Fast Marina Magazine

JoshWard wrote:I think the lip went in 1972?

My '74 TC has one! Much later Josh.

Here's mine having a repair piece made.

Don't worry Chris, the crossply has been sitting in my workshop since I bought the car! Somehow I didn't think a 40 year old crossply tyre would be the best idea

Don't worry she will be staying on radials, I remember when Practical Classics did a shootout test between several different radials and a set of new Crossplies, needless to say the Crossplies were terrible. I want to keep Ducky as standard with no servo and drum brakes, as such I need a set of tyres which brake well. Saying that it would be nice to find out what she was like to drive originally but I don't want to add to the accident damage

As for the valance it sounds like it changed as they were gearing up for MK2 production, JWC had a later valance but she was more or less a MK2 car underneath anyway. Seems BL were pretty much ready for MK2s by early 1975.

Good idea Josh , yours will be one of the few original ones.
Good work fella

I had a suicide DL.

No Heated rear window or hazards or wheel trim either.
One speed heater fan also. Drum front brakes and tiny clutch also.

They really paired down the spec on a DL to keep the launch price low.

T

I wouldn't call it 'suicide', they're not that bad

Gee tc wrote:
No Heated rear window or hazards or wheel trim either.
One speed heater fan also. Drum front brakes and tiny clutch also.

They really paired down the spec on a DL to keep the launch price low.

T

Kinda sums up my ute too!

Seems as good a place to ask as any... for someone considering doing a TC "replica" (won't be an especially accurate one, since the base vehicle is a Mk1 estate ), what actually makes a TC a TC, other than the obvious engine bits?

The car is a '74 and eventually I'd like it to be as close as possible to the TC trim level of the time- as if someone had walked into a dealership in 1974 and requested by special order a TC estate- obviously this will involve a certain amount of time part hunting. This is a fairly long term plan!
It's lost a lot of it's original trim and most of what is left is damaged so I'm not destroying a nice example of an SDL in the process, and I already have a Marina TC engine to go in- the car died long ago, donating it's engine & gearbox to a kit car project that never happened.

If people have comparison photos for some of the more subtle bits like the doorcards then even better

If any of the bits are common to other vehicles I guess that would be handy to know too.

I'm sure this is already covered on here somewhere but I couldn't find anything despite trying various search permuations.

Have you looked in the 74-75 Brochure that is in the Publications section? You would need to decide if you wanted an early TC look or a later Mk1.5 TC (as per the brochure).

Starter for ten:

External:

Chrome trim around door frames, front and rear screens

Sill trims

under riders front and back

Grill

Back flash (not sure how you could do that on an estate but might be an interesting project in itself.

Interior:

Door cards

Centre console

Chairs

tripple pack dials

Wood effect dash trim

Not a complete list at all.

I could take photos of my two TC's interior bits at the weekend if that helps? They are both '72 cars.

That would be fantastic if you could Ben, cheers.

Chrome door trim may be an issue, given that the estate rear doors are subtly different (something I only learnt the other day). I'm not sure the rear flash could be made to work, rear under riders may take some work too.

Are there any differences between the three dial dash in an SDL and the TC one?

Think the dials are the same. Some SDLs also had the wood grain plastic dash so it shouldn't be too hard finding one (as a matter of fact I have one in the loft from JWC ). Later TCs had cloth seats but think you'd be better off with vinyl ones as any cloth ones will be saggy by now!
As for the chrome door trim, how about stick on 'chrome'? You may have to go that way anyway as I would have thought the TC door stuff is hard to find now. Bearing in mind to get the side profile to look good you would also have to chrome around the side rear window (the ones behind the back doors).

You forgot an obvious one Ben, wheels

TCs also had boot lamps, later ones had Sundym tinted glass, hazard lights, heated rear windows.

Think a pin stripe would look good

Oh yes, Wheels.. Forgot about them

I think with a little creativity you could use either stick on chrome, or find an E39 BMW estate (or any modern estate/car that has some chrome) and cut 'n' shut it to suit?

Pin Stripe =

Pin stripe goes without saying!

I did know about the wheels hadn't thought about the rear windows though. Desperately need new seals too so will have to look at the options there. Mine already has hazards and a heated rear window (which doesn't, but it's there) which is handy, and the remains of the mock wood trim- I'll have to see what trim is on my spare dash. Definitely want vinyl seats, and would probably get a set retrimmed anyway. What is different about the rear seats? May have to try and make a TC/ estate hybrid rear seat as I'd like it to still fold- hmmm, what have we started?

This is your fault Josh (and Frank helped)...

All rear seat backs have a fold down arm rest.

:-)

Really? As in, all seats are made the same but not all are covered the same? That's cool if so

Will be quite a contrast from it's current state, poor old bus...

I think Frank had an Dutch estate parts car which had chrome around the rear door frames which was very rare, not sure if he still has the parts now though but worth contacting him in case as they would be the hardest parts to find. If you want front door frame trims then also look at Ital as theirs are black but get black off and polish the base stainless up and it will be the same!