Jump to content

1980 Austin Princess


vulgalour

Recommended Posts

Today it is time to get the dashboard together and in the car.  Three coats of satin varnish got the veneer looking just how I wanted.  I could have gone the usual restoration route and applied heavy lacquer or had a go at French polishing but that felt wrong in this instance.  Besides, gloss varnish on dashboards creates glare and the Princess dials are bad enough for that.  So, with the last coat of varnish on and cured, I refitted all the trim items.  I considered removing the silver I'd added to the black plastic trims, but when seen against the new wood it actually worked really well, so I left them as is.

 

43743874121_099d6ae9da_b.jpg20180730-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The only item that now bothers me is the cigar lighter, I'd like to get something a bit more elegant, something in solid plastic with an indented smoking logo would be ideal.  On the back of the blanking plate I fitted some tiny, very strong, magnets.  These serve to stick the blanking plate against the metal brackets.  I may have to redo this though as one side seems to stick better than the other so it might drop out when I'm driving, we'll see what happens.  I'm saving the full modification of this plate into a door for when I've got the hardware to do it.

43027348494_9339226691_b.jpg20180730-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

After fighting with the dashboard's four million components to get it back into one unit and then a couple of bulbs that didn't want to play ball, I eventually got the dashboard reinstated and tested.  On using the blower controls I was covered in tree seeds.  I have no idea where these were hiding, I thought I'd flushed them all out!  There's no vents on the back of the dashboard piece I removed so they weren't hiding in there.

43027348414_c8c735d64b_b.jpg20180730-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

fffffffff.  That's INSIDE the clock!

43743873871_217dcfe088_b.jpg20180730-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Fitted my spare steering wheel which has better leather than the one that was fitted, but needs restitching on the bottom seam.  Also fitted the best of my two crash pads.  I'm actually genuinely delighted with the way the dashboard now looks.  It doesn't look like I've done anything, which is exactly what I wanted.

43027348244_00bceab03d_b.jpg20180730-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

41934720120_6c1db25352_b.jpg20180730-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

43027348054_b88a649243_b.jpg20180730-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

That's the interior finished now really, with the exception of cleaning since there's dust everywhere in there at the moment.  It feels very right at the moment, I feel like I can enjoy this now without wanting to twiddle with stuff.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Very nicely done.  How do you know that they are tree seeds?  Depending on your temperament, the clock seed could be irritating.  My 'modern' has not got seeded dials but has a slightly crooked dealer's sticker on the rear screen.  Every time I look in the rear view mirror its crookedness distracts me.  Could make an interesting insurance claim if I bump someone :-D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Zel: DIY!

 

It's actually surprisingly easy to do the veneer.  I bought a paper-backed offcut from eBay because I only needed a tiny amount and it was still twice as much as I wanted.  £16 for the veneer, about £3 for the glue, another £2 or so for the foam roller and the satin varnish I already had for the skip-rescue sideboard (which is coming along very nicely between other jobs).  The only nuisance really is the time it takes while you're waiting for glue and varnish to dry.

 

Ray:  It's from the silver birches in our front garden, the seeds from them are EVERYWHERE and the Princess spent some time parked underneath them.  Mike even took to fitting additional mesh to the 75 to stop the seeds getting into his vents.  I'm just going to put up with the errant seed because to get it out I have to dismantle the entire dashboard to get to it.  After a few bumps it should fall off... I hope.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Like the bloody needles from the Canadian Pine out the front of our place. They get into EVERYTHING!

 

Most recent annoyance from them is the discovery that the darned things have figured out a way into the roof lights in the van. They get under the bottom lip, then as soon as I start driving the airflow hope them over - so every time I take it out there's a half dozen or so sitting on the fly screen when I stop.

 

They're a bloody nuisance. Finding them everywhere under the bonnet every time I open it is always a worry...I know full well they burn well.

 

If nothing else if one does catch fire I'll have to aim it so it takes the bloody tree with it!

 

C'mon, dash photo with as much lit up as possible please!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Outstanding Vulg. All you need to do now is refit the bumpers, paint it beige and you're back where you started!  :-D

NEVAR!  In all seriousness, I actually liked the purple when it was on there but I do like where I am with things now, feels more resolved and it's less work than trying to colour code everything to go the purple route, which is a bonus.  If it wasn't for the serendipitous orange carpet redye, we'd still be going the purple route on this one.  Just wish I had the time/money to get the Lotus alloys refurbished and shod with nice tyres, I really want them back on the car.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Here are the sodding equivalent I have to the seeds your tree drops.

 

post-21985-0-16816600-1533077460_thumb.jpg

 

That's been parked there a couple of hours.

 

Precisely how the damn things get in here I'm still not 100% certain.

 

post-21985-0-10426900-1533077551_thumb.jpg

 

However *every* time I drive the van more than about ten feet another few appear on top of the fly screen.

 

There should be rules against putting greenery right by driveways!

 

...If I find those pine needles in the speedometer or something daft tomorrow, I blame you for giving the tree ideas.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Today I am dealing with the water leak.  This is caused by the terrible pot metal the thermostat housing are made from just dissolving away until no seal can be made.  This is after I'd sanded the top flat of corrosion to see if there was enough material to create a seal, there wasn't.

29917923118_5716f8dac6_b.jpg20180801-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

On this one, someone has hacked at it to get the waxstat out in the past, they have a habit of seizing in place and can be a real nuisance to shift.  So there's a fair bit of damage to correct here.

29917923628_76163b49cd_b.jpg20180801-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

With the various surfaces cleaned back with the soft wire wheel in the Dremel, everything was ready for trying out the ultra stinky (it really does smell bad, and the smell is unique) JB Waterweld I'd ordered online.  I've used other leak sealant putties before and they didn't really work that well after a few heat cycles, just didn't want to bond with the metal of the housing for some reason.

29917923528_4409ab0751_b.jpg20180801-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

It's a two-part epoxy deal so you chop a bit off, knead it until uniform, and wonder how anything can smell so bad.  You then have to work fairly quickly with it as you don't get a lot of time before it starts to cure, and then leave it for an hour before you can sand it to shape.

29917923428_a684e933fd_b.jpg20180801-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

It sands really nicely.  Annoyingly, two big pieces just dropped of as I was sanding.

28851822487_8c259378fe_b.jpg20180801-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

There was more sealing surface available than previously so I tried the cap on anyway to see what would happen.  Predictably, it still leaked, just from a different location now.

29917923368_a83129b9ab_b.jpg20180801-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

On with another round of putty.  Much better this time, though it was still having trouble bonding in one spot for some reason.

29917922978_699a2b86a4_b.jpg20180801-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

... aaaand still leaking.  From a different point this time and much less so I had a bit of a think...

29917923248_23ba4d5457_b.jpg20180801-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

... removed the cap and reseated it, ensuring both surfaces were clean and dry.  Leaking from a different place now.

29917923158_a446e65d16_b.jpg20180801-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Final attempt I squished the cap tabs down a bit to increase the clamping force.  That sorted it.  No more leaks.

43071584944_5b525f9366_b.jpg20180801-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

An original housing has been sourced through the club (thank you, Beiderbecke) which I'll be fitting to my original cylinder head with the knackered housing stuck in it and I'll then swap back to the original cylinder head for the car since that's the only thing wrong with it.  That will also do away with the secondary oil filler cap that we had to seal shut.  Doing the cylinder head on these is an absolute doddle, it's going to be more work to replace the thermostat housing than it is to swap the head.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

 

Still find the switch blank with the brake warning light in these really amusing.

 

 

 

If you know a better use for that space I'm sure British Leyland would welcome your input, might even reward you with a keyring and some brochures.

That dash is a veneereal wonder, the warning lights that look orange in the pics do introduce the carpet hue into the eyeline rather well, I wonder if some more highlighting across the dash might raise some orange grandeur befitting a Princess, not so much hosting an apprentice boys march effect but something like a subtle coachline on the glovebox lid and or doorcards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Update time again.  Yesterday was a little North Shields chippy run and while the Princess made it there and back without drama, having someone new to the car behind the wheel highlighted some issues that needed attending.  A hesitation and occasional misfire turned out to be a loose HT lead (a different one to last time) and pushing that home resolved that.  The irritating noise that I had put down to the speedo cable (and which still might be that in part) got much louder on the drive over to the point that going over 60mph was horrendous to listen to.  The timing belt tensioner pulley at fault here, which is NLA.  The other issue was the headlight aim which was on the low side at MoT but it looks like they've dropped even lower, so I need to raise that up a bit so I can see where I'm going better at night.

 

Fortunately, I keep all sorts of rusty old rubbish and recently organised it all so I could dig out a spare set of headlight brackets in case I need to salvage the adjusters to replace any that might break when trying to adjust the headlights (a job for later when it's a bit darker), and I had a spare tensioner pulley.  The spare pulley doesn't look great, but spinning it and comparing it to spinning the one on the car revealed that it was at least a bit better.  The one on the car has a very slight wobble to it as you spin it, which is probably where the noise is coming from.  Removal is fiddly, but easy, requiring use of a 13mm spanner on two nuts.  You don't have to remove the belts to do this, you just have to be a bit patient with approach angles until the nut is finger tight.

 

29060690277_1ebb4846ed_b.jpg20180812-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

The pulley looks worse than the one that came off because of surface corrosion.  A test drive on my usual route revealed that while this pulley isn't completely silent, it is an awful lot quieter than the one that came off.  It saves me spending £30 on a potential replacement in the form of a Ford Sierra pulley that does look remarkably similar and which, I'm told, is a reasonably good fit once spaced with a couple of washers.

FT1046.jpg

 

I'll get one when I know I need it, for now the one on the car is adequate and not about to explode.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Maybe they were off to Halfords to get a new wiper?  I was just heading over there for some satin black paint for my wiper arms.  It is a shame my lights are wrong and I've put a blue* door on the car.  I'll have to scrap it now.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...