Marina Shite (Fleet changes- beige-r than ever)

[grogee]

2 minutes ago, MarinaJosh said:

Because of this, this Ital is shortly moving to grogee's house

FTFY

[MarinaJosh]

Everything that makes the Ital boring as a weekend car, makes it great as a daily car. Therefore when the same friend who supplied the Moggy and the black Ital had a very scruffy but solid 1.3 automatic HLS appear, I had to have it. I wasn't particularly interested in owning an automatic 1.3, and being an automatic 1.3 there was a queue of people wanting the engine and gearbox, so I ended up with the shell for free plus all the running gear from a 1.7. The plan is to keep it as scruffy as possible. Despite appearances the chassis is superb and it has the best floorpans I have ever seen on a Marina/Ital. The last couple of months has been spent getting the running gear in and it's now not far off being roadworthy. Pics are all from an old eBay listing I found as I don't have many of my own yet!

[MarinaJosh]

With the projects piling in I certainly didn't need any more.  However, a trip to my MOT tester proved fatal when he mentioned there was a Herald for sale up the road... I had wanted a Herald since I was a kid! Plus it would complete the set- the Marina was made using a combination of Herald and Minor bits!

This one has been a local car since new- it spent most of it's life in Aldeburgh until the original owners passed away. It was then bought by the chap I bought it off. It took quite a while to secure it, several months in fact, I don't think he really wanted to sell it but the person whose garden it was being stored in wanted it gone. I was told that when it first appeared in the garden that it was more or less immaculate. Sadly, it was then stripped down, small scabs were taken back to bare metal, and then left to deteriorate. There were patches of bare grass where it had been moved round every now and again. All those bare metal bits have turned to rust, the original engine which was stripped and left on a pallet has now seized. Fortunately, like the Moggy, everything is available and there is always one at  show to look at to make notes on how it should go back together. There can't be many Heralds left which are totally original like this one- all original paint, no welding required underneath etc. Therefore it will be staying as it is as they're only original once! It still has the plastic on the door cards!

Bonus shot of it when it must have been nearly new parked up in Southwold.

[MarinaJosh]

The next addition isn't actually mine. Over winter I rewatched Agatha Christie's Poirot and found myself fancying a pre-War car. I have seen the prices nosediving for most stuff as the generations change and it's going to be up to us younger folks to keep these cars from fading away. I then remembered the Classic Car Loan Project, a scheme which we are supporting through the Marina Club (we have a rather fetching beige Ital in the scheme). I thought I was a bit of a fraud already owning several old cars, but I had a chat with Bob who runs the scheme and he said that wouldn't prevent me applying and several others were in the same boat. He then steered me towards a 1936 Ford Model Y, owned by a syndicate of four people including himself! The chap who had it on loan at the time lived in Wisbech, so not a million miles from here. I went over to meet him (at this point he had bought his own Y) and one of the other owners. I was successful in my application and since May I have been the temporary custodian of this lovely little car. The drive back from Wisbech was something of an initiation, it took almost three hours! I set Google maps to bicycle mode, so it took me on lots of little lanes rather than the main A roads. There I found the natural home for a car like this, where I could cruise along at a steady 25 - 30 (this is where it's happiest) and even overtook a few things (cyclists and horse riders, both of whom I assume are still saving up to buy the wonder that is the £100 Ford automobile). With crossply tyres and transverse leaf springs which rock the car from side to side it can feel a little unnerving but I utterly love it. So much so I have agreed to have it on loan for another year, mainly because the very supportive Model Y club are having their annual rally in Suffolk next year and I would love to attend.

[MarinaJosh]

The final addition of this year (so far at least) is a rather special one. After 15 years (half my life) of messing around with tatty Marinas, I finally own a decent one. I have known the car for a long time- since 2010 it was owned by a friend of mine who sadly passed away last year. After he died, I tried to buy the car but lost out to somebody else. I then saw it at a couple of shows this year and the new owner, despite loving the car, could clearly see how much I wanted it and kindly agreed to sell it to me. It arrived last Monday and I have spent all week dusting off various NOS bits to take it to the next level. It's another early Marina, built in August 1971 and in the early colour of Bedouin. Unlike most early Marinas, it has never been restored. The sides have been painted at some stage (very nicely too) but other than that it hasn't seen a welder since it left Cowley. It has covered just 44k miles, and most of those were over 30 years ago. It was supplied new by Brown's of Loughton, Essex. It then moved with the owner up to Brockdish in Suffolk in the late 1970s and lived there until the early 2000s. It then moved across the border into Norfolk. First to Norwich, then to my late-friend in Dereham, up to Sheringham and now back in Suffolk. This one will be treasured forever!

[Dyslexic Viking]

Fantastic cars here. Thanks for sharing with us. And hope the next update won't be as long as a year.

[Matty]

Missed this before. Now followed 👌

[schonker]

Theres some cracking cars there and the last on is just fab.Whereabouts in Suffolk are you,i'm in Bury

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Matty said:

Missed this before. Now followed 👌

Ditto. Will start from the beginning when I have an hour free.

[Matty]

3 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Ditto. Will start from the beginning when I have an hour free.

Just finished reading. Brings back a lot of fond childhood memories. My dad had a series of marina and ital vans from work which were also our transport in those non car owning days. There's also a much cherished photo of my mum and dad's showing me throwing an epic tantrum as a toddler behind an x reg ital estate he had borrowed from work for us to go on holiday in 😄

[brownnova]

What a fantastic set of motor cars!  

[trigger]

I had a sit in the beige Marina on Sunday and I can confirm it's every bit as immaculate as it looks in the photos in real life

[sierraman]

I have a soft spot of an Ital, love the orange interior! What’s plans for the body? Use it as it is or restore? 

[Matty]

13 minutes ago, sierraman said:

I have a soft spot of an Ital, love the orange interior! What’s plans for the body? Use it as it is or restore? 

As is would look like they did when we were kids

[LoftyvRS]

Hot damn the beige Marina is lovely!

[Datsuncog]

What a fantastic collection. Thanks for sharing!

In exchange, have some pics of me learning a valuable lesson in futility by trying to rustproof a Sandglow 1978 1.8 estate in the mid-80s...

KIJ 2816 lasted until early 1988 - by which time I could nearly fit my head through the holes in the wings and the front scuttle.

Here, it's less than six years old - and has already required new sills and a full respray, with the crust already creeping back from the door bottoms...

I'd still love to own one, mind.

[MarinaJosh]

Great picture! Amazing to think that was just part and parcel of being a motorist in those days. My dad has many stories of grandad wobbing up his Victors and spending all weekend tinkering with them just so he could go to work the following week! Folks with PCP moderns don't know what they're missing...

schonker- I'm between Ipswich and Stow, originally from Stow so I haven't travelled far!

The white Ital will be used more or less as is. I am aiming for an 'old banger c.2000' aesthetic. The wing tips have been replaced, maintaining the different colours between the old and the new. Badly applied stickers are hiding the joins. Sills have been bare-metalled and painted black again, arches have been bare metalled and painted red to conjure up memories of red oxide primer. It will be shod with a set of Wolfrace slots. As this one was destined for scrap we thought we'd have a bit of fun with it! It's nice having a mixture of cars to polish and make as mint as possible, and a car made to look intentionally awful. Here are some more recent pics...

[MarinaJosh]

The white heap is now back on the road. Had a few teething issues with alternators (including a brand new one which was faulty out of the box) and fuel mixture causing the plugs to foul up whilst idling but I think we're getting there now. Given it has been put together from a pile of bits into a shell which hasn't seen the road for 20 years I think we have got off fairly lightly.

There was a fresh arrival yesterday- the shell of a 1.7 SLX. This was the running gear donor for the white heap. Somebody was interested in it but turned out to be a timewaster. I was then offered it for £notalot. I have no idea what I'll do with it, but it's a pretty good shell so I couldn't see it go to scrap. Has an interesting history- bought new by a lady in Nottingham after she traded in her MK2 Marina 1.3 for it. She owned it until her death in 2022 by which time she had clocked up over 260,000 miles in it. If anybody fancies an Ital project let me know!

 

[vinyljunky]

So Xtreme, once again the BL marketeers were ahead of their time

[MarinaJosh]

Some recent fleet changes. My trusty Peugeot 206 died just before Christmas. On my way to work one morning it started misfiring and went into limp mode.  Just a few days before I had agreed to buy a Golf off a mate of mine so I was faced with either repairing the car and then trying to sell it or scrapping it. In the end I was offered £217 in scrap which beat the prospect of spending time and money on a car to only sell it for £300 or so, let alone the joys of trying to sell a cheap car! I paid £130 for it back in 2019 (it was due to be scrapped then) and got over 30k miles out of it, so it did me proud.

For the first time in 12 years I am Peugeot-less. I picked the Golf up at the weekend. It was owned by my friend's parents from new, he bought it off them when they bought another Golf in 2016. They have just bought another brand new one, so he has ended up with their old one. A chain of Golfs! I have done a bit of work on MK5s and they always seemed like a solid, well built car.

Marina-wise there isn't a huge amount to update on. The Practical Classics Marina left here recently and has gone back to Danny after being fitted with correct early front suspension and drum brakes. He is now going to attend to the cosmetics and the paint. We have also had a visit from a local club member who owns a base model MK3 saloon which needed a new diff and a general check over. Pic is from a couple of years ago when it last came to visit for some bits and pieces.

The current struggle is getting the white Ital to run properly. It's either too lean and backfires when revving, or fouling up at idle. Maybe putting an HS6 onto an O series wasn't a good idea after all. We're now experimenting with the correct HIF carb...

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I LOVE the colour of that Golf!

[MarinaJosh]

River Blue I believe, looking it up as it does need a new wing due to the usual rust trap foam!

[Stinkwheel]

What a thread, this is how autoshite should be done. And obviously, i now really want a Marina or Ital (and i never have before)

[ETCHY]

The Marina & Ital suffered a lot because the motoring press just weren't keen on them.  Quite outdated at launch,  had issues such as alleged mega understeer on early 1.8 models & hung around too long so looked like a dinosaur by the end.

However many owners liked them, they were basic simple transport & did the job.

I rather liked all the ones I drove & it was always a car that imo was a lot better than legend would have you believe ( like a lot of BL tin).

[MarinaJosh]

They were a cheap basic car and did exactly what they were intended to do- be stacked high and sold cheap. They were never meant to be a technical revolution or a super car. It was adequate for the job intended- adequate comfort, adequate performance, adequate economy, adequate styling. For this reason I can understand why it may have been a disappointment to the motoring press. There they were, expecting the first new car from British Leyland, still a relatively new company. What was Britain's biggest car manufacturer going to produce to take us into the new world of the 1970s? Oh, it's a re-hashed Triumph Herald with an A or B series engine in it.

However, from BL's point of view, they needed something that would be simple to develop and sell in big numbers. Just imagine walking into a BL showroom pre-April 1971 and still seeing Morris Minors and Morris Oxfords in there whilst the Ford showroom over the road was offering MK3 Cortinas and MK1 Escorts.

BL were proved right by the buying public. The waiting list for Marinas at launch was huge, and extra shifts were added at Cowley to try and catch up with demand.

It was also one of the few cars that actually made money for BL whereas most others were a bit of a flop. It kept the company going whilst other ranges made a loss. Even the Ital still sold well, particularly in commercial form- it was basic and cheap.

I have driven plenty of older cars and can never understand why people get so worked up about Marinas and Itals, they drive just like any other 70s saloon (better than some others in fact!). I've never had any problems driving them. I passed my test in 2011 and have done thousands of miles in them all over the country.

I suspect a lot of it comes from because they were designed as cheap basic cars, they got neglected quickly. I hear many tales of them bought as cheap secondhand runabouts in the 80s, as first cars etc, and run into the ground. When you run a cheap car on a shoestring it's not surprising that things go wrong. 'I had one in 1986, bought for £20, never serviced it and it broke down, rubbish car' etc.

[danthecapriman]

I’ve always loved the Marina and the Ital. never could see what the motoring press disliked about them. Trouble was (and still is!) that the motoring journalists slated it, then all the idiots read that and swallowed it, then of course it became gospel and everyone ‘knew’ the cars were shit. In reality they were no worse than any other similar car of the time.

My uncle had two. One was a limeflower saloon but I can’t really remember that one. The other was a vermilion red saloon that he pulled out of someone’s garden, fixed it and used it as a daily. It was in really good condition despite sitting in long grass for ages off the road. He put absolutely shit loads of miles on that car before it eventually got scrapped.

And my grandparents bought a mk1 Marina saloon brand new in Cyprus. It was Teal blue I think.

My grandad was working at RAF Akrotiri in the early 70’s, so the whole family went over with him for a few years. He had a cheap used Renault 12 to begin with, then sold that when his new Marina arrived. The Marina was absolutely stunning according to my mum! The only new car my grandparents ever had. 
Sadly though it was written off in Cyprus. My grandparents went to the Cyprus wine festival one year and drove! Back then nobody really thought about things like that like they do now, he went round a bend but left the road somehow and stuffed the Marina into a big road sign. The damage it did was horrendous but if it had been a car less substantially made it’d probably have been fatal. 
They had planned to bring the Marina back home to the uk after the Cyprus tour was finished but it never made it. 
Not long after that the Turks invaded the island turning it into a war zone so they were all evacuated anyway.

 

Love the cars though! You’re doing great work on them and saving them from getting scrapped. 
The rough white Ital looks fantastic!

[MarinaJosh]

Thanks for your kind words. Great to hear your memories, even if that one met an unfortunate end! 

[High Jetter]

On 11/09/2023 at 17:27, High Jetter said:

Ditto. Will start from the beginning when I have an hour free.

OK, it took me a while, but I got round to it in the end. Cracking thread!

My first Marina encounter was the area managers 1.3 coupe when I worked at Longlife accessories. Not sure if it had been tweaked, but it absolutely flew in his hands. A few years later when working for Caffyns parts dept our hack was a 1.3 van which was shite - loose, sloppy and driven by everyone at times. can't recall ever owning one myself, but always liked them.

On 24/12/2016 at 17:22, MarinaJosh said:

It now lives down Eastbourne way with another Club member after he sold it a couple of years ago. Quite a lot of parts from my old blue saloon are in it!

That's my neck of the woods, but never seen that convertible. Is it still around, do you know?

[lesapandre]

Good article at AROnline  putting the Marina in it's context. It really did sell rather well. 

https://www.aronline.co.uk/opinion/essay-morris-marina-well-sell/

Car was more a victim of corporate mismanagement than anything else.

[MarinaJosh]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

That's my neck of the woods, but never seen that convertible. Is it still around, do you know?

Yes, he still owns it, although I think it only comes out on high days and holidays.

Management had a part to play but we can't ignore the build quality either. I'll defend the principle behind it, but I'd be the first to say the execution was not always great. When my first Marina was delivered new to its owner it went back to the dealership about four times because loads of rubber trim bits were missing, each time the job sheet was marked 'no stock'. Can only assume somebody was on strike... Still, that whole workers vs management and who killed BL debate has been done to death now, and we all know industrial relations were poor in just about every car factory in the country (and parts of Europe) at the time.

Whether any old car was good or not when new doesn't really matter these days. Nobody buys a 50 year old car because it's objectively better than anything else. You buy them because you like them, that's all that matters.