Fast Marina Magazine

Ahh the 80's under-seal line! Many of my cars had it.

Looks well, asides from a rather enormous towbar!

Well not today, but sunday we took Marla to the cars and coffee meet at Down Royal and tried to park beside the most expensive car we could find.

Marla at the carts and coffee event at down racecourse 2nd April by Adam McCausland, on Flickr

Nice. I bet the Marina got more attention too I parked next to a Aston Martin a few years back and the guy next to me wasn't too pleased

Haha, I love seeing their faces when pulling up!

Fitted a new steering bush to Alistair's car with Alistair and my brother Phil.
It's one tidy Mk 3 he's got! Great to meet with you again Alistair!

Good stuff David how did it go?

I recommend the you get it professionally tracked up for best feel.

MarinaCoupe wrote:Good stuff David how did it go?

I recommend the you get it professionally tracked up for best feel.

Went ok. Fairly easy to do in situ.

Got Phil's ute to do next plus a couple of other jobs.

Is that a dent in the wing David or just the way the reflection is?

Morris McKinnon wrote:Is that a dent in the wing David or just the way the reflection is?

No dents. Must be just the reflection.

Plenty of rust though!

And as you can see I haven't fitted the new purchase yet!

BOP came back home yesterday!


Carl wanted to keep his recored rad so we popped one in I had painted up- great until we filled it up and water came pissing out of a small hole in the core! Dug out my others, had a knackered twin peg, a knackered 1.8 and a fairly clean 1.8. We removed the pegs, welded them in the 1.3 position, filled her up and all was good.

Carl also needs a tank for the MK2, fortunately I had a spare early tank so I cleaned that up and painted it so we removed the MK3 tank that had been fitted into BOP so that can go in the MK2.

balmy wrote: Mon Apr 10, 2017 10:09 pm

Morris McKinnon wrote:Is that a dent in the wing David or just the way the reflection is?

No dents. Must be just the reflection.

Plenty of rust though!

And as you can see I haven't fitted the new purchase yet!

c,mon now, it's four screws for goodness sake ..or is the grill hanging on the wall as it did look pretty cool as an ornament

Handbrake testing Balmy?

Dunno about plenty of rust, it might not be mint but it's not exactly hanging...

Went out into the garage and started the coupe for the first time in three months. After convertion to the electric pump it fired up on the first turn of the key. No more of that extended cranking for me, turn the key, wait for the ticking to stop and whoosh into life it sprang!

Done about 100 miles in BOP so far. Have done a few little jobs- replacing bits of missing trim etc. She had also been fitted with the wrong clutch slave making the pedal rather fierce- a 22.2mm (as used on 1.8s and later 1.3s). Fortunately I have a couple of NOS 1 inch slaves on the shelf so I bought a seal kit from Earlpart and rebuilt one last night. Popped it in this morning (on early 1.3s the clutch fork doesn't get in the way) and the pedal feels much better. I will replace the master sometime as the one in there now has the wrong size bore so the pedal is still slightly sharper than it should be- early 1.3s should be really smooth and light. I only have one sitting around and that has a bit of a rusty bore so will have to get it lined unless I find a cheap NOS one that I can pop a new seal kit in.

The battery was also going flat quickly. Not a surprise really- the battery came with my Limeflower coupe, which had stood for a few years. The battery then stood for another two years in my shed, it was then topped up with ordinary tap water and has survived being boiled by an alternator with a failed regulator. I'm surprised it has survived this well! Sadly my new battery has the terminals on the wrong side (it was a £30 cheapie rather than a correct 038) so I had to lose the original screw top negative terminal.

Couple more jobs still to do- one of the rear tyres has perished slightly and the spare is ancient so will get a new tyre on the spare and put that on the back, and make the slightly perished one the spare. There's a couple of small holes in the driver's side sill to sort, she needs a fresh coat of underseal, also need to track down some smooth vinyl front seats and replace those hideous pressed number plates. Once that's all done it'll be time to think about giving her a bit of a paintwork. She's very straight but has a few areas of surface rust.


We've been making some good progress with the MK2 as well. We fitted a new rad, water pump, all new hoses and she's now leak free. Cleaned all the mould out of the interior Fitted a new battery too so we can start on the electrics- nothing major to do just the odd earthing issue. Next job is fit a better fuel tank, replace fuel hoses and replace the ignition parts- I believe Carl has ordered electronic ignition for her. He's also got all the bits to do the brakes. After that we just need to weld the floor, stick some new tyres on her then it's MOT time.

What did I do?

Sold my Marina ute.
It has gone back to Christchurch, bought by an enthusiastic young chap, I told him of this site and recommended it to him.

One day I might well buy another Marina.

And I'll visit this site regularly.