project 1980 Austin Princess

[Asimo]

When I removed the Renault 20's front bumper I mounted the number plate in the centre of the grille.

 

Just a thought....

[panhard65]

With the front plate how about making a sort of box to mount in on in the middle. Sort of like the opposite of how the rear is Frenched in. Does that make sense to any one ? It is really looking good now but the rear high level indicators spoil the lines a little I think, but that is just my opinion.

[Inspector Morose]

Nah, they’re a good idea but they need to lose the chrome. Or how about frenching them into the pillars a-la Citroen DS?

 

Anyway, you car, your choices. It’s just nice to see you’ve got your mojo well and truly back with this. I’ve read of your lowest ebbs in the past years but you’ve stuck it out. Its now paying off!

[wuvvum]

Could you not just pretend the plate has fallen off and stand it on top of the dash so it displays through the windscreen?

[Dick Cheeseburger]

Those rear lights look brilliant. Cap doffed.

I’m with Timewaster on the front plate thing. Small offset front plate, which doesn’t dominate the front end.

Well done on sticking with all of it, regardless.

[vulgalour]

All of these suggestions with the number plate have been mocked up and tried, to no avail.  Some look fine in digital mock up, and then just don't translate at all well in meatspace mockup.  The box idea was considered and it looks dreadful in profile, the offset plate just makes the front end look wonky which, honestly, you don't want with a Hydragas car, it just makes you paranoid.  Sticking it up on the grille looks dreadful, I'd show you but I can't find the one example I have of that right now.

 

[vulgalour]

wuvvum:  I did for a bit, when it had, and it looked like the shonkiest thing ever.  Fine when the car was actually pretty shonky (which is why the plate had fallen off) but not so much now.

 

So yeah, anyway, suggestions appreciated on the number plate but not really needed.  I've gone over it a *lot* both on here and offline and I'm happy with where it is now.  Same with the high level indicators, I like them, they look how I want, and we're not doing more welding on the rear end unless it's for rust repair now.  It's as done as it needs to be for the forseeable.

[somewhatfoolish]

Dodgy stick-on plate on the front of the bonnet a-la Paddy Hopkirk and his bloody mini? TBH where you've got the front plate is pretty good, although it might look better with a quasi-dodgy reduced size one like bikers get so the vertical dimension doesn't overhang the scoop area or the grille.

[vulgalour]

In 99% of cases, stick-on plates make a car look like a bad kit car.  In 99% of cases, I hate them.  The Princess is definitely not in the 1%.

[Des]

Best plate position I can see is at the bottom, although it will be vulnerable, but if you hang it from a couple of hinges not so bad, and it will also disappear from view when you're in motion. 

[They_all_do_that_sir]

A shame that sticking it on the grille looked crap, as in my head it could work a la Citroen sm front end....

 

Sent from my TA-1012 using Tapatalk

[vulgalour]

Plate is less vulnerable than you might expect at the bottom, if anything it's useful because I know if anything smashes into the plate it's going to be very bad news for the sump.

[Noel Tidybeard]

just be carefull "touch" parking now with those rocket exhaust sticking out like that

[eddyramrod]

I'm with Joloke here.  Take the comparisons to magazine projects as compliments, because that is exactly what they are.  I feel like I'm reading a more detailed Custom Car from 1977.  Top work, Angyl, really top work.  I hope to see it in the metal when it's done!

 

Front number plate: have you considered a US-size plate hanging from the grill down to the chin, centrally?  I have a picture in my mind that makes the car look wider that way...

[vulgalour]

Don't worry, I'm taking the recent responses very much as compliments rather than criticisms and the references to things like Custom Car is pretty satisfying since that's the main influence behind all this nonsense.  Squarer plates, and US proportioned plates, don't actually make the front end look wider strangely, it just makes it look oddly pinched.  The standard UK plate isn't too terrible.  The ideal is to put an Italian sized plate in the current location since they're extremely tiny and pointless, but I'm pretty sure that's 100% illegal and will get me in trouble.

[vulgalour]

Today Mike helped me fit the rear screen.  It went moderately well.  Arbomast non-setting sealant on the surround then plenty of soap and some strong string in the rubber seal followed by quite a bit of swearing and effort.  Surprisingly the corners went very easily, normally I find non-round corners like these quite difficult.  After that it was a case of massaging the stainless trims as close to perfect as I could before fitting those.  Turns out if you push the big bit of the channel insert in first, you can then work your way around with a screwdriver to ease the small side of the channel over the trim where needed.  It still took far too long and was incredibly frustrating, I can see why they switched to the plastic inserts later in production.  However, I do think the earlier stainless trim looks a world better than the skinny plastic one ever did.  After that the heated rear screen and high level brake were plugged back in and the C pillar interior trims reinstalled.  The glass was given a clean, but nothing else at this point, I just wanted to get home and I can clean the car better at home anyway... which is where it now is!

20181015-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

I did a best guess on the headlights and alignment is better for me but I suspect may be dazzling oncoming traffic a little so I'll reset those properly when I can next park in front of the garage door.  Behaved itself on the handful of miles home, which was a relief after having disturbed quite so much stuff.

20181015-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

20181015-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

 

Happily, we're now down to normal car maintenance and fettling.  Unless it throws something at me, there are no major jobs to do and that's a huge relief.  Probably won't put many miles on now with the roads starting to be salted already and the Rover being easier to live with when it's really cold, so I can happily take things a bit easier now and not worry about getting every single item finished.

[320touring]

That looks fucking Awesome!

 

#BLGalaxie

[Pillock]

Please can someone turn that photo into an animation with the "thrusters" spouting fire and the car shooting into the distance. That looks amazing.

[PhilA]

Highway to the danger zone.

[Rocket88]

Looks great.....ref front end..........just a suggestion....................satin black the lot from the grille downwards, integrate slim led strips as indicators/sidelights...........might find that front numberplate looks better against a dark background.

[vulgalour]

It'd end up looking like a whale shark.

 

[320touring]

Actually, would it take a "Charger grill"?

[PhilA]

That wouldnt look outta place Cruising Roswell!

Regarding the front I think it needs round indicator units but not just off the shelf Lucas jobbies it needs something merican of a similar period to the rears?

Or keep with "4 lights at the back, 4 at the front", bin the spotlights and put the sidelights and indicators on the inner lamps.

 

Less fussy, the back end really suits the clean lines and the front is similarly flat/pinstripe sharp edges.

[mercedade]

All this front-plate chat, and I'm struck by how much better the rear looks with the numberplate attached. It was looking smooth beforehand, but now it looks well-proportioned into the bargain.

 

A nice job.

[vulgalour]

Today I used the Princess instead of the Rover to do all my errands.  I had to spent 2 hours cleaning it first to get it to basic clean standard, it was filthy inside and and out from all the bodywork and wiring work and whatnot that's been done.  I needs another clean yet really, and a polish/wax ideally.  Fun thing with the rear lights is that when I press the brake pedal now people back off like I'm about to explode, so I guess they're fairly visible.  Also, people creep RRIIIIIIGGGHT up to the rear end at lights and you can see them peering and trying to read the badges.  Two fun things too, the indicators randomly stopped working and the car didn't want to start after giving it a wash, a wiggle of the relay got the indicators to wake up and the starting was probably because I'd got a bit too much water under the bonnet when waving the hose around.

 

A good 20 miles or so of stop start performed flawlessly afterwards, so I'm happy.  Rover next now that I've got the new front struts it needs and the Princess to use just in case taking a look at the Rover's rear brakes results in yet more parts buying and the car being off the road for a while.

[Felly Magic]

GR12 on those rear lights, it is getting to how you want the car, which means happy Vulg, it must surely now be just down to final cosmetics & tweaking. Well done sir

[Timewaster]

You must be totally sick of people's opinions by now.......

 

 

I would satin black the section under the indicators but leave the strip under the lights beige and maybe the bottom edge.

Then the sidelight / indicators need to be as glam as those fantastic tail lights.

[richardthestag]

those rear thrusters are GR∞

[vulgalour]

You must be totally sick of people's opinions by now.......

Only insofar as they're repeating stuff I've already gone over several times at this point.

[Fumbler]

I wonder what the other drivers' dissapointment surprise was when they squinted and saw the Leyland Princess 2 badge after going right into your bumper.