The Bracket That Goes With The Carburettor is on eBay

[charlesp]

Oh dear.

Mr Cresswell is offering the bracket from the same 1937 motor on eBay:

Check out:

120036557700

Nice bracket, and very scarce. It's the right one for the motor - naturally, and it seems in lovely condition. Let's see now - they want £100.00 for the carb alone, and hey told me they'd sell the bracket but it would be expensive...

They apparently have the rest of the power head.

Given that the recently offered OA on eBay got up to about £200 plus a bit, then this one is a bit overvalued! - or at least the bits that remain of it - probably adding up to thousands!

What a shame to see a scarce motor broken. I realise they're in business to make a profit, but this really is a shame. There probably aren't that many of this model left at all.

No bids yet on th carb, I see.

[Colin]

I agree with you Charles. A pity that the engine was dismantled; obviously a few £££ / $$$ meant more than the historical importance of the engine to the seller.

I have wondered if the drawings for the various Seagull models are available. As a home machinist I believe there would be very few parts that could not be manufactured in the home machine shop. This would certainly put a damper on some of the dismantling of rare engines like the one you've cited and also help alleviate at least some of the gouging.

[Charles UK]

Colin unfortunatley most of the Marston spares are almost unremanufactureable.

At the moment all we have managed is

Pepperpot choke assembley complete
Trumpet air intake
Coolie hat flywheel cover aluminium
Ally prop nuts
Transom screw thrust pads
Fueltank ends 4 & 6 inch 22 gauge steel

A complete new fuel tank requires a donor fuel cap & bayonet fitting neck.

Just look at the transom screw wing nut,
tapered in almost every direction,
Gravity diecast from Birmabright (8% magnesium)

To reproduce these will require 2 hours of a solidworks draftsmans time,
2 to 3 hours on a full 3d CNC mill, to make the mould & a foundry that will throw some magnesium into their ally pot & cast some & a final 15 minutes finishing per wing nut.

A frightening amount of money for 30 or 40 wing nuts which is all that is required at the moment plus 50% extra to cover the next 5 years.

What we really need is experianced in these professions Marston owners who would be prepared to do the work in a lunchtime for little or no reward, that would like to increase the availability of spares for these beautiful motors.

So if there are any Marston owners out there, that can contribute, require a look at a part so they can copy it or just require a part that they are missing, please contact me.

And send Rick Jones a full list of what you have with pictures so we know who has what & where.

Charles Large (tonimarr(at)aol.com)

[charlesp]

Yes it's time we had a register, not only for the Marstons but some of the earlier British Seagull models as well.

No drawings are available - at least none have come to light. Copying is the best we can hope for.

[Charles UK]

The vendor of this has just communicated with me, unfortunatley is has been sand blasted & painted, a real shame as these were always polished.
If it was painted properly with a zinc chromate primer it will be a real nightmare to polish back to original condition & get the primer out of the sandblaster etching.
But if someone needs a transom bracket just for use on the river, it should be perfectly ok. but then so would the early 102 bronze bracket that someone won on Ebay yesterday for £31.00.

I do wish sellers on Ebay would stop covering up all the blemishs on their seagulls with a layer of cheap paint & let us see exactly what we're buying, or if they are doing a full restoration bring it back to exactly the way it was when it left the factory.
After watching Ebay for several years nothing seems to lower the value more than badly painted red fuel tank & a hammerited drive shaft tube.

[Colin]

Hello Charles.

“unfortunatley most of the Marston spares are almost unremanufactureableâ€

[Charles UK]

Colin have no fears, you have to sleep with me to cause me confrontational distress, & your christian name makes me think you lack some essential equiptment for that task.

The Marston wingnut in question would be a horrible thing to try & make an exact replica without casting them even if the material was available.
Sorry I can't post a picture to illustrate.

All the Marstons for their sins require a level of technological expertise that is virtually no longer available in the UK, to reproduce many of the components. The teardrop exhaust & the cylinder block are prime examples.

Hence our instructions that if you manage to find yourself a Marston, Don't try to start it until you've checked that you won't do any damage by doing so, which means a strip down to individual components, to check all the bearings, lower unit gears etc. because if you wreck a piston you won't find a replacement.
Nowadays new pistons for the century series & the 102s are no longer available I belive from British Seagull so your right in that respect.

Many thanks for your comments Charles (do you have skype?)

[Colin]

A well thought out answer at the beginning of your post Charles

I've never been able to get Skype to function correctly on either of my computers, so I opted for Yahoo; it never seems to give me any problem.

[CatiGull]

If the materials are the issue it could be tough to get these vintage motors parts done, but the cost of custom machining has plummeted, thanks to the internet..we use emachineshop for our low volume parts (<10 pcs) at much less cost than local shops we use for regular business. THe model is you are tapping into excess capacity somewhere in the world - it really works well for non time critical parts...which Im guessing would be most of the Marston parts!

Also enjoyed your humour Charles !