*** IS THE MARINA PICK-UP THE BEST BUILT MARINA/ITAL? ***

[The original northen boy]

After looking at the recent post on the forum about the breakers yard in Leicester i find myself asking this question was the marina pick-up the best built vehicle out of the Marina/Ital range?

The reason i ask this question is simple,the pick-up was the smallest seller from the range (apart from the convertible) yet the numbers that survive seem to be quite amazing.The market it was aimed at builders and trades men who wanted and easy access work horse,by nature were not going to give the pick-up an easy life,yet the built-to-survival ratio seems extremely high.

I put this down to the excellent construction of the load bay area,a quality doubled skinned thick steel fabrication and a very sturdy well made tail gate...

Any damage to that area was contained,and not transfered to the outer panels.a practice rare in it's day and even now ,hence the after-market practice of fitting plastic body liners to new pick-ups

To add weight to my case about the quality of build on the Marina i say "where have all the Ford P100's and the Nissan/Datsun's pick-ups gone where are the Toyota's all dispatched to that great scrap yard in the sky.. The Marina has seen them all off.
So was the pick-up the best built of all the Marinas and Itals? from my experiences,without a doubt!

Russ

Beckett Bros "BIG eight"

[JoshWard]

Well I hope so as if I do get this pick-up I'm going to need a sturdy vehicle to carry stuff There's just something about pick-up trucks that are so cool and the Marina is by far the coolest, they're for men, the kind of men who took resistant materials (woodwork and metalwork) instead of cookery, the kind of men who drink strong beer- in other words for me
Who knows if I cant be bothered to go home one night I might even park up in a field and sleep under the stars

[The original northen boy]

Well said Josh you can embrace the joys of a "REAL MANS VEHICLE" (a well built mans vehicle as well) The brotherhood of "REAL MEN" awaits you,stand tall my friend we salute you

Beckett Bros "The winkle man"

[JoshWard]

it was either a pick-up or a TC....
Maybe I'll get a TC as well when i've passed my test but it wont be as cool as the pickup

[Muskydo]

Yes I'm surprised by how many seem to have survived what was intended to be a hard life. Driven by real men to proper mens jobs,none of this mamby pamby equality stuff back in them days.Where I live the men were men and the sheep always looked worried Has anyone any figures on how many are still out there As for sleeping under the stars we have a special band of people here called "Doggers" who's sole purpose in life appears to be prowling dark lay-bys looking for unsuspecting people to lure over to the Dark side,so beware By the way "resistant materials" what the hell is that all about.........
Cheers
Steve

[ado28]

There cant be that many left I would imagine Steve. I have an early one with the chassis number 3018 but i'm pretty sure that there is at least 2 (Uncle Frank & Pete Woods?) that i'm aware of in the club with chassis numbers lower than mine. Can anyone confirm?

[marinast]

Leyland really caught a niche market with the Marina pick up, there was no Escort or Viva or Avenger pick up offered, indeed I think the only real competition came from the Japanese.
I've often had the hunch that it was Leyland Australia who wanted a 'Ute' version of the Marina, but did they sell many there? Just imagine one with a 2600cc E six and polished slot mags? Awsome.

[ado28]

In need of some loving I have just about gathered up all the required panels but I still need a back panel and a front landing panel, oh and 1x 10cwt standard steel wheel

[MarinaCoupe]

I think that there was a market waiting in the UK for a Pick Up as well as Australia. There had been the Minor Pickup afterall. The pickup was introduced after the van, for a short while there was at least one body company (?) offering pickup conversions of the van with the van high roof line over the cab.

I know someone who bought one, I'll see if they have any of the advertising material and will post it here.

[The original northen boy]

Will look forward to seeing that Chris,could this possibly be the same company (or one of the companies) who did the Maestro pick-up conversions?
The Marina pick-up was a great piece of kit,my father bought "Nell"my pick-up new in 1979 at a cost of (i think) £2400 +VAT,just the thing for a small builder/plaster the only problem apart from security,was stuff getting wet....
I believe other export markets for the pick-up were South Africa,and the West Indies,who have a long history of this type of vehicles..
Once again what went wrong with Austin/Morris and their ability to capitalize on a good product?

Russ

Beckett Bros" Judge Dread" :roll:

[marinast]

I've often thought that it was the engine range in the Marina/Ital range which really let it down, don't get me wrong a 1300cc A series is ok, but a 1098cc one? Regardless of the gearing it's one underpowered product.
I've sometimes thought that a 1500 diesel version could have sold well but again the performance of those is worse than the A series engined vehicles. Perhaps BL should have offered a 1600cc version based on the B series, they had the old 1600cc tooling I'm sure and this might well have given the range a bit more pep. The other idea of course was to fit the 1800 B series, just imagine a TC pick up, an SUV 25 years ahead of the rest! I know Ford marketed their Escort Van in Australia with custom paint and windows, I'm sure a polished slotmag Marina pick-up/van with loud colours would have gone down well with 1970s young Australian sufer types.
Check out this site, just imagine if BL had managed to produce a Marina van to rival Fords Sundowner range.

Ok that was a looooooong link!

[ado28]

I think BL’s main problem in the 70 was money, or lack of it. They never had enough of it to invest in new power units or even new car design to a degree. I agree the 1800 B series would have been ok but the A and B series engines in the 70’s were starting to age at this point. BL could have been something really good but their fat cats took them down a very dark road.

[The original northen boy]

Think your spot on with the investment comments Sean.
Austin/Morris British Leyland,BL cars whatever they were calling themselves all suffered from lack of investment.And the choice of engine was to say the least LIMITED...
And on the looks footing the Marina/Ital held its own with any the other manufactures such as Fords Escort and Vauxhall's Chevette van range,but yes a sports utility,flashed up with a nice set of wheels,special paint work and a "hockey stick stripe"and a performance engine,yes please,(mind you i think i might have done that ????)

Russ...

Beckett Bros "Double Barrel" :roll:

[Alan The Exocet]

To say the pick up was made for a hard life there still seems a lot of them about and they weren't that many made the load area is really good steel the floor is standard but the double skin load area is really good and thick and the tail gate is well made too,you never see any Marinas or Itals on the road now up here all gone quite a couple of years ago but they seem to be on ebay all the time,so goes to prove how strong they were.Oh and not hard to get looking really good a set of wheels and you have a cracking motor.I know everyone says the mk 1cars were the best made i don't know enough about them to pass an option but i do know that the pick ups i have seen for sale all look good for working vehicles.I would like one but it is not practical for me and another thing the doors look ok on them on the coupe they are too small and don't look as good as they could have,but the pick up takes them really well,so yes i think they were the best built only because they used thicker steel,do the cabs rust like the cars do? i know the wings do this could have been stopped by plastic arch liners and cheaply too,Morris were real tight wads back then not fitting them,in fact when did liners start and who fitted them first?

Alan

[Gee tc]

HI,
Someone forgot the Peugeot 504 pickup in this thread!
Until very recently I had one( a K reg 1993) which was an absolute godsend in moving house, carrying all manor of building materials.
(its forte was that it COULD carry a 1 ton payload..full pallets of bricks etc)
And with its towing gear, car transporting my own Marina and a couple of taxis back home!
Sadly now gone, but not without their faults such as the propjoints welding themselves to the gearbox sliding joints when not greased through the prop's torque tube. Yes it had nipples up until 1993!
These were still made in Kenya till a couple of years ago I'm told
I dont confess to be a 'Real Man' but I do like my beers and a (no sheep) shag!

Tony