"Just for Fun" Marathon Project w TXT Front End, HS Gears, etc

[BrewCityMusic]

Found a 1994 Marathon on Craigs with a "Blown Transmission" for basically salvage price and after giving it some thought just *had* to go investigate with a trailer, LOL - Even though it was about 15 degrees out it fired right up and after finding out that it was sitting where it had "died" and that it actually still *did* have reverse, I did some poking around and of course found the broken shift cable ... So I did the "deal" and used the handle from my ice scraper to put it back in "F", drove it onto the trailer and brought it back to the shop after stopping by the local indoor self-serve car wash and relieving it of about 130lbs of caked-on dirt and mud ... (I also had to stop for a beer or two to erase the mental image of the sellers face when I magically "fixed" the blown trans after handing him the cash, LOL)

After a day to thaw in the shop, I went through it - compression is perfect, no smoke, appears to have had the driven clutch replaced recently enough to show almost zero wear - the only real issues are the cracked top, some surface rust on the cargo box, a ding on the rear fender, and the always-present rot on the front cowl (with a solid frame underneath) and the incorrect drive belt - heck, even the battery box only has the slightest of bubbing started around the edges. Knowing we had a foot of snow coming I took advantage of the last nice day to run it around a bit (after throwing the correct used belt on it), steering and brakes just fine, typical dead spots indicative of a carb in need of cleaning or replacing - yep, this one should definitely dodge the "Salvage" bullet !!! "Back to My Roots" as they say - been a LONG time since I had to ressuccitate a "Beater with a Heater" LOL, this is going to be a great little project to kill boredom during the slow season and while waiting for parts on carts in the shop

SO ... After looking through the parts room (more like slashing my way through it like some modern-day gearhead "Dr Livingston"), I came up with a nice white TXT cowl, a set of Marathon rear supports, a late Club Car DS canopy that matches the seats, a nice unused set of 22X11-8 Ocelots, and an ATV Engineering 5" Marathon lift kit, as well as a decent takeoff set of early TXT shift cables. I know I have at least one new carb in the shop *somewhere*, along with all the detail stuff, plugs, air filter, oil filter, etc.

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At this point, I have a side-bet with the "Other Half" as well as my part-timer, I have $200 into the cart so far BUT these two know ME well enough to realize it's likely I will WAAAAY "Overdo" the project, so the bet is that I can't turn it into a $1500 sale using only 10hrs of my own shop time and no new parts other than the old lift kit and tires plus the filters and carb - that puts the total budget at $500 counting the costs of the new parts I'm using and the cart itself (the used parts don't count *but* that caveat includes nuts and bolts, etc - not ONE new part that I have to pull out of inventory or pay for) ... I'm thinking "Game ON" - You guys think I can pull this one off? I already have what we're calling 45min into cleaning, pulling the cowl and top, more cleaning, testing, etc so the worst of the prelim is out of the way ...