Weekend - 29-/01/2011

It has been over two months since I tackled the car (owing to sub zero temperatures) working in a shed that might as well be open air was not the kind of weekend I had planned for myself during this time!


There were a lot of loose ends to tie up this weekend (literally), small pieces that needed disconnecting before the chassis and body are seperated from each other.
I started with the cabling, which still had a couple of connections to remove, whilst most of the dashboard is now disconnected from the main feed, cables still run to these push connectors mounted in the door which either form a connection to the alarm system, (fitted) or the door lights?

I managed to disconnect one, but the drivers side is proving nigh on impossible to unscrew!!

Remaining cables going to the front of the car this is inside the dash unit the wiper motor assembly mainly disconnected now, is held in place purely by the jets poking through the top of the shell, and the rod running through the behind the bulkhead of the body shell.
The heater unit (just right of this image) won't budge at the moment, as a hose coming up from underneath is connected and doesn't allow much movement.

View of the Wiper rod arm, just above where the Steering rack would have gone through the fabric flange on the bottom right of the image. You should just be able to make out the hole in the back of dash unit where this rod passes through to the centre & passenger side of the dash.

Not having much joy with this unit, I took the cables and disconnected them from the rear of the car, there are now no electrical cables to the rear of the car, as I have isolated the connectors that are positioned just behind the bulkhead below the fuel tank, at this stage the fuel tank is still in, but help arrived later on in the form of my step dad to assist in jacking the car up and being there whilst I attempted the job I dreaded, of being under an otherwise low ground clearance car, with the diff and most of the rear struts and exhaust staring down at me!
The fuel tank has three bolts arranged in a triangular formation inside the boot that one person has to turn and one person (me underneath) has to offer a wrench uip to to hold the retaining bolts in place or these will just turn forever!  once undone, the L shaped plate comes out first and the fuel tank can be pulled out of its alcove under the parcel shelf.

Whilst I had the car in the air, I took the opportunity to capture the condition of the chassis and inner most workings on camera.....and boy was I surprised!!!!!

I pointed the camera forwards and caught an excellent shot of the gear box!! this looks immaculate (not sure if this item was ever removed but it is the 4 speed with overdrive unit that normally adourned Marcos V6's of this period.

Afew more shots below that show more of the Chassis and the rusty exhausts (the only items I can see apart from the diff that are rusty underneath!

Most of this surface dirt comes off to reveal a blue painted chassis, (I did get some in my eyes too unfortunately but I washed them out with water)

Another gearbox shot with the exhaust running to the left of the image (looking towards the front of the car).
By this time it was nearly 6 o'clock and pitch dark outside so after we had drained 1 red plastican petrol container-and-a-half from the fuel tank, we went inside. This car has had fuel in it for at least 12 years! so lord only knows whether it is Unleaded, LRP, or residue four star? It can't be very good fuel by now, (we'll try it in the mower and see how it does!).