Fond (?) MemoriesIt is completely irrelevant , but my Dad had a 1.3 litre (I think) Marina van for a while in the late 70s. It was dreadful to drive. At the same time, I had the Morris Minor van, which had done at least 3 million miles and was a good 10 years older - but it drove better than the Marina!
Unexpected Acquisition
My car is a 1,750 cc 4cyl marina DL from 1974.
For those of you not familiar with the Australian-built Leyland Marina, in Oz the Marina had either a 1.5 or 1.75 litre 4 cyl or a 2.65 litre 6cyl engine (all OHC). This was because the tooling for the B series engine had worn out, so they tooled up for the new E series engine (seen in the UK in the front-wheel drive Austin Allegro and Austin Maxi) but applied as a rear wheel drive in the Australian Marina. They added 2 more cylinders to make the 6 cyl engine.
Incidentally, the manual version of the 6 cyl Marina was only a 3-speed, because they couldn't fit a 4-speed box in. The 6 cyl e-series also found a place in the Leyland P76, which also came with a locally modified 4.4 litre version of the Rover V8 engine.
Even more incidentally, Leyland Australia also developed a 2.2 litre 6 cylinder version of the 'E' series engine for the car before the P76, which was called either an Austin Kimberly, or and Austin Tasman (different trim levels) see picture borrowed from Wikepedia. This car was based on the Austin 1800, but squared off front and rear. Unlike the P76, the Kimberly/Tasman was a transverse engined front-wheel driver. This engine/transmission combination made it back to the UK as the Wolsley/Austin/Morris 2200, and later into the Austin Princess. I have to admit, I quite like the Kimberly - especially given that I did have an Austin 1800 almost 30 years ago. Wonder how to pursuade my wife...
Mine was bought new in Wagga Wagga (New South Wales) by a friend's father. (It isn't left hand drive - I took this picture with my laptop, which mirrors photos for some reason).
He cherished it for 34 years, driving about 5,000 km a year in it, and never over 80kmh (which is maybe how he never noticed out out of balance the front wheels were!). I saw the car twice in about 2005 and again in 2006. After he passed away, his widow simply never got round to selling it - and when I realised, I offered to buy it for $600 - which was accepted. I think they were relieved someone actually wanted it. Can't say the same for my wife, who was astonished when I said I'd buy it. I think I was a bit too.
Some time later (June 2008) I took the train from Melbourne to Wagga Wagga, handed over the money and took possession. That is when I took the photo above. The green shade cloth on the grill was to stop locusts from being sucked into the cabin through the ventilation vents!
At that point it had done 169,000 kms. I have the record of every purchase (including petrol) and every service for the whole of this period.
Driving Home
The first thing that flummoxed me was the ignition key socket. Couldn't find it after so many years of driving modern cars. Had to ask. There it was, on the other (wrong) side of the steering column, completely hidden from my view.
Off I intrepidly set on the 500km trip home. Wouldn't go into second to start with, but eventually that wore off and the gears selected fine. I stopped twice on the way home, once for petrol and once for a cup of tea and some air that didn't smell of petrol.
Drove at an indicated 100 - 120 kmh most of the way - can't be any more precise because the speedo needle was bouncing between the two. Might have hit 140kph a couple of times, just to see what happened. Above 80kph, the front wheels took on a life of their own and the steering could only be managed with a very light grip, as the wheel was wobbling and juddering so much.
On top of that, in anything remotely resembling a cross-wind, the car started to float like barge. Great fun - I thoroughly enjoyed the drive (about 6.5 hours), the heady aroma of 70s vinyl and fairly surreal experience of driving such a time-warp car. I'm sure I was a teenager again for at least half of the journey.
Very pleased with myself when I eventually pulled in to my garage and switched off the engine.
Shed Time
Over the next few weeks, I took it out at the weekends (still on NSW rego). Established that the wheels needed balancing, the badly chipped windscreen needed replacing, it needed new tyres (they were perished, rather than worn!) and there was a hole somewhere in the exhaust.
I had the tyres fitted, new window winder handles in the front - they had both broken, and found a new windscreen and second-hand rubber seal. (Took me 2 days to clean up the seal) Also had a second-hand diff fitted as the old one was a roadworthy liability and whining a lot.
Various other commitments took priority, until simultaneously, my normal car lease came up for re-financing, we had a recession, which led to me taking a temporary pay cut - and I (think I) moved gracefully into a mild mid-life crisis.
Back on the Road
I sold my Nissan Maxima to avoid having to refinance - and at the same time I roadworthied and registered the Marina. By this time (Jan/Feb 2009) with all the bits and the stupidly high cost of registration, I probably spent another $1,500 on the car. After I started it driving again, I had the wheels balanced. The result was not perfect, but what a difference. Relatively smooth cruising up to 100kmh. Great for my weekly round trip to the Airport (60 km each way).
Later I remembered that one of the front wheels was slightly bent, so swapped it for the spare. Now the only vibe is (probably) drive line and it only really kicks in for a patch at around 110kmh.
Because I wasn't comfortable with having only one ancient car and no back-up (if you have read this far, you will know exactly what I mean) and because I still remembered my Rovers (P6 and P4) very fondly, I contacted the local Rover club to find a cheap, but serviceable P5.
They were really helpful and one hot Saturday (now known as Black Saturday) I drove the Marina to Dromana (down the Mornington Peninsula) to look at the P5 I had been pointed to. Much more about the Rover in another post, but the point is, the marina did the journey in good time, in blistering heat and heavy crosswinds.
As I drove home, with a towel between me and the boiling hot vinyl seats in about 48'C, with strong winds blowing the car all over the place, I had no idea of the massive tragedy that was unfolding just up the valley from my house. The Marina has never had a radio.
I got out the car bedraggled and saturated - but the car was fine, although towards the end of the journey (mostly freeway, for about an hour and 10 minutes) the temperature gauge was beginning to move fully into the 'hot' section.
Since January, I have done around 4,000 kms in it. Problems and solutions encountered so far:
- Cracked windscreen - replaced with new windscreen and second-hand rubber seal
- Windscreen guy couldn't get the chrome trim back on - blamed the second-hand seal - resolved by putting chrome trim in the boot and ignoring it
- Whining (roaring?) diff - resolved by replacing entire back axle with second hand one. Also (as a by-product) fixed the binding rear brakes, because the replacement axle had the drums still attached.
- Major shakes/vibration at over 80kmh - resolved by balancing wheels and swapping bent front wheel with spare
- Choking petrol fumes in car at inconsistent times (wife, my mum and kids all complained) resolved by replacing fuel filler cap - the cork seal had disappeared and the fumes were being sucked into the cabin from air swirl at the back of the car via the C pillar vents
- Banging front suspension - in fact it is pretty useless - not yet resolved, but an inspections shows the rubber bump-stops are a bit out of shape
- Windscreen wipers barely touch the windscreen - not yet resolved
- Juddering clutch, occasionally refusal to engage first gear, and then complete clutch failure - resolved by bleeding and topping up the hydraulic clutch system - clutch now works much better
- Slight use of Engine oil - resolved (occasionally) by topping up oil
- Innocuous appearance of car - very slightly resolved by painting the wheels black - see pic (and parts of the tyres, accidentally - but it soon flaked off)
- Dash back-light switch has disintegrated - not yet resolved
- Headlamps very dim - not resolved - apparently this is a safety feature to stop drivers speeding at night
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