Marcos

Guernsey and Norway is some distance apart, so I agreed to send him the money, whereupon he would put the car on a ferry heading for Portsmouth.  And in Portsmouth harbour I would pick it up.  After some struggling to find out how to get it home, I ended up bringing a friend that borrowed a Ford Scorpio estate with a tow bar.  I paid for his ticket and on we went with the ferry from Gothenburg (Sweden) to Harwich and drive down to Portsmouth.  In the agreement with the seller I also paid extra for him to make and mount an A-bracket to the front suspension of the Marcos.  And when we picked up the car, everything was as agreed.  After finishing the paper work with the harbour master, we hooked the Marcos to the back of the Ford and drove off. 
 

Driving through half of England with the driver-less Marcos hanging behind us worked out very smoothly, and after another boring 26 hours ferry-trip and 6 hours driving through Sweden and Norway we were home.

Restoration

Frame
From what I could see of the steel frame it was obvious that this needed to be a body off restoration.  And since it's already challenging enough to see the road from the laid back driving position, I also wanted to convert it to left hand drive in the process.

To get the body off an early steel framed Marcos you basically need to screw out 52 bolts that secure the body to the frame.  In my case I managed to unscrew ONE !  For the remaining 51 bolts the bolt heads had to be ground away with a small angle grinder !

When the chassis was free of the body it became quite clear that it needed major work to become safe again.  The lower tube beams were plain missing and several main tubes in the rear part of the frame were in very poor condition indeed.

So after removing the engine, 'box, axle and picking it completely clean, the bare frame was handed over to a welding school for training purposes.  And after about a year ! I had it back in as good as new condition.

Then the minor problem of getting the doors off the body.  The hinges are bolted to a thick (mild) steel plate with threaded holes baked into the fibreglass A-post.  But the mild steel bolts and plate had merged into one solid corroded organism.  Out came the angle grinder again, first to cut the bolt heads and then to cut open the fibreglass and remove the steel plates.  New anchor plates and new hinges were then made - from stainless steel this time.....

Engine
One of the first things I did when I got the car home was to spray substantial amounts of 5-56 into the plug holes of the engine over a period of time.  Then it was just a matter of rocking the car back and forth while in 4th gear, and the engine freed up by it self.  Dismantling revealed some rust in the water channels, a heavily corroded aluminium thermostat neck and main bearings that were getting thin in the gliding layers.  From there it was basically a question of cleaning up everything, washing the parts in an industrial cleaner, painting the block and heads, honing the bores, lapping in the valves and rebuilding the thing with new piston rings, bearings and gaskets.

Gearbox
The box is a beautiful short throw and close ratio Ford 2000E, and it was rebuilt 3 or 4 times.  For several reasons.  It was old and I wanted to be sure, so I ordered an overhaul set from a supplier in England, and got all the syncro rings, bearings, gaskets and several other small parts.  And a new layshaft.  Upon arrival of the parts I picked the box apart and started the work.  I had never opened a gearbox before, but with a workshop manual at hand I wanted learn this.  First problem was that the syncro rings didn't fit at all.  When I called the supplier they just said that this was normal procedure!  There were several different sizes to these rings, so they made them big enough to fit all, and then every buyer had to put them in a lathe and machine them down to the right size.  Since buying a lathe for this purpose was out of the question, I had to hand them over to a workshop for machining. With the parts back I managed to get the box back together.  But unable to move the gear stick I had to open it again, to find that some small parts that held the 1st/2nd gears together were broken.  New ones ordered from England.  Got the wrong ones (for the 3rd/4th gear) etc. etc.  Well in the end it worked out!!

Rear axle, front and rear suspension
The rear axle was VERY rusty, but it showed that it wasn't deep enough to ruin the thing.  A sandblast, zinc-primer and new layer of paint made wonders.  And while dismantled it I also rebuilt it with new bearings, gaskets and brakes.

The suspension arms also received the zinc-primer treatment, and with them installed, the back axle in situ, together with new springs and new AVO dampers, new brakes back on together with the new (LHD) steering, and with some old Alfa Romeo wheels the chassis suddenly was "rolling".

Which made it a  lot easier to install the engine, gearbox and prop. shaft.

Body
As can be seen from the pictures the car I bought was finished in Maroon paint, which is not a favourite of mine.  The fibreglass body had the usual stress cracks here and there and both the rear wheel arches had split and needed remedy.  So after the hinges were taken care of, the body was ground down till the fibres, and cracks, holes and splits were filled with matting and polyester or in some cases epoxy resin.

With the body basically sound, the tedious work began of spraying filler/primer and grinding it with finer and finer grit several times over.

and over again

and in order to make it more easy to spot imperfections in the work, I used all sorts of paint leftovers to top off the primer.

While this was going on, I had a lot of head scratching to find a suitable colour.  In the end I chose the old metallic blue of the Ecurie Ecosse racing team from the 50's and 60's.  And managed - after a lot of research  - to track down the colour code from a nice lady at the Jaguar factory.

So one day I loaded the now rolling car onto a trailer and towed her to the paint shop

and when she came back she was shining in the right nuance of blue:

After buying a set of stainless steel tubes and bends a complete exhaust system was built up from the manifold back.

Interior
The black vinyl interior was a little tatty, with cracks, dirt and a thick layer of green MOSS growing on the floor where the carpet should have been.  And the sun roof was unsalvageable.  The vinyl was torn to shreds , and the metal construction underneath was so completely rusted that it literally fell into the car as dust when I tried to open it.  So for affectionate reasons I kept the remains in a marmalade jar.

Wheels
The original Marcos aluminium alloy wheels were still on the car and even the spare was of the same kind.  They all just needed a chalk blasting, primer and a new layer of paint to shine again.

Status - progress
Due to moving house a couple of times - and having to build a new garage - the rebuild process took a bit longer than stipulated.  But since I had to build one, I went for the "full house" and built one that could take some car work in the future.  A total of 75 insulated square meters, including a separate 20 sqm for the daily driver.

Now the garage is finished enough to be used, and the rebuild is on its way.

The electrical system was not up to standard, so it's not going back in at all.  I've got a full set of fuse boxes, a big box with relays and lots of wire in different colours and thicknesses.  So I set out to build a new electrical system from scratch:

 
A pair of nylon panels for cutting bread on serves as basis.  With holes and brackets for fitting the relays and fuse boxes...

All wires for the electricity central cut to length, crimped with the right connectors and shrinking tube and labelled, ready for connecting:
 

The pedal box is now finished.  Just before Christmas 2006 I had the adjustable frame in place, the new aluminium pedals hanging from their pivot points and the cylinders for clutch and brake hooked up to their respective "cunifer" (cupper/nickel/ferro) tubes.  Including the stainless steel-reinforced hoses at every end.

Fuel tank and pump was fitted on the 13th of March 2007.

The cap is not nice, and even after a machine polish it was too gruffy to look good. It was installed, but will be changed on a later date.

 

The items still to be finished on the spring of 2007 are:

Dashboard:
 
There is progress here though, and just the missing leather covers on the A-posts stop the finishing at the moment.

Complete interior...
Medio March the work started, with gluing the rubber foam to the posts and ceiling, to make the backing layer for the inner ceiling and leather covers.

Long time no see but have been busy with the car and not taking the time to write.  However now it's time for an update.

Finishing
The summer and autumn of 2007 I was busy with fixing things around the house, so not much progress on the Marcos.  When the cold came the urge came back and I managed to put hours in the garage again. And on the 15th of May 2008 the licence plates are on.

The progress was like this:

Rear lamps is part of the electrical system, and as usual with this lady, they didn't just drop into place. That is; they did, but didn't manage to keep water out, so had to come back out for me to make new gaskets. The first set was obviously made from too hard rubber, and that did not form a tight seal. A visit to a local coachbuilder got me some softer rubber strips and with a few hours cutting and gluing, the job was done and the lamps back in.

Getting the front lamps in was a bigger job. As shown in earlier pictures the car was originally delivered with the square headlamps, and they were from a British (RHD)Vauxhall Viva.  Since they were rusty and had rusty brackets they needed to be thrown away and replaced anyway.  And because I always liked the versions with twin round headlamps better anyway, I went for that solution.  When you want to change something and have to decide which parts you want to use, it's always wise to consider the spare situation. In other word, if something goes wrong next year or in five years, will you manage to get spares for it or will you have to start all over again. In this case I chose a safe way and bought a set of double round headlamps - including the original plastic brackets - from a BMW 3-series from the late 1980's, knowing that BMW cater for their owners longer than most other manufacturers.

It took some effort to close the square hole and make two smaller ones, before painting the inside of the light bay black, and adapting the brackets to fit.  To connect the lamps I got original plugs from a breakers and connected them to the wires that was already laid out.  The metal brackets that's holding the perspex covers in place were of course rusted and useless as anything else than templates. So new ones were made, from stainless steel this time.

The covers themselves were reusable, but needed new metal brackets, and these were aluminium parts bought from Marcos Heritage.  The last bit was that they needed a really good polish and a lick of paint on the rear area before use.

The car came with the original wheels - in need of refurbishment.  So they were sent for beadblasting and when I got them back I etch primed and painted them in a greyish silver and had them shod with 185/70-13 Conti tyres.  One tyre seemed to be leaking so I went back to fix it, and this showed out to be because the rim was a bit rough and let air through. A bit of grinding on the inside fixed the problem.

The electric system was finished after a few weeks working, with pliers, wires, fuse boxes etc. Then came a period of testing and rectifying errors, checking one circuit at the time.

One of the errors that showed up was not electrical. When the fuel pump in the boot was tested I could hear it work, but it produced no petrol at the carb.  My mistake, as I had switched the tube out of and return to the tank itself.  Quickly remedied, only to find out that when the pump actually sucked petrol from the tank rather than blowing air into it, it tried to drown the boot floor in petrol!!!   The pump was an old one I had laying in the garage, but not used much.  It showed that the O-rings had dried out and cracked, and leaking petrol in great amounts.  New O-rings sorted this out in a day.

To make everything as secure as possible I also installed a cut off switch

When the electrics were found to be in order, the engine was trial started - without the coil connected - and turned as is should and managed to build up oil pressure as well.  So the coil was connected and the "starting started".  With a dose of choke and pumping on the accelerator pedal it caught, coughed, spit half metre flames from the carb and then actually started!

Without any knocking or "dangerous" / expensive sounds.  Needed some tinkering with the ignition timing and carb settings but promising.  And no visible leaks.  Then some time after I stopped it I discovered a puddle of oil on the floor.  Just underneath the bottom of the bell housing.  Frustrating!  I checked the engine and gear box to see if there were signs of external leaks, like valve cover gaskets, head gaskets, gear box draining and refill plug etc. but nothing.  It had to be either the rear crankshaft oil seal or the front gearbox oil seal.  At least the gearbox had to come out.  But the low height of the car made this difficult.  It needed to be lifted high, and since I don't have a lift a needed something else.  After a while I went out and bought a high lifting workshop jack that took it up to 80 cm, and with a set of axle stands (for lorries ! - they were certified to 6 tonnes each) with almost the same capacity I was in business.

Gearbox drained of oil, prop shaft disconnected at the rear and drawn out of the 'box. After the normal procedure I managed to ease it down on a special bracket that I bought and installed on one of the small garage jacks.  The oil seal on the engine was dry as it should. Same story on the gearbox.  But the paper gasket between the front of the gearbox and the bell housing seemed suspect, so it was replaced and silicone sealant added to the equation.  But when it was going back in it refused!  It seemed impossible to line up the gearbox and the incredibly heavy bell housing with the engine while laying on my back underneath the car.

New tools had to be bought.  An "elephant".  Which is the name used here in Norway for a hydraulic engine hoist.

So out came the engine as well, after coolant draining and disconnecting everything.  With both units on the gear box table it went well with connecting, and I could soon lift the united engine and gear box back in again.

New connecting and start up - and no leak.
Until after the engine was turned off!!

What was this? It ran without leaking, but started to leak after it stopped?  Were the oil seals leaky anyway?

It had to come out again....

I picked apart the the gear box nose and found the seal to be dry/tight, so smeared new silicone underneath the nose to make sure it didn't leak there, and took off the flywheel to make a better check on the rear oil seal on the engine. Dry and fine.

Engine and 'box back into the car, connected and started up.  Dry. Until it was stopped!!!

Engine and box out again.

New examination. When I took the box/bell housing off I registered that the steel plate between the bell housing and engine was a bit bent at the top and was rattling until the bell housing was bolted really tight onto the engine.  Inspecting these things revealed one thing: This steel plate had more than one function.  I hadn't discovered that it was supposed to hold the oil seal for the balance axle in place.  But this looks like a small tin can with a rubber gasket along the edge and for the steel plate to be able to do its job properly it needed 3 extra bolts to hold it hard towards the back of the engine block, and these were missing.  A quick search revealed 3 unc bolts of the right length in a box and the plate was tightened up properly.

The balance axle can be seen on the right side of the crank oil seal housing on the first picture. On the second the "tin can" is in place, and the 3 holes for the steel plate securing bolts can be seen even spread around the perimeter of the "can".

Engine goes back together with the gear box and back into the car.  After connecting and starting it looks fine. And this time it stays fine also after the engine is turned off. SUCCESS!

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On the trip to England to collect the Lotus Esprit I also bought a roll over bar for the Marcos, as I've noticed how flimsy the roof is.  After sanding it down and painting it flat black it was installed just behind the seats and with the supporting bars bolted to the chassis underneath the back shelf.

Those rear bolts will also serve as anchoring points for the safety harness later on.

Then we had the windows.  Some time ago I decided to use plastic, to save weight.  After finding out that plastic was abusively expensive I searched the net and came up with an address in China where I could buy 2 pieces of polycarbonate at 150 by 150 cm for a total of GBP 110, delivered to my door and including the Norwegian VAT.  So these were already standing in the garage when I came to installing the windows.  The side screens and quarter lights were easily cut with an electric pendulum saw.  But the rear screen showed up to be a bastard. The old one was disintegrated and could not serve properly as a template, so I tried as well as I could to find the right shape.  And then used a heat gun to warm it up before bending it into shape, weighing it down with 4 litre plastic cans of anti freeze.

But as it showed up it was not easy to form the right radius for the bends.  And the shape of the opening also has very sharp curves so it was difficult to make the gasket stay in place.  After several attempts I had to give up and order a perspex screen from England.  But this one time I was disappointed with my supplier. It arrived with courier service 2 days before I was going on a 3 day trip with the car to a meeting in Sweden, but my hopes of having it in in a few hours were killed when I opened the package.  It contained something that was not ready for my car at all - vastly oversize and obviously meant for the owner to cut to size, but since I got no warning about this - and still didn't have any template - it came as a disappointment.

And then the next shock: When I started to cut it with my pendulum saw the brittle type of plastic splintered all over the floor!  Nothing like the polycarbonate I had worked with before.  Luckily the fracture didn't spread into the part of the screen that was going in the car, but you can assume I was awake by now.

The trip to Sweden went on without the rear screen and without the sunroof.

The process further consisted of firstly of gluing the gasket onto the car with sikaflex and the laying the screen on the gasket many times, marking it with a felt pen and cutting a few millimetres at the time with a small angle grinder with a very thin blade.

In the end I managed - just.  But the curves on this "original" screen are also a bit out of place, so it does not fit as good as it should, and I had to use more sikaflex to prevent leakage.  I already decided that next year I'll buy a new one, but not having it sent to Norway. Instead I'll take the car to the supplier and have them fit it.

The only thing still missing now is the sun roof. And that will come the coming winter...

So a few pictures of the car as it is - including the fancy aluminium door mirrors I bought recently:

This is how I'm going to use the car in the future, even if I already have plans for changes within a couple of years. Just came back from England with a new chassis for my next project, the Lotus Esprit. And when I was there I couldn't resist buying a Vauxhall / Opel "red top" engine. Which means a 2 litre Cosworth headed twink 16 valver from a Cavalier/Vectra/Kadett/Astra. Even without going inside these engines it's possible to have 200 free revving horsepowers just by changing the inlet / throttle bodies and exhaust manifold / system......

Update on the 3rd of November:

I've been fed up by the miserable fit and Sicaflexed rear screen for a while and finaly managed to find a good - and luckily a bit old fashioned - car glass company that promised to cure the thing if I left the car with them for a couple of weeks.

It is therefore in their custody at the moment, as I'm waiting to collect a parcel at the post office.  One that contains a print card (motherboard) and several bags of small electronic components that must be soldered on to the board.  When that work is done the result will (hopefully) "glow" into life as a MegaSquirt ECU.  This winter may lead to a much better sounding and running Ford V4 engine, and a Marcos ready for the long trip to England and the 50th Marcos anniversary in August.

Update on the 22nd on May 2009

This became some more time than anticipated, but here it comes:

The glassmasters in Porsgrunn managed what I didn't and what the modern quick fixers didn't. They got the rear screen in and almost looking like a normal car rear window.  And during the winter months I've been learning how to solder. And managed to finish the Megasquirt ECU, tested and passed.

So - after the magic box  was finished I spent some with working on the house, but started to collect bits an pieces that's needed for the installation.  That's the throttle position sensor, crank sensor, oxygen sensor and wide band lambda unit. And I'll just use the injectors from the old XE-engine that's laying in the garage for now.  Along with the fuel pump from the Volvo 940 that I dismantled last autumn.

However to make it more practical to use the car, I need to finish the sun roof installation.  And progress has been achieved on that front too:

Looking at how it looked from the start gives me shivers:

But after immeasurable hours of hard work, it starts to take shape:

And here is the finished product. Not as if it came from a factory yesterday but water tight and a good addition to an exciting car: