Steve's TC Saloon

Here's a picture of a pristine Marina at the National Classic Car Show at the NEC in 2006, this is some of the story of how JOU  321 L got to be there.  Steve Moss had owned his Harvest Gold TC saloon for a number of years, he'd shown it at local and national club shows, but he knew that sooner or later he would have to get the bodywork done.  One of the catalysts for the work was when Steve won a competition for a reconditioned B series engine in Practical Classics magazine.  If you have what is virtually a new engine, you really ought to have the bodywork to go with it; Steve isn't a body man himself, so he enlisted club member Paul Mondey to do the metalwork (checkout Paul's' own custom pickup in Featured Cars).

Surprisingly when compared to other Marinas, the front end was in reasonable condition, the back end by comparison need some major surgery.  Steve asked Paul to retain as much of the original bodywork as possible.

Starting on the offside, the rear of the sill and the rear wheel arch were pretty far gone, Paul chopped out part of the sill and then discovered more filler then metal in the wheel arch.  Rust had detached the rear wing from the wheel arch tub.  Steve had acquired a pair of NOS rear wings, but Paul would have to build up new metal to attach the rear wheel arch to.  The only thing to do was remove the rear wing to give the room necessary to weld in some fresh metal.  Paul carefully drilled out all the BL spot welds and left the car looking rather bare.

You'll notice that Paul has only attacked one side in order to preserve as much body rigidity as possible whilst he was working.

First the wheel arch tub was rebuilt so that the new wing had something to hang onto.  Paul the welded fresh metal into the space behind the wheel arch well as this had rusted out completely.  He then welded on the replacement panel, plug welding the drill holes so they look like spot welds and then sealed and primed the join.

At this stage the boot (trunk) frame is still missing, but you can see that the boot floor and back panel are in reasonable condition.

Having completed the offside, Paul repeated his work this time on the nearside.  Once again you can see the filler in the arch.

Along the way Paul welded in a rear sill part rather than replace a whole one.  With the back end rebuilt Paul worked on the front and then took the car back to bare metal before prepping and spraying the car in Harvest Gold two pack acrylic.

Finally Paul was able to let have the pristine bodywork back to Steve for rebuilding.  Steve put her back together in time to show the car on the club stand at the NEC, joining Paul's Pickup and Phil Parkes black saloon.  The show starts on Friday and all cars have to be in place on Thursday evening; Steve and Paul only finished polishing the new paintwork on Wednesday evening - was it worth it?  You got to believe it.