Fast Marina Magazine

Yup exactly my first experience. When I dismantled and got the u bolts out, they opened up just enough not to go back in the holes. I had to squeeze them gently in a vice to get them to fit.

The first time I reconnected the steering column I didn't check and got the steering wheel upside down!

I didn't do anything.

But my wife ran out of petrol in it - on the main street too!


"It was only on 'E' for a short time" she said...

Went to see aqua today not impressed with the council garage I rent it was pretty damp to say the least
Anyway started first time but clutch stuck 1go with it in gear and that was freed
Short drive through village brakes pretty crap nearly on floor so some at tension needed there
Back in the damp garage now

Lock up Garages can wreak havoc on stored cars, it would be worth lining it out with pinboard or some sort of absorbent wood panelling and if you can get some sort of airflow through there it would help

What did I do today?

Fixed my bonnet catch - it needed plier to pull hard enough on the knob to open the bonnet.

Cause? -Two reasons.

One, that the cable was too long and wandered all over the place before getting to the latch.

Fixed by using a cutting disc to shorten outer cable by about 2"

Two, the spring (which I suspect was a replacement) was way too strong, probably used to be part of a Charles Atlas chest-expander kit.

Fixed by fitting a weaker spring.

Happiness all round, don't need pliers to get the bonnet open now!

Took it for a spin
Had a bit of trouble starting the beast as the battery is a little weak (Now 7 years old ) It had been on constant trickle charge with a CTEC gizmo until recently when I must have kicked the plug out (Or Lucas had got in the garage??) So even with this charge it struggled to turn over fast enough so I will monitor it over the next few weeks and replace the battery. Normally I would have said straight away the battery was no good if I could have been sure it was on charge but I am not 100% sure when the plug was disconnected even so it should not have gone down hill to badly.

It had not run since the NEC in November.

Still went like train though

Today I had a spare few hours so I decided to spend it with the pick up and done a few more wee jobs on it. Due to work commitments I'm only getting the weekends to work on it if the Mrs hasn't got any other jobs lined up for me lol

Spent another few hours in the garage which is leaking like a bloody sieve so a new roof is needed asap. Today I welded up some holes in the floor pan where after market seats were probably once fitted then ripped out the scabby dash to see the horrendous wiring loom which resembles a dogs dinner. I started tidying the loom up so now I will need to work out what wires go where as most of the switches weren't wired up and the ones that were didn't bloody work. I'm crap at electrics so this is gonna be a challenge

ado28 wrote:Spent another few hours in the garage which is leaking like a bloody sieve so a new roof is needed asap. Today I welded up some holes in the floor pan where after market seats were probably once fitted then ripped out the scabby dash to see the horrendous wiring loom which resembles a dogs dinner. I started tidying the loom up so now I will need to work out what wires go where as most of the switches weren't wired up and the ones that were didn't bloody work. I'm crap at electrics so this is gonna be a challenge

Is that the factory dogs dinner, or an aftermarket one?

I'm fortunate that my father-in-law is a retired autosparky. Does the Haynes manual have a good wiring diagram (with wire gauges)?

youll be alright sean,your wiring skills on reynards central locking system was spot on
good luck mate
best regards
barry

The original loom is from another car and not too bad apart from scotch locks. I will remove these, solder and finish off with some heatshrink. TBH I havent got a clue on how to read a wiring diagram so its time to try and learn. Failing that, I always have you guys to ask

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Well I fitted the window-winder that kilroy sent to me!!! Thanks kilroy, great to have that sort of support from Kiwi Marina owners! (And Mrs Kiwi Ute like the idea of having a knob in her hands - if ya know what I mean! )

Oh, and again I owe kilroy - he got me able to log back onto the fastmarina site after I lost my password and had other issues.

Now I'm BAAACK!

And looking forwards to what's happening on the site.

Back in to the garage again today and will finish off getting primer in to the cab area and make a start at trying to work out the electrics

I've a van loom if you need it Sean. It's the front half

Finished the front suspension and took her for a drive down to the station to renew my monthly rail season ticket - £504!

I need a new contract closer to home.

Picture in station car park.



Next job checkout the propshaft, bit of a loud clonk as I feed the power in when changing gear.