project 1980 Austin Princess

[Ian Nexus]

They call them support lifts here :-

 

http://www.autozone.com/autozone/accessories/Tools-Garage-and-Equipment/Support-Lift/_/N-26n6

[whitevanman]

I must say, if I catch you stroking my beard I will be a bit worried how your hand reaches a couple of hundred miles......

[vulgalour]

Today I did a bit more on the Princess, I feel she deserves it after returning an average of 37mpg on the last £30 I put in the tank. Not only that, it's needed so that I can get to job interviews safely. When I trundled out for my interview yesterday I heard something go *ka-donk!* against the front of the car and was annoyed to find, when I hopped out, that I'd managed to stand up the bit of concrete that broke off the bottom of the drive (and is very heavy, which is why I haven't moved it).


I did not get away Scot free with it either, so now both my front wings have battle scars. It looks better in the pictures, it's going to be a bugger of a thing to fix properly.




Worst of all, it's managed to make a mess of the arch trim which is made of unobtanium and was, until now, pretty much okay.


Ah well. So, on to the major job of the day which is the boot. It's another bit of the car that's been scruffy since I got her, but because of reasons I hadn't got around to a proper deep clean of it. First up was to remove the old carpet/matt thing which sheds everywhere and is falling apart. I'm keeping it safe in the house so I can get a new carpet made up to the correct shape when I get the cabin carpets done, I'm also hoping to get the rest of the boot trimmed out in carpet to match.


Found another nick-nack when I cleared the boot out. I'm not sure if the car, or just the people in the car have been to Ibiza, but it must have been some time ago. Pictured with the bonnet mascot for scale.


So, everything out of the boot I could give it all a vacuum to get the worst bits out. In the back corners there's a bit of surface rust which I'll go into detail about in a bit.


After a good dose of Cillit Bang to get rid of the grease, dust and other ground in muck, the main floor came up okay. It all got wiped over with plain water afterwards to get rid of any of the Cillit Bang that might be left so the (admittedly poor) paint wouldn't get unduly damaged.


The sides got the same treatment. The spare wheel well appears to have been repaired before and there was a slimy grease on top of the thick black paint that was a pain to remove and could do with a bit more attention yet. Also managed to partially clear out the drain hole enough for water to escape.


I need to fettle it a bit more to really get it spotless, but it's a lot better than it was. There's the odd bit of rust and glue staining and a few paint dribbles, but mostly it's just in need of some fresh trim panels.


There's some bubbling on this corner at the back. This side it seems to be little more than surface crust and I'll tackle it another day when I can be bothered (it has been a long day today). The underlying metal seems okay, but I am expecting some holing, I just hope that this isn't a structural area. I can't see what it covers, and from underneath there's no sign of a captive bolt or similar that I need to worry about so with a bit of luck it will just be boot floor.


This bit could do with more work and I need to find or make some light cluster covers to protect them from getting bashed, especially when the spare wheel is put in or taken out of the boot.


Here we are with this side all tidied up and clean. I had to scrub the spare wheel because, typically, the wheel I wanted to put in the car would be the one with ground-in dog poo on the tyre. This is one of the ancient Kingpins that I've not been able to afford to replace yet and is to be used only in absolute emergency, mainly because it makes a squeaking noise and the rubber is cracking all over. Not good. I've not yet experienced driving through a tyre blowout and I don't particularly want to.


Other side of the boot before I set to work. The plastic cover goes over the fuel pipe and really helps smarten things up well.


I had to remove said cover as it had overspray and dirt ingrained on it. Gave it a jolly good scrub. I need to have another crack at it to get the last bits of paint off, but most of the time this is invisible unless for some reason you're curled up in the boot. After I'd scrubbed it with an old green scourer - quite useful for removing paint from plastic without damaging the plastic, unlike a new green scourer which can be too harsh - and soapy water I gave it a wipe over with some Autoglym Rubber & Vinyl to freshen up the appearance of the plastic.




As on the other side, this area has some corrosion. The difference is that this area has got a split in the metal so it's worse. Again, I can't see anything structural that attaches to it and the only interruption to the area is that wire which, I think, goes to the old in tank fuel pump (could be wrong). This area does need welding, I'm hoping it will either not fail the MoT or can be done before it if I have some cash before the 15th of September. As far as I can tell, it's outside of the prescribed area for suspension components and with there being no rear seat belts there's no prescribed area to worry about for that either.


Presumably because this side doesn't have the spare wheel, it was cleaner and easier to get up to scratch.


I didn't go overboard with the bit behind the plastic trim here, there didn't seem to be too much point.


All done! Looks much better and smells nice and fresh. I very quickly made it look worse by putting Stuff back in, like my bonnet cane and emergency jack.


The other job today was to get that Kingpin off. Bank of Mum and Dad offered me a short term loan with favourable rates so I could go and get tyres organised. This old Kingpin really is shot, it shouldn't be anywhere near my car or the road! Had I been stopped by the Police I'm pretty sure it would have been fines and points ahoy.


We went to a tyre place in Mansfield (I've forgotten the name) in Dad's Carina. We didn't put the Kingpin in the car, instead we took the tyre that's fairly new but only holds 3psi. The place took the tyre off, sanded the rusty rim (cause of the leak) and put a new valve in for me for £15.


Brother pointed out that this tyre is directional, so it's on the correct side of the car. I'm hoping it won't leak again so I'll be checking on it tomorrow to see what happens. None of my tyres match; three part worns and one nearly new, all with good tread with that antediluvian Kingpin in the boot. Eventually, I want to replace all five tyres with good new ones or at the very least matching part worns, but it's all money I don't have right now.


Gave all the tyres a scrub to get the mud off and trundled the car back into the garage for the day. I should have given her a wash but I was not in the mood and she's clean enough for now. Might wash her properly tomorrow and valet the interior, we shall see.

[Spiny Norman]

Excellent work, I love seeing old motors being given a really good bottoming and seeing just how shiny they can look after all those years of grime have been washed away.

Definitely one of the best threads on the forum right now, keep it up.

[stuboy]

keeping on with ur hard work

[vulgalour]

Woohoo, more Princess updating!

On my way home Friday night I got a bottle of Redex from the local Autosupplies place (where I still get trade discount), I wish I had my camera with me because I parked next to a GMC or Chevy Mystery Machine which sounded pretty awesome when it rumbled away. I was going to get some Wellseal for the rocker cover, but they hadn't got any in stock and I didn't have a massive amount of funds on me so it can wait for now. As a little aside, I'm not good with wasps, but like spiders. I was delighted to find this aborted wasp nest, courtesy of my resident garage spiders


Back to car things... because of the way the carb is designed, we had to use a squirty bottle to get the Redex into the carb rather than pouring it in from the bottle. I've not used Redex before, but my brother has so he was in charge of the red stuff so I didn't waste any by being a noob.


At first, not much was happening, but as we put more in the smoke started to appear.


Eventually, we had some lovely thick black clouds of smoke combining with the bluish stuff and everything stank of Redex and whatever it had cleaned out of the engine.


About half a bottle went in the carb out of necessity, the rest being put into the petrol tank. The difference in pick-up afterwards was noticeable and the running on seems to have gone away, time and use will tell on that particular score. That was going to be it for today, I hadn't planned to get stuck in on anything until tomorrow really, but my brother looked around and saw that he could improve my cooling and set about dismantling the front of the car and hoiking the radiator out. More signs of bodgery were evident with the overspray on the radiator.


The noise I'd been hearing from the fan might not have been the bearings, when we removed it we got a better look at the blades. Either the shroud has become misshapen or something odd is going on here because there's a big gap one side and no gap the other and it's clearly been like this for a while. Looking at illustrations in the book, it looks like this is the original fan too, small and feeble though it is.






From left to right, I have a Rover K series fan, a Lexus LS400 fan and now the original Princess fan.


After checking measurements for which would fit best we went with the Rover item which is nearly new and known to be good. Some brackets had to be fabricated to hold the new fan in its housing on the Princess radiator. Eventually, I hope to get these brackets remade neatly in stainless steel or similar. We also had to notch the plastic shroud to make the bolt holes line up, but that was a quick job.


Once fitted, the overhang was to the bottom of the radiator so it didn't foul the bonnet.


One of the original hose clips was a bit worn out, so the only expense for this job turned out to be a shiny new jubilee clip.


Before final fit, the wiring was checked and the fan checked. Once happy all was present and correct, the radiator with new fan was dropped back in, wired up properly and the car fired up. Happily, the fan kicked in as normal and went off again when the engine was cooled, much faster than the original could manage. The gap between engine and radiator is now filled with fan and cooling is much improved. Best of all, it doesn't look bodgey and will look even smarter when new brackets are fabricated and I've finished updating and tidying the engine bay.




After having done this job, it does remind me that I'd like to find a way to fit the distributor in a different place, ideally on the end of the block above the gearbox where there's all that lovely space. I need to do some research to find out if this is at all feasible as I imagine it would improve damp starts as the distributor would no longer be in the way of the moisture. We shall see.

[Skizzer]

Fine work as always!

[Skizzer]

Fine work as always!

[Spiny Norman]

I know it's considered a bit 'snake-oil' these days, on moderns anyway, but a good shot of Redex through the carb (and down the plug holes too if you've got a set of old plugs to use for a day afterwards) can have amazing effects on an old engine.

SUs are a bloody nuisance to do though, you reached the same conclusion as I did last time I used the stuff!

[Spiny Norman]

I know it's considered a bit 'snake-oil' these days, on moderns anyway, but a good shot of Redex through the carb (and down the plug holes too if you've got a set of old plugs to use for a day afterwards) can have amazing effects on an old engine.

SUs are a bloody nuisance to do though, you reached the same conclusion as I did last time I used the stuff!

[PhilA]

That fan's a good fit. The shroud should help a little too, so long as it's up against the rad close enough.

 

Definite improvement. Maybe it can prevent the OMG HGF on this engine.

[PhilA]

That fan's a good fit. The shroud should help a little too, so long as it's up against the rad close enough.

 

Definite improvement. Maybe it can prevent the OMG HGF on this engine.

[vulgalour]

The difference in performance was noticable enough that when I set off on the drive to put the car into the garage, I nearly put the car INTO the garage. I'll know better when she's been on a run which I might do tomorrow if I have stuff to do. The fan fits nice and snug to the rad, with only the thickness of the brackets separating it. We noticed it brings the temperature down by being on for a matter of moments, rather than minutes, so I'd say it'll be better for those situations when I'm stuck in traffic watching the needle on the gauge rise.

[vulgalour]

The difference in performance was noticable enough that when I set off on the drive to put the car into the garage, I nearly put the car INTO the garage. I'll know better when she's been on a run which I might do tomorrow if I have stuff to do. The fan fits nice and snug to the rad, with only the thickness of the brackets separating it. We noticed it brings the temperature down by being on for a matter of moments, rather than minutes, so I'd say it'll be better for those situations when I'm stuck in traffic watching the needle on the gauge rise.

[MikeKnight]

Maybe it can prevent the OMG HGF on this engine.

 

But it's a Rover fan.. so it may actually increase it.

[MikeKnight]

Maybe it can prevent the OMG HGF on this engine.

 

But it's a Rover fan.. so it may actually increase it.

[phil_lihp]

Good work as always, I'm always impressed with the amount of care and effort you put into this car and the Polo, gives hope for the rest of us

[phil_lihp]

Good work as always, I'm always impressed with the amount of care and effort you put into this car and the Polo, gives hope for the rest of us

[eddyramrod]

^^WHS Keep it up!

[eddyramrod]

^^WHS Keep it up!

[atomic punk]

Great car - just read the whole lot through, its amazing what can be done with nothing but hard work

 

The giff across the road had an identical V reg one in brown - it was an absolute minter, and he only gave it up cos it was too big for him, I wanted it but could not have it as I was only 13, I saw it 6 months later at Horndean raceway

 

Was thinking of doing the same rad mod for my XR3 at some point

[atomic punk]

Great car - just read the whole lot through, its amazing what can be done with nothing but hard work

 

The giff across the road had an identical V reg one in brown - it was an absolute minter, and he only gave it up cos it was too big for him, I wanted it but could not have it as I was only 13, I saw it 6 months later at Horndean raceway

 

Was thinking of doing the same rad mod for my XR3 at some point

[Micrashed]

 

Carry on film style music

[Micrashed]

 

Carry on film style music

[vulgalour]

I've been trying to find that advert for a while with no luck. Always good to know what a car cost when new, in this case probably around the £4,000 mark.

[vulgalour]

I've been trying to find that advert for a while with no luck. Always good to know what a car cost when new, in this case probably around the £4,000 mark.

[vulgalour]

It's nice when I have little to report on the Princess, it means things are running well. I've got some electric front windows and a new (to me) light cluster on their way to me to resolve a couple of issues. In addition to that, in preparation for the Retro Night run by Motornutz I thought I'd try and resolve that oil leak I've had for a while. Turns out the cause wasn't the rocker cover (hooray!) but was a tiny bit of the spacer-gasket on the new fuel pump so I removed it, resealed it with red hylomar and off we went.

Unfortunately, a bit further down the road I was pouring oil and smoke out of the same place but worse than ever so I had to wait for Mike and my brother to catch up with the Triumph because they had the hylomar and tools I needed to resolve things. Fast bodge of applying a good blob of hylomar and the leak was stopped enough to get me to the show and back without drama. It gave me an opportunity to take some truly depressing pictures by the closed down Coalite plant while I was at it, waiting for rescue.









Happily, today I removed the pump, applied new paper gaskets, more hylomar and the leak is now resolved completely and I'm burning no oil at all. Fingers crossed this holds properly. The fault lay with the sealant I'd used before not being up to the task and being broken down over time by the combination of oil and heat, which is a problem I shouldn't have with the hylomar.

Had a word with the guys at Autosupplies who also do paint mixing and found out that yes, I can get metallic beige paint if I really want to. Also got them to have a look at the paint that keeps blistering up on the rear passenger door and was given the verdict that it looks like the paint has 'solvent pop' which is caused when paint is applied too thickly and too fast. The rest of the paint doesn't seem to suffer from this apart from a spot on the front wing on the same side, but it looks like in the short term I need to strip the paint back as far as possible and then put fresh top coat on until I've saved up for a respray.

At the moment, I'm thinking I'll either go with a metallic beige (proper Champagne Beige that way) or the Leyland metallic green that I like on the Princess. I've also considered purple... I'm not sure yet, but I think that I'm likely going to go for a respray next year and just do my best to look after the bad paint on the car to keep the rust bugs at bay.

[whitevanman]

I think the green was called Snapdragon, but I could be wrong due to age and senility....

[406V6]

Looks great in its current beige

[cheguava]

I think the green was called Snapdragon, but I could be wrong due to age and senility....

 

Snapdragon was bright yellow - think my mum had an all aggro in that colour.