I've had some nice stick on Marlin logo wheel centre discs made by the guy who advertised his services on here a while back.They are very good, and not expensive: a set of 7 (I've fitted one to the gearstick) cost less than £15inc p&p.
I made myself a stainless washer bottle from a spare piece of 90mm diameter exhaust tube squashed into an oval:
....................only to be told by a fellow Marlin builder the minimum tank capacity must be 1 litre, and of course when I checked it was only 900mls !
So........
.............I extended it to follow the profile of my firewall - it looks odd but fits beautifully.
While working with stainless, I made up two new tank straps in stainless, following horror stories of Marlin's thin galv. ones rusting through and a couple of owners having their fuel tanks drop!
To meet IVA rules I've fitted two defelectors beneath my fuel tank and above my two exhaust silencers, as IVA states fuel leakes must not be able to spill directly onto hot surfaces
I wanted the boot floor to be water proof - so have used two sheets of polypropylene: the first had to have cut outs made to fit over bolt heads, fuel sender electrical connectors and various wires: the second fits over the top whole, with sealer between.
Whilst I had the exhaust off I have added a flexi pipe at the front, to remove the rigid section I originally made. This should take a lot of the stress out of my stystem, as I have made the mountings fairly rigid, as I do not have the space for it to move around in the transmission tunnel.
I've changed the rubber 'cotton reel' type exhaust supports, as they had already begun to show signs of perishing, for simple rubber loops. If ever these fail unexpectedly, it is easy now to effect a repair with a bit of wire as a "get you home" fix!
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I've spent a lot of time sorting out minor panel fit tolerances in the GRP, adding filler and sanding down.
The shut lines are all now consistent at 6mm, and the surfaces are level
In my efforts to improve the boot lid shut lines I ended up with holes that were too big for the bumper struts - rather than try to fill them with filler I fitted a rubber grommet (made from a Sierra front firewall plug with a hole cut to fit) which will better tolerate any vibration between the GRP tub and the steel chassis.
To finish off the rear tub, I need a firewall between the boot and the passenger compartment. This is a sheet of thin ally covered in a very tactile dense foam. I'll have it leathered, and add an embroidered Marlin logo - its surprisingly cheap to get done - £20 for this logo done to full A4 size- and the finished article looks really cool.
I had problems with my original expansion tank emptying, and concluded I did not have enough tank volume above the top of my radiator, so needed to raise my tank, and have at least 500mls capacity. Space under the bonnet with the BMW M50 engine is very limited, so the only place available was on top of the bulkhead, using a long thin tank.
Another piece of spare exhaust tube, squashed into an oval (much harder to do than say!) has made an attractive tank - the stainless pressure neck was difficult to obtain, but AK Sports cars kindly sold me one that they make for their Cobras (and charge their customers £280!!).
My engine bay side panel bugged me ever since I crudely cut a section out to avoid the Metro servo. The itch has now been scratched - after fitting the new Dual servo, I've welded a section back in, and panel beaten it around the two tiny interference points. This looks much better, and makes the panel much stiffer again.
Oh, nearly forgot............after 5 years of looking I have bought a 3.14 diff which really are like rocking horse droppings to find: So I'll re-fit that when everything goes back together. that will be the third diff in my car, and I've not driven it (legally) on the roasd yet!
3.14 diff - very rare these days: as bought, prior to clean up, and new seals being fitted
If anyone wants a very good Sierra 3.38 diff, sand blasted, with new seals all round, PM me or give me a call on 07968 835101.
3.38 diff - sandblasted and fitted with new seals -(set up for Lobro, but can readily be changed to push-in)
Mmmmmmmmmm, didn't think I'd achieved much in the past 12 months, but proof reading this there has been a reasonable amount of progress....................more to follow.................