As the pictures of the Marlin show, the paint is rough. If fact when I first saw the car, I joked it looked like it was on it’s third paint job. Turns out I was right. This is the fender tag for the Marlin The build sheet, usually under the rear seats in most older…
Tag: Marlin Interior
A dash from this and a dash to that
The Marlin’s dash pad was trashed. It was in two or three pieces with chunks missing. While the hot and dry New Mexico desert had been kind to the metal, it had been ruthless to the interior. When I started removing it, it fell apart in my hands, literally turning to dust. Replacement dashes are…
Interior is the new black
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,…
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…
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%….