MadaboutKitcars

Thanks for the suggestions :-)
If I am unable to make the rear exit exhaust work that's probably what I'll do.
But the other problem with a side exhaust is that when stationary the gas fumes tend to find there way into the cockpit and while us petrol heads like the smell of burnt petrol the passenger often doesn't!
Cheers Robin

Bonnet Woes...

I had always planned to make new bonnet tops as the original ones were rather scarred to say the least. I thought it would be relatively simple to use the old ones as a template. However....

I trial fitted the old one last week having cut it in half as the new one is to be hinged in the middle. The fit is absolutely awful. In fact it's so bad I am beginning to wonder if it was for another variation of the car. It is particulary bad at the scuttle end where it is a complete missfit. So, first I am going to have to do some serious fettling fit before I can even consider using it as a template. You can see from the picture just how bad it is....
bonnet1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

And, in addition it is also too wide at the scuttle end. You can see the overlap of the two halves in the picture now I have sliced it in half. I will have to take about 10mm out of the width plus the width of the piano hinge. Strangly the other (radiator cowl) end it is the correct width.
bonnet2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

Whilst I think about how to best make the bonnet tops I have been working on a few other items.
The exposed section of the exhaust is pretty much complete now. As it passes pretty close to the inside of the rear wheel I decided to mount it close and rigidly to the chassis. My theory is to allow for engine movement by adding a flexible section, where it passes under the car, to meet up with the downpipe. That's the theory anyway... The silencer ended up in a pretty much perfect place following the chassis line but a few mm away, enough to get some heat shield in I hope. The tail end exits nicely under the rear wing. I will shorten that and add some sort of bend so that the exhaust gases don't end up fouling the chassis.
exhaust1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
exhaust3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
rear_lights1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
As you can see I have also mounted the rear lights. They are Lucas and are nearly a perfect fit. Actually about 2mm to wide but it doesn't really notice.
I have also fitted the doors with door cards so I could check the fit of the door seal I chose. Door also misses exhaust which I always planned but you never know....
door_card1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

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 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....

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.

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

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....

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.

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....

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

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

It's been a while since my last post but things have moved on. The Marlin has moved from my man cave to the garage (thanks to help from Peter) ready for the engine installation. And I have a real wheel in each corner. Just waiting for the inevitable few forgotten items to arrive now and the engine will be ready for fitting. In the meantime I have been fixing the Pembleton (see my other build) and have started painting the body - pictures to follow.
in_garage2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
in_garage1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

With a little help from Peterux (Sabre) the engine complete with gearbox is now fitted. 4 hands and 2 heads are better than 2 hands and 1 head! I first tried mating the engine and box on my own and failed - it is a heavy old lump.
Everything pretty much fits as it should other than:
1. I am a bit concerned about the clutch operating lever which doesn't seem will have much travel. About 2.5cm before it hits the gearbox. Don't think I cocked anything up but it does seem a bit "not right". See picture.
2. And the gearbox just touches the transmission tunnel side in one place so a little fettling will be required there.
Both the steering shaft and the alternator (not in picture) are fine with a huge 1cm clearance :-)

engine_in1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
engine_in2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
clutch_lever by Robin Martin, on Flickr