As the car’s mechanical condition improved, I kept trying to give my wife a ride. No such luck. Even with bribes of trips to the ice cream stand. I understood. The seats were old, clean but still dusty. The dash and the floor were bare metal and without the door cards and other interior coverings,…
Author: David
An Electifying Idea
So every once and while I do swerve into a good idea. This little idea was just that. Maintaining drivability also includes making sure the lights and other electrical stuff is working. I started a checklist on a white board of little things that needed fixing. Electrical was near the top. I went through the…
It was only leaking a little
When running the engine, the water pump was weeping just a little. That’s to be expected but the more I ran it, the more it leaked so a new water pump seemed to be in order. I drained and removed the radiator, then amazingly, all the water pump bolts loosened up. I then removed the…
Headlining the second act
This second part of the headliner repair was actually completed six months after I first got the car. The repaired liner went right back into the car and looked fine but it was brown and I knew I wanted to change the interior colors and the texture. I thought adding some fabric would improve noise…
Opening for the Headliner
Finding an intact headliner was a real bonus for the Marlin. Usually, headliners in old cars are ripped or have become a mouse-house. Or they are just plain gone. This one was sagging on the sides, the plastic retaining type beading was long turned to dust. On the test drive I had to duck while…
Delegating some of the repair
The car was running, driving, and stopping just fine but there were a number of issues that needed to be a dealt with. The gas tank dripped when I put more than a quarter of a tank in. There were a couple of clunks I could hear when I went over rough road, and the…
Clean-up on Bay 2 and other Forensics
As my digging through the car continued I decided that it would be best to gut the interior to get an idea of what I had that was good. The carpet was the first to go. Usually you remove the seats, then pull the carpet. Not needed here. It didn’t put up a fight. I…
Missing Parts Mystery
I started tracking parts that might be missing. The trunk was full of chrome and stainless, I assumed it was all the missing parts. A rookie mistake. Some odd pieces of trim were gone. And other items like heater box parts and the heater core. Not just pieces that might have fallen off because of…
Bringing the Marlin home
Once I got the car home, it was time to really assess what I had. You can never get a good idea of what you have when going over it at the dealer. The more time I took to look, the more things I found. It went from a 95% complete car to about 90%….