement on the indicators though. They still flash sporadically and the rear ones are very dim. I find it strange there are dual filament bulb holders fitted for the indicators in the rear though; standard fitment or a bodge?

I think the flasher relay might be poked, so will replace that and see how we go from there.

The interior light didn't miss out on the fun, I replaced the non-functioning bulb with a warm white LED. The light is literally crumbling away from age, but it still works when set to ON, but not on the DOOR setting. I'll look into that if I can find a good replacement light. In the meantime, the warm white LED looks nice and should reduce load.

I reconditioned the dash light switch too. This was full of old crusty grease and corrosion.

The sliding plate cleaned up well

And then there was light. I even gave the dials a quick clean to make them pop. Both levels of dimness work.

The high beam indicator works, but I may have to change to an LED bulb so I can actually see it.

They look pretty good in the dark. I love the simplicity of a 70s British dashboard. None of the light pollution current cars have. Takes me back to driving the original Marina.

The wipers and washer still don't work. I'm not sure if the wiper motor is good or not as even connecting it does nothing, so I'll try feeding some power into it and see if it comes to life or not. The washer motor is completely dead and feeding power into it does nothing. I suspect it probably rusted internally.

The last job for the day was to fit the new ignition leads that arrived. These leads were bought as a kit that also suits Allegros, Maxis, MGBs, Minis and Land Rovers among other things. Almost anything British and 4 pot it seems. It fit perfectly.

Crusty old leads

Nice new leads

Red is sporty. Makes the engine faster.

Speaking of, I had to check that the leads were doing their job, so started and ran the car up for a bit. I connected the throttle cable again, so now I have control over revs from inside the car, but sadly the cable is stuffed and binds so will need a new one.

The first cold start of the day wasn't bad either. Start on full choke, a few turns and it kicks into life. Easy.

I ran the car long enough to see the temp gauge start to climb. This indicates that the gauge and sender are both working, which is good. I also noticed looking at the photos that the fuel level changes between ignition on and off, so it seems like the fuel sender might be working too. I'll need more fuel to test that.

The engine keeps on running happily. I'm really pleased with it. After the initial issues trying to start up, it seems to be freeing up and starts easier now.

Progress is going to slow for a bit now. I've come to a point where either lots of time, money or both will be needed, so will wait until the TVR is moved on before I get stuck in proper.

[kws 4,769]

Oh no, I just doomed myself.

I've been looking at the primer on all the panels and thinking "hmm, it look really thin and appears to just be over the original paint".

Well, I touched a scrap of wet and dry 800 grit to one bit and the primer basically wiped off

So for the next 5 mins I continued on with said little scrap of 800 grit....

Theres certainly some mint Bold As Brass under there. There are also some small stone chips, and some thin filler. I think the PO used filler to plug the stone chips and then just rattle-canned primer over the lot. There is a white layer in there too, not sure what that is. Its Paint - Filler - White - Primer.

Now I'm kinda committed to sanding the lot off

[kws 4,769]

Just for my own records,

Clutch master is poked, but is a Triumph Spitfire part. Slave needs a new seal but otherwise looks OK, is a Girlock item.

Aussies were smart and used a circlip to retain the slave, so once the circlip is removed the whole lot comes out toward the front of the car.

Ive been slowly sanding the primer off the paint. The paint is average under the primer (its been sanded back before primer) but should clean up OK until I can afford to paint the car.

Found a big slab of bog in the front RH guard though. Rusty under it so need to pull it all off and see why it was there.

[kws 4,769]

Progress on the Marina has been slow, but things are still happening in the background when funds and motivation allow.

One such thing to happen was the purchase of a three-dial cluster during a recent trip to Horopito Motors (Smash Palace). They had a few clusters there in various states of physical distress, so I picked the best one they had. Unfortunately, it's from a Super so has a clock and not a tacho as I want, but since the housing is the same between them, all I need to do to fit a tacho is find the tacho unit and swap it out. The main thing is that all the mounting points are intact, and there are no cracks in the housing.

I couldn't help a quick test fit to see how it looks. Much more upmarket than the two dial cluster.

Now, being so dark in the rooms of Horopito, I didn't notice some damage to the cluster which needs fixing. The flexible PCB on the back has been torn and damaged the copper trace in the bottom corner

And someone had previously repaired another damaged section of copper trace by wrapping it around some bare strands of wire

It's not the end of the world though. I do have a good soldering station and I'm not bad at soldering. You just need to be damn careful not to melt the PCB and cause more damage.

Interestingly, here is what I mean about being able to swap the tacho in. On the left in this photo is the clock module. it's attached to the other two dials by two screws, meaning it can be removed separately.

I needed to strip the whole thing down as I wanted to remove the PCB to fix it, and also swap in my two dial cluster in place of this one as the speedo is for a 6 cylinder car and has a different ratio (not to mention the mileage is wrong, and the scale goes up to a crazy 200kph and doesn't have the MPH sub-scale). This allows me to keep my mileage correct.

The first job is to remove the voltage stabiliser, along with its spade terminals. The stabiliser gently pries off the board, and the terminals are held in with a screw each and you can press them out from the front of the housing with your fingers

Remove all the bulb holders, and the other various screws (including the four big brass ones) and start removing the little white push pins. I found it easiest to gently slide a flat blade screwdriver under the PCB (between the PCB and white housing) and under the head of the pin and then wiggle it. Take care not to poke or tear the PCB. Something like a butter knife might work well for this.

With all the pins removed the PCB should just lift off the housing. Next, I removed the four screws holding the housing to the fascia

and then five screws remove the fascia from the main frame of the surround

Everything got a thorough clean as it was all filthy. The fascia woodgrain appears to be some sort of very thin veneer, maybe even a sticker. It had torn slightly in one corner and it's clearly faded. Still very useable though. To clean the fascia I removed all the silver rings. These are held on with a twist lock. Just take care when pushing the tabs through the holes not to catch the veneer and tear it.

Now it was time to move onto the main dials. You can see the two main dials are just the standard unit from the two dial cluster and cannot be separated.

Two screws remove the clock

It was so filthy I couldn't leave it. I tried cleaning just the outside of the glass but found the inside was dirty too, so removed the glass. It is held on with three spring tabs. You can either remove the tabs as they are a press-fit onto the white housing, or just pull back the two on the left with one hand and then lift the glass out with the other. Take care not to touch the black surface inside the gauge as they will fingerprint badly. Don't damage the paper seal behind the glass either. The adjuster for the time has a tiny little slot screw at the end of it, and when you undo that the knob will come free (note for reassembly, the knob is keyed with a flat on one side)

After a thorough clean

I was about to store the donor dials away when I decided to swap the paper gaskets between those and my good dials as they had better seals and the warped seals could be seen when the dials were installed in the fascia. This spiralled into swapping a few other things.

After removing the dirty glass from the donor unit I noticed something. The donor says ALT and OIL on the warning lights, something mine doesn't have!

I love unmarked warning lights as much as the next person, but I was feeling fancy, so had to find out if I could swap the lenses over.

As it turns out, it's easy to do. The lenses are attached to that black ring, which is only held on with the spring clips.

Swapped, with cleaned glass and donor seal

Obviously I couldn't leave the speedo looking like that, so I removed and cleaned the glass and swapped a better gasket onto it

Now I could attach the clock to my refurbished two dial cluster

I cleaned and refitted the rings. They're slightly tarnished but still useable.

Now I had to fix the PCB. The best fix I could do was to bypass the damaged traces with a wire, soldered to the nearest big copper pad. First I cleaned the area I was going to solder on the PCB with a fibreglass brush to get any tarnishing or coating off the copper, and then tinned the PCB and end of the wire (yes, I stripped the wire way too far back. It'll be OK. The others are shorter).

And then soldered the wire to the tinned copper pad. I tried to have the wire as close to the edge and as flat as possible so that it wouldn't interfere with the screw that goes through the PCB.

That wire is quite long and I wanted to make sure it'd clear the housing. Since its installed back on the housing now I'll secure the wire with tape. You can just see the other repair below it. I snipped the previous "repair" and soldered directly to the pad and to the top of the plug contact.

I reassembled it, and tested.

It was all going so well until I tried to install an LED into the high beam indicator (as it's SUPER dim with a bulb in it) and when removing the LED to turn it around and change the polarity to see if it would work, the metal housing of the LED shorted on the back of the PCB and blew one of the traces to bits. Cue much swearing, and soldering a new link in to bridge the burnt-out trace. I had to insulate under this one as its really close to the other traces and I didn't want them to short out against the new wire.

Another test shows that thankfully I didn't cock it up completely, and everything works again. Phew.

Well, by "everything" I mean everything but the clock, since that is dead as a doornail. I tried feeding 12V straight into it and it will tick once, the second hand will move, and then it's dead until I remove and replace power, where it will tick once, again. Very disappointed. So now I'm left with a couple of options. Find a tacho module to swap in. Disassemble and break the clock more fix the clock. Or Find an aftermarket tacho that matches the size and style and 3D print a bracket to hold it in place. Not sure what I'll do yet, but I do have a lead on a stock tacho, so we'll see.

Before giving up for the day I thought I would try some 303 Aerospace Protectant on the super dry vinyl dash. It came up surprisingly well. It's still very dry and has a lot of overspray on it, but its black, not grey now. It just drank the 303 up, so will keep applying more and see if it softens it over time.

A bit different from how it looked before.

I've got a wee box of bits waiting to go into the car, but I'm still waiting on a few more parts to arrive from the UK. I need the BMW to sell before I can really get cracking. It's listed for sale now, so hopefully someone falls in love with it soon.

[kws 4,769]

Typically, being sat for 25 odd years, none of the hydraulics work. The clutch pedal is solid, and the brake pedal goes to the floor, and both do nothing to their respective components.

I removed and stripped the clutch master and slave a while back, just to see what was going on. The slave was definitely seized, as using a long prybar on the clutch fork to compress the slave resulted in a sudden BANG and it started to move freely. I still needed to remove it to inspect though, as it was obviously getting hung up on something.

The Aussies are a bit smarter than the Brits with the slave cylinder. The UK cars you need to remove the clutch line, remove the clutch pin, and then try to slide the cylinder towards the rear of the car, and get it out from between its housing and the clutch fork. Sometimes this is easy, other times it requires a special tool to push the clutch fork back to create space. The Aus cars have a circlip to secure the slave, so once that and the clutch line is removed, the slave slides towards the front of the car, where there is ample space to remove it. In fact, one of the UK manuals I have claims the slave can ONLY be removed if the gearbox is removed from the car!

UK cars

And Aus cars

With the slave removed and on the bench, I removed the pushrod pin and boot. You can see the rusty sludge that the piston has moved.

After I cleaned the sludge out of the holes in the circlip and removed it, the guts of the cylinder came out with some prodding.

Everything actually looked reasonably good, with minimal signs of rust in the bore. There was some at the very front, which a quick touch up with fine sandpaper fixed no issue. I'll be reusing this slave, but have a new seal kit for it. I could have gotten away with reusing the existing seal, it looked fine, but don't want to do the job twice for the sake of a few quid. That kit arrived the other day, so will rebuild that soon.

The master on the other hand is a write off.

I removed it from the car, removed the pushrod, and thats as far as I can go

No amount of "gently tapping" will force that piston out. I ended up putting about 70PSI behind it, and only got this far

I can only presume the piston and/or the bore is rusty and just binding. It turns out this is a Spitfire master cylinder, so have ordered a complete replacement and will fit that when it arrives.

Moving along, I started work on the brakes. This work was proceeded by buying some basic parts and finding some in the boot. I purchased all new hoses for the front and rear. The fronts are from a Series 3 Land Rover (2x BR0764) and the rear is from a Triumph Spitfire (1x GBH166). I found a new old stock master cylinder rebuild kit in the boot, purchased new in Tokoroa in 2001.

I had previously tried to bleed the system but got zero fluid from any of the bleed nipples, even when trying to draw the fluid through under vacuum. There was fluid in the reservoir when I got the car, but it was a bit low, so I thought I would top it off before trying to draw it through. Pouring in dot4 resulted in the weirdest "mixing" I've seen. The fluid kinda floated around and when it slowly mixed it kinda sparkled and didn't look right. I sucked the fluid out, and sure enough, I'm 90% sure the master cylinder was filled with engine oil. It smelt like clean engine oil. Even sucking it all out left some sludge in the bottom of the reservoir.

This was a bit easier to strip down. A few hard bashes on the vice and the piston popped out, covering my hand in whatever sludge was in the bore, chunks and all.

I was trying to think of why you would fill the reservoir with oil and the only reason I could come up with was to stop the bore rusting. Well, it didn't. With the piston removed, there was some minor rust on the sides of the bore, but bad rust and pitting at the very end, where the seal on the end needs to block the reservoir. I cleaned it up as much as I could. The rust on the sides of the bore wiped off with some fine sandpaper.

The piston had some light corrosion on it, but looked OK otherwise.

This is the end seal, you can see all the crud built up around it

The seals weren't too bad, but having the new kit already I swapped them all over and reassembled. A quick test on the bench showed that it seemed to be working as it should, so I reinstalled it into the car.

Now it was time to work on the hoses and calipers. I started on the front. The hoses came off reasonably easily. With the hose disconnected from the hard line I attached my vacuum bleeder to suck through fluid and flush the line. I like using the green fluid as it's really obvious when the new fluid is coming through.

Out of curiosity, once I removed the hose I connected the vac pump up to one end, left the other end open and tried to pull air through it. Nothing. Blocked solid, and even with the most suction that pump can draw, not a single drop of air could get through.

I was warned about these style hoses, the old style with that textured outer layer, when I redid the hoses on the TVR. The rear hose on the TVR was of this style, and apparently they are known for internally degrading and blocking up over time. The other side was the same, completely blocked.

The new Land Rover pattern hoses look nice enough

I temporarily reconnected the old hose to the hard line, just to block the end of it in the mean time so I can draw a vacuum from the reservoir.

The other side had some questionable looking fluid in the lines, but flushed OK.

With the hoses off I began removing the calipers. I'm glad I previously vacuumed most of the cobwebs off. Ugh.

These were well stuck on, but some hammering and levering saw them jump off the rotor. I'm hoping the rotors will clean up OK, will need to check their thickness.

Everything looked and felt like it had been on there far too long. Even removing the pad retaining pins was a pain, but lots of hammering and lots of CRC got them out.

The previous owner got their monies worth from the pads.

One of the piston boots was missing its retaining clip, and was just floating around.

I had to get creative to try and force the pistons out. One is moving freely, but one is jammed solid. Even 128psi couldnt shift it. I'll need to try and shock it with my actual air compressor, not slowly build pressure with the tyre inflator.

The other caliper isn't much better, neither piston felt like moving on that one.

The one piston I did get out was a disappointment though, the chrome coating is flaking off in places and there is scoring and corrosion on it, so all the pistons will need to be replaced. I already have a seal kit, but will wait on new pistons now. Might even paint the calipers in the meantime to make them flashy (even if you can see them with the wheels on).

The last job for the day was to remove the rear hose. There is only one, as the fluid goes to the RH side wheel cylinder and then crosses over to the LH side one. Another old textured hose.

New hose partly connected. I'm pleased at hose easily these old hoses came off. A ratcheting spanner certainly helps for the lock nut though.

And new hose installed.

Another quick test with the vac pump, and sure enough, another completely blocked hose

Pays to check your hoses and replace them if they are the old style.

With the new hose in place, the only other thing to do was flush the lines with new fluid. There was quite a bit of fluid in the cylinders and lines. Didn't look too bad, and no rust, so hopefully that means the rear wheel cylinders are still OK. I can get the kits to rebuild them locally, so will see if they work first and go from there.

And keep pulling it through until it goes green

Unfortunately I tried pumping the pedal with the system all buttoned up, and the master cylinder is blowing fluid back into the reservoir, indicating the end seal isn't sealing. I have reached out to a couple of companies that should be able to sleeve the cylinder and will see what they say.

In the mean time, off to make a list of more parts I need to buy.

[kws 4,769]

Pistons are out. The fluid that was behind them was disgusting. There was also a buildup in the lowest point of the caliper which I had to chip out during cleaning.

This pitting is what I was up against. It was grabbing the seal for dear life. Used a combo of air from my compressor, whilst beating the heck out of the piston with a punch in the direction of removal to get them out.

The calipers cleaned up alright after a dip in the parts washer. Now sitting in a bath of Evaporust to clean any rust out.

Waiting on the new pistons to arrive and then I'll rebuild the calipers.

[kws 4,769]

I refurbished the rear drum brake setup today. I almost left it as is, but I'm glad I didn't as it definitely needed stripping down.

I removed the drums a while back and had a quick visual inspection, and whilst one side looked like it had been under the ocean, there was no brake fluid or axle grease where it shouldn't be.

I started on the LH side, which didn't look like it had been under the sea, but instead had been full of bugs and spiders. The whole drum was packed with cobwebs and took a lot of cleaning and vacuuming to not be grossed out.

The shoes look really good, almost new I'd say, and everything was very dry. Someone had been in here before though as this big, annoying to install, spring should be behind the shoes, not in front of them.

Removing the shoes is a case of removing the little retaining spring pins, removing the big spring and then the pair of shoes can be withdrawn from the backing plate.

With the shoes out the cylinder can be removed by undoing the pipe(s), removing the boot, sliding the U shaped clip downwards and the spring clip upwards. The cylinder should be free to remove.

This one looked OK. The boot was torn, and the piston had some crud built up on it, but the bore was clean. The piston seal looked so good I probably could have reused it, but since I ordered a replacement seal kit anyway, I replaced it. The seal kit for this car is from a Spitfire and has 3/4" (19.05mm) bore.

With the build up carefully scraped off and polished with some fine sandpaper, the new piston seal goes on.

Now, before installing the piston in the cylinder again, install the boot first. This is a real prick of a job as it needs to stretch over the top, and it's a very tight fit.

And carefully install back into the cylinder. I chose to lube the cylinder walls and piston/seal with brake fluid for assembly.

Reinstall the clip and you're done.

There isn't a heck of a lot to a wheel cylinder on these.

I cleaned up and greased the self-adjuster. This just rests in the bottom of the cylinder but must turn freely.

Now clean the backing plate up, especially at the points where the cylinder and shoes contact it (the six raised bumps on the top and bottom, as well as the anchor where the end of the shoes rest and behind the wheel cylinder). I used a wire brush and brake clean. Once clean, use thin smears of copper or brake grease on those contact points.

Once the cylinder and hand brake lever is installed, reinstall the shoes. I found this easiest with the double spring in one end (shoe end), rest the top shoe on the hub, whilst inserting the lower shoe into the self-adjuster and then the shoe anchor. Now the top shoe can be installed. Take care not to lose the little metal H piece that sits above the handbrake lever where it goes through the shoe.

Don't forget to install the retaining pins and the big spring. As mentioned, this should be behind the shoes, and I found levering it in place with a long flat blade screwdriver easiest. It takes a few tries.

Done.

Rebuilt cylinder

So cocky, on went the drum

Now to move onto the other side.

This one was very crusty. Obviously water had gotten into the drum somehow, and couldn't get out until it dried over time. This drum had plugs in the adjuster holes, whilst the other side didn't. Explains why the bugs liked that side, and the water got stuck in this side.

The cylinder on this side was looking particularly average.

Removing the shoes shows how crusty it was

The adjuster was completely seized. No chance of self-adjustment here. Just as an aside, the self-adjustment works by means of pulling on the hand brake. Pulling the hand brake pulls up on the top shoe, creating the friction to stop the car, but the movement of that lever also moves the metal tang in the photo below from left to right. As it heads on over to the right it catches the teeth of the adjuster, which winds the threaded inner section that the lower shoe rests on up and down. The whole cylinder is free to move up and down in its mount, which evens out the braking between the two shoes. Simple.

Removing the cylinder on this side was a little more of a pain as it has the inlet and the link pipe, instead of just the inlet and a bleeder like the other side. Both freed off with some careful force, and out came the cylinder.

The adjuster came off the end after a couple of careful taps with a hammer. It was packed with furry corrosion behind it.

As was the space under the boot on the top. This concerned me a bit as it didn't bode well for the condition of the bore.

The piston is completely compressed and didn't move by hand

It did move with some gentle persuasion with a long screwdriver though

I had to get a bit more angry to get it out further. A long spanner was used as the lever for this

And out it popped

The bore looks worse than it is. The cylinder is aluminium, so it's not really rust, just a build up of gunk stuck to the bore. I suspect the piston is stainless as other than more gunk on it, it was immaculate. The seal on the other hand was rubbish as there is a big tear/cut in it.

Mmm, more crusty fur

I tidied the bore up with some careful scraping, and then some very fine sandpaper. There is some staining on the walls, but there are no marks you can feel. The walls are very smooth.

The rest of the cylinder got scraped and wire brushed before a good clean out and the new seal kit fitted.

Before refitting, the back plate was de-crusted with a wire brush and then brake clean.

The cylinder was refitted. The locking method for these is a bit of a pain, but simple enough. The spring clip goes down from the top first, with the dimples pointing outwards (away from the cylinder). The locking U shaped clip then slides up over top of the spring clip, and locks into the dimples. I used a flat blade screwdriver to press down on the top of the spring clip, and pliers to tap up on the U clip.

And the wheel cylinder is in.

The shoes got a quick scuff with some rough sandpaper to clean the surface up a bit, and then they were fitted. They look fine but had some rust marks where they had been in contact with the drum.

And the completed assembly

The friction surface on the drum was quite rusty too, so that got a wire brush before fitting. It's good enough that any other rust should be scraped off once the car is on the road and the brakes operate.

Drum fitted

Unfortunately I can't test them as the master cylinder is off being re-sleeved, and the front brakes also need to go back on, but hopefully it won't be long.

[kws 4,769]

So, I've been digging with the stripping wheel on the grinder. I poked this scab a while back...

And yesterday I went full bore at it.

The previous owner was definitely a sculptor. There are places where the bog is 1-2CM thick.

Its messy AF, so will leave the rest of the stripping until I can get the car outside and make the rest of the dust natures problem

The strange thing is, the bog doesn't need to be this thick. I got a profile gauge today and using the good LH side as a sample, I compared it to the stripped RH side. Its not perfect, but its a lot closer to useable than I expected. There is no way it needed that much bog.

Once I have the rest of the bog off I'm going to etch prime the panel (takes the shine away, which is making it hard to see the shape) and then try my hand at shaping it with a hammer and dolly. Not sure how much better I can make the swage line, as its almost gone in places, but we'll see. Worst case, I keep an eye out for a replacement panel cut.

[kws 4,769]

Finally, it's been a long time in the making, but for the first time in many years the Marina has brakes.

In the previous post, I refurbed and reassembled the rear brakes, but in the meantime I had also been working on the rest of the system. Unfortunately, things like this take time and money, both of which are a sticking point for me at the moment (mainly time, I'm waiting over a month for parts from the UK).

Even further back I started to strip the front calipers, which after some creative work with my compressor, I managed to do. First, I reinstalled the old pads, with a pry bar between them and used that to restrict the movement of the pistons, whilst pressurising the caliper and tapping the caliper body with a hammer. Eventually the pistons moved a little, but what made the biggest movement was using a punch and hammer to drive the piston out of the bore. Obviously, this is super destructive, so don't do this to pistons you want to keep (but pistons you want to keep shouldn't be stuck like these)

Out came one piston, along with a lot of sludge

This allowed me to slip the old piston back in after greasing it up, and using it to block the bore, and drive just the other piston out. I tried clamps, but there wasn't enough space with what I had, so ended up using a hose clamp to keep the piston from moving.

It worked a treat, and I ended up getting all four pistons out of the calipers in this way.

Now, before I go further, heed my warnings. Playing with hydraulics, compressed air, and brake fluid, is a dangerous game. Make sure you wear all your PPE. If it's not the crushing force of a piston flying out, it could be pressured brake fluid spraying into your face.

I should know, at one point when forcing 100+psi into the caliper I ended up with a fine mist of brake fluid spraying into my face. Thankfully I had safety glasses on, which stopped me from taking an eyeful of brake fluid and being blind, but it still wasn't pleasant. I have now upgraded to a full face shield for work like this.

As well as spraying my face, I didn't realise the fluid had travelled a meter or so behind me and ended up on the front of the Honda. Unfortunately, this sat on the paint and headlight overnight. The paint seems to have survived with only some minor marking, but the headlight has stained badly and will need replacing.

So yes, take care of yourself and your surroundings. ALWAYS wear the correct PPE. Also remember that plain old water neutralises brake fluid, so that should be the go-to for cleaning it off. Hydraulics are dangerous, if you aren't confident in what you are doing, seek professional support for the job.

Anyway, moving on, this is why the pistons were stuck. Deep corrosion.

After scrubbing the calipers in the parts washer, they spent a couple of days in the Evaporust bath to remove the rust.

They aren't perfect, and I probably should have painted them, but at the end of the day they are clean, internally rust-free and won't be seen behind the wheels.

I purchased a seal kit to suit the Girling Type 14 calipers as used on the Spitfire, PN GRK5005, which worked a treat. These Girlock calipers are almost an exact copy of the Girlings.

In went the piston seals, with lots of rubber grease. Make sure these sit flat, and arent twisted or pinched.

Next it's piston time. The pistons I used are once again from a Girling Type 14, PN 516212. These are slightly different where the dust boot sits. The Girlock pistons don't have a retaining groove, just a lip. The Girlings have a recessed groove. I figure since the seals I'm using are for the Girling, the Girlings pistons will be just fine (and to note, the old Girlock seals are visually the same). The overall dimensions of the piston are the same. Girling on the left, Girlock on the right.

The Girling piston had a much bigger lead in chamfer, which helps during assembly.

Pressing the pistons in was easy enough by hand. Lots of rubber grease, place it square and press it in with fingertips. Once it seats a bit, I used a long spanner over the face of the piston to push down evenly with both hands (one hand on each side of the caliper). It should go in with minimal force.

The dust boot is a prick. The inner lip sits in the piston recess, the outer lip just rests on the lip around the piston bore. A retaining ring holds it in place by friction. Getting this ring in place, without it pulling the boot off, took a few tries.

I found the easiest way to do it was to line the ends of the ring up so they are touching (spreading the ring open), and working from the back (opposite the open end of the ring) work it around the boot, holding it in place whilst you stretch the open ends of the ring into place. It's hard to describe, and do, but will make sense after a few tries.

Two calipers with new seals, pistons and boots.

I cleaned up the bleed nipples, making sure they were clear (they weren't), and refit the hard pipes. That's the calipers done.

Next in the firing line was the front rotors. I measured them a while ago and they came out as more or less new thickness, and have no lips. I feel like they were replaced not long before the car was laid up. Because of this, I don't want to replace them, that would be a damn waste. I was going to just send it, and use the pads to scrape the rust off them when it drives, but thought better of that when I had a good look. Crusty.

The best thing in this case was to remove the hub and rotor, and send the rotors off to be skimmed.

Before removing the hubs, I measured the runout in them. There should be 0.0245 - 0.1270mm play. This is to allow the bearings to expand when they warm up in use. Too tight and they will bind and fail. Too loose and they will wobble about and fail.

Well, the Lh side had this much play

0.185mm play. Quite a bit above the maximum allowable. I'm getting an awful lot of use out of my dial indicator with these old cars!

The RH side had zero play, not a thing. So both sides were set wrong. Glad I looked.

The LH side split pin was.... split. It's missing a whole leg, and was only sitting in place. It also pays to loosen the rotor bolts whilst the hub is on the car, just in case you need to stop it spinning. The rattle gun did this with no effort.

With the hub nut removed, the whole lot comes off pretty easily. The stub axle looks in good shape if a bit dirty.

One hub with rotor.

As a matter of course I bought a wheel bearing kit, as the old grease looked horrible, and there were signs of wear on the outer bearing races. The outer bearing was an LM11949 and the inner was L44649.

The back of the rotor looks worse than the front

Unlike the TVR, the rotors on the Marina came off easily with only minimal tapping with a hammer. I drove the old outer races out with a hammer and punch and gave the hub a good clean in the parts washer.

The rotors were sent away to be machined and came back looking good. They could've skimmed a little more off, but I'm sure the pads will scrub them clean in no time.

Before the rotor goes back on, the new bearings were pressed into the hub. The new bearings.

The new race was pressed in with the old race, and a deep socket

The rotor was loosely attached. Note the markings on the hub reminding me the rotor bolts aren't torqued. This can only be done on the car, using a long pry bar to lock the hub from spinning.

The bearings were packed and fitted, along with a new seal.

Before fitting the hub, I quickly swapped the old blocked front hoses for the new ones. These are Land Rover hoses, PN BR0764

And on goes the hub.

Set to the correct runout

With the caps and calipers fitted

Both hubs had the rotor bolts torqued down, so the markings were removed

The last few pieces of the puzzle were the master cylinder (which I sent off to be resleeved and rekitted), a new brake pipe from the master cylinder (since I damaged the old one removing it. A friend helped make a new one), and new pad fitting kit (in transit from the UK).

The brake master and clutch slave I sent away to be resleeved came back looking lovely. Nice new stainless bores, as well as a good cleanup. Won't have to worry about these rusting up again.

Of course, I couldn't just fit the nice clean cylinder to the rubbish looking firewall plate, so that got a wire brush and a coat of paint.

It's hard to believe it's the same master cylinder, and the same cap. I cleaned and used Araldite to fix the crack in the cap.

The pedals got new clevis pins, since the old ones had seen their share of work!

And finally, the brake light switch was tested

Which revealed that it didn't work. The switch is easy enough to strip, these tabs on the side need to be pressed to remove the bottom of the unit and pull the guts out

How this switch works confused me for a bit. When you remove the top from the bottom, it actually moves where the internal contact is, and if you don't spot it during disassembly it can be confusing. It got to the point I purchased a cheap replacement so I could work out how it's assembled.

This is whats inside the switch, and how it came apart

As it turns out, as seen on this replacement switch, the U shaped contact goes under the two legs.

It's a Normally Closed switch, so it makes a circuit when the switch is released. When the brake pedal is pressed it's releasing the switch, which makes the circuit, otherwise normally it's pressed in, which moves the U shaped contact away from the two legs. The spring sits under the U shaped contact which pushes it up.

The replacement switch was a bit cheap, so instead I cleaned up the contacts of the old one and reassembled it. It takes some fiddling to keep the contact under the two legs whilst you slip the base in to the top housing, but it can be done.

A test shows that when pressed, the circuit is broken

And released, it makes the circuit

The original Lucas Australia switch lives to fight another day.

The pad fitting kit finally arrived today, so I fitted the NOS pads, new shims and new pins. It's a bit of a pain with new pads and new thickness rotors, its all very tight, but it's there.

I then drew fluid through with a vacuum bleeder, until all three bleed nipples had clean fluid coming through. Then it was back to the old one-man bleeder to finish the job. The brake pedal is now firm, with good travel. The rear adjusters have adjusted up (can hear the shoes slightly dragging the drum), and the hand brake is working. Everything needs a good bedding in, but for now, everything is doing what it should, and there seems to be no leaks. I don't know when it last had brakes, but it may not have been in this millennium.

Now all I'm waiting on is a clutch master cylinder, which is en route from the UK, and a drive shaft that will be on its way to me tomorrow from down south. Once they arrive, we should be good for a trip up the driveway. Excite.