vulgalour

If it helps, should I find myself with another wedge in the future I would definitely want it to be totally stock. I'd love to get hold of an L with the vinyl interior, or a hearse, or a Princess in one of the not-brown metallics they were available in, or an Ambassador of any flavour... one day, I hope.

Got spotted in the wild a couple of days ago, because it's Facebook I didn't know until someone mentioned it over on the blue. Here's a FB link for those that do:https://www.facebook.com/groups/UKBarnFinds/permalink/2120459284978188/ And the photo for those that don't. Because I'm one that doesn't, I can't see all of the comments. What I could see were at least more positive than usual without so much of the outright rudeness this car normally attracts on Facebook, so that was nice. Building up a nice little collection of spotted-in-the-wild social media posts on this one now, totally oblivious to the joy/rage it induces in others.

I'm still about and you're quite right, I do like that a lot.

If it's not shown signs of distress in the past, judging by how mature it looks, a cold snap likely won't cause it any bother. Once established, Camellias tend to be pretty tough old things. If anything, the frost could improve its tolerance to cold snaps. Keep an eye on any yellow/brown die back and chop it off to prevent disease, other than that you should be able to just leave it be and enjoy the lovely flowers.

This forum, despite the occasional statement to the contrary, definitely is what it always was.

Providing you can get the headliner out (admittedly a lot harder with a saloon than an estate) you should be able to recover it in whatever colour you want providing you can find it. Hard plastics can be dyed if you can't find replacements. I got my supplies from an eBay seller, I just don't remember which one, it was a while ago.

You weren't kidding about the fugly and highlighted some of my fears re: beam pattern. Final set don't look too dreadful, it helps that they're more in keeping with the style of the rest of the car. I'm so behind on project threads (edit: the reading of, that is) lately, house move and such has kicked my free time arse the last few months.

I have been keeping myself busy of an evening knitting myself a nice jumper, as you do. I've only got black acrylic yarn to do this with and I really didn't think too far ahead on this. Looks nice, knits up pretty quickly for a cable knit, has the same vibes as the pattern there all good... except now I've completed the back panel I realise it looks like a tyre. Just call me Bibendum.

Pat's van update for you: Part exchanging it against a new van. His little Fiat Doblo has been a faithful companion for about ten years now but began developing injector issues as his driving changed from long distance to short hops. Injector cleaners variously helped for a bit but it was clear the injectors would need work/replacement. By the time it got to MoT, all the injectors were knackered, the turbo has issues, and the cost to replace them (because this isn't something Pat wanted to DIY, and neither do I, I hate working on diesel engines) exceeded the value of the van. On top of that, in addition to the cracked front antiroll bar, it also needed two new tyres, new antiroll bar bushes, attention to the rear suspension and just a general mechanical sprucing up to get it back into rude health. It had just got to the point where it needed the first big spend and Pat had to weigh up his sentimentality for it and what he needed it for. He needed something ULEZ compliant better suited to short hops and found himself a four year old Ford Connect van with similarly basic spec in much better shape overall, being petrol will suit his needs better too. He's sad to see the old Doblo go, hopefully someone will scoop it up and make use of it either by DIYing the issues and using it, or as a parts donor. Body and interior in it were still in excellent shape and I've never known a van so resistant to rot so I reckon if you wanted a little diesel van with no frills that asks for nothing you could do a lot worse than a 2014 Fiat Doblo. Hopefully the Ford Connect will serve him as well as the Doblo has.

Bulbs don't solve the problem really. I do want to move the sidelights and indicators up into the headlights themselves if I can, LED units can do this, but they're all so fugly, except in the US where you have actual choice but those are all LHD so no good for me. Also, my adblocker/virus scanner does not like the site of the company FD is using so I'm suspicious.

Okay so next headlamp question then, on the assumption the generic LED units being sold as for classic cars and bikes are actually good. All the ones I'm finding online have fancy patterns to the LED bits for sidelight and indicator (I'm okay with that bit) and ugly black 'bowls' for want of a better description. Is anyone doing these aftermarket LED headlamp units with a silver or chrome bowl instead? The black bowls might look okay since the headlights do sit in a strip of black plastic on the front of the Princess, I'd just far rather retain the current look with traditional silver headlight bowls.

And absolutely no improvement since the Capri et al is the same tech and age as what's in the Princess already.

That's exactly how the Princess is. Outers are dipped, outers and inners together is main. Pretty standard practice for all twin headlight set ups.

They need to be pretty short, there's not a lot of space behind the driver's side lights because the battery lives there and I don't want to relocate it. If there's a BMW unit that drops in that isn't too long and an improvement over H4s that would be great, I just don't know which one that would be.

It might be old enough to do that. I just want to be sure the light output is actually properly shaped and spread so I'm not just having ultra bright LEDs that don't actually help with driving. Was on MoT ferrying duty today. Bad news, Pat's van failed its MoT on emissions (bad injectors) and a cracked front antiroll bar which even the garage thought was a very peculiar failure. He's now got to figure out what to do next, repairs are about the same as replacing the van and while he's had it ten years, he's not sure where to go next. He'll figure it out. Princess on the other hand behaved itself, even though Maidstone and surroundings is traffic hell thanks to a new housing development that's going in. Stop-start traffic has highlighted that the Princess can get quite hot, not overheating, but certainly hotter than I'd like. Cools down quickly once on the move again, it's just that thing where you're driving a couple of feet, idling, driving a couple of feet... heater on full and watch the gauge and it was fine. Never actually got to the top of the gauge, a second/better radiator fan might solve it. Speaking of solving things, the ridiculously hot heater issue was solved. I'd had the output set to windscreen and turning the dial wasn't really altering that very much which meant I was getting the full heat right to my face. Over the last few trips I've been wiggling the dial and now it actually operates the blender doors properly, I can direct the heat where it should go and it feels far more normal now I have it on face and feet, which is good! I guess things just got a bit stuck from lack of use. Another problem solved was Pat lent me a hand with the alternator tensioner since the auxilliary belt was particularly obnoxious sounding on the trek to the MoT garage. With both of us on the job we could get enough tension to stop it squealing while still having about a 1/3 twist available on the belt so it shouldn't have so much tension it's causing issues with alternator bearings or whatever.

Sign me the fuck up.

Mechanical pump is the way to go. Might take a little bit longer to prime than an electric but at least they don't tend to just randomly fail for no reason and can be removed for replacement if they do fail without getting petrol absolutely everywhere and then refuse to seal when you install the new one. Also don't have to put up with the duggadugga vibrating through everything that you get with most electric in line pumps.

A big car and some small cars.

Bike headlights are no good for car application, they don't have the correct kick up to the beam pattern as I understand it (not that it stops people using them anyway) and most bike headlights are the wrong size anyway. If I fit auxilliary lights, LED bar or otherwise, I was just going to wire a separate switch in so I could manually turn them on and off. That just feels like the most sensible solution rather than having anything complicated. Paint plans are nothing secret, been talking to a friend who is keen to help me get the paint actually nice, it's all a case of finding time and resources for materials etc. I am not wealthy and now I'm going back into rented accomodation after a few years of being in an owned house, I'm going to be even less wealthy. Not really looking forward to having a lot less fun money, this year is going to be all about circling the financial wagons. It's also a big part of the reason I didn't buy a replacement to the Maestro, I literally can't afford to, Maestro sale money has all already been spend on house move expenses.

Generally speaking, if it's single round headlights then it's 7", if it's twin rounds (like the Princess) it's 5 3/4". American market has a lot more options since they used standard sealed beam sizes like this for ages, unfortunately we modernised too soon. Doubt Ian would be interested in driving the Princess now, he's already done a test on a Princess and an Ambassador. Besides, I want to get it painted and properly sorted before anyone tests it. There's always other folks out there like JayEmm, I Drive a Classic, Morsels and Motors... and so many more. Something for the future. Don't you need to make sure you've got a levelling system in place for HIDs? I was actually thinking of a variation on Zel's suggestion and maybe fitting a small LED light bar under the front number plate since there's brackets I can use there. It'd be subtle and give me just a driving light assist which might be enough for some better spread and distance.

Dollywobbler has actually driven this Princess, the reason it never made it to video was the car was being a tart and it was dark. On the drive home that day the tensioner pulley began screeching and the headlights randomly stopped working... it was one of those days. As for the Rover, that was sold to my brother who needed a car and so I could buy the 1.7 BX from Dean. Unfortunately the Rover lunched its gearbox and my brother opted to scrap it. A shame, since it was a very solid car with more good points than bad but it wasn't my car at that point so it wasn't my call to make. Had the BX not come up for sale I might still have the Rover and it might have got the gearbox it needed. Big problem for me with the Rover is that it was just a bit too good at being An Car, it didn't really hold my attention like other cars I've had. The Rover's downfall with me was that it was too good I suppose, I like a car with a bit of... character.

Today marks 12 years of owning this car. We've been through a lot together. Other cars have come and gone, relationships the same, house moves, all the patchwork of life. The Princess has endured. Mechanically and electrically in far better shape than it was when I got it, structurally more sound too. Cosmetically... we're getting there. There's considerably less filler and rust in it now at least.

Yesterday I began getting calls from unknown mobile numbers. Today it's started with an unknown London number. I wonder how long it'll persist before they give up. I don't answer unknown numbers, as a rule, because of scam callers. If I answer an unknown number I don't say anything, this usually results in them immediately hanging up, presumably because they think they've connected to an automated system or another scammer. I've searched the numbers online and nothing specific is coming up beyond the London number doing nuisance calls from the start of this February, the mobile numbers don't bring anything up so are probably burner phones. Best thing to do is nothing really. Your data is always being traded for other people to make money off without your permission, that's the modern world, so someone somewhere has sold a list of phone numbers with mine on it, and someone else has bought it to try and sell stuff or scam people or both. If you engage, answer the phone, get angry with them, etc. then you demonstrate there's a person there that could be taken advantage of so it's best to say nothing and ignore them. Save yourself the stress too, no point getting angry at strangers. What is interesting about it this time is it's my old phone which I haven't been using to sign up to any new things for a while now. If I were going to get spam calls I would have expected them on my new phone since that's all internet connected and infected with Google and all that. Only a matter of time I suppose.

Possibly. At the moment the grille space is taken up with a pair of indicators I've not plugged in yet. Been holding off until I can blank off the MG B units which requires welding and faff. Sidelights were going to move up into the headlight bowls too, there is provision for that because that's the kit I bought and I have the parts, just didn't do it that way when I changed the front end. There might just be space for some very small LED spotlights, but even without the indicators it would definitely be tight if I wanted to keep them hidden. Let's not even get into the fact I want to do hideaway headlights on the Princess to give it that budget Charger front end we all know it should have.

I want more of a light output boost than that really, I don't think even the healthiest wiring and H4s are going to actually compete with modern lighting. I could fit LED spotlights, some are effective and not too ugly, just tricky actually fitting them to the front of the car now it has no bumper.