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Go Back   Madabout Kitcars Forum > Mad Build Area > Marlin Sportster, Cabrio, Berlinetta and Roadster builds

Marlin Sportster, Cabrio, Berlinetta and Roadster builds Enthused or Confused about your vintage Marlin build? Ask away here or show off your build.

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  #41  
Old 7th February 2015, 23:09
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Default The Engine

Today was spent on the engine, cleaning and preparing. We fitted the crank and fitted #1 and 2 pistons, TWICE!!! Hope you guys find this funny... I fitted them in # 7 and 8 bores... Realising my mistake, with a rather red face, we pulled them and re-fitted them in the correct bores.

At least I realised before all 8 were in place. At least it was an easy mistake to rectify.

After that we retired to the house. Enough excitement for the day, I will take some pix tomorrow. We decided one problem was we don't have a bench to put things on ready to assemble, tomorrow we plan to make a little table to put things like the pistons and tools so we can see them and don't spend more time looking for them than using them.

Michael, my son remarked that it will be great when we can actually ride in the car and enjoy days like today exploring the lanes and enjoying using the car on the beautiful days we get here. The sunset was amazing this evening, the sky was bright red for ages and it reflected off many of the surrounding houses windows.

I am glad I held off assembling the engine until Michael could be involved, he is only 14 and this is the first engine he has helped assemble. He has torqued up all the bolts and has a better understanding of what goes on in the innards of an engine. I hope to finish the assembly of the short motor tomorrow, fitting the remaining 6 piston assemblies (in the correct bores... ) and fit the the cam and timing gear.
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  #42  
Old 8th February 2015, 23:24
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Default The Engine Build

Today we assembled the rest of the short engine, the only problems we encountered were the flywheel bolts were useless and the front cover bolts were playing hard to find. From three engine sets I was pushed to find a full set of usable bolts to attach the front cover.

The flywheel bolts were only 'S' quality instead of 'T' quality, they were supposed to be 1" long bolts, in fact they were setscrews, (threaded to the head, instead of having a plain shank under the head) they varied from ¾" to 1 1/8" long which had bottomed out in the crank, also the ends of the setscrews were cut off at hellish angles. Rimmers have the correct bolts, but I will try to get some locally in the morning.

Here are some photographs of todays excitement, Michael was a great help, ending up taking over the assembly and leaving me to prepare each part ready for fitting.

Fitting the ring compressor to the piston.



Tapping the piston into the bore.



Screwing the nuts onto the big end cap bolts.



Torquing the big end nuts up.



Finishing touches ready for the sump to go on.



Enough excitement for one day!

# 1050

Last edited by 8 Valve Ed; 8th February 2015 at 23:34..
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  #43  
Old 9th February 2015, 19:15
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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In an earlier post Paul L kindly provided a link to a very interesting technique for creating hinged panels, doors, bonnet and boot lid etc.

http://www.ffcars.com/forums/2642315-post17.html

Basically it uses a tubular frame, attached to the hinges and the catch/lock, the frame has a sheet aluminium flange which is dressed to the tube and riveted on. The flange is then adjusted to fit the aperture, then clad with a single outer skin. This method allows the frame to be adjusted exactly to fit the aperture both for size and alignment before the skin is attached to the frame. It also allows for secret hinges and keeps fasteners out of sight, neat idea.

I finally obtained some suitable tube over the weekend. It's nominal bore 'black iron' (In reality, red!) tube, in order to minimise weight and cost I chose 3/8" nominal bore tube, this is about 12mm bore and 17mm o/d. My challenge was to bend it to a suitably tight radius without it kinking or collapsing. Today I overcame that obstacle when I tried my large blow lamp. It was man enough to heat the tube to red hot reasonably quickly. Once red hot it bent fairly easily and with good grace, no signs of kinking or other silliness.

Here are some pix of the frame laid on the underside of the boot lid. It isn't a perfect match for the curves but I believe close enough to get the job done. I have started creating the first hinge and I am very pleased with how it's shaping up. Hopefully tomorrow I will have something to show.





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  #44  
Old 10th February 2015, 08:19
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Ed - Glad that link was useful, as you are clearly doing a great job.

I also love the fact that your son is getting involved and helping with the engine build.

Good luck, Paul.
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  #45  
Old 10th February 2015, 08:55
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Thank you Paul, I think sharing links is one of the key aspects of a good forum, it helps everybody, and sometimes opens up new, unexpected avenues.

Michael and his younger brother Christopher spend every weekend and all their school holidays with me. They love taking stuff apart and building their own 'creations' I have made Christopher his own little bench complete with a vice where he can play to his hearts content (Provided he doesn't do too much hammering!).

On a different tack, I took a look on eBay last evening, just out of curiosity rather than looking for anything specific. I lost access to my account last year due the the security breach. All attempts to reset my password failed, I never got my reset eMail so couldn't reset my password. I don't do much on eBay now but I may want to in the future so I was a bit concerned at the loss of my account.

I didn't want to create a new account because although my feedback is pretty low in numbers I joined eBay in 2001, so it goes back a long way. Also I have a rather amusing username - irealyhatepcsalot - which often raises amusement from other eBay users I deal with.

Anyway, last evening just for fun, I tried the "reset password" button AGAIN and low and behold, it worked, they have revised the mechanism to reset passwords. So if anybody reading this has a similar problem, just try again, it worked for me this time. So I am able to buy and sell again!!!

Better get out there and DO something... LOL
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  #46  
Old 10th February 2015, 23:39
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Well I had a good day! I eventually tore myself away at half past nine, having almost finished mounting the boot lid.

I am so pleased with the results of this. Some of it has been very tricky but I have got there in the end. Bending the hinges was a challenge to get them both the same.

When I checked the post after lunch I discovered a little package from Rimmers, 6 Flywheel bolts! The exact right ones, almost exactly 24 Hrs after ordering them on-line.

Two of the old bolts are on the left, The new bolt is the third from the left, the right hand bolt is from the Auto Gearbox drive plate.



Am pretty tired now, I think the pix speak for themselves. Tomorrow I hope to finish the boot lid and maybe start preparing the cylinder heads.











Zzzzzzzzz...
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  #47  
Old 12th February 2015, 09:19
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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I finished fabricating the boot lid yesterday, I added the final support flanges and two old fashioned 'square key' locks. The lid is effectively done now but I still have to clean and paint the support frame before bonding it to the lid.



I tried to find an old fashioned escutcheon to cover the two keyholes either side of the lid. I came upon this site which supplies commercial vehicle body parts. They seem to have an very good range of fittings, well worth browsing the sections particularly the locks and handles, I think their prices seem to be very competitive compared with the usual kit car parts suppliers.

This is the type of escutcheon I need.

http://stedall.co.uk/product/escutcheon-cp-3-hole/

I started stripping the cylinder heads last night so I now have 16 valves ready to grind in... Will clean up the heads today, although the dry weather seems to have finished, we have very fine drizzle this morning. :-(


Last evening I had an eMail from Michael my son, it seems he has made the lights work on his Land Rover... He borrowed? the battery off of his mothers car and wired the lights up himself!



She was so impressed I don't think he is in trouble for 'borrowing' the battery.

Must make a start.
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  #48  
Old 12th February 2015, 23:36
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Default A Question...

Constructing my tubular boot lid frame, I needed to rivet aluminium flanges to the steel tube frame.

I found the rivets set (the stem broke) far too easily. As a result the aluminium flange was not clamped as tightly to the tube as I would have liked. It's years since I used 1/8" pop rivets but I remember them capable of squashing two panels together very firmly. These rivets are Screw-Fix specials, are there 'better' rivets out there, which are capable of pulling components together?

Can anybody make a suggestion where I can get something more powerful please.


Ooooh! I'm a Senior Member!!!

Last edited by 8 Valve Ed; 12th February 2015 at 23:39..
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  #49  
Old 14th February 2015, 22:24
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Default Friday 13th...

My bad luck was a stripped spark plug hole. It was extremely tight to remove as you can see from the slippage marks on the flats.



I have 4 SD1 heads, one now has a stripped spark plug hole on cyl #4. I have run a tap through it but really it needs a helicoil. I would say about 1/3 of the threads are OK, 2/3 are not. Trouble is that on close examination neither of my 'spare' heads are much better, both have sustained damage while they have been stored and in frequent moves from one location to another.

At the moment I am staying with the first head with the stripped plug hole. I have tried a plug and it seemed to take a reasonably tightness without seeming to yield.

On a more positive note I finishes assembling and fitting the distributor, which meant I could assemble the oil pump. The Rover V8 has one particular characteristic, the oil pump is set high and dry, not submerged in the sump like many engines, therefore it needs priming before it will pump oil. The standard method is to pack the oil pump with Vaseline which then causes the gears to suck up the oil from the sump on first starting. The Vaseline then dissolves in the oil once the engine is running and up to temp.



Once the engine is fitted things can leap ahead with the build. I hadn't realised what a logjam it had created.

Last edited by 8 Valve Ed; 14th February 2015 at 22:26.. Reason: Typo
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  #50  
Old 15th February 2015, 21:19
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Default The Boot Floor

Today I set myself the target of making and installing the Boot Floor.

I had 'found' a nice piece of 2mm sheet aluminium to make the floor with. The original floor had been a piece of 12mm Far Eastern plywood which had seen better days.

Despite me lowering it by 6mm the fuel tank still seemed to stick up about 12mm too high. I was reluctant to lower it any more. My answer was to put a 'power bulge' into the panel, that served two purposes, firstly to accommodate the fuel tank and secondly to strengthen the boot floor.

I used the English Wheel to raise a rim around the affected area, by 'tipping' the sheet while pushing the metal through the rollers with little or no pressure on the metal. I had never done this before so I was pleased when it seemed to achieve what I wanted. After I had raised the area, I stretched the area above the fuel tank by rolling it to a slight crown to help it relieve any stresses in the panel and to help push the power bulge up a little.







This seemed to work well enough with a little adjustment and fine tuning. So I went on to bolt the panel onto the chassis and cut an access hole for the fuel pipe connections and sender unit.

The peculiar colour is from the protective plastic film combined with the fluorescent lamps in the garage.





Made a small cover for the access hole. Will probably fix it with stainless self tappers.

Tomorrow I plan to assemble and fit one of the cylinder heads.
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  #51  
Old 16th February 2015, 19:39
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 8 Valve Ed View Post
Constructing my tubular boot lid frame, I needed to rivet aluminium flanges to the steel tube frame.

I found the rivets set (the stem broke) far too easily. As a result the aluminium flange was not clamped as tightly to the tube as I would have liked. It's years since I used 1/8" pop rivets but I remember them capable of squashing two panels together very firmly. These rivets are Screw-Fix specials, are there 'better' rivets out there, which are capable of pulling components together?

Can anybody make a suggestion where I can get something more powerful please.


Ooooh! I'm a Senior Member!!!
Try Rivetwise. I have used several hundred on the Pembleton. They do closed end rivets which are much better if riveting into a box section. They also do rivets with a stainless mandrel but they are a bugger to set with a hand rivet tool.

Cheers, Robin
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  #52  
Old 16th February 2015, 21:21
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Thanks Robin, seems a very comprehensive site, Having now seen the prices of the air riveters, I now know why I use a hand riveter!!! They seem to start at about £350... Way outside my budget.
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  #53  
Old 19th February 2015, 22:04
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Default I am still here!

I have been beavering away while I have the boys with me (half term), we are working from 9am till 9:30pm, I have little energy left for posting progress having scrubbed up after a hard days fun.

Progress: The engine is finished and fitted, the boot floor is finished, Michael is currently cleaning the carbs, I am installing the fuel pumps and catching all those little tasks which can get missed.

We are planning to install the main services from front to back, like the fuel pipes, Battery leads and main wiring cable in the next day or two. Michael wants to see the engine running before they go back to school but I think that's pushing it.

I will post some pix when I have the energy.

The car is about 73% complete as of now.
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  #54  
Old 20th February 2015, 10:55
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Default A video link, hopefully?

This is my first attempt at a video link of my engine spinning over, it may not work...

IT DIDN'T

The video is on Flicker. Any suggestions how it's done would be appreciated.

Last edited by 8 Valve Ed; 20th February 2015 at 10:59..
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  #55  
Old 20th February 2015, 12:27
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Open the page on flickr that has the video, copy the URL that is in the address bar and paste it onto your thread.

Last edited by pompeyal; 20th February 2015 at 12:28.. Reason: .
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  #56  
Old 20th February 2015, 17:45
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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Thanks for that, I have now up-loaded it to a new You-Tube account.

So here is the URL of the video of my engine spinning, on the end of a very strong Hilt Drill, it took some holding I can tell you. :roll eyes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik4h...ature=youtu.be

Well that seems to work, if there's a problem please let me know. This is my first attempt at such high tech stuff. The upload to You Tube was much easier than to Flicker.

Last edited by 8 Valve Ed; 20th February 2015 at 17:52.. Reason: Added comment.
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  #57  
Old 20th February 2015, 21:53
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 8 Valve Ed View Post
Thanks Robin, seems a very comprehensive site, Having now seen the prices of the air riveters, I now know why I use a hand riveter!!! They seem to start at about £350... Way outside my budget.
They don't have to be that expensive:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Air-Hydrau...item4ae4fbce99

That's identical to the one I have, which works very well. Made short work of the floor pans in Vikki.
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Old 20th February 2015, 22:02
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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That's within budget! Thank you, I am sure for the limited amount of riveting I do it would be quite good enough, no need to spend a fortune.
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Old 20th February 2015, 22:30
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Just watched your video of the engine turning over. Just be careful that you have got oil pressure when you start the engine for real, as turning it over will have moved the petroleum jelly from the pump but maybe not enough to keep it primed until you start it.
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Old 20th February 2015, 22:45
8 Valve Ed 8 Valve Ed is offline
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I will check for sure! I had a devil of a job getting the oil pump primed. I packed it with petroleum jelly twice but no dice. I tried all sorts of tricks and in the end the Dyson won! I retrieved the old oil filter from a thicket where I had slung it, I modded the filter base, cleaned it up and connected it to the Dyson, it sucked the oil up without even spinning the engine, it worked a treat.

The old filter base is now in my 'special tools' box. So easy, although cleaning a quarter of a litre of oil out of the Dyson was a challenge! At least my carpet won't go rusty!!! If I do have to use it again I will use an intermediary clear tub to catch the oil before it get's to the Dyson.

Thanks for reminding me anyway. I am hoping to have it started next week, the fuel lines are going in now.

It's a long time since I played with these engines, must have been about 1985 or 86 when I had my last P6.
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