project 1980 Austin Princess

[MikeKnight]

1 hour ago, vulgalour said:

As luck would have it, I had the perfect nuts

I am a child.

[somewhatfoolish]

1 hour ago, vulgalour said:

No more maths!

Outsource it; we'll do the maths. How long is your ratchet and what torque do the head fastenings need?

[vulgalour]

Considering how cheap they are, and how useful, I'll just order a new torque wrench.

A frivolity arrived today.  I don't know what it's off originally, all I do know is that it's familiar, I'm guessing I've seen it, or something like it, years ago on an arcade machine or something like that.  Unless there's something under the remains of the foam pad on the back there's no clues as to its actual origin.  My intention was to use this on the Princess somewhere.

Originally I considered putting it on the back.  You'll have to use your imagination to see it without the original badges and with the spoiler.  However, there wasn't any particular spot I liked and even if I moved the boot lock the badge just isn't the right size to work back there.

Tried it on the bonnet where the crown goes on some cars (they deleted the enamelled bonnet crown in '81, my bonnet is a replacement from a later car, though I do still have the original crown and another that may go on the C pillars in the future) and found that actually, it looked pretty good right in the middle of the grille.  Since I'm using tape, I couldn't get the badge to stay exactly where I wanted it, but you get the general idea, imagine it sitting a bit higher than this and fixed so it follows the curved of the grille better.

It's a novelty, at any rate.  If anyone does know where this badge comes from I'd love to know, just for curiosity's sake.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

On 6/10/2020 at 10:19 PM, Jon said:

Pointed here from the grin thread where I first saw you post up the spoiler. I never knew such a thing existed - a Unipart aftermarket spoiler for the Princess! Being Unipart, that's pretty much a factory accessory, isn't it? Unless I'm mistaking the Unipart/BL relationship as the same as Ford/Motorcraft. Either way, this should become a thing.

Can't say I've seen a Princess with a rear louvre over here and they seemed to be a common accessory back in the day in NZ. Happy to keep an eye out, though!

Yes , as you suggest Unipart was part of BL, so this spoiler should be fully homologated for any future events Vulgalour enters .

[vulgalour]

Right then, we're nearly there.  All the tools and parts I need to get the engine back together have now arrived and I had enough time to do some of the work today.  New torque wrench is worth what I paid and not a penny more, it does the job but it's hardly a high quality thing, typical Draper really.  Just belts and timing to go and we can get this running, I hope, possibly even tomorrow.

I did that after the drill work.  Been keeping an eye on the weather and made use of a sunny spell during food break to crack on with fitting the spoiler.  Worked out where I wanted it, marked the holes with the template I made, realised I'd got the template off centre only after drilling the holes, so redrilled the holes in the correct place and fixed the spoiler down.

The inner bolts are easy to get to from inside the boot lid.  The outer ones not so much, I'm going to have to drill the holes made in the bracing somewhat larger so I can get to the bolt and get the nut and washer on, as well as removing the boot struts to do so.  Something of an oversight on Unipart's part there, if the fixings had been a bit further in board on the spoiler I wouldn't have this issue.  Fairly standard It'll Do approach I've come to expect with anything British.

The spoiler is really light, being just a fibreglass shell, so the boot lid isn't noticeably heavier and doesn't droop.  Because of the way the spoiler is shaped, you don't have to touch it to open and shut the boot lid either, so that at least is good.  I'm probably going to paint the spoiler beige, that seems to be more the norm for 80s modified stuff of this type.  Badges will be removed from the boot lid too and when my welder is set up I can plug all the holes I don't want and repaint everything.

With the spoiler now safely out of harm's way since I can't now knock it off onto something by accident, or whatever, I also fitted the new door mirrors.  They're a copy of classic mirrors as fitted to many cars in the 70s with a larger mirror head than the originals.  They are not fantastic quality, plenty of flashing on the edges and I doubt the chrome is going to last very long.  They do look better than the Acty ones that were on there and the mirror heads are a similar size so are as functional so they'll do.  I doubt I'll ever find mirrors I like for this car that look good and function well.

Finally, tried to get a long shot of the spoiler and how it relates to the rest of the car.  It's very cramped on the driveway just at the moment and not something I can solve while both cars are currently immobile.  Hopefully it at least hints at how much better the spoiler shapes actually work and, if painted beige, I think it will blend in nicely enough.

[lexi]

Makes me smile every time I look in that engine bay...............room to work? You could have a dance in there!   

[vulgalour]

Today has been a good day.  Started by fitting the new cambelt and auxiliary belt and rotating the engine by hand several times to be absolutely certain I wasn't going to have another valve incident.  Then set the distributor and hooked up the battery, did lots of checks, and eventually stuck the key in the ignition to see what would happen.

What happened initially was a healthy cranking over and a brief firing before having to try again, there was no fuel in the carburettor, it was taking a little time to bring some up from the tank.  Eventually that was solved and it was then a case of finding the right amount of choke (turns out that was ALL OF IT) to get the car to run, which it did for a bit, and then didn't.  That's fine, it's been about 6 months, grumpiness is expected.  Turned the key and only got a click, no firing.  Poked around in the engine bay, turned the engine by hand again (phew, it's not a valve party), and noticed that I hadn't tightened up the distributor and it was rotated all the way around, reset that and the car fired up, and then died.  Another check and realised I'd forgotten to top up the dashpot on the carburettor, sorted that and the car fired up and ran.  It was hunting a fair bit but the fuel is quite old (for modern fuel) and everything needed to bed in.  Left it idling for a bit and the temperature started to come up quite rapidly.  There was water in the expansion bottle so I assumed, erroneously, there was plenty of water in the engine.  Five litres of water later, no harm done, though getting all the air out of the radiator proved to take rather longer than usual.  With all the air out of the coolant system the temperature dropped to a reasonable half to three quarter on the guage and the hunting mostly settled out.

The longer the car has run today, the more settled its become.  To celebrate, I moved the car back and forth until the rear brakes freed off and I can say that I've now actually driven the car, allbeit for only around a dozen feet.

 

I'm pretty chuffed it's running again.  Here's a terrible video.

 

 

[320touring]

Excellent stuff chief:)

[High Jetter]

Yep, well done Sir! Still not sure about those rear lights though.

[dozeydustman]

???

[vulgalour]

@High Jetter you don't have to like the rear lights, it's not your car :P

[phil_lihp]

Excellent work!

[High Jetter]

7 hours ago, vulgalour said:

@High Jetter you don't have to like the rear lights, it's not your car

I know. Just saying. You'll find me in the BL parts bin, where I belong. With my catalogues but, sadly, no cars. Yet.

[vulgalour]

If you're in the BL parts bin, crack on and make yourself a car.  It'll be just like the real thing!

[bunglebus]

I like the rear lights and other odd bits, it looks like something from the reader's wives cars page of an 80's Street Machine mag

[phil_lihp]

17 hours ago, vulgalour said:

There was water in the expansion bottle so I assumed, erroneously, there was plenty of water in the engine. 

This must be a Princess thing, my 1800 is exactly the same, I only realised once the engine block got hot enough to start burning off the decades of accumulated oil and muck, fortunately it doesn't seem to have done it any harm.

[vulgalour]

Got the tools out again today and cut one of the access holes for the outer bolts on the rear spoiler.

Unfortunately, I couldn't cut the other access hole because the hole saw I've got turned out to be unsuitable for the task.  I guess it must be for wood or something.  I did use oil when cutting to prevent it getting too hot and blunting. Ordered another one that's listed as being for steel so for now the spoiler is held on with three of four bolts.  I need the spoiler fully bolted down before I can do the repair to the damage it suffered in transit, I want the spoiler to be repaired in the shape it will be when fitted rather than doing it off the car and potentially setting it in the wrong shape.

Turned attention to the front end and the sidelights.  I can't fit those yet because I need to modify the headlight bowls a little bit so the tangs on the back of the sidelight bulb holder will clear.  Then I need some fresh connectors and a few tools to reconnect the wiring correctly.  I've ordered some wiring stuff since I don't have any so I can sort this when that all arrives.  Just sat the sidelight holder up in the blue wires here, you can see the circle in the back of the headlight bowl where this pushes into place.

Can't do that, and I can't wire in the new front indicators, but I can fit them.  These are intended for motorbikes, I got the largest I could fit in the available space.  Drilled into the upright that holds the front grille and then simply fixed the indicators in place.  I did have to unbolt and lean the radiator out of the way for the passenger side one as it was a little tight to get it in with the fan motor, the threaded post on the indicators is quite long.

These should be large and bright enough to e seen, while also being far enough away from the headlights to not be obscured.  They sit just nice behind the grille without restricting airflow to the radiator.  Changing the bulbs is easy enough too should I have to since the screw that holds the cover on the bulbs is to the centre of the grille opening.  The grille is open enough that it doesn't obscure the indicator particularly, I can always cut a couple of uprights out to make the light brighter if I feel I need to.  I really like how invisible the indicators become in this location, it should really tidy the front end up a lot.

[vulgalour]

The mojo, it has returned, because today I drove the Princess up and down a nearby private track and did a few emergency stops to wake the brakes up, which seems to have done the trick.  Since the BX is immobilised currently and likely to remain so for another week, I wanted to be able to shunt the Princess about and work on it a little easier, so I swapped them around... and pulled the front bumper off the BX on one side when it rolled off the ramps but shhh that's our little secret and it's all back together now so it's like nothing happened (except for breaking a clip on the indicator shhhh).  Topped the coolant up in the Princess after a bit more air was evacuated, only needed a cup or two really, checked all the lights are operating which they are, though the indicators had a good long think about it before they wanted to join in, and left the car to idle for a while.  I still haven't done the fine tune yet, I'm waiting on a digital tachometer tool to arrive so I actually know what the rpm is.  The car smells like its running a little rich, and it's hunting a little at idle too which is likely down to the tune and the old fuel.  Happily, once you actually drive the car the hunting goes away and its quite responsive.  The other irritation is that it's a bit tappy, this is quietening down the more the car is run so I'm guessing it's just because everything is new and is bedding in, as the car warms up the tappiness does reduce and it's not Talbot levels of engine castanets so I'm not that concerned.

First job after car shunting was to fit the speakers up front.  These are originally rivetted in place, I'm using self-tapping screws because it's what I have.  They're only screwed into metal clips in the door card, the screws don't go into the door frame.  I've only fitted these to cover the holes in the door card, there's no sound system fitted so the speakers are purely decorative at this point.  My camera seems to thin the door cards are dark magenta now too.

With the Princess in a more open space I could get some better pictures of that spoiler so you can see what I can see and why it works best at the bottom of the boot.  I will be painting it beige rather than leaving it black, it should work better that way.

I also dug out the Lotus alloys.  They need refurbishing so I have a lot of sanding in my future.  Best of all the Lotus alloys drop straight on, I've got a full set of the proper original Lotus tapered-sleeve wheel bolts so there's no worries over spigot rings and that sort of thing.  The only real difference on fitment is the offset since the Lotus is rear wheel drive where the Princess is front wheel drive but last time I had them fitted I didn't find I was destroying wheel bearings so I don't reckon it's an issue.

Pretty sure I'm down to just cosmetic work now, of which there's a fair bit.  Other half really wants the car properly resprayed, though was a little horrified when they found out how expensive that is until they learned just how labour intensive it is if you want a nice job.  Ahead of the respray I want the displacers regassed (which I've been saying for years now) and there's a few little bits to address like the rear driver's door that hasn't had the final shaping on the lower trailing corner and the extra holes in the doors from previous mirrors.  No really major jobs remain at least, aside from the paint, so it should be easy enough to chip away and get through it all.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

23 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

.....Other half really wants the car properly resprayed, though was a little horrified when they found out how expensive that is until they learned just how labour intensive it is if you want a nice job. ....

The days of the £2500 respray are long gone.

[spartacus]

Top work! Great to see it running after all the tribulations with the head rebuild.

[bunglebus]

On 6/21/2020 at 8:03 PM, vulgalour said:

These are intended for motorbikes, I got the largest I could fit in the available space.  

I fitted some side repeaters as indicators on my MK1 Fiesta, under the grille. You could see the glow but not the actual lamp.

MOT tester raised his eyebrows but said nothing, I did have to be careful turning right at roundabouts...

[vulgalour]

I've got side-repeaters as well (even though you don't technically need them pre-85) and they're more visible than the stock indicators from the side anyway.  It'll be fine, and if it's not, I can always move them.

[lexi]

Top spannering and perseverance. Lovely brace of cars you have now!

[PhilA]

16 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

I've got side-repeaters as well (even though you don't technically need them pre-85) and they're more visible than the stock indicators from the side anyway.  It'll be fine, and if it's not, I can always move them.

H2 headlight bulbs push-fitted in those very 90's oval Ford side-repeaters are remarkably visible when used as indicators.

 

They also melt if you leave them on for too long. Minor irritating side-effect. What's the limitation on the size for the front behind the grille? The passenger side bracketry?

 

 

--Phil

[vulgalour]

I could get a light that's about four times the size of the one in there at the moment, I just might have to remove the radiator to do it because of the physics of wiggling it and the fixings into the gap.  Not a big deal.  These indicators I bought should be plenty large and bright enough, they're at least as large as the MG units currently fitted.  If they don't work I can get square trailer lights and mount them on an L bracket behind the grille, they'd just be more visible when off and I fancied them being as invisible as possible when off hence the route I've gone.

[PhilA]

Seeing them around from time to time made me think this. '83-'88 Chevy.

[vulgalour]

Right then, tools I have been waiting on have arrived so let's see if we can get the Princess tuned up.  A strobe light and some extra checking of the cambelt showed that all is good in that area.  Which was nice.

I also picked up one of these very cheap digital tachometers on the recommendation of online reviews and.... I'm less thrilled about this.  I mean, I didn't expect a lot but I expected a slightly greater degree of accuracy than it offered.  The book wants the idle on the Princess to be set to 750rpm and I would hazard a guess that it's in the 750-850rpm range compared to the last time it was running and set up before I smashed all the valves.  This little doodad reckons the engine is only doing about 325-350rpm and if I wind the idle screw all the way in I can't get it to go to any more than 485rpm.  My guess is that the tachometer is actually reading 50% of what the actual rpm is and I'm basing that on knowing what this engine sounds like at other rpms at idle, not an exact science, but near enough.  Anyway, if my assumption is correct that means the car is timed about where it should be.  A finer tune with better tools would yield better results, obviously.

Then I noticed there was a bit of moisture at the head gasket seam.  Not too worrying, the car has been run up to temperature a few times now so I was expecting to have to retorque the head bolts.  I retorqued all the head bolts and these areas stayed dry afterwards.  No smell of exhaust in the coolant, no mixing of fluids that I can see so I don't believe this is a problem.

After going through all those checks the hunting isn't there now, which is good, but the car is running incredibly rich.  The last time I had the car running it was running about right, smell-wise, and I hadn't altered anything between then and now, so I'm not sure why it's running rich.  I did try fiddling with the carb settings to lean off the mixture and bring the idle up to compensate but I couldn't get a happy balance at all so just put it back to where I started.  When I say it's running rich, it's putting smoke out of the exhaust that isn't oil.  Applying some throttle clears it but as soon as it goes back to idle it's super rich again.

Technically the car runs, I could use it (once insured and taxed anew), but it's going to go through fuel like its going out of fashion at the moment and that won't do it any good at all.  I'm going to leave it alone for a bit and come back to it later, check all the fluids and settings and whatnot when its cold and see if I can spot anything amiss.  On the positive side, it started up really easily every time I asked it to, so at least there's some sort of reliability there.

 

[PhilA]

Put an innacurately painted but visible blob of Tippex on the pulley. Those little tachometers really need good contrast to work well.

[mitsisigma01]

Does that pulley and belt look out of alignment ?

[vulgalour]

Shall give the pulley blob a go.  As for the belt alignment, that's how it is on this car, always has been too judging by the cleaner wear marks on the components, never caused a problem before so I assume it's normal.