17 replies to this topic

[Rebuild in Progress]

You have been busy!   

I wouldn't cut any of the fibreglass to inspect the steel, you'll see any issues upon close inspection. When the steel rusts it obviously expands and blows out the fibreglass, so if it looks OK it probably is OK

Mine was shot just about everywhere, it wasn't garaged like yours, and obviously a bit older...

The pedal box is a bit of an issue on the Marcos, as fibreglass is obviously thicker than steel meaning things don't line up very well. Plus the bottom bracket of the stabiliser is a bit of a fudge, as we can see from yours!    - I've added quite a lot of additional fibreglass strengthening to my shell, thus making the fit of most things even harder. And me therefore having to modify, or fabricate from scratch a lot of parts.

But going back to the rust, hopefully yours doesn't look like this 

 

 

 

And the replacement...

 

Edited by Rebuild in Progress, 21 March 2024 - 12:35 AM.

[alex-95]

You have been busy!   

I wouldn't cut any of the fibreglass to inspect the steel, you'll see any issues upon close inspection. When the steel rusts it obviously expands and blows out the fibreglass, so if it looks OK it probably is OK

Mine was shot just about everywhere, it wasn't garaged like yours, and obviously a bit older...

The pedal box is a bit of an issue on the Marcos, as fibreglass is obviously thicker than steel meaning things don't line up very well. Plus the bottom bracket of the stabiliser is a bit of a fudge, as we can see from yours!    - I've added quite a lot of additional fibreglass strengthening to my shell, thus making the fit of most things even harder. And me therefore having to modify, or fabricate from scratch a lot of parts.

But going back to the rust, hopefully yours doesn't look like this 

 

And the replacement...
 

Ok Thanks, yeah nothing looks rusty or fibreglass damaged, I think most of the rusty bits i've encountered has been sue to the sound deadening being on top of it and holding the damp in and keeping the bare/painted metal wet. Hopefully it's not as bad as yours! Nice work by the way! I'm not sure if mine has that piece, mine has a companion bin in, I'm going to try and find some info on where the metal parts were fibreglassed in.

Dad compared the hole positions of the tower bolts to the pedal bolt holes to my van and if anything they want to be further back into the car, but obviously that will make the engine steady worse.

[Rebuild in Progress]

If you go to that Marcos Mini Facebook group I pointed you to, there's a very nice man called Mike Brown on there who's a fibreglass guru (professional boat builder by trade) and seems to know all the different Marcos versions.

As for your Pedal Box, I think I'd be trying to ram that in under the dash as far as I could get it to reduce the amount the engine steady interferes with the bulkhead. Yes you'd then need a shorter (Adjustable) engine steady. But at least you won't have the wind, the cold, the wet, and obviously so much noise entering the cabin if you can glass than bit back over. 

(Your holes for the clutch and master cylinder might move over a little, but probably not a lot, and well fudgeable with a bit of fibreglass resin.)

Or you could make up a new plate and modify the existing stabiliser bar...



 

Edited by Rebuild in Progress, 20 March 2024 - 11:43 PM.