The centre console coming together, this will also act as a duct for heater down to your feet. There's also a 12V supply in the side of it for the all important sat nav (or I'd get very lost all the time):



Here is is from a higher vantage point:



The 77MP's styling fits the car quite well:




All the wiring needs a final tidy up after settings are finalised.



Door hinge bracket, one of four. The metal the door is bolted to is far to thin, it flexes all over the place. Hopefully these will add enough structure to fix this.



Exhausts bolted up, bumpers fixed in place, rear lights in place and working. Just needs the other wing and a number plate.

I was hoping that the car would get finished today, but as always there were more and more little things to do!

The centre console now has bracketing to hold it securely in place, the tub is secured and positioned right for the doors. The doors with re-enforcement brackets are on but not adjusted yet. The demister vent connections are nearly done. I tried setting up the amp with the scope but either them is chucking out some funny signals or the scope is on the blink. Headunit has clean output to setting 60 of 62. Higher than 60 and you get a tiny bit of distortion creep in.

Once the demister vents are sort the scuttle can go on and the doors adjusted. After that it's just bonnet side panels and head lights.

Demister vent tubing made out of some drain pipe

Scuttle vents, these are from a mini with some stainless mesh added.

Plastic tubed sprayed black and glued to scuttle. Some black rubber acts as a connector to the pipe that came with the heater

a view of the rubber connection on the heater vents

Centre console covered with heater vent built in to direct the warm air at your feet.

Scuttle on with heater pipes attached

Vent pipes attached to scuttle

Bracket to attach screen wash bottle

Screenwash bottle holder

Screen wash tube going through the firewall

Screen wash bottle and motor installed.

12V accessory socket for the GPS

Bodywork coming together

Sorting out the wiring under the scuttle

Sorting out the wiring under the scuttle

Wiper motor and connections.

It's been a long time coming, but we finally got the Sportster painted and reassembled and here's the result:

Side screen are mounted to aluminium brackets via a threaded hole and cut screw.


Aluminium brackets cut & drilled.


Many, many hours of polishing later brackets ready for mounting.


All done.

A very nice day out and a good chance to catch up with the other Sportster builders on the MOC (Marlin Owners Club) stand. After a trip round the stands and other cars we came back to find a cup and a trophy on the driver seat "Best Sportster 2009" - well happy with that, thank you to the MOC member who voted :)

It was a bit soggy Sunday morning as it hammered it down on the way to Brooklands. At one point on the M25 I had too look out the side of the car to see where the lanes where! The wipers work fine, on the outside of the car. Masses of spray meant the inside of the screen was wetter than the outside.

On arrival at Brooklands is lighted up and we had a bit of time to dry out before leaving before following the route book to Brighton which was then nice and sunny.

On minor issue with car is that we ended up with a fish bowl in each door - some drain holes required!

Here are some photos:

The Sportster lined up next to two other Marlin's at the Bently Meusum

Parked up in Brighton

Peter arriving a short while after us

A very rare sight to see!

View all the photos from the run, Bently meuseum and at Brighton here

Did a little bit of work on the car today, made some carbon fibre scuttle covers. They still need sticking down with the some tape, but they look nice:

My M20B28 started making loud high pitch noise. The pitch changed with RPM and seem to reduce under load. I thought it might be a loose belt or a shot bearing. Noise was located near the back of the engine.

After a an hour or so of poking around today it turned out the intake manifold gasket was leaking on cylinder 6.

I'm pretty sure it must have been a materials failure as I've not put that many miles on since the rebuild. Need to order new gaskets, going to do all of them to be sure. Some non-setting gasket sealer has shut it up as a temporary solution :)

Look out for us in Complete Kit Car this month and next month!

The Latest Issue

The August issue of CKC is crammed with the latest news, features, show previews and your technical issues solved... BUILD • DRIVE • ENJOY

• TIFF. Tiff Needell joins the CKC team as our new monthly contributor.

• MK Indy R. CKC Running Reporter Jack Tait has finished his MK Indy.

• Out & About – California. The Newark Show and Goodwood FoS are on the horizon. Here’s what to expect.

• NG TF – PART TWO. Chris Humphreys’ completed NG TF in all its glory.

• Marlin Sportster Build – Part one. Patrick Short’s build of a BMW based Marlin Sportster.

• Basic Aluminium Fabrication. How to fabricate in aluminium to improve your kit car.

• Road Test – GD427. Is this the best Cobra replica on the planet? Let the numbers decide.

Click here for more information or to buy a back issue!

Look out for us in Complete Kit Car this month!

The Latest Issue

The September issue of CKC is full of news, features, show previews and reviews plus our great technical section... BUILD DRIVE ENJOY

• TIFF. Tiff Needell really is one of us!

• DNA 5CUDA. Wilkins sees DNA’s latest Cougar-based Ferrari replica.

• OUT AND ABOUT. Goodwood festival of Speed, London To Brighton and the Le Mans Classic.

• READER'S CARS. The final part of our look at Patrick Short’s Beemer-based Marlin and Elliott Hopkins has built a unique Westfield.

• SYLVA RIOT SPECIAL. One of the sweetest one-offs I’ve seen for a while, and built in Switzerland.

• SHOW PREVIEW. Goodwood Revival. All you need to know about this action based event.

• FIRST DRIVE. RTR tR1ke and Atomic. RTR’s amazing three-wheeler and crazy Atomic.

Click here for more information or to buy a copy!