As I've been prompted by Sophers thread on her midge and mdh, and mainly because I should have done it ages ago, the below is a story so far of a Marlin restoration:
I volunteered to help out at my school motor club one evening a week, as I recently moved back within 30mins and struck a deal with my boss to start and finish 30mins early one day a week.
When i was there (14yrs ago) we used to go off roading in banged up old landies, bend them and fix them - all great fun and allowed me to tinker. So i thought I'd repay the favour and go and help out
First day I went back in septmeber last year, the teacher in charge (Ivan from here on) had just picked this up
a pretty rotten, very early Marlin based on Triumph running gear, instead of the later marina suspended ones. Been sat in an ex-pupil's mother's garden following a divorce, getting pretty grotty.
no doors and triumph suspension identify as an early one. They have a good reputation and the chassis seems very stiff as it'll support itself on 3 corners. Looking forward to driving it!
Despite the horrendous external condition and footwells full of ferns, the chassis seemed solid so we set about taking it apart. It also has one of these
:
Lots of surface rust and lots of rusted solid flat head screws holding everything together = lots of time with a drill and grinder
Around christmas time we got it to bare chassis and attacked it with flap wheels
all the suspension was stripped, sand blasted and painted. Chassis had a couple of coats of paint too...
Box of shiny new bits!
started reassembly sometime in Feb I think
Suspension on, bulkhead stripped, cleaned and riveted back together instead of stooooopid bolts, engine and screen in. Happy day
new floors too
Then we're up to the present day (tuesday gone), working out how to actually attach the tank to the chassis instead of letting it float around
steering column in
new master cylinders in
trial fit of the clamshell
and there we are...
next on the list is wiring and brake lines as well as finishing off the tank mount.
Most of the hard graft has been carried out by boys ranging from 13-17, 95% of whom have no experience of working with cars or tools (one of the first questions I was asked was "what's this?" pointing at a brake disc)
The PO had carried out some unbelievable bodges, and a lot of the corrosion was due to bad finishing and a positive earth
The budget hasn't been huge, but we're hopeful to be running and driving (round the yard) by the end of june, before the end of the school year.
No children were harmed making this feature
I volunteered to help out at my school motor club one evening a week, as I recently moved back within 30mins and struck a deal with my boss to start and finish 30mins early one day a week.
When i was there (14yrs ago) we used to go off roading in banged up old landies, bend them and fix them - all great fun and allowed me to tinker. So i thought I'd repay the favour and go and help out
First day I went back in septmeber last year, the teacher in charge (Ivan from here on) had just picked this up
a pretty rotten, very early Marlin based on Triumph running gear, instead of the later marina suspended ones. Been sat in an ex-pupil's mother's garden following a divorce, getting pretty grotty.
no doors and triumph suspension identify as an early one. They have a good reputation and the chassis seems very stiff as it'll support itself on 3 corners. Looking forward to driving it!
Despite the horrendous external condition and footwells full of ferns, the chassis seemed solid so we set about taking it apart. It also has one of these
:Lots of surface rust and lots of rusted solid flat head screws holding everything together = lots of time with a drill and grinder
Around christmas time we got it to bare chassis and attacked it with flap wheels
all the suspension was stripped, sand blasted and painted. Chassis had a couple of coats of paint too...
Box of shiny new bits!
started reassembly sometime in Feb I think
Suspension on, bulkhead stripped, cleaned and riveted back together instead of stooooopid bolts, engine and screen in. Happy day
new floors too
Then we're up to the present day (tuesday gone), working out how to actually attach the tank to the chassis instead of letting it float around
steering column in
new master cylinders in
trial fit of the clamshell
and there we are...
next on the list is wiring and brake lines as well as finishing off the tank mount.
Most of the hard graft has been carried out by boys ranging from 13-17, 95% of whom have no experience of working with cars or tools (one of the first questions I was asked was "what's this?" pointing at a brake disc)
The PO had carried out some unbelievable bodges, and a lot of the corrosion was due to bad finishing and a positive earth
The budget hasn't been huge, but we're hopeful to be running and driving (round the yard) by the end of june, before the end of the school year.
No children were harmed making this feature
