The Blog 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006
Dec-08
Well its almost Christmas and I still don't have my car back from the paint shop! The picture below shows the car full of filler and rubbed down ready for its first coat of primer. If all goes well I should hopefully get the car back just before Christmas.
Nov-08
I've been away at work for the last 5 weeks so I'm really happy to finally be back at home. There s not much that I can currently do to the car as it is away being painted. However I've finally been able to visit the paint shop and see how it is coming alone. The car is currently almost ready to be painted in primer. With the car being away I limited in what I can do but I do but one job is to preparing some parts to be sent away to be re-chromed. I also need to spend some time fixing the front mud guards and battery box. If I can get these fix they can then be painted and will be ready to refit when the car returns from the paint shop.
Sep-08
I've not achieved much in the last month as I've been busy at work, but the majority of my time on the Marcos has been spent fixing faults with items that I have previously worked on. This means it might look the same but mechanically it now has less faults. The majority of my time has been spent working on the engine. I managed to buy a set of heads on eBay to replace the cracked one on my car. Before replacing the cracked head I took one of them to my local machine shop to have hardened exhaust valves fitted. Once this was done I took the engine apart to replace the cracked head. While the engine was apart I also took the opportunity to also replace the cam shaft with an up rated item.
Another issue I discovered with the engine was the sensor for the radiator cooling fan was not working correctly. Suspecting the sensor was faulty I bought a replacement but still had the same problem. By using an infrared thermometer I could determine that the radiator and water was getting hot enough but some how the plastic adapter the sensor was mounted in was insulating the switch and preventing it from warming up at the same speed as the water. I confirmed this assumption by removing the radiator cap and lowering the senor directly into the water at the top of the radiator. With the sensor sitting directly in the water the fan worked correctly! This left me with two options, either find a metal adapter for the sensor as this would help conduct the heat from the water to the sensor or mount it directly in the radiator. I decided the cheapest option was to mount it directly into the radiator. Although this was simple and cheap to do it was also a lot of hassle. The radiator had to be removed and a threaded nut soldered into the bottom of the radiator. Once this had been completed the radiator needed to be painted again. One of the photo's below show the sensor mounted into the bottom of the radiator and the other one show the sensor mounted in the plastic adapter.
After making these changes the electric fan now seems to operate correctly e.g. the fan comes on before the water starts to boil! All I need to do now is fit a new top radiator hose so I can remove the old adapter from the car.
The other electrical items I've fixed are the dynamo control box and the Rev counter. The dynamo control box was the simplest as all I did was by a new one and fit it to the car. The rev counter was a little bit more difficult. As I've mentioned early in my blog the Rev counter fitted to the Marcos does not work with electronic ignition. The simplest solution is to buy a later RVC smiths tacho and run and extra wire to the coil. The only issue with doing this is that the gauge will no longer look original. My solution to this was to use the internals of a later RVC rev counter but fit the dial and needle from my original tacho so everything looks original. If anyone wants more information about this, email me but you will find a useful document about tacho conversions in the download section of my web site.
23-Aug-08
In the last few days the restoration seems like it is going backwards instead of forwards. Nearly everything I've tried to do has caused me problems. One of the items I've been working on is replacing the bushes in the steering column. Replacing these wasn't too difficult but it was impossible to achieve without seriously damaging the paint work on the column. This means I've then had to spend time repainting it. As I was going to get the spray gun out to paint the steering column I spent some time cleaning the inside of the bonnet so this could be done at the same time. The photo below shows the freshly painted bonnet.
The other area I've been working on in the last few days is the car electrics. A number of problems have been discovered. The most major one was the tachometer not functioning correctly. This was due to the electronic ignition I fitted causes the smiths RVI (current sense type) tacho not to work. After much surfing of the internet I discovered the easiest solution is to fit a later smiths RVC tacho. This type of tacho is connected to the negative side of the coil and detects the voltage change. This sounds simple in theory but it requires an extra wire to be added to the loom. What annoys me the most about this, is it wouldn't have been such a major job if I had know about it a few weeks ago when I was rebuilding my loom, however as they are now fitted. I will need to remove them, remove the tape, add the extra wire in and then re-tape the loom. This means a simple change like this will create several hours work.
The other item I discovered that doesn t work is the dynamo control box. Instead of wasting time trying to adjust or fix the old one I've decided to take the simple route of buying a replacement.
19-Aug-08
I've made some progress over the last few days. I've finished painting the steering column, hand brake and petrol tank. This has been followed by fitting these to the car. Although this should be a relatively simple job the steering took much longer than anticipated. Actually I think I have lost count of how many times I've had to fit and remove it to get every thing to line up. The first issue was to get the rose joints adjusted correctly so the steering didn't touch the fan belt, while also not fouling the chassis and for the angle of the knuckle joints not to be to tight so they don't rotate correctly. Once this was achieve I still had to take it apart a couple of more times so I could get the steering column in the correct place so the indicators switch would turn off after going around a corner! I think I'm almost there except it will have to come apart one more time as I have discovered the bushes in the column are worn! I've ordered some replacements so this will be another job to do at some point in the future.
With the steering column in place I have also spent some time fitting and rewiring the dash. Although this will be removed at some pint in the future to be recovered I wanted to find out what gauges were operating correctly and what were not! So far I think I have a problem with the temperature gauge reading to high along with the tachometer not working. The problem with the tachometer is probably related to the electronic ignition fitted to my car but I still need to investigate the temperature gauge.
The photo below shows the dash and steering column fitted back in the car.
This weekend while I was visiting friends in Portsmouth I took the opportunity to collect a set of heads I had bought on EBay. One of these was cleaned up and I took it to the machine shop to have hardened exhaust valve seats fitted. With a bit of luck I'll get this back in a couple of weeks so I can replace the one on my car that is cracked.
I still have a couple of more jobs that I want to get completed this week before I return to work. The main one is I want to paint the inside of the bonnet before the car is sent off to be painted. I also want to fit the front a rear bumpers now as it will still be possible to fill and re-drill the holes if the are not in the correct place (once the car is painted this will not be possible).
11-Aug-08
I've been on Holiday for the last week. Although it doesn't look like I've done much I have spent the majority of the time filling and sanding the car. I still think I need to spend one more day to complete this but this afternoon I'd finally had enough of sanding so I wheeled the car out of the garage and washed it down. When you do this what looked ok in the garage suddenly looks a lot worse. Maybe I shouldn t have used the pressure washer but it highlights all the small air bubbles you can get when you apply the filler.
4- Aug-08
Well I'm back on Holiday again. Today was spent welding up the petrol tank. This actually took four attempts before we finally managed to get it done without it leaking. The tank doesn't look great as it has distorted quite badly from the heat but so long as it's not leaking that is all that really matters. To try and really ensure I don't have any problems with the tank in the future I also used a can of petrol tank sealer. This was pored inside the tank and the tank was then slowly rotated around to try and get an even covering of the sealer over the inside. I am also hoping this will help stop the tank rusting again.
26-Jul-2008
Well tomorrow I have to go back to work but today I managed to finish fixing the dash loom and have refitted it to the car. I have also temporally fitted the dash and switches to make sure that I had fibre glassed the dash back into the correct position. At some point in the future this will have to be removed so I can recover it. However I will probably leave it in the car till it comes back from being painted as it will make it easy to start the car and move it around. The photo below shows the dash fitted alone with the heater.
25-Jul-2008
After being away at work the last few weeks I have return back to the UK with new enthusiasm. I have spent the last 2 days painting the heater box, fitting the dash back into place, followed by the heater. I have started to strip down the dash wiring loom so I can repair it.
30-Jun-2008
The last couple of days have been spent making up the last couple of brake and clutch lines and reassembling the pedal box. This is now complete and the clutch and brakes have been adjusted and bled. I have also modified the hand brake slightly so the hand brake cable will attach with out rubbing on the chassis.
The next job I plan to tackle is to clean and paint the steering column and heater box. Once this is completed I plan to refit the dash along with the steering wheel. When this is done I'll be able to take it for a quick drive up and down the road where I live (highly illegal). Hopefully this will then improve my motivation to continue filling and sanding the car down which is one job I absolutely loath.
The photo below shows the pedal box.
15-Jun-2008
It doesn't look like much has happened but fitting the shell took more time than I expected. Before fitting the shell I glued some heat reflective material round the bulkhead and gear box tunnel. Having heard so many stories about hot these cars can get I thought I should do every thing I possibly could to try and reduce the temperature inside the car. Once this was done the shell was fitted back onto the chassis. After this I spent sometime reassembling the pedal box that I ve painted along with rebuilding the clutch and brake master cylinders. This is still work in progress as I still need some parts to be able to complete this so I can bleed the brakes and clutch.
Well that s the good news for the weekend the bad news is I discovered one of my heads is cracked! I had noticed a small water leak from the head and decided it would be a good idea to investigate this a bit more. I originally suspected the head gasket was leaking. After running the engine for a few minutes and scratching away at the paint I discovered the head was cracked.
12-Jun-2008
I have not done much today apart from painting the underside of the car in black. The paint job is not great, and it has a number of runs but nobody will ever see it as it is under the car! I haven't planned to do anything to the car tomorrow but I will hopefully be putting the shell back onto the chassis on Saturday.
11-Jun-2008
The underside of the shell has finally been given a coat of primer. If all goes well tomorrow I'll give it a coat of black paint so it can be refitted to the chassis this weekend. As well as doing this I have waxoyled my chassis and completed the stainless steel exhaust tail pipes.
10-Jun-2008
Had a selection of parts shot blasted today and have just completed painting them in etch primer.
8-Jun-2008
After spending a long Saturday filling and sanding the car it is now a bit closer to being ready for paint. I still think I have several more days of sanding the car as it is taking much longer than expected. Instead of continuing with it this week I have decided to spend the rest of the week (and my Holiday) painting the underside of the car. To do this I spent the afternoon removing the shell from the chassis. As well as painting the underside of the car I also need to waxoyl the chassis before I put the shell back on. I could always waxoyl the chassis later but it will be far easier with the shell removed. I hope to have all this completed by the end of the week so I can put the body back onto the chassis before I return to work. As well as these major tasks I have a list of much quicker and simpler items that need to be done such as having some parts shot blasted and painted and to finish the exhaust system off. The main item that needs to be done with the exhaust is to move a bracket. This needs to be done now as it will not be possible to weld it once the shell is back on.
6-Jun-2008
One can of body filler and the panel gap and door fit is on its way to being improved. Tomorrow will be a long day of filling and sanding and with a bit of luck it will be ready to be sent away to be painted by the end of the weekend.
2-Jun-2008
No matter how many cracks I fix on the body shell I keep finding more! I think the end is in sight as I have now ground the Gel-coat away from numerous areas of the car and resined in fibre glass tissue paper to replace it. I hope to have this finish before the weekend so I can spend the weekend along with my father filling and rubbing down the car to get all the panels smooth again. The photo below shows more of my handy work fixing the cracks at the rear of the bonnet.
May 2008
What little time I have spent working on the car in May has been on repairing the rear wheel arches. When I bought the car I had no idea that the rear wheel arches had been altered, this was only discovered when I started to strip the paint off the car to get back to fibre glass. To make matters worse the driver's side rear wing had also been involved in an accident. The only reason I can think the rear wheel arches where changed was so a previous owner could fit larger wheels at the rear.
The pictures below show the wheel arches before and after the repairs.
Once I had stripped all the paint and filler from the rear wheel arches it became obvious that if I wanted to fix it without spending a vast amount of money I would need a mould of another rear wheel arch. Luckily there was a Marcos owner nearby that was willing to let me make a mould. The method used was suggested by my father and although it does not create a perfect mould it was quick, easy and did not damage the paint work of the car I was copying.
I don't have any photos of doing this but in summary you cover the area that you want to copy with masking tape to protect the paint. You then place a layer of cello tape on top of the masking tape to get nice non-stick surface (hopefully). You then buy a large pot of P40 fibre glass filler. You then carefully apply this filler on top of the cello tape to create your mould. After waiting 30-45minutes you can remove your mould. The only issue with making a mould like this is you have a lot of surface imperfections but if you're more interested in the overall shape like me it makes no difference.
To use the mould you place cello tape on the inside of it to prevent the fibre glass you are going to lay up against it sticking. You then attach it to the car and then lay up your fibre glass matting and resin inside the mould and rear wing and wait for it to dry. Once the fibre glass has hardened the mould can be removed. This was not quite as easy as it should have been as the fibre glass resin managed to seep past the cello tape in places causing the mould to be stuck to the wing.
The rear wing was then sanded down and a small amount of filler applied to remove some small imperfections before a couple of layers of fibre glass tissue were placed over the repaired section. This was then sanded down. The panel is still note quite ready for painting as there are still some small imperfections but hopefully a thin layer of P38 filler and some sanding will have the rear wheel arch ready for painting.
April 2008
Several more days have been spent fixing holes and strengthening parts of the underside like the rear wheel arches. Once most of the work on the underside was completed the shell was carried outside and washed down to remove all the dust. The next thing planned for the shell was to place it back onto the chassis. Although I do plan to remove it from the chassis in the future to paint the underside I decided it would be best to put the shell back onto the chassis first so I can trial fit all the doors and make any adjustments required. The shell was a tight fit and I'm not sure if it was due to the repairs I made to the chassis or all the extra fibre glass I had added to the bottom of the car but eventually I managed to make it fit.
The photo below shows the shell fitted back onto the chassis. I have also decided to use self taping screw with hex's heads instead of the original philips type. Hopefully this will make it much easier to remove them in years to come as I really struggled to remove the original ones after they had been rusting away for almost 40 years!
Once the shell was screwed down the next task was to fit the doors. Marcos cars have a reputation for the doors not fitting too well so ? wanted to try and get them to fit as good as possible using the adjustment on the hinges and then use filler to try and get a more even gap around the whole door. No matter how much I tried I could not get the door to fit as good as I wanted it, as it was sitting proud. As there was no more adjustment possible on the door hinges the solution was to remove the hinges cut them and re-weld them. This would bring the hinge area of the door closer to the car. The photo below show s the modified hinge. At the same time it was noted that there was a lot of play in the hinges. Some of this play is being caused by worn bushes and the rest by the corroded hinge pins. Looks like another item to add to my list that needs fixing!
30-Mar-2008
The day was spent stripping underseal from the underside of the car followed by strengthening the driver s side rear wheel arch. This can be seen in the photo below. The plan for tomorrow is to turn the car over and do the same to the passenger side wheel arch. Once the body is turned over I will also be able to finish fixing a few other spots that need attention on the underside of the car. Hopefully with a few more days work I'll be able to temporally fit the shell back onto the chassis. This will enable me to work on the rear wheel arches and trial fit the doors and bonnet. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about the rear wheel arches yet but I think I've possible just had an offer that I can go and take a mould of someone else s Marcos. If this works out this will be the way to go as it will be far cheaper than buying a rear wing from Marcos Heritage Spares and more accurate than just guessing what the correct shape should be.
29-Mar-2008
After spending the last few days stripping paint I thought it would be a good idea to take the car outside and give it a wash down with the pressure washer. The main reason for this was to remove the mud from the underside of the car before I tried to start striping the underseal and repairing the floor. The first picture below shows the car after I had finished washing it. I then quickly removed the under seal from the damage areas and started repairing the underside of the car. To try and make the repair look a bit more professional I have used black pigment mixed in with the resin. My plan for tomorrow is to continue removing the underseal from the bottom of the car and to continue with the repairs.
27-March-2008
Although I've still got a lot of work left to do on the doors and bonnet I've decided to make start on the car body. The reason for this is because I've got a whole two weeks off work so it makes sense to work on the car body while I have the time. Once the car body is done I'll be able to refit the doors and bonnet and make any adjustment required to improve the fit of these items. So far the stripping of the body has gone well however the biggest problem I found so far is the rear wheel arches have been cut about (probably to fit larger wheels as the pervious owner said he had to replace all the wheels back to the original size as when he got it the wheels were occasionally rubbing against the car). To make this even worse the driver s side has also been involved in an accident. As the quality of the repair is not great I ve decide to sand out all the body filler and repair the damage again using fibre glass.
January 2008
I've finally managed to get some time off work so I can continue to work on my car. Over the last few days I've cleaned up the exhaust that I made and painted it in temperature resistant paint. The results can be seen here. The only thing left to fabricate are the two tail pipes but until I fit the fibre glass body on the car I m not sure how the pipes have to be bent. Another reason I've left this section is that I will probably have it made out of stainless steel as it is about the only bit of the exhaust that will be seen.
As the car is just about mechanically finished I've finally made a start on the fibre glass body. Due to the lack of space and time available I decided to start on the doors and bonnet. After trying several different devices for removing the old paint the best solution I've found so far is a hot air gun and paint scrapper. This seems to work on most of the paint. The only times this doesn't work so well is where there is body filler under the paint or where the paint is very thin. However this is not really an issue as the majority of the car is covered in several layers of paint. Once the majority of the paint has been stripped of and orbital sander is used to removing any remaining paint. As you can see in the picture below a thin layer of grey primer is left after scraping off the paint. I have then started to remove this with the air sander.
