Fast Marina Magazine

Chopped mine up with a 9" angle grinder :twisted: , the useful stuff I've spent most of the day transferring into my mates pickup!!
Cold wet & questioning my sanity!!

All the best for the New Year

Brian

Hey Bri, remember the Neighbour who complained about you using the Still saw at 11.30 in the evening and your fleet of marinas parked up on the drive?
"ey ey one spark plug in 50 years,hard has nails"

Yes, I chopped him up with a gas axe, & buried him with the car I was working on :twisted:

8) fitted a new handbrake cable to the "auld yin" and fitted a new front to back brake pipe. thats all the mechanical running gear changed now and a fairly new gold sael engine. this beast is gonna run forever. all i need to do now is save the pennies and get the bodywork done but if push comes to shove i will run it the way it is.
also made a start to overhauling rays front suspension units from his blue mk3. bin fodder they are.seized solid nearly.have a pair of good second hand ones and i will fit new lower swivels to them.
another good day at the office.

It's more of a case of what is going to be done soon.

New Paint for various bodysnots and fit new Bonnet .

New steering rack, Poly bushes and TR ends

New walfords and top ball joints

New Lever arms

New tie rod Bushes

New Fr windscreen rubber fitting

And a bloody good clean , they don't half get clarty in winter.

Shes back on the road....again!!
Spent today pullin the old rack off and striping it down to look for bad bits,only found one of the pinion bearings had turned to rust.
Craig(crashbang) came up trumps with four racks from his stash for me to route through and find good bearings.It seems to be a common fault as some of the other racks had the same bearing failure?
Theres a hole halfway along the rack tube which you use to lock the rack up by placing a pin into it,this hole should be covered by tape or a rubber band,mine wasnt and as it faces straight up water can enter and run along inside and guess where it stops...at the bearing. :shock:
So my advice is to look behind your rocker cover at the rack and make sure this hole is covered!!

So much for having just driven it! After Fridays little run out (to Stowmarket via lots of spurious country lanes and a deeper-than-expected ford), I decided to have a look at the nearside front wheel on the Ital. It shakes like a dog humping ya leg at 60mph(ish) but I know the wheel balance is OK, as I've put all four on it at various times and they all shook....
Anyway, I soon found the damper had so little guts it wouldn't even hold its own arm up, so off that came and on went a good secondhand one (I know they need to be paired, but unless you have brand spanking new ones it doesn't make sod all difference to the driving experience.....) and after the test drive, the wobble was much less.
So, what else was there? It turned out to be the steering rack had 1/8" free play in the end...... Luckily I had one buried in the stores so that was hauled out, checked and today was fitted.....
What Haynes don't tell you in their ever-so-useful Ital 1.7 manual is that the heater flap mechanism is exactly in front of the upper drivers side nut so it is a one-flat-at-a-times spanner job..... or the the bloody rack won't go past the bellhousing unless the gearbox is dropped six inches..... or the lower steering link needs an f-off sized slide hammer to get the little bugger to move off the splines..........
I will finish it next year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Found this in my mums garage..

Dude! :shock:
I was itching to see if there was anything in there when I picked mine up but could not ask! Just as well really as I my not have come out!
Is this the one you may take on your trip?
Looks great but I guess that is just a sticker on the bonnet or is it there for a reason?

More pictures are needed!!!

Is it a MK1 or MK2? Only ask as the washers are in a different place to where I would expect them!

I spy some caliper boxes to!

He's a mk3. Here's how he looked in a former life 10 YEARS AGO!!..

Now less the wheels unfortunatly, but am looking out for another set..

Very smart in deed. 8)
Whats under the hood so to speak? Is it a 1.8TC engine?
It still looks in good condition body wise.

Its an O series 1.7, i fitted new wings, lamp panels, sills, spring hangers etc years ago..

TC tail pipe perhaps ??

JIM73 wrote:TC tail pipe perhaps ??

Do you mean, if i let you have a TC tail pipe, i can have "MY" wheels back?...

Hmm !! After i've just refurbished them !! :?