project 1980 Austin Princess

[SilverMachine]

i remember when i was younger, my aunt got one off the lodgers brother, which was a lovely bl shade of not very shiny blue, with a beige velour interior. and quite a bit of ash from said lodgers brothers roll up cigarettes!

[vulgalour]

Princess has been delivered to its new home.  Big thanks to @worldofceri for the painless experience, as usual.

The R8 isn't mine, it's just visiting.

[worldofceri]

Thanks for making it a straightforward job, though I don’t think the Windslammer helped with my fuel consumption!

[vulgalour]

But that's the opposite of what it's supposed to do!  I shall write to them for a refund and forward you the postal order they'll no doubt send.

[SilverMachine]

id forgotten all about those windslammers! my cousin had one on his sierra estate for pulling his box trailer, but when it wasnt pulling that it just looked like a comical oversized spoiler! glad the old girl was delivered safely, hope the remainder of the move goes as well!

[vulgalour]

Unexpected pink car at the supermarket!

[Rocket88]

Morrisons Scunthorpe?

[vulgalour]

That's the one.  Pretty distinctive building and one of the nicer Morrisons I've used over the years.

[PhilA]

Re headlights, the Princess just uses regular 5.75" assemblies, yes?

[Rocket88]

We’re just outside Scunthorpe…Roxby

[vulgalour]

@PhilA correctamundo

@Rocket88 We'll probably bump into each other at some point then, we're in each other's neighbourhood.

[PhilA]

Searching amongst truck parts (a lot of big rigs use 5.75" headlights), there's an H4 setup that has turn signal LEDs in which otherwise looks like a regular headlight- left hand drive but if you use it as high beam it would be fine, though the bucket would need adjusting to fit the mounts on the back (dual filament versus single mounting lugs).

Phil

[vulgalour]

I like the design, but I want an LED upgrade over the H4 bulbs.  This idea is going to have to be on hold now anyway, house move cost more than expected so I'm broke for a bit while I recover, the existing H4s will just have to do.  That said, there aren't so many wanker lights up here as there are in Kent, nor as much traffic, and in general it's just a whole lot more pleasant to be out driving even the very tiny runs I've done recently.

[Noel Tidybeard]

is it worth doing a relay upgrade and smoe nightbreaker type bulbage?

[vulgalour]

As mentioned either here or on another forum, not really.  I want a bigger light upgrade than that when I do it, hence wanting to go LED.

[vulgalour]

Did a tip run in the Princess.  You can get a decent amount of stuff in it even though it's a saloon.  Still haven't washed it, had the weather for it today and I just don't have the brain for it so it can stay dirty a bit longer.

[vulgalour]

Drove to a little social thing tonight - it was good, will go again - and it wasn't fully dark on the drive out so all was fine.  On the drive back it was fully dark and it wasn't as fine.  Oncoming traffic up here has a lot less LED nonsense, there's still quite a few yellowy halogens out there which is nice.  However, the bright-dark street lighting plays havoc with my night time depth perception, another flaw of LED lighting.  Also, while I can see where I'm going, I can't see very well.  I stuck main beam on for a bit to see if it made a difference and it did... also nobody flashed me at all which kind of told me all I need to know about the brightness or lack thereof of my headlights.

The two take aways from this is that I probably need some non-photochromatic night time driving specs and to upgrade my headlights significantly.  I already knew this of course.  What is money if not for spending?

[High Jetter]

Booked an eye test?

[vulgalour]

I will be, when I've got the funds for new specs.  I've not long had an eye test and that landed me with varifocals and a £400 bill for the privilege.  For now I'll just avoid night driving.

[Asimo]

I think you might consider some simple (non-varifocal) lenses just for driving. These will be the cheapest of lenses. Might be worth asking about anti-reflection coatings designed to aid dark-driving.

Except when you are driving in dark conditions (away from roadside lighting and oncoming traffic) the headlights of the car that you are driving are unlikely to be the root of the problem.

Old windscreens, especially those at shallow angles, are buggers to see through against oncoming light because of the thousands of little diffracting scratches they have acquired over the years. Additionally, the further away from your face the windscreen is, the more the state of that windscreen affects your view.  

(Try a new 'screen in a Landrover Defender or real VW Beetle at night: flat piece of glass, near to your face.  Compared to something old and slopey at arms-length: like night and day. Literally.  God help anyone commuting a 44 year old Cybertruck through the suburbs on a rainy night...)

[vulgalour]

I do need a new windscreen, mine is definitely past its first flush of youth, slopey, and far from my face.  Amazingly new screens are still available, £500 special order, and it is on my wishlist.

[Dan302]

On 11/03/2024 at 12:38, vulgalour said:

Unexpected pink car at the supermarket!

That's my neck of the woods! As I said on YouTube all the best people live in N. Lincs!

[vulgalour]

Be sure to say hi if you see me and totally confuse the heck out of me when I've no idea who you are

[vulgalour]

[Datsuncog]

Sakura edition.

[Noel Tidybeard]

have you got any more outer lights? swap the inners have 4 dopped beams like a wrights geminii bus!

[vulgalour]

Today friend visited so we could finish the work on other friend's white Rover. All done and dusted, time for it to head out and possibly be replaced with another car, we shall see. Visiting friend did mention the little oil spots all over the drive where the Princess parked and had a giggle about it so we had a look to see just what we think is leaking.

Number one culprit is the phenolic spacer on the mechanical fuel pump. These was an issue when the O Series was a new thing, many a Marina has been plagued by it. I need to pull off the pump (just two bolts, no hardship) and fit some new gaskets, going to try cork instead of paper this time to hopefully cure it. Just tightening the bolts doesn't actually cure the leak, instead it can make it worse if you overtighten especially if you managed to crack the spacer. It's not a huge leak, just one that collects in the casting beneath the pump and then leads to a hot oil smell.

Number two culprit is the gasket at the bottom of the filler neck tube. Since I have the later iteration of the O series in FWD application, I have a filler neck tube that puts the oil in at the bottom of the block instead of the filler neck built into the cambox cover. I've had to wait for enough oil to accumulate on the front of the block to highlight this one after cleaning everything down to be sure, but now I can see it's the highest point of the oil leak in that area I know what to fix. Another fresh cork gasket here should solve things for a few months to a year before needing to be replaced.

Number three culprit is less clear. Some of the waterpump bolts are a bit oily, not all, and it's not very clear where the oil is actually coming from. It's not the speedo cable or the oil filter this time, so those leaks appear to be cured. It could be coming from further up, perhaps the camshaft, I'm not sure. It also has a bit of oil collecting at the front corner of the head-to-block gasket seam but since I've still got good compression across the board and no mixing of oil and water I think this is actually leaking from somewhere else and finding the path of least resistance rather than OMGHGF.

Number four is suspected to be the sump gasket itself. However, this could also be any of the above leaks finding their way to the lowest point of the engine and making it look like the sump gasket is leaking. Or it could be both.

We also chatted about materials cost and did some rough planning for getting the paintwork done. It seems the most sensible thing is to start with the roof and satin black sections first since they can be fully separated from the rest of the bodywork with no need for blending. This also means I can break the cost down a bit, I need a new windscreen so it would be good to get the roof painted with that removed, may also remove the rear screen if we feel we can risk the rear screen seal which is fully unobtanium.

I'll also tackle all of the door shuts and probably the engine bay with good quality rattle cans because there's not a lot of surface area and again, colour matching and blending isn't vital because of the nature of the areas, most of it needs to be plain black with the exception of the engine bay which I want to be pink.

After that we can do the rest of the bodywork. Friend is keen to see it done mostly because he's a good egg who knows how much the car means to me and how hamstrung I've been to get it sorted. £500 should be enough to get all the materials and then it's down to us to do a metric poopload of prep and welding and sanding and sanding and sanding and sanding and a little bit more sanding with some extra sanding just for fun before we do the sanding.

[SilverMachine]

when i did the dicky bits on the focus a few years ago i had the luxury of a big dusty barn to use to paint in, the likes of scott at  coldwarmotors and whiteland restorations on the youtubes i found gave me lots of tips and tricks. sanding? thats the shit work, if you can, do it outside or somewhere with good extraction. or even get one of those sanders which pulls all the shite away... apologies, dont get me wrong i know you can do bits n bobs of bodywork very well. but a full car is a lot bigger a bite to take than doing one panel at a time (which sometimes isnt a bad approach)

you say the window seal is unobtainium? it must have a similar profile to other bits that are available? or at least something similar? someone must extrude a profile before its cut and shaped? is it worth talking to the local auto window fitter people? or the usa hot rod peoples?  ive seen screens with rounded corners put in and they have had to trim the seal, possibly on an mg? apologies again im sure you will have already looked into this? hopefully might lead to somethings!

[vulgalour]

The best bit about the sanding and doing the whole car is my friend with the red Rover is taking lead on this project so I don't need to worry about it beyond doing what I'm told to do, which is nice.

The rear screen seal is definitely unobtanium and unique to the Princess.  Now I will admit that you probably can scratch build something from off the shelf parts and it will probably technically work.  However, the problem with the rear screen seal is it does double duty as a trim item and it has square corners instead of rounded ones which is much harder to get right.  The bottom edge of the seal is moulded differently so that it serves as a trim to fill the big gap between the bottom of the rear window and the top of the boot, without that bit you just have this gaping hole and because of how the boot is hinged you can't really put a different trim on there.  That said, last time I removed the seal and screen to repair the top of the frame the seal was in pretty good shape and the glass being toughened was much more tolerant than had it been laminated.  Trouble is, if I remove the glass and seal and either get damaged I'm a bit stuffed, spares simply don't exist unless you find someone breaking another car.  Annoyingly I did have a spare set from the orange car I broke a few years ago but in a previous house move they somehow *disappeared* and I've not been able to replace them since.

Window fitters I have spoken to won't even touch the Princess unless I can provide new glass and seals and even then they won't guarantee against breakages, so this is one I'll probably be having to DIY anyway.  Soap and string time.

[Rocket88]

Any chance of bonding the screen to the aperture ( a la modern shite) and ditching the rubber completely?