project 1980 Austin Princess

[Station]

Surely only the mounts are different? Do you know how they differ out of interest?

[vulgalour]

It's the sphere itself, the Princess/Ambo sphere is much taller so the shorter MGF and the like won't fit in the bracket and you then can't set it all up properly.  Really, spheres are the only thing that's going to be a real struggle to keep the car going should they break because nobody is making new ones and apparently the Hydragas spheres can't be repaired when they blow like mine probably has unlike the Hydralastic units which can.

[Partridge]

Mondrian...

I was going to say just the same thing. I'm glad I'm mixing with cultured people, here.

[Wilko220]

That beige, orange and black scheme looks very familiar.

Perhaps you could add "AUTOSHITE.com" in big orange letters down the side. You can't be in any doubt that it makes sense...

[Shep Shepherd]

That's pretty nifty. Puts me in mind of "Look Around You 2" for some reason

[phil_lihp]

It does suit the car rather well, it's certainly quite period!

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

I really like the paint job. It looks like a fight to the death between a Smiths stick on heated rear window and a game of Snake on an old Nokia. 

 

I always wanted to custom paint a car but am worried I'll botch it. 

[Angrydicky]

I quite like that as well. At least no one could ever accuse you of following a trend!

[oman5]

So, other half has taken the suspension stuff away to be stripped apart and reconditioned because I'm now out of options on that front so he's going to attack them with bigger tools and fire which I can't do here.  For the price of free, it's the sensible option.

 

Shiters of a nervous disposition should look away now.  This car needs respraying, as I've mentioned many times before, but rather than sinking megacoin into a proper restoration I thought I'd clear up the worst bits of bad paint and apply a fun new colour scheme to satisfy my desire to own something that wouldn't look out of place in Custom Car circa 1980.

 

The car will remain predominantly beige with black bits, but I'll be adding in some bright colours in the new design which will make this the first car I've owned with a proper custom paint job.  So far, I've only got one and a half lines of the boot lid panel done but it gives a hint of things to come.  I guess receiving paint to modify/ruin my car is one of the more unusual birthday gifts I've had over the years, but it's what I wanted.  Roof and C pillars will remain as they are, the new design is limited the bad paint on the sides of the car, the boot lid and the bonnet which will need a fresh coat of beige over the tatty remains of the Oyster metallic currently on there.

 

 

I'm also working on a granny square (it's a crochet thing) blanket for the rear seat to match the bright colours planned for the exterior and have finished about 50 of the estimated 300 little squares I need to make to complete that.

YES!!! Definitely. it suits the car perfectly. are you still putting those lotus wheels on?

[vulgalour]

Yes indeed, the Lotus alloys are going to be going on eventually.  Ideally they need new tyres, a full polish and proper wheel nuts to fit them all of which is money so they're still sat waiting in the wings until more important jobs are done.  Hoping to have them on next year though, not much point running lovely polished alloys through the winter and the salt really.

[HillmanImp]

That does actually look quite good.

 

The only problem is with doing stuff like this, is it stopping a future owner from doing a blowover instead needing a full respray which could prove to be the death knell of a pretty low value classic.

 

If it will need a full proper respray anyway then Bo! You may as well do what you want.

 

Obviously if you do come to sell it 'custom paintwork' means it will be a 'show car' and will instantly be worth £££££££ if Ebay is to be believed.

[barefoot]

Or you could cobble together some photoshop pictures of it at the motor show back in eighty one painted like that and create a provenence that involved a couple of celebrity owners done with a bit more photoshop and create a truly valuable motor car.

[vulgalour]

I got the blue and the green elements of the design down today.  That's Pageant blue and Applejack green so I'm keeping it in the family, but I had to bring the Germans over for the Brilliant orange as our own Vermillion wasn't bright enough and I couldn't get hold of the proper BL shade at a reasonable price.  Was a bit annoyed with myself because it wasn't until I was removing the masking tape that I realised I've masked up part of the blue zone incorrectly so I have to amend that when I get the beige for sorting out the overlaps in the design when I'm done.

 

The plain black line needs the red insert adding and I've one further line to add  to complete the bootlid.  Then it's a case of sorting out which lines go over and which go under, tidying the edges and giving it a coat of lacquer to get a nice flat tidy finish.

 

This is easily the most complicated part of the whole design and probably the most frustrating as it's very, very easy to get the layout wrong when you're doing it piecemeal like I am rather than in one go as I'd prefer to.

 

Biggest problem today was the wind snagging one of the sheets of paper and flipping it onto the fresh paint in the blue zones.  That means I've got some repair work to do very carefully before repainting as there's paper texture in the paint and probably some paper fibres too.  One of the many perils of working outdoors.

 

 

The granny squares now number 60 but I'm running low on wool so I'll be off to raid the bargain basket in the local craft store.  Here's a sample of how that's looking.

[barefoot]

You are a fucking nutter.

 

That is ace.

 

I've seen pictures of you in a hat, any chance of you swapping it for a trilby & taking up a pipe?

[vulgalour]

I also own a trilby and a pipe so... done and done.

[Rocket88]

How very geometric of you..................looks great. Nicely metal flaked roof would go well with that.

[Timewaster]

I like it very much, but I look at the blue and can't help thinking it looks like you tried to do an 80s Austin Rover logo and fucked it up a bit

[vulgalour]

I look at the blue and can't help thinking it looks like you tried to do an 80s Austin Rover logo and fucked it up a bit

 

That's because I did.  Well spotted though.

[Twiggy]

That looks really good - looking forward to seeing the full monty........... when it`s done.

[Partridge]

Am I the only one thinking of the "pipes" screen-savers?

[Wilko220]

Am I the only one thinking of the "pipes" screen-savers?

 

[Alexg]

That looks amazing!

[Bucketeer]

That looks MEGA.

You could be proper sceeeeene and crochet a granny-blanket bonnet bra.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

I am a proper 'originality Nazi' but even I like that.

[barefoot]

I am a proper 'originality Nazi' but even I like that.

 

I agree, it looks so bizarre, it could only be original.

[PhilA]

Yup, it's very reminiscent of a BL "trying to sell the last 100 of them sitting in the back-lot" special-edition.

 

It's wacky enough that it works. Keep going. It's only paint. Rub it off and put some new on afterwards if it doesn't work!

 

 

--Phil

[vulgalour]

Today has been very, very productive.  After a tip off from a friend about a Princess in a yard in Liverpool I managed to get a couple of other Princess owners to provide me with a shopping list and head over to get many parts.  I had this picture to go off and after speaking to the people at Robcliffe's yard in Huyton, found a bit more out about the car.  I deemed it worth the 2 hour journey over providing prices were low enough and parts plentiful.

 
I thought this was a late '81 but it turns out it was actually a '79 but with a few oddities like the early dashboard with round telltales rather than the expected later one with square telltales as per my '80 and my '81 cars.  The photographs I received in addition to the above from the yard were quite flattering and didn't highlight the rot in the floors, doors and wings.  I actually ended up putting my fist (with no effort) through the front wing to remove the bumper bolt because it was that rotten, the Russet brown hid the rot remarkably well.
 
6 hours later of non-stop spannering and I'd managed to strip out almost all of the interior almost single handedly, with assistance removing some of the screws and nuts so the job could go a bit faster.  The front door cards, door seals and C pillar trims were in good order and the colour I wanted so they came out.

 
Very carefully peeled the matching vinyl pillar trims out.  There's some minor damage to them but it's hidden by things like the seatbelt boxes so I'm not worried, I just knew it would bug me if the vinyl trims in the HL didn't match the door cards.  Wiper arms were removed for another Princess owner's shopping list.

 
The carpet looked really, really good.  Until I got it home, I thought the carpet might have been a replacement but it actually looks like it's an exceptionally good quality original.  This will be going in the HL with the tidy but worn carpet in the HL being moved over to the HLS whose carpet is completely shot.  I'm not sure what the boot mat is from, it might be an Ambassador one or from another car completely.  It's big enough to be trimmed down to fit the HLS boot so it looks a little tidier than having none at all.

 

 
The rear seat base was in good order.  Fabric is a bit sun faded but it's no worse than the current brown and it's a much firmer seat.  It did get rained on a lot and there's some surface dirt to clean off.  Unfortunately, the rear seat back couldn't be removed from the car thanks to two completely immovable screws and a lack of suitable power tools and access.  I left it, grudgingly, comforted by the knowledge that the fabric and foam on the top of the seat back had become brittle and powdery.  I always have a cover on the back seat anyway so a mismatch won't show up and I'll put the better seat back in the darker brown I have back in the car when I swap the interiors over.

 
Front seats are in exceptional condition and approaching HLS comfort levels.  The earlier HL seats are made much nicer somehow, with a tighter fit and a better quality feel to the fabric facings.  One seat is very dark because it got absolutely drenched in the downpour as I'd forgotten I'd left it out in the open while I was stripping everything down.

 

 
Boot tool tray lid for another Princess owner and really good grab handles for me.  I also snagged another pair of rear light cluster covers because I suspect they'll come in.

 
Early dash with a nice enough Panasonic radio-cassette player.  I'll be swapping the wooden section and the time clock over from this with the dash in the HL.  Another Princess owner wants the parts of this dash I don't need and they'll take the square telltale dash insert that's currently fitted to the HL.  We both end up with the dash we want this way.

 
This is my favourite thing from the entire haul.  It's dirty at the moment but it feels the right size and so much nicer than the Ambassador wheel I've currently got fitted.  Leather rimmed (probably) and in very good shape.  Really looking forward to getting this fitted.

 
Many, many spare parts.  Miraculously, this car had WORKING bonnet and boot rams so I had to have those.  I don't know why there's a single spark plug in with everything, I have no idea where it came from.  The gaiter with the metal plate is like new while the one on the HL is torn and tired.  It's to prevent exhaust gasses getting in the cabin and since I get the occasional whiff in the HL it made sense to take it and besides, when am I ever going to find another?  Only got 10 wheel nut covers as several snapped on removal, this is something they seem to like to do for fun.

 
Pair of sealed beam lights which are handy as spares, chrome bezels and another pair of plastic headlight trims I don't need but are handy to have.  Pair of side repeaters I also don't really need and some unusual square door courtesy lights which I'd at first dismissed as giffer reflectors until we saw the wiring in the doors.  Yes, I plan to fit these courtesy lights into the HL's front doors.

 
Spare wheel with a brand spanking new, still bristly, Arrowspeed tyre.  My spare is absolutely ruined and I think the rim has a serious corrosion issue causing it to regularly loose air so this was a properly great find.

 
As was this!  The chrome isn't great in places and it's had spotlights or a badge bar fitted at some point.  There's also a bit dent in the front face but most importantly the bumper is actually straight and it should make the front of my car look vastly improved.  This made me nearly as happy as the steering wheel.  I was going to take the rear bumper off the brown car, but it was getting late, I was getting in the way at the yard as it got pretty hectic with deliveries arriving and cars being squashed (it's a small yard) and I kept having to be shunted out of the way of someone or something so I left it.  The rear bumper on the brown car was straight but I reckon the one on my HL is actually slightly better.

 
For other Princess owners there was a request for a steering column shroud.

 
A complete rear view with courtesy light.

 
I ended up accidentally getting a bonus choke cable because at the yard I couldn't figure out how to get it out of the column shroud.  Was quite easy once I'd got home and had a cuppa.

 
Horns for another Princess owner.

 
Early presumably electric rear wing aerial for another Princess owner.

 
 
So there we have it, my massive haul of stuff.  This was a very worthy tip off.  I didn't get enough time to remove the displacers, the front calipers or the entire nose end of the car.  However, I may be getting a friend to collect the nose end for me as where it isn't rotten it's straight and would serve well to to more of the repairs mine needs with minimal fuss.  I got an excellent price on this lot, the seats and vinyl trims were practically free, the carpet a tenner... it was all delightfully no-nonsense.
 
Of note, the yard also currently has a Nissan Bluebird, a very rotten Austin A30/5 and a Mk3 Escort van.  They tend to keep the 20+ year old stuff in for a bit longer to give people the chance to raid them for parts.  However, they really didn't know what to do with the Princess when it came in and nearly squashed it straight away.  I'm really happy they didn't.

[Alexg]

Good haul!

[rml2345]

That's some hoard of parts you got off the brown donor. It's great when a useful but utterly knackered car comes up as you don't feel as guilty stripping it for parts and end up with a useful amount. Particularly when they come up so rarely.  

[oman5]

Excellent job. I love this thread