MadaboutKitcars

Progress has been a bit slow recently with one thing and another. But I have made a prototype of a gearstick extension gizmo. By default the Marina gearlever is a bit of a stretch - even in the Marina. BL's attempt at fixing this was simply a longer gear lever that was cranked at the base. I think mine is better :-)

gear-lever1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

gear-lever3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

It's only at the protoype stage but it works fine. Notice the cr@p welding. I accidently nudged the amp control and discovered (afterwards) that I had been using far too many - amps that is.

Not sure if I should keep posting on here as nobody seems to look anymore! So this could be my last post...
I will however keep posting on my build log on the Marlin Owners website and the occasional post of Facebook.

I have completed the rear of the exhaust by fitting an off the shelf 45 deg bend. Cutting the 45 deg slash on the end proved to be a challenge but in the end I found out how to make a template using Google.
exhaust_tip1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

I have bonded in the transmission tunnel and floor on one side. Everything is help in place with an industrial strength adhesive (Sikaflex) The mechanical fixings are really just to hold everything in place while the adhesive sets. And to persuade any future MOT tester everything is secure!
floor1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I have directly trimmed the panels making up the transmission tunnel with an automotive vinyl. I am not a big fan of carpet in an open car :-)
A bit dissapointed with the vinyl though. It came from a well known supplier but I found it marks and nicks very easily. Too late to change it now though.
To make up for the lack of carpet I have used sound deadner mat on the inside of each panel.

While I was at it I added the floor level seatbelt mounts using some FIA approved spreader plates.
seatbelt_mount by Robin Martin, on Flickr

It's good to enjoy seeing the posts from yourself and others - the more the merrier, and some of us don't use FB and other media (everything 'ruled' by the big players?). Here's an exhaust end which recently arrived from Amazon (MIJ Exhausts) 14.99 GBP (I remembered the pound glitch this time :yo Superbly polished! A pity the clamp isn't also stainless. Any stainless clamps for sale seem to be 'mickey mouse' and at least this one will hold it on!

It's a pity I didn't see that before. Oh well.

BTW I mainly use Mikalor clamps to join bits of exhaust together. Sturdy, stainless and, lol, expensive.
Where I have had to use a clamp to mount the exhaust to the body, the only stainless ones I could find, of the correct size, were flimsy and not great value for money. I made my own in the end. Necessity being the mother of invention....

It would be a shame if fora such as this were to die! FB is all very well but it’s designed to make finding older posts very, very difficult, whereas a good build forum is a treasure trove of ideas. I’ve re-read your Pembleton build in its entirety and will do so again when I start my own build in due course. Couldn’t do that on FB!

I still come on here but only once a month or so ! Gone are they days of daily postings and following others build threads. A bit of a shame really but it all started to fizzle out a few years ago. My current project has sat for some time without being touched. I've got plans for builds in the future but sometimes wonder if I'll ever, "get around to it" any time soon !

[QUOTE=MartinClan;108654]My first attempt at coachpainting some of the fibreglass. it's not bad even if I do say so myself. This was coat number 5 - the first topcoat. 6th coat (2nd topcoat) looked better but forgot to take a picture. Still a long way from perfect but good enough. The red, by the way, is considerably darker in real life.
coach_painted1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

Hi Martin,

The paint job on the fibreglass grille surround looks great!

Just to check, did you use a brush to paint fibreglass too, and is the paint you used the same as the one you used on the chassis?

Also, which primer and undercoat paint have you used, please?

Cheers,Deni.

Yes I brush painted the fibreglass using the paint from Craftmaster. 2 coats of primer, 2 coats of undercoat and 2 topcoats. Just followed the Craftmaster instructions as I have never done it before.

Thank you, I will check it out. Cheers, Deni

I have modified the reverse mechanism for use with my remote gearchange. Not my idea - I copied it from someone else that had already done it.
It involves fitting a spring to the reverse lockout plate so it can be pushed to one side instead of having to lift the gearstick to clear it. Seems to work! But only time will tell how good it is in practice.
gearbox_mod3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
gearbox_mod2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

And I have pretty much completed the transmission tunnel and floors now. The floors are bonded in using Sikaflex 522 for strength and waterproofing. Should easily outlive me!
And I trial fitted one of the seats. Err - it didn't fit - too wide. But a bit of attention with some ratchet staps has sorted that. And there is plenty of room between the seat base and the larger than normal steering wheel that I plan to use. My extra depth doors should allow relatively easy entry and exit - I hope...
seat_trial_fit by Robin Martin, on Flickr

[QUOTE=MartinClan;108970]I have modified the reverse mechanism for use with my remote gearchange. Not my idea - I copied it from someone else that had already done it.
It involves fitting a spring to the reverse lockout plate so it can be pushed to one side instead of having to lift the gearstick to clear it. Seems to work! But only time will tell how good it is in practice.
gearbox_mod3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
gearbox_mod2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

Hi Martin,

This is something I might need to do as well. I was thinking about this for a while now, but some possible solutions I have in my mind are not as clever as this one 🙂

Where can I find some more information about this modification, please?

Thank you.

What information do you need? There isn't much to it. I just replaced the bolt, fixing the reverse plate in place, with the spring arrangement. That's all there is to it really.

Hopefully some good progress now as I have stopped going on holiday for a while....
I have now fitted the seats on sliders from Car Builder.
runners by Robin Martin, on Flickr
The sliders are nice and robust if a little primative. The main problem is the adjustment mechanism projects above the face of the slider to which the seat mounts. They do supply some little spacers but I didn't fancy the whole weight of the seat and it's occupant being taken on just the 4 mounting points. So I made some spacers, that will support the whole length of the seat, from aluminium box section. This also allowed me to compensate for the fact that the seat mounting centres were at 300mm but the sliders could only accomodate 285mm.

Before I could fit the seats I had to - err - adjust them as they were about 1cm too wide.
seat1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

Now they are fitted you can see there is plenty of room between the seat and the steering wheel to get legs in. I might even fit some seat pads :-)
seat3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

The holes in the seat which provide strength (and look pretty) were a bit sharp on the edges. I ran a flap wheel arround them but for the seat belt holes I decided to fit some rubber U strip. This stuff is now available on Amazon and even includes an adhesive strip on the inside making fitting a doddle.
seat5 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

Next major job is to work out how to fit the front cycle wings....

Ok, thank you.

Cheers, Deni.

I have made and fitted the front cycle wing mounts. The wings themselves were intended for the rear of a "fat boy" motorcycle and are made of steel. They look the part having a bit more style than trailer mudguards I have seen used.
cycle_wings1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I put a lot of effort into getting everything square and at the right height. I even temporarily disconnected the suspension torsion bar so I could move the suspension up and down to check clearance.
cycle_wings7 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
cycle_wings8 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
The wings stays are made from thick wall (2mm) tube. I wanted them to be weld free as this is where failures tend to occur. It's a pretty tough to bend. In the end I packed them with dry sand and heated them to cherry red at the bend points. The bends are pretty good with no sign of the tube wall collapsing.
cycle_wings3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
cycle_wings4 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
The wire you can see is for the indicators which I intend to mount on the wings - somewhere...
I fitted the wings themselves with some pretty substantial mounting plates both riveted and bonded in place.
cycle_wings5 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
Everything is pretty strong. You could (almost) sit on them!
Next job - headlight mounts.

Great work, Robin. They look the 'bee's knees' .
Excellent choice of mudguard and you did well to find them.

A bit of CAD (cardboard aided design) bracketry

Next job is/was to make the brackets for the headlights. There is a lamp bar normally but because of the cycle wings I don't have this. Instead I reckoned the headlights could be supported by the top of the suspension towers. I struggle to visualise stuff in 3D and there are some angles involved so I made a prototype out of cardboard.
headlight_mount1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
Now to convert the cardboard into steel.
bracket2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I have discovered the hard way that 3mm steel is pretty difficult to bend neatly so now I slit it half way through the thickness and with a bit of heat it bends perfectly.
bracket3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
bracket4 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
The bending produces a groove which I then weld up to return the full 3mm thickness. It works pretty well and i have used this technique several times now.
Test fit of the bracket in situ.
bracket5 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I was really lucky with these headlights. Bought from another Marliner who had purchased them several years ago and didn't use them. They turned out to be actual chromed brass unlike the ones available now which are polished stainless and don't look quite right IMHO.

Last bit of bracket making I hope

The last couple of brackets, for while I hope, are to fit the number plate. I never liked the number plate under the bumper and so have gone for a rectangular plate mounted to the rear chassis leg with a bit of support on the body tub. Bit of a phaff to make but I am pleased with the result.
As a bonus - I have been trying to think of a good way to mount the statutary rear fog light. Again I don't like the below bumper position commonly used. Apart from being rather vunerable I also think it is rather low to be easily seen. Having made the number plate mount it also provided an idea position for the fog light :-)
plate_1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
plate_2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I've mounted the number plate using some of those new fangled (lol) bolts incorporating a little LED. They look good but whether they provide enough light to illuminate the number plate remains to be seen...
plate_4 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
Next step is to fit the hood. There is already a bit of a saga with the unused but trial fitted hood that I bought for rather a lot of dosh. Watch this space to see if I manage to resolve matters....

Wing mounted indicators

I have been trying to come up with a way of mounting indicators on the front cycle wings. The problem being the centre ridge, which adds strength and character, is, err, in the centre right where such an indicator would be mounted. After dismissing several idea I decided to bite the bullet and see if I could flatten the ridge at the point the indicator is to be mounted. My main concern is that it would distort the rest of the wing.
Firstly I drilled a 10mm hole rignt in the center through the ridge.
front_ind_1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I then tightened a large bolt with several thick washers and a nut through the hole. Of course nothing happened.... The wings are 1.5mm thick steel after all. So I heated up the area arround the hole to red hot using a blowtorch and then tightened the bolt. Hey presto!
No pictures I'm afraid as I neeeded three hands just to hold the blowtorch and tighten the bolt. But here it is after.
front_ind_2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
And with the indicator fitted. Success!
front_ind_3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
Next post will be hood fitting but is causing me some serious problems so could be a while....

Nice work, Robin

Radiator

Just a little side project while I ponder a couple of problems that have arisen while fitting the hood.
I had acquired a new old stock Vauxall Viva radiator which Marlin originally suggested. But the more I looked at it the less I thought it was up to the job. So a lot of Googling later I came up with a Datsun 1200 radiator. Almost the perfect size and the connections in the correct place. It seems that the Datsun 1200 was very popular in Australia which is Ebay suggested it was coming from. I suspect it was made in China though and came to the UK via Czechoslovakia! Anyway, hand in mouth I offered it up and it fits a treat. It is a heavy duty version with three rows and looks much more up to the job. Not much room between it and the steering rack however but there does seem enough room in front to fit a pusher fan.
radiator1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
radiator2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
radiator3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

Hood Fitting

I have completed the hood fitting.
I bought an old hood that had been trial fitted but never actually used. As you can see from the pictures the protective paper over the see through bits are still in place. New hoods are not available and getting one made from scratch would have cost as much as the car!
You can see that the hood is patinated which I like. Not going for the new look....
However it has proved to be a challenge....
1. Although it had never been fitted, the hood had been (badly) glued to a cant rail and at some point mechanically removed leaving the glue that looked like it had been applied using a trowel. There were also some little tears in the inner layer which was not good news. So first job was to remove glue and try to repair the tears. I managed that but it took a lot of time.
2. The little tabs that are used to secure the hood to the cant rail were missing. I learnt how to saddle stitch and made some new ones.
3. Now to the biggest problem. The hood was made from double duck. It's the sort of stuff normally used on vintage cars and not really suited to the Marlin hood design. This is made from two layers of cotton with a rubber membrane in between. It doesn't stretch. At all. And it is very, very stiff. I had to make several small mods to make it fit. Again the saddle stitching came in handy.
Finally I could fit the hood. I stretched it into place using a clamp arrangement and a ratchet strap as I didn't have a helper. It was only 5 degrees in the shed! This worked well. Glued, once again, onto the cant rail using a high temperature industrial strength impact adhesive.
It's good and taught. The side screens are not quite so good a fit looking a bit baggy. But should keep the rain out!
Pictures :-)
hood1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
hood2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
hood3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
hood4 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

And another little update.
I needed to de-grease the clutch housing (bellhousing) which, as ever with any British car from the 70's, was covered in a thick layer of old oil, worn clutch lining and road dirt. 3 or 4mm deep in places.
I thought I would try the new Gunk Ultra which is:
A - cheaper
B - more eco-friendly
It seems to be detergent based rather than solvent based. Well it does work. But requires a lot of scrubing rather than the solvent based Gunk which was very much paint on and then wash off.
One of the big bonuses is that it doesn't smell! Anyone who has used the original Gunk will know what I mean.
bellhousing1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

Great work on the hood Robin. Be careful when reassembling the gearbox/bell housing to the engine that you don't disturb the clutch fork arm from it's pivot as it's only held in place by that sprung steel clip and is easily dislodged.

More radiator pictures

This is absolutely the last thing that I will do now before moving the car from my man cave to the garage to fit the engine.
I chose and fitted a Spal push fan to assist the radiator in its job. They are relatively expensive, but as they say, you get what you pay for and much cheaper than a new engine! There are unbranded fans arround for as little as 20 but I came accross a comparison of a cheap fan against the Spal - there was no comparison!
The spal fan is also only 50mm thick making it a perfect fit in the Marlin nose.
radiator4 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
radiator5 by Robin Martin, on Flickr