1974 Marina Estate resurrection

The first job was to get it running using a borrowed battery, a moped petrol tank hung from the bonnet catch, and a handful of random temporary wires to get power to the vital bits. We soon had life and a happy sounding engine.
This was the start of a major wiring tidy-up to remove dodgy joints, cut and loose wires, ,scotchlocks...


To give an idea of the project, I found a spare bonnet in the boot that I wasn’t expecting, and when I moved that I found a spare engine - also unexpected.

There was no sign of the battery the seller told me he had included. I spoke to him a couple of months later and he mentioned the battery was in the passenger footwell, it was - but had so much junk on top I hadn’t found it !

Next was replacement of a few brake pipes that I wasn’t happy with. Either things have changed or I have been spoilt with great motor factors when I lived other places. I had a choice of giving the lines to a local motor factors to use as pattern to make new or buying the tools to diy. Easy decision and all lines to the front brakes have now been renewed.


The seller helpfully told me a lot of BL parts are interchangeable, a cheap “full suspension rebuild kit for Morris Minor” provided parts to replace some failed bushes. Beer was bought at the same time.


Then the real fun started 

fascinating - welcome, and, proceed!

Thought the "couple of patches" bit sounded wildly optimistic! Be a great save though.

Enjoying this - I'm a sucker for a rusty estate - especially a British one.

Coke bottle styling looks really great on the estate.

Or should that be beer bottle styling.....

I think rust goes hand in hand with most cars from that era! good on you for saving it

Roadtrip: Day1 

I've been running this around locally for a few days to iron out any niggles but eventually I couldn't put off a long overdue mini-roadtrip any longer.

The first leg went ok, I gave the car a good once-over before setting off and everything looked fine, arrived 60 miles later (cruising at 55mph pacing HGV's on the motorway) with no drama and sent a few folk messages along the lines of "Nothing fell off".
I had a spare day so checked things in daylight before my next leg tomorrow and noticed a very loose fanbelt. A quick look showed it had also lost a few internal teeth on the drive yesterday. Oops !



Top marks go to a local motor factors (Mikes @ Chepstow). I called in to see if they had any old v-belts in stock that I might be able to use. Chap apologised as he couldn't remember the part number for marina belts so had to look it up before pulling 2 from behind the counter. Awesome service ! I took 1 std marina belt and a slightly shorter as a spare.


It's never a dull day when you've got a retro 

Roadtrip: Day 4 to NW Wales.

100 miles @ 55-60mph, no problems, nothing fell off.

Arrived at the last stop on this trip and spent a couple of hours picking bits out of my mates very useful pile of junk/spares.
One headlight works fine until it doesn't, a spare unit was soon fitted and we had no problems after that.
I'll look at the other niggles in the next few days in daylight but for now I'm happy it made it here without any real drama.
On a motorway with decent surface the car drives very nicely - smooth and quiet with very light steering - I've been very gentle so far and have no idea of the performance or acceleration...

Now I’m settled at a mates place the serious fettling has started.
New wipers have been fitted all round. One of the headlights that was working has died. Mate said he had a spare so I fitted that - it was great but cloudy for 2 days before also dying. He then found another spare ... and more... by the end I’d tried more than half a dozen and found 2 that worked, I fitted one and it’s good so far 

My NE Wales visit is over - slightly delayed due to force 11 gales, so it’s time for a shopping trip on my way home (via Stoke to Co Durham)
230 miles stopping half way there to collect an oversized competition off-roader.

Reasons why I prefer estate cars (the front wheel & extended forks were added before we closed the boot) ...
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