project 1980 Austin Princess

[vulgalour]

It's alive!  The Sherpa mechanical pump was just the ticket and it doesn't appear to be weeping any oil from the mating surfaces.

Now I can finish the other rear brake, bleed the whole system, and probably give the car a really thorough clean which it's well overdue for.

[High Jetter]

Welcome back, mojo!

[vulgalour]

The Princess is set to become my only car again (the Lanchester doesn't count, it's a special case) and I'm okay with this.  It's mostly sorted and while it still has problems none of them are insurmountable.  I'm going through a period of rationalisation with cars and life in general to try and get things under control again.  There's some big changes been happening behind the scenes and coming up in the near future and I need to streamline everything a lot more.  Most of all, I've got to pick which projects actually matter and get some of them finished, give myself some breathing room so I'm not constantly working.

Some of you will be muttering variations of "I could have told you that." and yeah... well... you're not wrong.

I'm a chronic workaholic, always have been, and I'm sure there's some deep seated social and psychological reasons for it.  Anyway, what this means is I take too much on all the damned time and by the time I realise what I've done I'm totally overwhelmed.  This year I've been making a concerted effort to say no to new projects, to actually finish stuff I've got waiting and... it's working.  I'm actually getting through stuff and it's a very strange sensation.  I'm not even replacing completed projects with new ones, I'm just picking up the next thing that's been waiting to be done.

This is why there hasn't been the progress I would have liked on the Princess since the last update as I've been focused entirely on 'finishing' the Maestro so it can be sold.  It's also why progress on the Lanchester has halted, I haven't given up on it I just needed to not think about it so I could get the Maestro done.  That and I got flu, which didn't help with any progress.

Where that leaves us with this particular update is that I'm going to be switching my attention from the Maestro to the Princess basically this weekend.  What I need to do on the Maestro is being held up by waiting for parts orders so it makes sense to shift attention to the Princess.  I've got the rear brakes to finish (a lot easier now I've done one side and have the parts to do the other to match, and they do currently work again), the front seat bases to finish putting together (which I might do this weekend), a bit of welding (an outer sill, some wheel arch repairs), and a general service.  I'm sure to find some other jobs along the way.  I'm not worrying about big stuff like paint, I have a potential lead on that which I'm hoping comes to something in the next year or two, we'll just have to see how things pan out since it's a bit wibbly wobbly on how it might happen.  What I really have to do is focus on the important jobs and not get distracted by the fun jobs I'd rather be doing.

Finally, the biggest issue I'm facing with everything currently is my career.  Being a full time artist - and now Youtuber, although that's not proving to be the successful venture I'd hoped - has its challenges and my workaholic tendencies are both a blessing for putting in the hours and a curse for setting up too many things to commit to.  As a result, I have too many projects across too many themes and they're all doing about as well as each other and now I have to decide which one or more to kill so the others can thrive.  The way I'm dealing with that is the same as the cars; no more projects until I've finished the current ones.

I don't like change, it's a faff, and I've got rather more change happening now than I'd like.  If I keep the Princess that's one constant I can use as an anchor point and hopefully keep me focused to sort all the other mess out.  Wish me luck, I'm going to need it!

[Marshall2810]

Hope everything is OK with you and you feel a weight off when you do move things on. What I've found most recently with my project is that there are always people out there that can help. I enjoy the project management side as much as the fettling side so sometimes its good to step back and get some perspective. All the best 

[vulgalour]

Progress!  Today I got the seat bases repaired and the new foam installed.  They are now very comfortable seats, firm without being hard, squishy without being saggy.  It is a job I do not care to do again, installing the seat base springs was a two person task and cost me the skin off a knuckle.

I'll chuck some pics up in the future when I've done the video editing and whatnot from today's exploits.

Next on the hit list is the rear brake drum I haven't rebuilt yet.  After that probably do the covers for the rear lights inside the boot and the new boot carpet, both of which I have materials for and would tidy it up.  Always good to balance out jobs you don't like with ones you do, even if the ones you do like aren't as important.

[vulgalour]

Longer ago than I care to admit to, the driver's side seat base diaphragm failed just as I was pulling onto the drive.  There were as far as I'm aware two different types of Princess seat diaphragm, one being more like MGs and Triumphs use being one big square of rubber with hooks all round, and the other like this.  Typically, the big square rubber one is still available in various sizes while the hessian and bonded rubber straps like mine isn't.  The seat frame bases appear to be made differently too, I don't believe my seats have the provision for the extra hooks needed for the rubber square type so I had to find a way to recreate this.

I managed to find some of the right sort of rubber webbing and had some leftover hessian from work on the Lanchester.  Combined with some very strong contact adhesive I hoped this would be a simple recreation.  Unfortunately I couldn't get a strong enough bond between the hessian and the rubber.  I then used a PU adhesive/sealant which was stronger and still not strong enough.  Rather than chasing a solution down that route I looked at alternatives and realised I only needed horizontal springs or webbing of some sort and then a method to keep them evenly spaced.

Some hunting online found Parker Knoll style seat springs and a standard size was suitable for the Princess seat bases.  I had some good strong fabric that I could make a panel with channels for the springs to go into and I built up a seat diaphragm with that.  It worked really well except that I ended up sitting quite a lot lower in the car since the springs gave the foam less support.  It was an adequate solution and I moved on to other things until recently when I ordered some medium density foam to go between the diaphragm and the seat foam.  This solved the sitting-too-low issue and firmed the seats up to be more like the HLS trim versions so they're a lot more comfortable now.

Best of all the extra foam has taken out the saggy look of the front seat bases, a common issue with HL seats.  The passenger seat back foam is still pretty good but the driver's one is definitely getting tired now and would benefit from being redone.  That, however, is a job for another day since taking the seat back covers off is a bit of a nightmare and not something I want to venture in to until it's more necessary.

[vulgalour]

As you'll have read elsewhere, the Maestro is gone to pastures new and that means this has to be my only car again.  We've done this before, several times, so I know I can do it again.  I've some small jobs to do that I planned to crack on with this weekend anyway so updates will be happening here soon once more.  I'm at the mercy of the weather because like last time this was my only car, I've decided to do this right at the end of the year when the weather is getting worse, because I'm a very smart person that way.

Fortunately there isn't really money to spend, it's just time, and with the Maestro gone I do now have more time than I did so I'm hoping some concerted effort over the next few weeks will see me through all the jobs I need to do. I shall, as always, keep you posted.

[vulgalour]

Doing a work hours shuffle since the weekend is set to be dreadful and today is lovely.  Let's crack on with the rear brake on the driver's side.  Good news is I don't actually have to do anything, everything is still in good shape, plenty of meat on the shoes still, wheel cylinder operating normally with no leaks so I'm going to let sleeping dogs lie here.  I am putting some fresh paint on the outer drum since I have it off and I might as well, other than that, nothing to do here.  Great joy!

In less good news I found some welding to attend to that I was totally unaware of.  The seam where the inner sill meets the floor has split and it was only visible when I put the axle stand under the axle.  Jacking under the jacking point didn't make this visible.  It looks like when I did the weld here ages ago (with a welding machine that was inducing The Rage more often than it was co-operating) it looks like I didn't get very good penetration at all.  It's not been like this long, there's barely even any surface rust.  An easy fix at least, cleaning it back is the hardest bit because of access.  I've cleaned back what I can and I'll have to put the car on its wheels to weld this so that the gap is closed up properly.  New welding machine won't have a problem with this repair and I am a better welder now than I was then so it should go okay.

Speaking of welding, I also learned that  the sill on this side is actually really solid and only needs the pinch weld section repaired in small areas so I'm not going to pull the whole thing off when I can just do a few small localised repairs instead.  The axle tube mount this side is also still in really good shape so I can leave that alone too.  More wins than loses today so far, so I'm happy.

[vulgalour]

Welding all done and dusted, brake drum on, test drive completed.  Aside from one stupid thing where I had a terrible banging noise that turned out to be one front wheel having loose wheel nuts (not sure why I put the hub cap on and didn't tighten them up, silly of me), no drama at all.  Brakes seem to work just fine, though they are very different feeling to the Maestro so I have to re-learn how this car stops since they're not as grabby and the pedal has a much shorter travel than the Maestro.  They also require a good bit more physical force as the Maestro brakes seem to be more heavily assisted.  Steering is a bit heavier than I remember though not unmanagable.  It's still just as stinky, in a 70s car way, as it ever was.  That gentle blend of exhaust fumes, burning oil, velour and vinyl that sort of clings to you like an unwelcome hug.  Haven't noticed any new bangs or creaks or smells and it just seems happy to start, drive, and stop like An Car.  I honestly expected it to be more of a nuisance since it's sat idle for such a long time.

Only other item of note is that the tyres were slightly flat spotted, but that cleared up pretty quickly so I've no worries there.  The glass is filthy on the inside so I shall need to give the whole car a thorough clean really, evict the snails from the boot shut, that sort of thing.  Overall, not a bad thing really and now I've only the one car to really focus on I should get through what needs doing pretty rapidly because there's really not a great deal to do beyond the cosmetic.

[2flags]

Glad to see you are using this car again. I remember these when they were new. Always a very under-rated car. Much better than the Cortina in my opinion. Very roomy and comfortable. They rode very well as well. 

[Noel Tidybeard]

chuck a couple of extra psi's in the front tyres for that pas feelng😁

[vulgalour]

tbf, I haven't checked the psi so they probably are low.  Also, the Princess has stupidly low psi as standard, something daft like 24 rear and 26 front from memory.  I tend to run it at 28-30 so it's not a total blancmange.

[captain_70s]

The Dolly has 24psi specced in the handbook.

This is essentially useless as modern tyre construction means tyres now have a softer sidewall. I run at 30psi.

Amazing what a difference it makes to the steering weight as well.

[vulgalour]

That's surprising, I always imagined the Dolly would have much higher psi than that as standard.

[captain_70s]

22 front, 24 rear. Even on the Sprint!

Much discussion on the Dolly forum, as those pressures make the car pretty crap to drive but deviation could invalidate your insurance.

I suppose the compromise would be a set of period correct Pirelli Cinturato tyres from Longstone at £120 a corner...

[vulgalour]

Things are not off to the best start here.

First time using my insurer's breakdown cover.  It could definitely have gone better.  Fortunately for me they sent a very nice recovery driver who was incredibly easy on the eye and had me homeward bound in no time.  That is, after I'd done waiting for THREE HOURS in a retail car park.  Longest quick trip to the shop ever.  Seriously, I only went out on a five minute errand for some household bits and bobs.

Safely docked we trundled the ridiculously short distance home - seriously, it would have been quicker for me to walk home, find the spare part I needed and walk back - and then unloaded the car ready for me to sort it out in daylight.

The FTP itself was a really stupid one.  I drove the car with absolutely zero issues, had driven it yesterday, and had been moving it about on the driveway with nary a problem.  Got back in to set off for the next part of my mission and *click*.  I knew that it was either a bad earth or a stuck starter solenoid.  The dash lights etc. were all still fine, I just didn't have enough power to get the engine to crank over.  Weird.  A few attempts to start and some further investigation led to a whisp of smoke off the throttle cable.  Definitely a bad earth then since a few years ago it did that to me due to a bad earth cable and the next earthing route on this car after that is apparently the throttle cable.

I did get the earth points cleaned up to a point that it dealt with the poor earthing situation but by then the damage was done.  I now had a throttle cable that was jammed in the sheathing due to melted plastic parts.  I did free the cable off but in the process damaged the sheathing so that now the throttle just jammed on and wouldn't return, rendering the car unsafe to drive.  Couldn't bodge it either, I didn't have the right things with me even though I did have lots of things with me.  The one thing I needed was a replacement throttle cable and that's the one thing I wasn't carrying today.

The really weird thing is I didn't stress about it.  I got bored, and rather worried that my phone battery - which I was going to put on charge when I got home, typically - was almost expired by the time recovery arrived.  Other than that, I seem to be pretty chill about the whole experience.  One person stopped to ask if he could help, several people stopped to ask me what the car actually was, a couple of people complimented the colour (thanks, Barbie!) so it wasn't as terrible as it could be.

I have taken down details for the private company that runs the car park.  Parking limit there is three hours and I reckon I exceeded that by the time we left so they may send me a fine because parking companies.  I've kept proofs and took photos of the fact I was actually broken down, just in case.

Tell you what though, it really is a comfy place to be broken down, could have even had a little nap if I wanted to.

[grogee]

16 hours ago, vulgalour said:

The really weird thing is I didn't stress about it.  I got bored,

I felt the same on my last FTP. Just gave into it and let it wash over me. Cars gonna car, as our American friends don't say. 

The biggest stress was how to get it 'home' if the AA couldn't fix it because we were in temp accommodation at the time. 

Luckily he did get it going and it turned out to have run out of fuel; the Rennow electrics had lied about there being some juice in the tank. 

[ETCHY]

On 01/11/2023 at 23:45, vulgalour said:

tbf, I haven't checked the psi so they probably are low.  Also, the Princess has stupidly low psi as standard, something daft like 24 rear and 26 front from memory.  I tend to run it at 28-30 so it's not a total blancmange.

The tyre pressures were stupidly low as BL used having a narrowish rim & the flexing of the tyre sidewalls as an aid to having a softer ride.
I remember reading it in an old Autocar I think.

[colino]

Not to hex you, but if the accelerator goes on old school stuff it's quick and easy to disconnect the choke cable and substitute for the accelerator and enjoy (limited) hand throttle fun.  If you're even closer to home, just tweak up the idle speed and drive it like that. 

[Noel Tidybeard]

run a piece of string thru window

[Zelandeth]

22 minutes ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

run a piece of string thru window

We did get an old Bedford coach back to base on one occasion with me hanging through one of the floor hatches manually operating the throttle lever on the fuel pump.

Double declutching was a little interesting, and I was half deaf in my right ear for a few hours afterwards, but we made it!

[vulgalour]

The choke cable idea is a good one and had I got more space to open my door to get to the pedals and a choke cable end that didn't like to fray whenever you look at it, I would have given it a go.  I had enough tools to thoroughly mess up the carb settings to compensate for a lack of choke should I need it, though the car was still warm enough that I shouldn't have.

Likewise the string idea, a great one if you have a length of string (and okay, I could have gone into Homebase and got one, it was another thing I didn't have in the car) and you wanted to navigate the three roundabouts and entirely uphill run from the retail park to my house.  I didn't fancy trying to do that and breaking down in an even worse spot, or having a mishap, waiting seemed the sensible course.

 

I have ordered replacement battery cables and a replacement throttle cable so I shall have some tinkering to do once they arrive.

[Noel Tidybeard]

might be worth making an earth that goes from engine to battery as well as body-->engine

[plasticvandan]

Buy an earth cable from hellfrauds,and fit from block to battery,will make a world of difference

[vulgalour]

It does have two main earth cables fitted.  One is the original braided cable from battery to engine block.  The other is a modern cord type from battery to body which was fitted after the car did this last time a few years ago.

The earthing problem didn't change at all when I cleaned up the cord cable connections, which were already very clean anyway.  It changed when I cleaned up the braided cable connections, which also looked fairly clean, so I strongly suspect the braided cable just isn't providing a good enough path and the secondary cable wasn't able to pick up the slack which is why the throttle was chosen as the alternative path.

The braided cable is the one I shall be replacing with a new cord-type.  I'm also replacing the positive cable to the starter motor since although it looks fine it felt sensible to do the two main battery cables.

I do wonder if this might be the underlying problem with the electric in-tank fuel pump too because although I haven't been getting any other electrical issues, it might be a poor main earth isn't allowing the pump to operate at proper efficiency.  I'll test that when I fit the new cables and if it does improve matters I can then remove the mechanical fuel pump and the oil leak it will eventually inevitably acquire because TADTS.

[vulgalour]

New battery cables fitted and a new throttle cable fitted and we are back in action.  Fun fact, Austin 18-22 throttle cable works just fine for the later Princess models, which I thought it would since it's the same carb, bodyshell, and pedal box even though the engines are different (B series in the 18-22 instead of the O series in the Princess).

Now I just need a few nice days and some free time to collide so I can get on with proper cleaning and welding repairs where required.  I should probably put some fresh fuel in too, what's in it looks like Irn Bru and the fuel gauge needle is almost in the red.

[Talbot]

On 02/11/2023 at 12:04, captain_70s said:

those pressures make the car pretty crap to drive but deviation could invalidate your insurance.

Come again?  That simply cannot be true!

[vulgalour]

You'd be amazed what some insurers will invalidate a policy on, at least apocryphally speaking.

[vulgalour]

Today the weather was absolutely stunning.  Got my tools out to crack on with the sill repair on the Princess, really the only difficult bit of welding (that I know about) left to do, everything else is minor cosmetic things like wheel arch lips that are easier to deal with.

Just lately the car has been letting off a faint whiff of petrol.  It always has, to be fair, throughout my decade or so of ownership.  I kept looking for leaks and wet patches and couldn't find any, the lines and tank were always dry so I always put it down to Old Car Stuff.  That meant I didn't worry about it too much today when welding up the sill.

I had already replaced the very trailing edge of this sill some years ago, that repair is still sound.  The damage is along the rest of the sill for the bottom inch or so.  It looked frilly but more alarmingly is that when I actually cleaned it up the outer and inner sill weren't attached which only became apparent as I started removing the rusty strip.

The cause of the rust is that in the past before I got the car, someone cut the original outer sill off but left the bottom inch of it attached to the inner sill.  Luckily, the inner sill is still really solid so no need to do work there, and it explains why there was nothing to see needing repair underneath the car.  They then slapped a new sill over the top of everything and didn't attach it very well along the bottom edge.  They also didn't put any protection inside the sill.  How it's lasted as long as it has I don't really know.

Some years ago I salvaged an outer sill from an orange Princess I used to own that was too rotten to save.  Fortunately, it had a brand new outer sill attached on one side which ended up being a perfect donor for this repair, what was left being just long enough and the right section to match what I needed.  It took me longer to clean the original outer sill off the car than it did to prepare the patch and then I set to welding it in.

Still going smoothly I made a start grinding off the knobbly bits of welding since I was having to do this laid on my back so the welding looked pretty ugly, and the petrol smell was getting quite strong.  I still couldn't see anything amiss, there was just some water dripping out of the drain at the front... wait.. what drain?

I very quickly downed tools.  While the car was jacked up with the nose down, the front hard line had started to drip fuel at an increasingly alarming rate.  All of the hard fuel lines on this car have underseal on them, have the entire time I've owned it, and it's been through numerous MoTs with no bother on this front.  Today was the day it failed.  Once back on the level the leak slowed and then stopped, which was a little odd.

It was now too late to finish the grinding and any pinhole chasing so I threw some paint on and ordered some new copper fuel line, rubber fuel line, clamps, and pipe bending tool all of which came to about £35.  One job I did want to do is drop the fuel tank so I can refit the rubber grommet around the filler neck and repaint the filler pocket properly.  It was a job I was saving for another time but since I'll be replacing the whole fuel line I might as well do it at the same time and then I'll finish the grinding and welding on the sill once I know things are fuel tight again.

I feel like I've had a bit of a near miss today with this one.

[2flags]

That was a bit of luck to find it then. That could have so easily ended in disaster. Well at least you now know what the problem is. As long as it is only the pipework then the cost isn't too onerous.