project 1980 Austin Princess

[Stanky]

6 hours ago, vulgalour said:

Credit to Horrido of the blue forum for these two mock-ups which I do really like.

 

I'm going to be doing something close to option 3 on my sample chart, with the longer middle trim at door handle height that option 4 has.  That chrome/stainless detail will run from the front arch to the rear spoiler, over the top of the spoiler, and back to the front arch on the other side.  It will either be done in paint, vinyl, or sticky-backed-stainless strip, the latter being the one I'd like to try the most since I think it will blend in well with the other stainless trim on the car.

As I said on the blue, the Princess is my car that I'm putting together to my taste, such as it is.  That's why I'm not picking Horrido's designs because they're not what I want to do.  There's nothing wrong with the Horrido designs, far from it, I just want to tread a different path.  I would love to go the ultra sleek futuristic look with flush fit lights and glass and digital displays and all that... but this is a daily driver and my pockets are short so I have to be realistic.  I also don't want to make it look any sportier than it is, it's a lazy old slug of a thing and I want the styling to reflect that.  It's a bit gawky, it's a bit weird, and I love that about it.  I don't want to make it appealing and mainstream, that's not why I like it.

10/10, this is going to look stunning in the Nissan Cerise & Peugeot Black combo. I can see the potential even from the bit of front end you've done a little sample on. Please keep going because this will look amazing!

However, I would like to raise an important matter:

6 hours ago, vulgalour said:

I'm the sort of person who unironically likes things like this.

 

I believe you may have unwittingly uncovered a long lost relative of our dear brother @stuboy here? Potentially 'stugrandfather' or 'stu_uncle?

[vulgalour]

I love @stuboy 's approach to modifying.  Does what he wants, all power to him.

[Noel Tidybeard]

this- me likeylot👍

but also seeing this much cerise i can't help but think an all pink lower black top might look ok

Nissan Cerise seems to suit the Princess

[Dan302]

I think any of the 4 designs will look bloody awesome!

[Drumtochty]

Great thread and makes you smile!

[vulgalour]

After six or seven hours and a full bottle of welding gas, I got the inner and outer sill sorted on this side of the Princess.

There's significantly more weld holding this all together than when I took it apart so while it's not yet finished, it's certainly in better shape.  I've been putting this off for ages because it also meant taking both doors off to get access to a couple of spots.  Also means I've dealt with some hidden rot around the rear jacking point that I was totally unaware of because it's only seen when you get the outer sill off, so it was nice to address that.

A larger gas bottle would be nice, these small ones don't last as long as I'd like, trouble is I can't physically carry a bigger one when it's attached to the welder and still don't have a welding trolley so I'll have to stick to the 9 litre ones for now.

Nothing else on the car is as big a job as that sill, welding wise, so I feel like I've got over the hump of that work now.

[CaptainBoom]

On 02/07/2024 at 15:27, Noel Tidybeard said:

this- me likeylot👍

but also seeing this much cerise i can't help but think an all pink lower black top might look ok

Nissan Cerise seems to suit the Princess

I really wish BL had done something like this at the time.  I appreciate that it might have alienated a bit of their traditional customer base, but nonetheless that colour combo would cheer up the very dreariest office car park, on a bleak Winters day, in Swindon.  It's like finding out that staid and respectable 50-something chap who lives next door but one to your Aunty Sue who wears sensible ties teamed with a smartly ironed shirt and good old-fashioned trousers, has a prediliction for extreme hang gliding/white water rafting/dogging and goes on holiday to Ayia Napa (possibly simultaneously).

[SilverMachine]

On 01/07/2024 at 14:37, vulgalour said:

.

 

these both look fantastic, am also wondering what the lotus rims would look like with a touch of colour added, and the moon disks if you keep the polished trim things along the body

 

[vulgalour]

Probably work quite well.  The Lotus alloys are still up for sale.  Plenty of views, no interest thus far.  Probably going to throw those on eBay soon.

[vulgalour]

Dodging the rain today, which was intent on stopping me doing stuff, I both gave the car a wash and used up some of the paint leftovers.  There were two things I wanted to do, the first was the new colour split on the front and that proved that you can't really use a hard line at the arch curve, so we'll be doing a fade there for extra bonus custom car points.

I don't mind the colour split in the Cerise, because it changes colour so much depending on the light, it doesn't have the same heaviness to the nose as the flat pink does so I'm okay with that.  The P6 trims have really grown on me too, I wasn't sure at first but the longer they've been on the car the more right they've looked so I reckon those will get a refurbish.  Wheels definitely want a repaint, I'll have to get my spare set up from Kent so I can get those properly shotblasted and painted rather than a DIY job, so they'll hopefully last longer.

The other paint job was to use up the Peugeot black and a few other cans with dribbles in so the back panel is finally matching rather than that faded burgundy.  Looks hugely better for it.  The spoiler will be going Cerise  when we've got the paint for that to happen.  The spoiler is just the right size to put a cuppa on so it gets to stay for that reason if nothing else. Looks a bit smokey because it's on choke and stone cold and raining.

At the front, I've got to do a little work to the panel that goes under the lights and grille because it's a little bit tweaked from being worked on a few times over the years.  The whole front end will go Cerise because the front end looks clean enough now that I'm pretty sure that will work.  There might be some sort of decorative grille or other element applied at a later date if I find something suitable, for now just going to keep it simple.

The only other significant styling change I'd like to make is some pressed metal serck font number plates, which would be period correct and just another nerdy little thing.  Not yet found anyone making those and they may not be a thing that exists even.  The front plate has picked up a small crack from a stonechip at some point so it's only a matter of time before that needs replacing.

I'm also hoping by adopting a patchwork look while I work through the bodywork flaws people will stop asking me why the paint looks bad, or at least when they do ask I can say 'I'm working on it, be patient' and they'll actually believe me.  Honestly, you'd think shiny paint was the only important thing.

[Noel Tidybeard]

i would imagine if you put the number plate in the obvious place it wouldn't significantly block the flow to the rad brcause it's more or less where it would've been hanging off the bumper

[vulgalour]

Correctomundo.  It sort of has to live were it is, it also helps obscure the sump that hangs under the car, at least face on.  Wish I could run it without a front plate really, it'd look a lot better for it.

[Asimo]

…I’d put the Serck ‘plate on the grill between the headlights.

[vulgalour]

I've done that before.  It looks dreadful and blocks a lot of the radiator.

[Carl1981]

I think a square number plate, offset to one side like a ‘90’s Alfa would look good

[vulgalour]

Maybe, but then I'd want to get a 6 digit plate since 7 digit plates don't look great in square format.  Other problem would be the extra depth, a square plate would nearly touch the floor.

What I really need is an Italian plate.

[Noel Tidybeard]

10 hours ago, vulgalour said:

Correctomundo.  It sort of has to live were it is, it also helps obscure the sump that hangs under the car, at least face on.  Wish I could run it without a front plate really, it'd look a lot better for it.

paint sump matt black?

[vulgalour]

It'll only flake off if I do, besides the road dirt does a good job of dulling it down

 

This weekend I was fiddling about with some minor things for the fun of it.  There's more serious jobs to attend to, and I will do them, I just need to not be under the stress of sorting out this new job, keeping the existing job going, trying to rebuild some sort of social life, saving for a house move..... the list is ever growing.  Anyway, rather than welding and that I got the tat out and had a look at what I actually want to do because with paint coming in the near future I need to make sure I know where trim and stuff is going.

I've had a whole bunch of individual metal letters from various cars - Ford, Triumph, Austin, maybe some others - for an idea I've had for a while.  This weekend I finally found a D to complete the set and am just waiting on that arriving.   The spoiler will be going pink soon which will look better than the matt black it's currently in.  You'll also notice the =?= badge on the boot. I found this on eBay a while ago and have no idea what it's from, it's black plastic with 'chromed' raised portions.  I suspect it's off an old arcade cabinet or something of that sort.  Certainly an appropriate thing for the back of the car since most people have no idea what it is.  Eventually I want to smooth off the boot lock, I've got a remote cable release from a Rover 200 I want to fit, I just haven't had the brain to figure out the latch side of things.

The next thing was to figure out where those letters were going to go.  The car is named, in the style of questionable 70s and 80s customs, and that name is Serendipity.  Reason being whenever something is needed it generally just turns up without me looking.  To reflect that, I wanted the name on the car more visibly than the bottom of the number plates and started collecting individual metal letters a while ago.  I wanted a whole set in different styles and weirdly the one I was having difficulty finding was a D so the project stalled.  I've since found a D from a Zodiac, the other letters are from Ford, Triumph, Austin, and possibly one other manufacturer, I'm not sure.  Anyway, they look the part and I like them on that bit of black at the top of the boot lid.  I tried them in various places and that's the one spot where they looked right.

 

The last minor update was the high level indicators.  These are Austin A30 sidelights originally, and have a domed glass lens which looks quite nice and which I'd used glass paint on the inside to tint amber.  Over time that glass paint had faded and they were nearly white again which meant either repainting them or seeing if an idea I had actually worked.  The front side repeaters on the Princess looked a very similar diameter so I popped a lens in the A30 holder and it's a perfect fit.  Added a rubber o-ring to keep the moisture out, and gave the back of the plastic lens a sand to slim it down a smidge and they're locked in nicely.  As a bonus, they do look visibly more amber and seem to be brighter than the old glass lenses.

The weather is making it very difficult to do anything  at all on the car.  It's so wet so much of the time that I can't do anything on the car.  I'm holding off getting a fresh bottle of welding gas because there simply hasn't been a break in the weather to allow me to get on with these next little bits.  Same goes for some of the minor mechanical jobs I want to attend to.  I have been hunting through my spares and I'm going to attempt to revert the top hose between the thermostat and the radiator back to factory, I've got a spare good waxstat housing.  The trouble is the silicon hose I've used is now sometimes sagging a bit when hot and I think that's affecting the efficiency of the cooling system, many people have pointed out the kinked hose but honestly that's not impeding flow since it's a very large diameter pipe and not squashed flat.

Oil consumption continues too.  I have no idea where the oil is actually going because the leaks it did have are basically all sorted now.  It just goes through a bit of oil all the time.  Every few hundred miles I have to give it a little drink, it's a lot less of a drink since solving the oil leaks as best I can, but it's still more of a drink than I'd like it to have.  Coolant consumption isn't, as far as I can tell, a thing.  Fuel economy is about what it should be.  I'm a little anxious about using it for commuting which I shall soon have to do because even though it hasn't let me down yet I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time.

As always, I want to sink much more time and money into this car than I have access to so we'll just have to keep picking away at what we can and hope it lasts another year.

[Rocket88]

Ever considered getting it wrapped?

[vulgalour]

I did.  Trouble is the bodywork needs as much prep as it would if I were painting it, and where the paint might last the lifetime of the car, a wrap will get maybe ten years.  Cost of paint materials (because a friend is helping, the paint job will be considerably cheaper than usual) is about the same as a wrap of decent standard too.  Doesn't make sense to wrap it when you do the numbers.

[Rocket88]

Fair point 

[vulgalour]

I can't say I wasn't tempted by the rainbow holographic vinyls though...

[Rocket88]

😁😁😁😁

[vulgalour]

Bobbled over to the Humber Bridge car meet last night on a total whim, was a great time, there's a thread here:

Princess behaved herself nicely, was a pleasant drive on fairly nice roads, car seemed a lot happier for the run understandably.  Today's job is going to be greasing and fitting new boots to the lower ball joints up front, the old boots have split and one of the balljoints was a bit squeaky on the way back, hopefully no harm done and not too horrible a job, at least it's stopped raining for a bit.

I'll be curious to see if the Princess pops up in videos and photos anywhere, if you see it then give me a prod over here.  I know there were people recording cars arriving and leaving, and the Princess got a fair bit of attention at the show which mostly seemed to be positive.

I start my new job on Monday so we'll be doing a commute three days a week for that and I've not had to commute for over a decade now so that's going to be a little culture shock for me I think.  Little bit nervous about this new job, it is something I've done before so I should be fine, I'm just out of the mainstream employment loop these days and it feels a bit First Day Of School.  I'm sure I'll settle in just fine, it can't be any more stressful than being self employed and it'll be nice to have someone else to tell me what to do for a change.

[Rocket88]

Been to that show a lot in a variety of old nonsense.. always an eclectic mix…..

[Morris 63]

Nice to see you and the Princess getting out and about. 

Good luck for Monday. 

[vulgalour]

The balljoint job defeated me, I simply don't have the tools (or the energy) to get the lower balljoint to part company with the lower wishbone so I can get the boot on.  Did consider maybe splitting the boot so I could re-glue it  since I think it's only the boot that needs doing and not the whole balljoint but we all know that's going to end up with grease and superglue in all the wrong places so instead I headed over to a local garage that had been recommended to me.  Totally unphased by the Princess at the garage, or the job I want them to do, so that bodes well.  Booked in for Friday and if it's a good experience, I'll get them to do some other jobs I don't want to do.  I've got to reduce the amount of DIY in my life right now, if I'm not careful I'm going to hit burnout with all the plates I've got spinning while I try and keep my life moving in the right direction.

Once I've got next week out of the way I can hopefully look at getting a fresh bottle of welding gas to finish off the sill and a few other bits, maybe throw it back at the garage with some parts for the steering rack boots and the worn out rear axle bush, and just keep plodding away.  Not having another project car is definitely helping and while I have been tempted to pick something more modern up so I can focus on the Princess I know what will actually happen is I pick another car up and it eats all the cash I need to spend on the Princess and nothing gets done on it.  I just have to crack on and use the bus if things go sideways.

[Dan302]

Bugger I'd have popped across the bridge for the meet if I'd known! 

Good luck in the new job 

[vulgalour]

There's always next month, hopefully.

[MorrisItalSLX]