Full circle into a Marina again. My 73 Morris Marina Coupe
Discussion
Thanks for the comments everyone. Unfortunately ground to a halt on the welding as I'm out of gas, and there is a national CO2 shortage. I'll get back into the welding as soon as I can. In the mean time, I'm going to start work on the filler and primer for the parts I have fixed already.
k when finished! 
I've seen that one listed. They're asking top dollar (its been offered out for $9000 NZD, 4500 quid), but it looks like an exceptionally clean example. Its been stored in a museum for a decade or so, which has helped preserve it. The price is Marinas is on the rise, and I'm glad I got mine when i did, for what I did, despite the issues its given me.
How good does it look in yellow though?!
Fairly big update coming soon on mine too, just wrapping some work up before tapping out the words.
How good does it look in yellow though?!
Fairly big update coming soon on mine too, just wrapping some work up before tapping out the words.
Having run out of MIG gas, which then nuked my momentum and motivation on the bodywork repairs, I decided to change path, and do something I actually enjoy; mechanical and electrical work.
Ages ago, gosh, back in 2021 now, I flushed and cleaned out the cooling system. This was pretty nasty, with lots of brown sludge.
I removed the radiator and reverse flushed it with the hose, which got a lot more sludge out. As it turned out though, the radiator was trash. The core was all rotting away, and I ended up poking a hole in it with a screwdriver when doing up a hose clamp
After looking at various options, of which there were... none, I ended up having the original radiator recorded at great expense by a local firm. A recored radiator means the radiator is rebuilt using a new center core (with the fins and pipes) and reuses the existing end tanks and mounting straps.
Along with the new core, I had them add a bung under the top radiator hose (the hottest point in the radiator) to fit a temperature sensor for my electric fan controller
I did some quick measurements and decided to go with a 10" fan, which was far too small. I later changed to a 12" fan.
I've had this sitting in a box for months, waiting for me to get my A into G and make more progress. One thing that was stopping me, was that I needed to fit an electric fuel pump and remove the old fixed engine-powered fan (not even a viscous clutch fan, this bad boy spun at engine RPM no matter what; I don't have that much faith in 50 year old plastic).
The fan was easy, it's just bolted to the front of the waterpump with a spacer. I removed the fan and spacer, cut some new bolts shorter to hold the pulley on and not hit the waterpump, and that was done.
The fuel pump was a bit harder. I needed to find a suitable location to mount the pump and then run the hoses.
The pump I went with is a Fuelflow 015 piston pump. It's happy to be mounted almost anywhere, at any angle and has the low pressure output required for the SU carb. Its a nice neat little unit; it even has rubber mounted feet
My plan was to mount it on the inner guard, on the Lh side of the car, running the hose feeding the pump under the radiator. Before I started any of the mounting, I grabbed some hose and ran it more or less how it would be once fitted, and directed it into a jug, just to make sure the pump could pull fuel all the way from the tank, through the filter and pump it up higher than the engine.
The answer was yes, easily.
I drilled a couple of holes in the inner guard, and mounted the pump with a couple of rivnuts
And ran the hose along the radiator support, using a pair of rubber-lined P-Clips to secure it (also using rivnuts - I love rivnuts)
The outlet hose was run from the pump to the carb inlet
And a fuel filter was fitted on the other side, before the pump (as per the instructions). Oh, and a nice new drive belt was fitted, probably for the first time in 15-20 years, maybe if ever.
The next step was to remove the old mechanical pump. It lives up under the alternator on these early 1750 engines (later ones are mounted up on the valve cover)
It's held to the sump with two studs. Yes, like the oil filter, it's mounted to the side of the sump.
Be careful when removing the pump to catch the pushrod that drives the pump (and if you're refitting the pump, make sure it's fitted). It's the straight rod on the right in the above photo. There is also a spacer block, which has gaskets on either side of it.
The old pump was literally leaking everything, from everywhere. You can follow the trail down the sump to the back
Using an old gasket I carefully removed, I copied it to some scrap steel and made a blanking plate
Which I painted black with the quickest shot of black paint. A pair of new gaskets were cut from gasket sheet; one to go on either side of the spacer. You could do without the spacer if you spaced the nuts on the studs since the studs aren't threaded to their base, but it's easier to just fit the spacer. Technically you don't need two gaskets either, just the one between the spacer and sump should suffice.
I still needed a couple of washers to space the nuts out anyway
The stud closest to the filter needed an extra washer, as someone had stripped the thread. Probably why the fuel pump leaked.
One bonus to removing the mechanical pump is getting rid of the dodgy fuel hose that used to run across the front of the sump
I replaced this hose very early on, but I still didn't like it there. According to the manual, it should have a hardline from the pump, not a hose, which makes a lot of sense, but obviously someone "fixed" this at some point.
The last thing to do was to wire the pump, but I wanted to get the radiator in first so I knew where the wires could run.
A note before talking about the radiator. A while ago, while the radiator was getting recored, I flushed the block. There is a block drain at the back of the block above the starter
I used a small funnel in the thermostat housing to pour water straight into the head. I got a ton of brown sludge out this way, and flushed through litres of water until it ran clear
I did this because I really didn't want to risk filling the new radiator with sludge from the block.
The radiator was quite straightforward. Fit right into the factory mounting points, and the 12" fan clears everything (or would have if I had mounted it slightly to the right. As it was, it just touched a bend on the top hose. I cut a few mm off the thermostat end of the hose to move it away from the fan).
I hated the old bottom hose and really didn't want to refit it. Because the car is running the more available Maxi/Allegro water pump, which has the outlet on a different angle, you cannot run the standard bottom hose. The previous owner had done his best to cobble together something that worked, and to be fair, it did, but it was ugly.
The outlet is almost level with the radiator inlet, but is pointing almost straight downwards. The radiator and waterpump are also different sizes...
As it turns out, Dayco makes the 81081, which can be ordered via RockAuto. This has the correct size ends; 32mm and 38mm, and is a suitable length. It took some wrangling to get the stiff hose into the right place, but it fits well and clamps on fine.
With the top hose fitted too, it almost looks like a car again
At this point, I hadn't wired the fan in, but I did run the pump power wire and hotwired it to the switched side of the fuse box. This meant I could give it a kick in the guts and see how it was on the new pump.
Being able to prime the fuel system makes all the difference in starting the car after months of being laid up. With the old mechanical pump, which only pumps when the engine is turning, it would take minutes of cranking to get enough fuel through to fill the filter, then the carb bowl and finally start. Now I can switch the key to ON, wait a few seconds, and away we go.
Now, obviously having the pump hard-wired to run when the key is ON, is not ideal. A lot of people are happy to run it like that, but I don't want the risk of the pump running if I'm in an accident. Yeah, I probably have bigger problems if I crash this car, but I'd also rather not burn to death because the pump fed a fire.
This meant some wiring work. The plan was to have a separate fuse box that the fan controller and fuel pump run through. This would be powered by a relay, which is triggered by the original switched wiring (so all the load runs through the relay, instead of the 50 year old wiring). The pump would be isolated by an inertia switch, just like a modern car.
I started by locating a suitable place for the fan controller and mounting it with a pair of rivnuts.
Now, before anyone mentions it, yes, I hate the primer patches everywhere too, but I'm very much subscribing to the "don't get it right, just get it running" mentality now. I will come back and tidy it up later, but for now, I just need to wind the scope back and make the car go.
A suitable location for the additional fuse box was found
I did toy with the idea of replacing the old fuse box that uses glass fuses, but it works, so I'll leave it well enough alone (other than replacing it with a new one of the same style, when that arrives, just so I can have nice new untarnished terminals).
The fan controller was wired in
And once the relay was wired in,
I powered it up
The readout gives a live coolant temp reading in celsius. This particular controller can switch two fans, hence the two relays, but I'm only using one.
The fuel pump was next. In order to make it safe in a crash, I fitted an inertia switch to the front panel. When this switch detects an impact (or sudden deceleration) it trips the switch, cutting power. It can be reset by pressing down on the top and can be bypassed completely if needed.
This was then also wired back to the fuse box
A few minutes with some fabric tape made the wires look a bit less ugly
The final part of the system was to wire in the fan override switch. The controller is designed so that if you feed 12v onto this particular wire (the AC trigger wire, technically), it will instantly turn the fans on (if they are off), but will not interrupt the automatic switching, so it cannot be used to turn the fans off unless the temp is under the switching threshold. Basically, I can use it to turn the fans on and keep them on, if the coolant isn't up to temp yet. Could be good in traffic, but it's mainly a failsafe I hope I won't need.
To mount the switch, a made a small steel bracket that mounts under the dash using existing holes.
Its definitely function over form
I had an idea where the switch would light up when the fan was on, and as it turns out, you can buy toggle switches that have LEDs in the end, for this purpose
It blends in a bit nicer with some wrinkle black
And when used, it makes the fans go brrrrr
With that done, the radiator was filled with water and tested for leaks. So far, it hasn't lost a drop. I need to run the engine up to temp and then drop the water out and then refill it with proper coolant, which I will try to do this weekend.
With the cooling system and fuel pump done, that signals a turning point where the car is drivable again. Sure, it's missing a door and still has a couple of holes I need to weld up, but we're getting there.
Ages ago, gosh, back in 2021 now, I flushed and cleaned out the cooling system. This was pretty nasty, with lots of brown sludge.
I removed the radiator and reverse flushed it with the hose, which got a lot more sludge out. As it turned out though, the radiator was trash. The core was all rotting away, and I ended up poking a hole in it with a screwdriver when doing up a hose clamp
After looking at various options, of which there were... none, I ended up having the original radiator recorded at great expense by a local firm. A recored radiator means the radiator is rebuilt using a new center core (with the fins and pipes) and reuses the existing end tanks and mounting straps.
Along with the new core, I had them add a bung under the top radiator hose (the hottest point in the radiator) to fit a temperature sensor for my electric fan controller
I did some quick measurements and decided to go with a 10" fan, which was far too small. I later changed to a 12" fan.
I've had this sitting in a box for months, waiting for me to get my A into G and make more progress. One thing that was stopping me, was that I needed to fit an electric fuel pump and remove the old fixed engine-powered fan (not even a viscous clutch fan, this bad boy spun at engine RPM no matter what; I don't have that much faith in 50 year old plastic).
The fan was easy, it's just bolted to the front of the waterpump with a spacer. I removed the fan and spacer, cut some new bolts shorter to hold the pulley on and not hit the waterpump, and that was done.
The fuel pump was a bit harder. I needed to find a suitable location to mount the pump and then run the hoses.
The pump I went with is a Fuelflow 015 piston pump. It's happy to be mounted almost anywhere, at any angle and has the low pressure output required for the SU carb. Its a nice neat little unit; it even has rubber mounted feet
My plan was to mount it on the inner guard, on the Lh side of the car, running the hose feeding the pump under the radiator. Before I started any of the mounting, I grabbed some hose and ran it more or less how it would be once fitted, and directed it into a jug, just to make sure the pump could pull fuel all the way from the tank, through the filter and pump it up higher than the engine.
The answer was yes, easily.
I drilled a couple of holes in the inner guard, and mounted the pump with a couple of rivnuts
And ran the hose along the radiator support, using a pair of rubber-lined P-Clips to secure it (also using rivnuts - I love rivnuts)
The outlet hose was run from the pump to the carb inlet
And a fuel filter was fitted on the other side, before the pump (as per the instructions). Oh, and a nice new drive belt was fitted, probably for the first time in 15-20 years, maybe if ever.
The next step was to remove the old mechanical pump. It lives up under the alternator on these early 1750 engines (later ones are mounted up on the valve cover)
It's held to the sump with two studs. Yes, like the oil filter, it's mounted to the side of the sump.
Be careful when removing the pump to catch the pushrod that drives the pump (and if you're refitting the pump, make sure it's fitted). It's the straight rod on the right in the above photo. There is also a spacer block, which has gaskets on either side of it.
The old pump was literally leaking everything, from everywhere. You can follow the trail down the sump to the back
Using an old gasket I carefully removed, I copied it to some scrap steel and made a blanking plate
Which I painted black with the quickest shot of black paint. A pair of new gaskets were cut from gasket sheet; one to go on either side of the spacer. You could do without the spacer if you spaced the nuts on the studs since the studs aren't threaded to their base, but it's easier to just fit the spacer. Technically you don't need two gaskets either, just the one between the spacer and sump should suffice.
I still needed a couple of washers to space the nuts out anyway
The stud closest to the filter needed an extra washer, as someone had stripped the thread. Probably why the fuel pump leaked.
One bonus to removing the mechanical pump is getting rid of the dodgy fuel hose that used to run across the front of the sump
I replaced this hose very early on, but I still didn't like it there. According to the manual, it should have a hardline from the pump, not a hose, which makes a lot of sense, but obviously someone "fixed" this at some point.
The last thing to do was to wire the pump, but I wanted to get the radiator in first so I knew where the wires could run.
A note before talking about the radiator. A while ago, while the radiator was getting recored, I flushed the block. There is a block drain at the back of the block above the starter
I used a small funnel in the thermostat housing to pour water straight into the head. I got a ton of brown sludge out this way, and flushed through litres of water until it ran clear
I did this because I really didn't want to risk filling the new radiator with sludge from the block.
The radiator was quite straightforward. Fit right into the factory mounting points, and the 12" fan clears everything (or would have if I had mounted it slightly to the right. As it was, it just touched a bend on the top hose. I cut a few mm off the thermostat end of the hose to move it away from the fan).
I hated the old bottom hose and really didn't want to refit it. Because the car is running the more available Maxi/Allegro water pump, which has the outlet on a different angle, you cannot run the standard bottom hose. The previous owner had done his best to cobble together something that worked, and to be fair, it did, but it was ugly.
The outlet is almost level with the radiator inlet, but is pointing almost straight downwards. The radiator and waterpump are also different sizes...
As it turns out, Dayco makes the 81081, which can be ordered via RockAuto. This has the correct size ends; 32mm and 38mm, and is a suitable length. It took some wrangling to get the stiff hose into the right place, but it fits well and clamps on fine.
With the top hose fitted too, it almost looks like a car again
At this point, I hadn't wired the fan in, but I did run the pump power wire and hotwired it to the switched side of the fuse box. This meant I could give it a kick in the guts and see how it was on the new pump.
Being able to prime the fuel system makes all the difference in starting the car after months of being laid up. With the old mechanical pump, which only pumps when the engine is turning, it would take minutes of cranking to get enough fuel through to fill the filter, then the carb bowl and finally start. Now I can switch the key to ON, wait a few seconds, and away we go.
Now, obviously having the pump hard-wired to run when the key is ON, is not ideal. A lot of people are happy to run it like that, but I don't want the risk of the pump running if I'm in an accident. Yeah, I probably have bigger problems if I crash this car, but I'd also rather not burn to death because the pump fed a fire.
This meant some wiring work. The plan was to have a separate fuse box that the fan controller and fuel pump run through. This would be powered by a relay, which is triggered by the original switched wiring (so all the load runs through the relay, instead of the 50 year old wiring). The pump would be isolated by an inertia switch, just like a modern car.
I started by locating a suitable place for the fan controller and mounting it with a pair of rivnuts.
Now, before anyone mentions it, yes, I hate the primer patches everywhere too, but I'm very much subscribing to the "don't get it right, just get it running" mentality now. I will come back and tidy it up later, but for now, I just need to wind the scope back and make the car go.
A suitable location for the additional fuse box was found
I did toy with the idea of replacing the old fuse box that uses glass fuses, but it works, so I'll leave it well enough alone (other than replacing it with a new one of the same style, when that arrives, just so I can have nice new untarnished terminals).
The fan controller was wired in
And once the relay was wired in,
I powered it up
The readout gives a live coolant temp reading in celsius. This particular controller can switch two fans, hence the two relays, but I'm only using one.
The fuel pump was next. In order to make it safe in a crash, I fitted an inertia switch to the front panel. When this switch detects an impact (or sudden deceleration) it trips the switch, cutting power. It can be reset by pressing down on the top and can be bypassed completely if needed.
This was then also wired back to the fuse box
A few minutes with some fabric tape made the wires look a bit less ugly
The final part of the system was to wire in the fan override switch. The controller is designed so that if you feed 12v onto this particular wire (the AC trigger wire, technically), it will instantly turn the fans on (if they are off), but will not interrupt the automatic switching, so it cannot be used to turn the fans off unless the temp is under the switching threshold. Basically, I can use it to turn the fans on and keep them on, if the coolant isn't up to temp yet. Could be good in traffic, but it's mainly a failsafe I hope I won't need.
To mount the switch, a made a small steel bracket that mounts under the dash using existing holes.
Its definitely function over form
I had an idea where the switch would light up when the fan was on, and as it turns out, you can buy toggle switches that have LEDs in the end, for this purpose
It blends in a bit nicer with some wrinkle black
And when used, it makes the fans go brrrrr
With that done, the radiator was filled with water and tested for leaks. So far, it hasn't lost a drop. I need to run the engine up to temp and then drop the water out and then refill it with proper coolant, which I will try to do this weekend.
With the cooling system and fuel pump done, that signals a turning point where the car is drivable again. Sure, it's missing a door and still has a couple of holes I need to weld up, but we're getting there.
rickygolf83 said:
Great work as always man. 
Thanks 
Since that last post, I have now run the car up to temp with the water in the system, cycled the fan twice (which worked perfectly), and then dumped the water. It was still coming out quite brown, but not sludgy. I flushed the system with more fresh water, including the block drain.
After flushing the system until it ran clear again, I refilled the system with a proper coolant mix. I ran the car and cycled the fan again to bleed all the air out. So far, touch wood, there are zero leaks and everything seems quite happy.
The temp gauge seemed to only just creep above cold and no higher, and I know the gauge works (goes to full when grounded), so I have ordered another temp sensor to see if that will fix it.
This weekend I have booked in a full day in the garage to try and get on top of the bodywork. I mainly want to finish the welding, and do enough finishing work to be able to get the door back on.
ReformedPistonhead said:
Nice job, lovely to see you doing everything properly.
I may grab one of those fan controllers myself for an old MGB.
Thanks.I may grab one of those fan controllers myself for an old MGB.
Its quite a nice simple little controller. It's a Davies Craig 0445, although the 0444 is also available, which just lacks the screw-in sensor (uses a thermistor in the hose or between the fins instead).
KelvinatorNZ said:
ReformedPistonhead said:
Nice job, lovely to see you doing everything properly.
I may grab one of those fan controllers myself for an old MGB.
Thanks.I may grab one of those fan controllers myself for an old MGB.
Its quite a nice simple little controller. It's a Davies Craig 0445, although the 0444 is also available, which just lacks the screw-in sensor (uses a thermistor in the hose or between the fins instead).
Thank you
It's taken five months or so, but I've finally finished welding the rear valance. It needs a good skim of bog, and the number plate will hide a multitude of sins, but it's done.
Just a couple more areas to weld and that job will be done for now. Life would be so much easier if I had repair panels...
From
To
Just a couple more areas to weld and that job will be done for now. Life would be so much easier if I had repair panels...
From
To
I grew up in Oxford in the 70’s where they made these bloody things. I can remember them rotting and leaking oil brand new. Seemed like most of the cars had an oil pan under the sump catching oil on every drive.
My parents being foreign wouldn’t have any British tat. They had a volvo and a Toyota which stuck out a lot, in Oxford in a sea of British cars everywhere!!!
Good luck with it all though. I recall as a little boy going somewhere in the headmasters marina coupe. Probably about 10 of us piled in. “ but don’t any of you stand in the passenger footwell”
Because there was literally no floor. I doubt the car was more than a few years old.
My parents being foreign wouldn’t have any British tat. They had a volvo and a Toyota which stuck out a lot, in Oxford in a sea of British cars everywhere!!!
Good luck with it all though. I recall as a little boy going somewhere in the headmasters marina coupe. Probably about 10 of us piled in. “ but don’t any of you stand in the passenger footwell”
Because there was literally no floor. I doubt the car was more than a few years old.
Winter sucks. Not only is it cold and dark, but it also makes working in the garage a somewhat unappealing prospect. That, and having other projects on the go, caused a bit of a slowdown with the Marina.
But finally, Lucas is gone, so no more time needed to be spent there, and we're in spring now, so it's getting warmer and lighter.
With that in mind, I took some time off work to finally dedicate some time to the Marina, as it's been so good just sitting there waiting, while everything else gets the attention.
First though, let's step back in time to June, which was the last time I worked on the Marina.
To finish off the door opening area of the sill I used a thin skim of filler just to even out the low spots where the plug welds are, and to tidy up the front edge of the sill where it meets the guard
The window opening also got a skim of filler to smooth out the work I had done there. That rear curve was a real pain to do.
You may have also spotted in that first photo that the floor pans were also seam-sealed. I did this to both the top, and under the car. It's not the tidiest; it's brush on and the goal was to get a good coating and not worry too much about how it looks since it will be covered by carpet anyway.
Once that was done, since I had managed to acquire a new bottle of gas for my welder, I got stuck into the rear valance again. As some context, I started this valance way back in January.
To get to the valance I first had to remove the tow bar. I don't really want this car to be towing anything, so it's unlikely this will go back on again. I'd previously removed the wiring and holes for that, too.
It looks like Old Mate took a few tries drilling the holes before getting it right...
But it came off after a bit of a fight
This gave me clear access to the valance. A quick whip over with the strippy wheel, and this is what I had. Damn.
It's pretty well contained to the LH side though
amongst the rust there are also some old holes for what I presume were a different screw pattern number plate. They will get filled too.
I started cutting
And found a couple of spots where the inner panel was rusted through too, so out that came
To be replaced with a couple of bits of nice fresh new metal, all folded up to suit
With the inner ground back, The first section of the outer went in. This little filler section was mainly to keep the upper section and lower lip in place so I didn't lose the profile.
The real patching started with this random little hole off to the side
Which extended into filling the rest of the gaping hole with new metal
It's not the prettiest, and to be honest the primer makes it look worse than it is, but its nothing a skim of bog won't tidy up later
And that's about where I ran out of welding gas.
So, six months later, more gas in hand, I got back into it. With a fresh new perspective, I cut the rest of the lower lip off (it wasn't going to survive) and a new lower section was welded in place. This was also plug welded to the inner section I had previously replaced.
A couple of smaller holes on the RH side got the filling treatment
I folded this section up, stuck it in place with some magnets
And metal glued in
I cut out and welded up the other smaller patches, and once it was ground back a coat of epoxy primer protected it
I would've loved to have a new valance panel like the Brits have, but the shipping cost would be prohibitive, and they just aren't available here. Instead, we'll make do with what we have.
And that brings us up to date. Three months later, here we are.
The first job of the day for yesterday was to cut the rear quarter panel up again, as I just wasn't happy with it. When I originally welded the new section in, I didn't leave enough of a gap, and when I welded it it resulted in a pointed high spot where the two panels met. I tried to hammer it out, and made it better, but just moved that metal to somewhere else in the panel.
I also wasn't happy with the gap between one small section of the quarter, and where it met the sill. The gap was larger than the rest of the panel. I tried to fix this with filler, but I wasn't happy.
So I cut it.
I cut the bottom section out to fix the gap, and the big vertical cut released a lot of tension in the panel, allowing me to hammer it back into alignment. Opening this up also allowed me to tweak the arch section of the panel, which always sat slightly recessed from the sill.
Once it was all welded back in, it was much better. Theres still a lot of finishing work to be done, but I wont be contending with a massive high peak in the middle and a deep low at the end
I also completely finished the sill. There were some plug welds missing from the end, and I had to make and weld in a plate on the back of the sill to join it to the inner sill.
I seam sealed the gap, which in hindsight I shouldn't have done until after using filler, but oh well
With that done, the next goal was to finally refit the passengers door. It has been off the car since December last year.
It's almost a car again
The panel gap between the door and the new sill isn't perfect, It's a little tight at the front of the door, but it's not touching, so it's good enough. The door does need to come back a bit, but it's maxed out on its adjustment. Looking at photos, it's always been like that, so I'll need to shim the hinges, or slot the mounting holes a bit. That's a job for another time.
It does open and close lovely though, even with a test door seal in place.
The final task for the day was to give all the areas I had welded and seam-sealed a top coat of enamel paint. The floors were coated top and bottom
Yes, I would have rather had satin or matte, but they only had gloss. The carpet will cover it, and the underside will be undersealed anyway.
I also did the little strengthening ribs in the rear too, since this is where any water is likely to pool if it did get in.
The rear inner boot pocket I fixed got coated too. This will likely get over-coated in yellow at some point
With one full day's work under my belt, I went into day two with a list of things I wanted to try to get done.
The first was to cut out and fix the seal lip on the boot opening. Most of this came off with the seal when I removed it.
I had been putting this job off as it looked complex, but it ended up being a lot easier than expected, just really time consuming.
I started by cutting out a small section and welding a patch in, just as a proof of concept, but it worked well, so off we went
I worked my way along, using scraps from the work bench. Measure the scrap against the body, cut the rust out, clean up and weld in.
And keep moving, patch by patch
I left the scrap bigger than I needed, so I could trim it size afterwards
There was one small spot where the actual vertical panel had a pinhole in it, so that was carefully cut out and a patch welded in there too
This corner section was interesting. I hand-shaped the replacement section until it perfectly matched the profile of the original, and then cut and welded it in.
The final section was welded in. Many hours later.
Yeah, there are still a couple of frilly areas, but it's all under the seal and they were pretty solid otherwise, so I'm not worried.
After some touching up with the grinder, it all got a coat of epoxy primer
After spending so much time fixing that, I moved on to one of the other jobs I hate, filler.
The valance didn't need too much, but the quarter is a bit wobbly and might need a couple of goes.
I'll sand it back tomorrow and see how good I can get it. It's not something I look forward to.
This has been a huge boost towards having the car on the road again. Other than some cosmetic work, like fixing the dent/rust in the boot lid, and fixing the heater box, this signals a huge milestone; all the welding is done.
But finally, Lucas is gone, so no more time needed to be spent there, and we're in spring now, so it's getting warmer and lighter.
With that in mind, I took some time off work to finally dedicate some time to the Marina, as it's been so good just sitting there waiting, while everything else gets the attention.
First though, let's step back in time to June, which was the last time I worked on the Marina.
To finish off the door opening area of the sill I used a thin skim of filler just to even out the low spots where the plug welds are, and to tidy up the front edge of the sill where it meets the guard
The window opening also got a skim of filler to smooth out the work I had done there. That rear curve was a real pain to do.
You may have also spotted in that first photo that the floor pans were also seam-sealed. I did this to both the top, and under the car. It's not the tidiest; it's brush on and the goal was to get a good coating and not worry too much about how it looks since it will be covered by carpet anyway.
Once that was done, since I had managed to acquire a new bottle of gas for my welder, I got stuck into the rear valance again. As some context, I started this valance way back in January.
To get to the valance I first had to remove the tow bar. I don't really want this car to be towing anything, so it's unlikely this will go back on again. I'd previously removed the wiring and holes for that, too.
It looks like Old Mate took a few tries drilling the holes before getting it right...
But it came off after a bit of a fight
This gave me clear access to the valance. A quick whip over with the strippy wheel, and this is what I had. Damn.
It's pretty well contained to the LH side though
amongst the rust there are also some old holes for what I presume were a different screw pattern number plate. They will get filled too.
I started cutting
And found a couple of spots where the inner panel was rusted through too, so out that came
To be replaced with a couple of bits of nice fresh new metal, all folded up to suit
With the inner ground back, The first section of the outer went in. This little filler section was mainly to keep the upper section and lower lip in place so I didn't lose the profile.
The real patching started with this random little hole off to the side
Which extended into filling the rest of the gaping hole with new metal
It's not the prettiest, and to be honest the primer makes it look worse than it is, but its nothing a skim of bog won't tidy up later
And that's about where I ran out of welding gas.
So, six months later, more gas in hand, I got back into it. With a fresh new perspective, I cut the rest of the lower lip off (it wasn't going to survive) and a new lower section was welded in place. This was also plug welded to the inner section I had previously replaced.
A couple of smaller holes on the RH side got the filling treatment
I folded this section up, stuck it in place with some magnets
And metal glued in
I cut out and welded up the other smaller patches, and once it was ground back a coat of epoxy primer protected it
I would've loved to have a new valance panel like the Brits have, but the shipping cost would be prohibitive, and they just aren't available here. Instead, we'll make do with what we have.
And that brings us up to date. Three months later, here we are.
The first job of the day for yesterday was to cut the rear quarter panel up again, as I just wasn't happy with it. When I originally welded the new section in, I didn't leave enough of a gap, and when I welded it it resulted in a pointed high spot where the two panels met. I tried to hammer it out, and made it better, but just moved that metal to somewhere else in the panel.
I also wasn't happy with the gap between one small section of the quarter, and where it met the sill. The gap was larger than the rest of the panel. I tried to fix this with filler, but I wasn't happy.
So I cut it.
I cut the bottom section out to fix the gap, and the big vertical cut released a lot of tension in the panel, allowing me to hammer it back into alignment. Opening this up also allowed me to tweak the arch section of the panel, which always sat slightly recessed from the sill.
Once it was all welded back in, it was much better. Theres still a lot of finishing work to be done, but I wont be contending with a massive high peak in the middle and a deep low at the end
I also completely finished the sill. There were some plug welds missing from the end, and I had to make and weld in a plate on the back of the sill to join it to the inner sill.
I seam sealed the gap, which in hindsight I shouldn't have done until after using filler, but oh well
With that done, the next goal was to finally refit the passengers door. It has been off the car since December last year.
It's almost a car again
The panel gap between the door and the new sill isn't perfect, It's a little tight at the front of the door, but it's not touching, so it's good enough. The door does need to come back a bit, but it's maxed out on its adjustment. Looking at photos, it's always been like that, so I'll need to shim the hinges, or slot the mounting holes a bit. That's a job for another time.
It does open and close lovely though, even with a test door seal in place.
The final task for the day was to give all the areas I had welded and seam-sealed a top coat of enamel paint. The floors were coated top and bottom
Yes, I would have rather had satin or matte, but they only had gloss. The carpet will cover it, and the underside will be undersealed anyway.
I also did the little strengthening ribs in the rear too, since this is where any water is likely to pool if it did get in.
The rear inner boot pocket I fixed got coated too. This will likely get over-coated in yellow at some point
With one full day's work under my belt, I went into day two with a list of things I wanted to try to get done.
The first was to cut out and fix the seal lip on the boot opening. Most of this came off with the seal when I removed it.
I had been putting this job off as it looked complex, but it ended up being a lot easier than expected, just really time consuming.
I started by cutting out a small section and welding a patch in, just as a proof of concept, but it worked well, so off we went
I worked my way along, using scraps from the work bench. Measure the scrap against the body, cut the rust out, clean up and weld in.
And keep moving, patch by patch
I left the scrap bigger than I needed, so I could trim it size afterwards
There was one small spot where the actual vertical panel had a pinhole in it, so that was carefully cut out and a patch welded in there too
This corner section was interesting. I hand-shaped the replacement section until it perfectly matched the profile of the original, and then cut and welded it in.
The final section was welded in. Many hours later.
Yeah, there are still a couple of frilly areas, but it's all under the seal and they were pretty solid otherwise, so I'm not worried.
After some touching up with the grinder, it all got a coat of epoxy primer
After spending so much time fixing that, I moved on to one of the other jobs I hate, filler.
The valance didn't need too much, but the quarter is a bit wobbly and might need a couple of goes.
I'll sand it back tomorrow and see how good I can get it. It's not something I look forward to.
This has been a huge boost towards having the car on the road again. Other than some cosmetic work, like fixing the dent/rust in the boot lid, and fixing the heater box, this signals a huge milestone; all the welding is done.
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