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.

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!

Foundation Work September/October 2013

Hi All!
It has definately been a while since my last post, I'm going to try getting on a lot more frequently to update you all with new material and keep up to date with all the stuff that is happening.
What has been happening since the last update I hear you ask, well a number of images have been posted to the facebook community 'Marcos Cars' in drips and drabs, basically we had a scare with the chassis in that because the front end has suffered an impact at some stage, we thought the impact had travelled rear ward and distorted the base cross members behind where the seat backs would be, this was put in a jog after 2 weeks waiting and found to be square, so panic over. Since then however Rory (Marcos Heritage spares) has advised that due to the huge level of Waxoyl protection within the chassis rails I cannot now proceed with my original plan of galvanising and powdercoating the chassis. I can even just revert to Just powdercoating the chassis as again the level of wax oyl will cause it all to be melt once the powdercoating process heats the paint to about 400 degrees. so the plan now is sell what will be a fully restored ORIGINAL chassis and the proceeds will be used to buy a new one ready Galvanised and drilled I will of course get Redditch to powdercoat for me as their work is top draw!

The downside of all of this is that my plan to be at the NEC Classic with a naked Marcos will sadly not be coming to fruition with all the issues that I have described above.

I have started buying all the new bits needed to completed the running gear and most under body items. we are off to the Bristol Classic vehicle restoration show show at Shepton Mallet tomorrow to get a few more bits. Below are some piccies of the latest new bits.

Shot blast and Powdercoated Triumph GT6 wishbones and Coil spring. together with bracket and Pedal box shroud

I have opted for Satin Black on all the dark bits of the running Gear, opting for a dark metallic blue for coil springs on the car to go roughly with the colour I intend it to be. the colour is going to be either a Jaguar flag blue, or the Rolls royce Sapphire blue used on the 1995 racing LM600 as it is a gorgeous colour.

Close up of the metallic Blue powdercoated spring (1 of 4)

Close up of the Wishbones (Satin Black)

 We have also been servicing the Half shafts for the new rear axle a Capri standard differential 3.0.9 ratio these again were serviced with new bearings and rear drums machined to fit my wheels. This was also carried out by Marcos Heritage Spares (Major plugs for them in this thread!) together with the rear axle refurb, I have also been painting the prop shaft which has a new UJ and flange (below) as the old one would not have fitted the new axle.

picture below shows the new bearings fitted these were machines and refurbished by M.H.S

Prop shaft and new UJ assembly

Also returning from the M.H.S machine shop were the rear drums which have been machined to Triumph PCD's to be fitted to my existing Alloy wheels the ford ones are also in place on the same drums.

Drums prior to treatment with the abrasive disc attachment to remove rough dirt and surface rust.

Paint application

Once the drums were rubbed down with the sanding wheel we began with the first two generaous coats of Hammerite smoothrite which treateds existing rust, also protects against future rust and ensures these stay looking great.

Drums following the first and second coats.

What I only realised a week after getting back all the suspension parts, was that the rods I took (Suspension radius rods and the rear panhard rod were missing, the job lot of bits got seperated at the works) note to self to properly itemise all my bits in future!!! Pictured below are the newly shot and coated rods.

So this weekend Iwill be finishing off the spraying of the drums, the prop shaft and the steering rack that I started all that time ago, together with fitting new bushes and rose joints to both the steering fitting on the chassis and the panhard rod a fairly lengthy shopping list is going with me to Shepton Mallet also.

More Next time!

Chassis Work July August 2013

Hi Followers! Has been a hugely long time since updating the blog last there havent been a massive number of opportunities to update or do work until July started.
The first of the major updates is that from early February when it was snowing we moved the chassis from its then home to Wiltshire where more work can commence with power nearby etc. the latest news is I have now acquired a large Garage fortunately right next to my dads one so that we can work in away from the grip of the elements.
Great also to use an existing Marcos V6 as a pattern for measurement etc.

The main focus of the last few months has been to repair the damaged front chassis rails, as you will see from the previous blog a botched repair ages ago has caused the rails to eventually drop and pull the upper rails into a slant meaning that the front end of the chassis was dipped down by 5/6 mm see the piccy of new chassis rail in place.
The problem seems to have arisen from two sections of chassis rail that have been welded back together with a wrap around piece of metal and of course over time especially with the weight of that cast iron lump has bowed the chassis members.

We have cut out carefully the top and bottom rails from the drivers side, ensuring that all the wishbone mounts and horizontal sections were kept as tidy and as uncut as possible.

The base chassis rail was cleanly removed and this was taken straight to Rory at Marcos Heritage to fabricate to the jigs a brand new base rail it's not cheap @ £102.00, but it means that its been properly jigged to the cars specification and what I wanted was a 'proper factory job' the drivers side will have effectively have been totally rebuilt with the right dimensioned stell box sections, I had bought box section from a place in Chippenham but it was marginally too big so I acquired more from Rory as he has exactly the right stuff.

Please see some images below of the latest work.....

Flood lit view from my car parked up to the front prior to work 

Measuring up and positioning using copius numbers of G-clamps and slider clamps.

Tack Welds of the base rail to all the horizontal members.

More tack welding of the engine bays rear most spar.

We are probably going to tack weld into position first then work on the right side next as we have had a few problems with the welder not feeding the wire continuously so will probably outsource this shortly with friends. 

Chassis viewed from the rear.

Also in the last few months has been the opportunity to acquire some new parts and Im pleased to say I acquired not only the Weber 38 DGAS i had been after but it was also immaculate and procured for practically nothing considering a 'good' one fetches nearly £300+ I also got a pair of 40 DCNF's as a restoration project but that can wait for a while until i decide I want to use loads more fuel!

Photos below show the DGAS fitted currently to a brand new pinto manifold......

38 DGAS with Pinto manifold and Pipercross air filter.

Since I acquired all this stuff for the car, I have brought all the running gear, track rod ends, brake back plates vertical links, wishbones etc back to Banbury with me to be able to take to recommended specialists, redditch shotblasting and powder coating are the ones who have been throughly recommended for this work as im told their powder coating will stand up to everything thats thrown at it theyve even said its soo good you dont even need to galvanise a chassis! (I may still do this for piece of mind).

I have today 22-08-2013 taken all the running gear to This company to be treated so it's now all out of my bedroom! You cannot get more manly than that! sharing a room with car parts! :D

So that's all from me for the moment, I plan on working with dad over the next few weeks to remove the passenger side base rail in order to get that refabricated with Rory and welded in before a few extra bits and the final chassis treatments are done.

Thanks for reading. G.

Chassis Refurbishment 25-26/02/2013

Recently in my last post we transported the chassis to where I could work more easily with other family and friends, it has been obvious from the start of the project that the top front chassis rail (where normal Marcos 3.0 Litre cars have radiator brackets mounted) needs replacement as a number of brackets etc have been welded and subsequently ground off in turn.
The car has has an odd stance where it used to stand, I was sure it was fine, but on looking at the chassis when the body was off it looked as though there was a bending effect on the drivers side, I initially put this down to it 'not being on a level surface' as the floor of my shed slopes down toward the front door.

Since transport and the chassis being placed on the axle stands on a level surface, it appears that the Drivers side top and bottom rails are bent and that a packing job has been done on the base rail of the passenger side rail also so common sense would be to replace all of them to ensure that weaknesses dont occurr further down the line and due to the fact I'm galvanising this chassis you cannot easily weld and maintain a good treatment to the chassis once it is galvanised.

Below are some pictures of the chassis some work already done to the front top rail replacement.

Cuts made with an angle grinder cutting disc

Front end minus the modified top rail the residual chassis section on either  side will be chopped out to tidy the re-welding area.

As mentioned above, the chassis rails were shown to be bent downwards, the new chassis steel we have bought is completely straight, this was offered up as a guide and proves that the drivers side is amiss.

view from the interior of the chassis

Rail viewed from the outside of the chassis

Below is a picture showing the passenger side rail:

 

 

Straight chassis rails, note the metal plate welded to the top side of the bottom rail just behind the upright.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made a trip over to Marcos Heritage spares this afternoon to ask Rory's advice on how we should proceed Rory strongly advised that if a problem exists then every effort should be made to correct the issue particularly as I intend to galvanise this chassis. The advise was also to use the fron bulkhead chassis rail as the point to work from replace the top and the top front chassis rail then work from these on the base rails and this should then correct the issues with my front end.

Well as usual, there will be further updates on this as and when we make the changes to the chassis.

Some progress at last!

So as I have spent the last three months getting every bit of Overtime I can, I have started doing a few jobs that dont cost much first of all, but are vital in insuring that I have enough cleaned up and restored parts ready for re-assembly, now rather than document individual entries from the last couple of months I'll condense them for more interesting viewing into one post.
First of all, I've been returning to the clean down of the engine, the steering rack and prop shaft. These are all a bit grubby so out came the tin of Gunk and I applied this generously to the parts that needed it, rinse off with a pressure washer and then one more coat of gunk to make sure.
The steering rack was really grubby, its position on the chassis means it collects dirt from road going, and any fluids that have leaked from the engine lump itself (Grease/oil etc). I also had to remove the bushes from the each end of the rack as these are starting to perish they are held on with twisted retaining wire rather crude looking but took me long enough to get the damn things off!

Prop shaft 'Pre-degreasing'

The Steering Rack was coated in gunk and wire brushed to the point that oil and grease was dropping off the item, Again the process above has been repeated and a rinse off done.

Wire brushed and degreased steering rack looking great!

Following the clean down of the steering column, I broke out the Hammerite rust protector paint and applied a reasonable coating once the moving parts and bits that need to remain as are were covered. the central part of the rack is a solid tube that can be painted, care must be taken as looking round the tube there is a small hole almost like a breather hole where grease might go into lubricate the joint, ensure this is well masked off to avoid spraying paint into it that will eventually dry and potentially block the hole entirely. I made a bit of an error here as it was really cold in the garage and this was affecting the rate at which the paint would dry, also the coverage looked a bit patchy so thankfully this was only a light coat.

Once this was done I turned my attention to the prop shaft which had been degreased and rinsed a couple of times, this was also now ready for coat number one. Again using the satin smoothrite spray paint I set to work. I actually suspended this from the rafters of the shed as it gave me an unrestricted area to spray round.

I have now after all the fun and games of these parts arranged the transport of the chassis to be altered, the front end to be re built to the original specification as the modification made before is neither exact nor is it pretty!

Here are some piccies of the chassis out in the cold light of day for the first time in a couple of years.

An eventful and busy couple of weeks will follow as I have some time off booked, to add the bracing to the chassis that will stiffen it up firstly, and then allow a tidier appearance to the front end that will mean I can send it away for the all important shot blast, galvanise and powdercoat that will protect the chassis for many more years and add value in the long term. I dont really want to have to strip this car down again very soon!

Purchasing Bits

Well, since it has been a while since I last updated this blog I thought I would share some of the latest developments in my world.

Recently had a chance to visit the Shepton Mallet Classic Restoration show, which was good even though we'd had a hell of a snow shower in that region. Whilst at the show I had managed to secure a fairly long section of Dark grey carpet to match the leather interior of the car in my mission to cut down on the sheer number of colours in use inside the car. White/Grey/Black and blue and red.

Also purchased som new Light covers and some Smiths Gauges to replace the ones that are not in a good state at all currently.

Since this show I have also visited the NEC Classics show and was given a new pair of Bonnet inserts in Marine Ply so that I can replace the ones I have that are rotting through.

I have also been in contact with another forum member who was able to supply me with brand new Laser Cut Radiator brackets which will be fitted to the front of the chassis at the same time that we re-model the A-frames at the front which the bonnet will eventually be mounted to.

Basically things will start mving again very Quickly over the next few months as Im now doing massive amounts of overtime to pour money into this project in order to get her finished for the spring of 2013 or by late this year so that I get enough time to get everything right before the highly anticipated Luxembourg trip in 2014 (Which I want to be a smooth reliable affair with this car!)