DRL152K Marina based roadster rebuild

[martinclan56]

And another little update.
I needed to de-grease the clutch housing (bellhousing) which, as ever with any British car from the 70's, was covered in a thick layer of old oil, worn clutch lining and road dirt. 3 or 4mm deep in places.
I thought I would try the new Gunk Ultra which is:
A - cheaper
B - more eco-friendly
It seems to be detergent based rather than solvent based. Well it does work. But requires a lot of scrubing rather than the solvent based Gunk which was very much paint on and then wash off.
One of the big bonuses is that it doesn't smell! Anyone who has used the original Gunk will know what I mean.
bellhousing1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

[martinclan56]

Hood fitting
I have completed the hood fitting.
I bought an old hood that had been trial fitted but never actually used. As you can see from the pictures the protective paper over the see through bits are still in place. New hoods are not available and getting one made from scratch would have cost as much as the car!
You can see that the hood is patinated which I like. Not going for the new look....
However it has proved to be a challenge....
1. Although it had never been fitted, the hood had been (badly) glued to a cant rail and at some point mechanically removed leaving the glue that looked like it had been applied using a trowel. There were also some little tears in the inner layer which was not good news. So first job was to remove glue and try to repair the tears. I managed that but it took a lot of time.
2. The little tabs that are used to secure the hood to the cant rail were missing. I learnt how to saddle stitch and made some new ones.
3. Now to the biggest problem. The hood was made from double duck. It's the sort of stuff normally used on vintage cars and not really suited to the Marlin hood design. This is made from two layers of cotton with a rubber membrane in between. It doesn't stretch. At all. And it is very, very stiff. I had to make several small mods to make it fit. Again the saddle stitching came in handy.
Finally I could fit the hood. I stretched it into place using a clamp arrangement and a ratchet strap as I didn't have a helper. It was only 5 degrees in the shed! This worked well. Glued, once again, onto the cant rail using a high temperature industrial strength impact adhesive.
It's good and taught. The side screens are not quite so good a fit looking a bit baggy. But should keep the rain out!
Pictures :-)
hood1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
hood2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
hood3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
hood4 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

[martinclan56]

They are steel rivnuts. I put a big blob of paint in the hole before fitting to seal them and hopefully stop any corrosion.

[Ye Ol Ripper]

Hi Robin. Looking at your radiator brackets where it appears that you have drilled into the horizontal chassis rail. I note you have used stainless fixings. Did you use aluminium rivnuts? Upon final assembly ,Did you lay the bracket down on a bead of silicon or made a rubber gasket?
Just thinking & raising thought before final assembly to ensure water doesn't get inside the chassis, which could happen if you are unintentionally forced to Wade/drive through a large puddle / water logged road. I would also inject waxoyl or dinitrol through those 4 holes possibly ising a syringe if the probe tube is too big.

[martinclan56]

Just a little side project while I ponder a couple of problems that have arisen while fitting the hood.
I had acquired a new old stock Vauxall Viva radiator which Marlin originally suggested. But the more I looked at it the less I thought it was up to the job. So a lot of Googling later I came up with a Datsun 1200 radiator. Almost the perfect size and the connections in the correct place. It seems that the Datsun 1200 was very popular in Australia which is Ebay suggested it was coming from. I suspect it was made in China though and came to the UK via Czechoslovakia! Anyway, hand in mouth I offered it up and it fits a treat. It is a heavy duty version with three rows and looks much more up to the job. Not much room between it and the steering rack however but there does seem enough room in front to fit a pusher fan.
radiator1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
radiator2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
radiator3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

[martinclan56]

I have been trying to come up with a way of mounting indicators on the front cycle wings. The problem being the centre ridge, which adds strength and character, is, err, in the centre right where such an indicator would be mounted. After dismissing several idea I decided to bite the bullet and see if I could flatten the ridge at the point the indicator is to be mounted. My main concern is that it would distort the rest of the wing.
Firstly I drilled a 10mm hole rignt in the center through the ridge.
front_ind_1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I then tightened a large bolt with several thick washers and a nut through the hole. Of course nothing happened.... The wings are 1.5mm thick steel after all. So I heated up the area arround the hole to red hot using a blowtorch and then tightened the bolt. Hey presto!
No pictures I'm afraid as I neeeded three hands just to hold the blowtorch and tighten the bolt. But here it is after.
front_ind_2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
And with the indicator fitted. Success!
front_ind_3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
Next post will be hood fitting but is causing me some serious problems so could be a while....

[listerjp2]

The last couple of brackets, for while I hope, are to fit the number plate. I never liked the number plate under the bumper and so have gone for a rectangular plate mounted to the rear chassis leg with a bit of support on the body tub. Bit of a phaff to make but I am pleased with the result.
As a bonus - I have been trying to think of a good way to mount the statutary rear fog light. Again I don't like the below bumper position commonly used. Apart from being rather vunerable I also think it is rather low to be easily seen. Having made the number plate mount it also provided an idea position for the fog light :-)
plate_1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
plate_2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I've mounted the number plate using some of those new fangled (lol) bolts incorporating a little LED. They look good but whether they provide enough light to illuminate the number plate remains to be seen...
plate_4 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
Next step is to fit the hood. There is already a bit of a saga with the unused but trial fitted hood that I bought for rather a lot of dosh. Watch this space to see if I manage to resolve matters....

You could use the LED bolts that I used to light the number plate

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kinstecks-Waterproof-Motorcycle-Motorbike-ATV-Cool/dp/B07WW57TQ6/ref=asc_df_B07WW57TQ6?mcid=114d3e353d313157948df54 87776cb0b&tag=googshopuk-21&linkCode=df0&hvadid=696452133743&hvpos=&hvnetw = g&hvrand=11416393347205419196&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hv qm t=&hvdev=t&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=1006798&h v targid=pla-1042960579872&psc=1&gad_source=1


20160311_180522.jpg

Adrian

[martinclan56]

The last couple of brackets, for while I hope, are to fit the number plate. I never liked the number plate under the bumper and so have gone for a rectangular plate mounted to the rear chassis leg with a bit of support on the body tub. Bit of a phaff to make but I am pleased with the result.
As a bonus - I have been trying to think of a good way to mount the statutary rear fog light. Again I don't like the below bumper position commonly used. Apart from being rather vunerable I also think it is rather low to be easily seen. Having made the number plate mount it also provided an idea position for the fog light :-)
plate_1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
plate_2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I've mounted the number plate using some of those new fangled (lol) bolts incorporating a little LED. They look good but whether they provide enough light to illuminate the number plate remains to be seen...
plate_4 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
Next step is to fit the hood. There is already a bit of a saga with the unused but trial fitted hood that I bought for rather a lot of dosh. Watch this space to see if I manage to resolve matters....

[martinclan56]

Looking good. I really like the mudguards also. It may not be easy to achieve but it would look good with matching ones at the back.

They would look good. But currently I have chosen the easy and cheaper route re-using the original fibreglass rear mudguards.

[MOC Chair]

Looking good. I really like the mudguards also. It may not be easy to achieve but it would look good with matching ones at the back.

[martinclan56]

Next job is/was to make the brackets for the headlights. There is a lamp bar normally but because of the cycle wings I don't have this. Instead I reckoned the headlights could be supported by the top of the suspension towers. I struggle to visualise stuff in 3D and there are some angles involved so I made a prototype out of cardboard.
headlight_mount1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
Now to convert the cardboard into steel.
bracket2 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I have discovered the hard way that 3mm steel is pretty difficult to bend neatly so now I slit it half way through the thickness and with a bit of heat it bends perfectly.
bracket3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
bracket4 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
The bending produces a groove which I then weld up to return the full 3mm thickness. It works pretty well and i have used this technique several times now.
Test fit of the bracket in situ.
bracket5 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I was really lucky with these headlights. Bought from another Marliner who had purchased them several years ago and didn't use them. They turned out to be actual chromed brass unlike the ones available now which are polished stainless and don't look quite right IMHO.

[phild]

Its looking very good Phil D

[martinclan56]

I have made and fitted the front cycle wing mounts. The wings themselves were intended for the rear of a "fat boy" motorcycle and are made of steel. They look the part having a bit more style than trailer mudguards I have seen used.
cycle_wings1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
I put a lot of effort into getting everything square and at the right height. I even temporarily disconnected the suspension torsion bar so I could move the suspension up and down to check clearance.
cycle_wings7 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
cycle_wings8 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
The wings stays are made from thick wall (2mm) tube. I wanted them to be weld free as this is where failures tend to occur. It's a pretty tough to bend. In the end I packed them with dry sand and heated them to cherry red at the bend points. The bends are pretty good with no sign of the tube wall collapsing.
cycle_wings3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
cycle_wings4 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
The wire you can see is for the indicators which I intend to mount on the wings - somewhere...
I fitted the wings themselves with some pretty substantial mounting plates both riveted and bonded in place.
cycle_wings5 by Robin Martin, on Flickr
Everything is pretty strong. You could (almost) sit on them!
Next job - headlight mounts.

[martinclan56]

Some good progress now as I have stopped going on holiday for a while....
I have now fitted the seats on sliders from Car Builder.
runners by Robin Martin, on Flickr
The sliders are nice and robust if a little primative. The main problem is the adjustment mechanism projects above the face of the slider to which the seat mounts. They do supply some little spacers but I didn't fancy the whole weight of the seat and it's occupant being taken on just the 4 mounting points. So I made some spacers, that will support the whole length of the seat, from aluminium box section. This also allowed me to compensate for the fact that the seat mounting centres were at 300mm but the sliders could only accomodate 285mm.

Before I could fit the seats I had to - err - adjust them as they were about 1cm too wide.
seat1 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

Now they are fitted you can see there is plenty of room between the seat and the steering wheel to get legs in. I might even fit some seat pads :-)
seat3 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

The holes in the seat which provide strength (and look pretty) were a bit sharp on the edges. I ran a flap wheel arround them but for the seat belt holes I decided to fit some rubber U strip. This stuff is now available on Amazon and even includes an adhesive strip on the inside making fitting a doddle.
seat5 by Robin Martin, on Flickr

Next major job is to work out how to fit the front cycle wings....

[listerjp2]

Hi Adrian, I just took the steering rack gaiters off, and smeared the grease along the rack having turned the steering to full lock, focusing on the teeth. I use bearing grease.

Thankyou

Adrian