30 December 2014

Winter working. 12-2014

Hi Peeps! It's been a while again but im hopefully back to post more regularly now as we approach the business end of the rebuild, I've just moved house and have been in and out of broadband availability.

Well, since my last post attention has been paid to the braking and clutch hydraulic systems, together with the engine disassembly.

A significant amount of copper piping was purchased and this has been flared using a brake flaring kit.
The copper piping has been channelled through the Gearbox tunnel to the front of the car whilst two large runs of piping have been used along the length of the rear axle and joined at various points by swaged and plastic coated aeroquip hosing.
A new Brake compensator was added to the axle bracket and brake slave cylinders (New) were purchased to install within the rear hubs. Still to refurbish is the metal adjuster bar that runs along the axle to the compensator also.

First piping run to the Brake switch
I have also begun dismantling the engine, starting with removing the starter motor, the engine mountings that were still attached to the block, the distributor, the carburettor etc. at this time the rockers, the timing cover and the inlet manifold are all that are in place on the block Looking at the rockers under the covers these appear to be in brilliant condition, showing the cars low mileage and potential engine rebuild that may have occurred whilst the last modifications were being done to the car.

So far the brake lines are now in place, together with the clutch lines in, I have with my father begun measuring out the fuel line piping to also be mounted through the gearbox tunnel in the chassis.

I will upload the pictures shortly, however in the absense of the direct connecting cable from the laptop to the phone, the email isnt coming through with the pictures on. (Typical!).

More updates shortly.

19 July 2014

Working March to Present.

Hi Folks! Back again! incase you've given up on me posting another blog!! Life has been absolutely manic as well as rebuilding the car, I have been involved in a number of big projects both with work and outside and with a preservation trust I got myself involved with about a year and a half ago, loads of fun loads of laughs and the opportunity to get hands on with some very old aviation which is great fun. I have also taken on a role of running a few events of

Avro Shackleton (Grandson of the Famous Lancaster Bomber) at Coventry Airport run by by the Shackleton preservation Trust.

Dads Marcos (Front with 2 other Marcos at the Wellesbourne Wings and wheels).
 Last time I wrote, I had taken delivery of a brand new Galvanised and powdercoated chassis I have spent the last 4 months working mad hours to pay for new bits and having limited time to clean and paint up the old bits I disassembled from the old chassis.
I have now added the fully overhauled and repainted rear atlas axle 3.09 ratio to the car as well as the AVO PE529 (Rear) and AVO PE951 (front shocks) and connected to the metallic blue re-powdercoated coil springs I think they look amazing and I think you'll agree! I wanted really to cut down the amount of black paint on show.
All my new bits were powdercoated by Redditch Shotblast & Powdercoating and I'm sure Ive driven them mad turning up with another box of stuff!!

Below are some pictures of the progress since March.

Atlas rear axle with radius rods in position.
Once we had compressed the newly powdercoated coil springs we attached them to the assembly at the rear of the car. I have pretty much bought complete replacements for all nuts and bolts including a brand new set of high tensile stainless steel units for the front and rear suspension set up.

All the new wishbones for the front together with brand new ball joints have been installed as per the picture below.

Front Wishbones and new ball joints

Rear suspension install complete

AVO PE529's with the reconditioned coil springs.
We have had a number of delays at this stage as we found out after a powdercoat of loads of bits that my original Triumph Vertical Links threads were absolutely shot through there was not a lot of thread left meaning the trunnion that fits on the end wobbled quite easily which would have made for a horrendous handling experience. So I have ordered new ones and the right hand one was a brand new unit that I picked up for around £45.00 and also picked up a second hand triumph fitted left hand vertical link importantly the threads look brand new on both so I tested the trunnions and fit solidly without any movement after degreasing and a rub down to remove loose paint, the second hand one looks great in black and the right hand one unpainted before is now in the matching black. See below drying in the Vice.



Newly Painted Triumph Vertical Links

Alternator Bracket (we have 5 of these bad boys so may get them painted in different effects to see which we like best)

Combination of powdercoated parts for the brake assembly and steering rack U-Joints.
I have now added the rubbers to the  Ujoints again replacement rubbers for these parts as this is a nut and bolt restoration all the perishable bits have been replaced where possible. Most have been sourced on ebay from the comfort of my chair haha!
Chrome Powdercoated U-Joints with new bushes.
So that the Steering rack can be installed as soon as possible I have purchased brand new rose joints and hauled out the original steering joints with clamps which have been degreased and cleaned followed by a good spray paint with hammerite the joints will be black and the rods in silver to add a few more colour differences within the engine bay.

Steering rack joints following the degrease.
Im in the process of acquiring quotes for the bodywork to be done and recently I pulled all of the body sections out of the shed to be put together as a mock up of the whole car body, it was really cool to see the body together in one piece as ive never put the roof on and photographed it in one piece the condition of the body isnt bad but there are lots of crazes in the paint work and holes here and there have to be made good.

Body work in one piece for the first time in years.
I have not received a quote from the body shop I wanted to have the work done by so that's gone on the back burner for a moment until I can get a number of other things completed.
Since the car was bought by me Ive been wanting to acquire historical Imagery of my car and finally it came to me in the form of a club magazine advert from 1980.

Magazine Advert November 1980 (Three months before I was born!!!!) My Car is three in from the front minus the head lamp covers.


Thats a brief catch up on what has been going on, we are not far off a rolling chassis which will be great as I can pull this out of the garage and get proper pictures of the chassis in the open.

Thanks for reading.

04 March 2014

Winter working November 2013 to March 3rd 2014

Hello All!

A long time since my last update as seems to be an increasing habit! (I'm not getting much time off at the moment paying for all this stuff!).

Well, since my last post and the delivery of shiny new blasted and powdercoated parts, the getting rid of another girlfriend etc.. haha! I have sent the old chassis back to Marcos Heritage spares to be totally refurbished, this didn't come cheap as a significant amount of rail replacement was needed together with all modification and strengthening required through development of the chassis from the 1970's until now.

The front end has been totaly welded and jigged, the front end has also had additional bracketry for snail fan mounting the new A frame at the front for the bonnet mounting and steering rack mounting. There has also been a new rail at the base rear of where the seating positions are, together with strengthening triangulation in the rear axle secton and filletting to add further strength, we have also added additional steel under the filled in sections at the rear of the chassis. Please see the images below for more detail.

Apologies that this is the wrong way round it was saved the right way!


Engine bay rail replacement and new bracketry.

Rear part showing the triangulation of the rear cross member and additional steel under the rear infills.

We have also Refurbished the rear axle housing using the Capri 3.09 axle I acquired, the gear wheels were all in very good condition as they had been coated in old oil which still protected the wheels there was no damage to the wheels themselves either.

We spent a considerable time wire brushing and de-greasing the axle removing any surface rust or debris accumulated overtime.
Once the clean up work was done the axle was painted in Hammerite smoothrite.

A 'before' shot during the degreasing stage of the axle.
The internals of the Atlas 3.09 axle I am using
The gaskets and the 'original' axle back plate were beyond usefulness unfortunately there were a number of holes in the original backplate, which would cause leakage if the same item was re-used so I decided to buy  a brand new unit that has the bracket on it for the brake cabling this cost about 44.00 plus postage but was a necessary evil given the parts available.

Below is a picture of the painted article and brand new powdercoated back plate of the rear axle attached gasketted and sealed with new oil placed inside.

Fully refurbished rear axle unit with brand new back plate.
Backplate with the brake cabling bracket in place.
As the old chassis was refurbed, M.H.S advised that due to the sheer amount of waxoyl placed into the chassis throughout the life of the chassis so far, it would make a galvanising job more difficult in that chassis tubes could explode it would also not be possible to re-powdercoat the existing chassis due to the extreme temperatures required to bake the powdercoat on, the waxoyl would start to melt and run out. (which happened a lot during welding).

The very difficult decision (and expensive) one at that, was taken to order a brand new chassis which could include all the mods we applied to this one and could be both Galvanised and powdercoated afterwards this order was placed in November and due to the high demand for chassis at the moment, I have received the chassis today which looks excellent, It was galvanised, smoothed over and powdercoated satin black Ive added the piccies below.

Marcos chassis at M.H.S
Chassis back at the Garage on stands ready for re-assembly
Rear view of chassis showing extra seatbelt mountings welded  to the top rail and extra triangulation and filletting.
Bit cramped in here now!!! Need to finish painting up and coating the old chassis in order to sell in refurbished and modified condition.
Plans now are to finish painting the existing old chassis, which has had all modifications to stop failures in the structure and also the mods that strengthen the rear of the chassis in the case of a rearward impact. The shock of any impact is distributed better therefore not warping or damaging the base seat rear rail. This chassis will be finished in hammered blue hammerite as existing and will make for a good solid foundation to anyone embarking on the same project as me. Any interested parties can contact me through this blog or via the facebook marcos cars group facebook.com/marcoscars I am also on the marcos forum www.marcossportscarenthusiasts.yuku.com as MarcosGazza.

Thats all for now!