Fast Marina Magazine

I have come across a 1973 Morris Marina 1,8 TC Coupé which I am considerung buying. The car is advertised as being in good condition and judging by the pics it is OK. Some rust however, notably in the front fenders.

I have a 1973 1,3 Marina Coupé so Marinas as such are very familiar. The TC seems to be a different beast though. Is there anything special I should be looking out for? Any special TC bits, any well-known technical problems that are likely to show up even on this two-owner vehicle. Or sould I just go for it?

Hi Fille,

bodywork wise etc, tc no different to the rest of them rust wise so check the usual places

TC specific parts as far as im aware are as follows:

TC front grille
under riders front and rear
tc wing badges and boot badge
chrome side strips
thick chrome moulding around all windows
rear panel on the back panel which should say MORRIS, its black with silver trim
TC exhaust trim (tho these where optional)
internally TC's had reclining seats, the back seat should have a pull down arm rest, there are chrome pedal surrounds on the pedals, centre console with leather gearstick surround, wooden gearknob, leather rimmed steering wheel, triple pack gauges.

What about the engine then? The B-series is totally unknown to me as all my BL cars have had A-series lumps. And what gearbox does it have?

Hi Fille

The engine is basically the same as an MGB and is just as relaible as your A series. The 1.3 and 1.8 use essentially the same gearbox, although the ratios are slightly different and the clutch/input shaft is beefed up a little. If you have worked on your A series engine, you will feel right at home on the B series.

furzey wrote:Hi Fille,

bodywork wise etc, tc no different to the rest of them rust wise so check the usual places

TC specific parts as far as im aware are as follows:

TC front grille
under riders front and rear
tc wing badges and boot badge
chrome side strips
thick chrome moulding around all windows
rear panel on the back panel which should say MORRIS, its black with silver trim
TC exhaust trim (tho these where optional)
internally TC's had reclining seats, the back seat should have a pull down arm rest, there are chrome pedal surrounds on the pedals, centre console with leather gearstick surround, wooden gearknob, leather rimmed steering wheel, triple pack gauges.

also different door cards, Engine is the same but there are TwinCarbs, different manifoilds and different exhaust downpipe. I think on UK domestic cars they were fitted with dual-circuit brakes (all norwegian models were fitted with dualbrakes also the 1300/1800 so i'm not sure about the domestiic models). TC-steel rims

Sounds very interesting - there are very few known surviving original factory built left hand drive Marina TCs,and perhaps this one is a unique colour/interior colour combo too if it isnt red with a blue or black interior :mrgreen: please do say which colour it is..........
The sound of a TC can become irresistable to those comfortable with Marinas so I hope you will decide that this car is unique enough to save........1973 was the transition year where cloth seats,tinted glass,5J rims and vinyl roof were introduced as standard so i wonder which side of the line this car is..............

Ooooh, tempting tempting. Actually I had already decided on not going forward with this one but maybe still... We'll see.

The car is yellow/brown/beige, don't know the name of the colour though. Black vinyl seats but no vinyl roof.

Fille

If it is the same colour as the car in my avatar then it's Harvest Gold.

Looks a bit like that, perhaps a bit more orange?

Hi Fille, the colour could be `Bracken`, which was used on the later mk1 models, it is a sort of orangey gold colour, or possibly `Bronze Yellow` which was the previous version of this

Not many if any survivors in bracken (saw one TC coupe on ebay in last year or so...) and black seats are more likely vinyl than cloth so its a colour normally associated with vinyl roofs & cloth seats.........
Is the price affordable so that perhaps another forum member could consider saving it & restoring it???

Very affordble I think, 15,000 Swedish crowns ono. Bear in mind that it is in quite good condition and is MOT'd.

About £1,248.00 UK pounds!
If in good conditiona and MOT, not to bad but check it over well!
Paul.

Swedish crowns? I live in southern Sweden -perhaps the car isnt too far away from me -please do reveal its location! i dont have any spare cash or borrowing resources at the moment but the car sounds like a great addition to my collection

It's in Värmdö, near Stockholm. I can give you the contact details to the owner if you want to.