kilroy
Part of things
Suit you sir...
Posts: 251
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Bleatings from New Zealand. The madness continues. I have just purchased my 16th Marina, and I still have 10 of them. The local online auction (Trademe) featured this car for the first time a few months ago. Asking price was NZ$1200 - which I consider kinda steep, but I guess they are appreciating now. Today I saw one in a car yard for $2995..! I corresponded with the seller, admired the car and gave her a link to my Marina website, which earned me a cheerful reply. I also said I would love to buy it, but it was way out of my price range. It reappeared several times, but failed to score a single bid. Last week I got an email offering me the car for $300. It had failed a 'warrant of fitness' and needed a few hundreds spent. I accepted immediately, and we grabbed a couple of air tickets to get us to Wellington early last Saturday morning. This is across Cook Strait from the South Island where we live, so we had also booked ferry tickets to get us back that same night. This is the 5th time we have recovered a Marina from some distance away - not knowing if it even still moved under its own power..! Still - its all part of the fun eh mates..?  Grabbed seats on the only train to Masterton on a Saturday - ended up on a bus 'cos the train wasn't running, then back on a train further up the line, until finally reaching Masterton 30 minutes late. Fortunately the seller person was still waiting to greet us - as I had realised we had no way of actually contacting her if we blew the connection... Off to the family home where we enjoyed lunch with the elderly woman whose husband had been the owner of this car until his death last August. The daughter was the contact person, and she and her children joined us all for lunch. What an amazing event. We were treated to much history of their family car, and how it had carried them on family holidays down to Christchurch where we were taking it to live. The local mechanic was having trouble finding spares for it now, so it was time to move it on. They were sure that 'Ivan' would have loved for us to have it. So cool. Instead of selling a car - they gained an extended family..! The car was in very good condition, although some signs of 'parking-by-ear' were evident from its latter years. I immediately fell in love with the cushions in the rear window...  I shall compose a description of what happened next - along with a few photos - and add to this thread... |
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Ruki
Part of things
Posts: 480
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Lovely color. I don't think I could change it, apart from wanting to add more power that is  |
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Already a great story - can't wait for the next episode!
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chaz
Part of things
Posts: 403
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Mar 31, 2009 21:12:19 GMT
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Love reading about people saving old cars
and what a collection of Marinas. Good story too.
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Mar 31, 2009 21:14:59 GMT
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Very nice! Cant wait for some updatage!
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[/color][/b]  [/CENTER] |
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Mar 31, 2009 21:24:03 GMT
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100 % Cool story, and the car is great too.
My one mate lives in Masterton, he is a teacher and his wife nurse.
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Seth
South East
MorrisOxford TriumphMirald HillmanMinx BorgwardIsabellaCombi
Posts: 15,523
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Mar 31, 2009 22:42:19 GMT
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Excellent story so far! look forward to more  |
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Follow your dreams or you might as well be a vegetable. |
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kilroy
Part of things
Suit you sir...
Posts: 251
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I looked under the bonnet - as you do. A couple of things were immediately different from what I am used to seeing there. Unfortunately, it did not have a RR Merlin fitted. It did however have a weird electronic ignition unit. Couldn't tell from my cursory glance how it was wired - will investigate more thoroughly in due course.  Another thing that was different from every other Mk3 I have, was that there was a remote oil filler, and the absence of a filler cap on the cambox.  Niceties observed, I fired it up - and it complied very happily. Guess there's life in the ignition thingie then... Said farewells - including hugging Mrs Ivan - big smile - and made our exit with suitable wavings and grins. So far so good. Wielded the beast in the direction of leaving town - pausing only to replenish the meagre fuel supply, and supplement the waning air pressure in a couple of Mr Dunlop's finest. Discovered that Ivan had had a sly ciggie habit - with an artfully crafted stash down by the driver's seat - a seat now cunningly concealed by a synthetic sheepskin cover - in a country full of sheep yo...  An immediate improvement in the handling dept, although there were numerous clunks and rattles from the front suspension, that usually indicate the recent exit of things like the steering rack bush, and the radius rod bushes. Nil desperandum - it will not prevent us from aiming the pointy end in the general direction of the Cook Strait Ferry. Said Ferry takes place in Wellington, and we are just leaving Masterton. Between the two is a range of hills. They are called the Rimutakas. They are an area of marked vertical development. The sort of place that motorcyclists actually go to out of preference on such a fine Saturday. However - such a climb might prove a serious obstacle to a 29 year old Morris Marina whose regular diet for most of its life has been a gentle pootle down to the shops. Bear in mind that it is now 2pm, and our Ferry booking requires us to attend the departure point by 5.25pm - so we can safely assume that our intrepid flight crew are now experiencing a slight amount of anxiety. Here goes nothing.... |
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Oh, you tease! |
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ccbg
Kinda New
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I partly learned to drive in a 1976? "P" Reg Marina. (In the UK)
A total rotbox! I learned more about filler and fibreglass repairs than driving.
It didn't like corners, and hated bumps. I had to carry spanners to tighten up the front suspension every time I went over a big one.
The hydraulic clutch frequently refused to play the game, the gearbox reverse lockout was non-existent (50/50 odds between 3rd and reverse) , and the handbrake? How we laughed..
It had a leaky fuel tank as well. I tried parking it where I knew people would throw their fags, in the hope that it would ignite, but no luck.
Even leaving the doors unlocked overnight on a main road failed to lose it. No self-respecting car thief wanted anything to do with it.
I eventually sold it to an engineering student, who completely missed the fact that the sill was painted in underseal to cover the newspaper over the holes... Any engineering student who missed that deserved to spend the next year welding.
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kilroy
Part of things
Suit you sir...
Posts: 251
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Well - sorry bold readers - kinda left you all hanging there... As we headed out of town in the general direction of "lets see..", it became apparent that all was not well with the transmission. It was unwilling to engage top gear - or - it had engaged top gear but was slipping badly. I chose the "wait until its really screwed.." approach, and attempted to keep going. By judicious use of the accelerator, I was able to coax it to gradually reduce its revs, until it seemed that the tacho and speedo relationship was about right - thats about 3500rpm for 100kph. Staggering stuff. However - just the possibility that we might gain a few more k's in the direction of home looked pretty good at this point. Forget your "call the AA" here folks - anything that involves calling anybody is going to cost many times the value of this car. At worst we will remove the plates and abandon it.! The extremely slow rate of climb of the temp gauge suggested that the thermostat was either missing or wasted, but as things reached some semblance of normal operating temp, the transmission seemed to respond better. I assumed this meant that the fluid within was probably due for its 20 year change..! We ambled along, gaining confidence with every passing mile. Nothing had smoked or boiled or exploded, so that was nice. The dreaded Rimutakas arrived, and we steamed up in fine style. My attention was mostly on the temp gauge, but it gave no indication of any sudden career changes, and we reached the summit with anticlimactic poise. Even better, the brakes - albeit missing various rear components apparently - managed to slow our descent without any hair raising at all, and soon we were joining the throng of traffic on the Wellington motorway. I kept things to a steady 100k to avoid stretching our luck, but we cruised along quietly, and the transmission continued to do its job in a now normal fashion. A bit of commuter mayhem later, and we were enjoying coffee with my daughter who lives in this place - our capital city. Several trouble-free starts later, we were lining up on the Ferry wharf, and then driving on to the mobile bridge that would take us south to our island - affectionately known as the 'mainland'. We arrived late at night, but all our lights and other electrical niceties performed ok, and we made it to the address of some friends with whom we stayed the night. At this point, we were still 200 miles from home, but I felt that it was now "in the bag!". After a relaxed morning with these good people, we headed south again, and were pleased with the relatively moderate thirst this car displayed. We enjoyed the day and the road - the transmission had started out the same way this day, and also had settled down as things warmed up - obviously some attention needed there.  Absolutely no problems at all for the rest of the trip. Except... .. there seems to be something on my windshield...  Made it home late-ish afternoon, and left the car to its own devices for several weeks. Then I began to delve into its apparent shortcomings. I will assemble the photos and make another installment soon. Cheers. |
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Last Edit: Jun 15, 2009 9:40:29 GMT by kilroy
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Jun 15, 2009 13:36:15 GMT
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Interesting read mate.  |
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1992 Sierra XR4x4
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Jun 15, 2009 14:24:33 GMT
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Finally! ;-) Great story, sounds like a good trip and glad it had a good ending.
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Potter
Part of things
'E who dares wins,eh Rodders??!
Posts: 304
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Jun 15, 2009 20:30:06 GMT
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Great read mate!!You can really yarn!
And a big old WIN for BMC (or is it BL)'s finest!
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More cars than sense or money!🙄
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kilroy
Part of things
Suit you sir...
Posts: 251
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I have spoken to them of course.. Was originally on for $1000. I mentioned that the price was a tad high for a non-runner, so they suggested I make an offer. I havn't - but now they know where to find me..  Softly, softly... |
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Jun 22, 2009 21:51:40 GMT
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Was it just the brake master cylinder that was crook, or were the motor and auto crook too? iirc claimed only 600km since engine recon. Bryan Auckland |
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Bryan Miller
Auckland NZ
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kilroy
Part of things
Suit you sir...
Posts: 251
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In the photos, the brake M/C is missing altogether along with the booster unit.
It says motor rebuilt - that can mean many things to many people..!
From a new water pump, to a valve grind, to a full recon.
I imagine they would be making a lot more noise for a full recon - possibly rings and bearings...
As far as I can tell, the auto and motor are in ok condition right now.
The BW65 is pretty robust, so should be fine in the trans dept.
Interesting what you find out with a few questions though...
Chiz.
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Jun 23, 2009 21:50:23 GMT
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In the photos, the brake M/C is missing altogether along with the booster unit. Well spotted!  Interesting what you find out with a few questions though... If only the seller would respond to my questions.  Bryan Auckland |
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Bryan Miller
Auckland NZ
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Jun 30, 2009 22:05:35 GMT
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If you get the pickup and the museum piece from Palmy, how many will you have? ;D
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Bryan Miller
Auckland NZ
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