Fast Marina Magazine

I have had a tidy, very low mileage mk2 1.8 Special Automatic in Jade Green stored since 2002 with the view to giving it a really top notch paintjob some time soon.

However, having had it stored in a lock-up I wasn't anticipating what I've found this week, and as a Marina novice could do with some advice. The garage wasn't the driest but wasn't THAT bad either. Or so I thought

The rear floors are an inch deep in water and, somehow, the previously fine vinyl roof has disintegrated in places. Has anybody how this could happen in a roofed and ventilated garage???

The immediate job is to take it somewhere to dry out over the next couple of weeks, and investigate the damage. If the floors have started to rot, are repairs available or is it a dead loss?

Are the BL vinyl roof material that bad quality? Is that vinyl patina available to recover the roof?

Are the seals on these cars really that bad and are replacements available?

And are there any Marina-friendly Body & Paintshops known in the Yorkshire/Lincs area?

I've a couple of Maxi's and Mini's as well as other cars, but this seems ridiculous. Am I being unreasonable?

Obviously I'm going to giving the car a full service (brakes etc) so that side of it is accepted, but I wasn't anticipating a underside rebuild....

Can you photo the affected areas?

Panels are available through the club, but surely it's not that bad? Rear floors need a lot to rot out but was the floor rusty to start with ? Has the sealer lifted where the inner sill meets? The water would need something to 'latch' onto to create rust/rot.

The roofs go brittle overtime if they dry out. I usually buff them with bees wax, some use shoe polish. The best thing would be strip the old off and when you have the body painted, go over the roof as well. This will aid the fitting of any new material.

Ben

My Marina has all it's original seals and only leaks slightly on one front quarterlight. My last Marina leaked like a sieve on all seals except the front windscreen one (even after fitting new seals, the door seals leaked due to awful BL welding on the doors that hadn't been ground back properly). If it has been undercover then it's got to be damp.

MK2s seem to be the rarest of the bunch now? Got to be worth saving if it's a low mileage car in such a nice colour

If the floor had a inch of water and it was in a garage then I would think the roof had blown off
11 years with damp or water in the car will not be good.
I have seen an Ital with a damp boot for possibly 11 years and it was like swiss cheese.
I am sure anything can be fixed as mine has been
But it depends on the money and or time to throw at it. Probably more time than anything else.

If it was still holding water the there was some body integrity, although it may just be the under seal.

Seriously though, I had a similar lockup garage with a vent in the far end of the garage. Unfortunately it faced into the prevailing wind and would blow in the rain through the vent throughout the winter. I would leave my Coupe a week or two and come back to find bodywork covered in "rain" stains. If left for too long I can believe that the water would get in through the seals. I expect your carpets are sodden from the windscreen leaking through the rubber, down the inside of the bulkhead and into the carpets and floor pan.

It would also explain the degradation of the vinyl roof.

Chris

Sent from my iPhone

It's "only" been in this lock-up a couple of years.
Can the 'smoother' effect roof vinyl still be obtained for these cars? (different patina to the Ford ones)

I'm prepared to spend a bit on this car to get it spot-on, but first of all it needs to go somewhere to dry out and examined. I was aware when I bought it of a couple of small holes in the boot wells but that was about it - sounds like it will be a 'windows out' job for sure...

Can you take some photos and put up?
Might be able to assess how bad it actually is. And also good to see a green special-best Mk2 colour IMHO.

Trust me.. It can't be as bad as this old gal! And she's getting put right!

Or this one

Dragging it out to dry tomorrow & removing carpet - so better photo's then.
The boot is dry which is something I suppose, all of the manuals (which were stored on the parcel shelf) are sodden which may be an indication of were all the bloody water came from...