project 1980 Austin Princess

[vulgalour]

^That's my brother. Apple oh gees in advance.

[MikeKnight]

volksangyl; master paint flattener!

[DSdriver]

Nicely done, when I try that I go straight through to the primer on the raised edges. And the colour looks cool now. Cream vinyl roof?

[vulgalour]

Hmm... if I did the beige for the roof I could end up with something like this. The purple goes quite well with the beige, I think. Would certainly be different, but I'm undecided as to whether or not it's what I'd want.

 

[Morgan84]

Leave the roof,and boot till last then you will see how nice it looks with purple and beige,and if you dont like the 2tone look,just dip the brush,and carry on with the good work

[Shep Shepherd]

That's astounding!

[Guest]

Hmm... if I did the beige for the roof I could end up with something like this. The purple goes quite well with the beige, I think. Would certainly be different, but I'm undecided as to whether or not it's what I'd want.

 

 

 

You MUST do this. If you don't, the law requires that you be killed, and your body be left to be ravaged by dogs. Harsh, I know, but them's the rules.

 

One like this was seen carting Jim Hacker around in an episode of "Yes Minister" on UK Tellyshite just the other day.

[skattrd]

Great work VA, it just shows what hard work can do.

I didn't like the purple at first, but flatted back and shiny its starting to grow on me.

Now the question is are going to work your way round or do alternate panels for the harlequin effect.

[Paul Dupart]

Hmm... if I did the beige for the roof I could end up with something like this. The purple goes quite well with the beige, I think. Would certainly be different, but I'm undecided as to whether or not it's what I'd want.

 

 

 

You MUST do this. If you don't, the law requires that you be killed, and your body be left to be ravaged by dogs. Harsh, I know, but them's the rules.

 

One like this was seen carting Jim Hacker around in an episode of "Yes Minister" on UK Tellyshite just the other day.

 

 

That is class! What are the wheels off?

[shedvan]

Have just caught up with your thread VA after spending the last two months face down in the herbacious border to find one of the most amusing near riots of the summer has almost broken out!

 

Its always hilarious to read or hear statements the start off with a variation on the "With all due respect/no offence mate but" theme when the definitely mean nothing of the kind. For what its worth (net value: 2.8 new pence) I like the wild ride turn towards purple and look forward to it's evolution and the accessorising in terms of the the C Pillars/roof - lunatic shot in the dark, how about cream? - and after all who ever got the horn for beige?? Its the colour the word 'nice' was invented for..

 

The car was never in prize-winning concours order before and if there is any forumite who is up to the mind-boggling amount of titivating and flatting of paint then VolksAngyl is the boy for the job.

 

The new finish is already coming good man keep going its going to be a mean aubergine machine no mistake it just seems that its hard to find room on the internet for expression without the quotient of unsolicited 'good advice'

[Timewaster]

Nobody ever said it was good advice!

[shedvan]

Nobody ever said it was good advice!

 

You might very well say that, I couldn't possibly comment

[purplebargeken]

Stuff the beige, yay for purple.

[dollywobbler]

Blimey. As Pete says, it'll be a lot of hard work to do the whole car like that, but then what little I've learned about paint is that it ALWAYS involves a lot of work if you want anything approaching a decent job. Showing a lot of potential for sure.

[Morgan84]

Nothing worthwhile is easy

[barefoot]

What's happened to the purple princess?

 

I've been away & to my disappointment it had vanished.

[vulgalour]

She's currently having a nap in the garage after we discovered the wandering habit on the motorway is caused by about 2" of play in the tie rod ends. Ordered the parts and intended to fit them before the MoT expired but I went and got myself a full time job with a healthy wage so I've not been able to do anything since. This should change this weekend (read: Thursday/Fri because of crazy rotational shift pattern) when we'll be fixing the new parts on and booking a new MoT before the Tax expires at the end of the month.

 

As soon as she's road legal again it'll be back to usual daily duties, but no need for commuting since my brother uses his Skoda for that. Got to decide whether to work more on the Princess or try and hire someone to do some welding on the Polo to make him watertight. Bit of a juggle while I get used to Mornings and having less flexible working hours, but I should see more disposable income which should see more things done on my cars quicker... I hope.

 

Just have to see what happens in another 11 weeks when my probationary trial ends.

[vulgalour]

It is time for an update, finally. Unusually for me, there aren't many pictures because we just got stuck into the job and I kinda forgot about the camera being there.

Today being my first bit of time off after starting the new job (yay, new job that pays cash money!) I thought it would be daft not to crack on with a job we have the parts to sort out. Since buying the car, the steering has been somewhat vague, particularly when it comes to going from a straight line to a bent line. I'd been led to believe that this was normal, but after today I think that was probably lies/misunderstanding of the actual problem described. Again, I'm amazed this car had an MoT, every serious problem I encounter has me shocked that someone deemed this car roadworthy mechanically.

So, anyway, the job itself... Track Rod Ends. I'd managed to score the parts just before starting my new job a week ago but hadn't had time to do anything more about it. We'd discovered during pre-MoT checks that there was a good 1 1/2" to 2" play in the front wheels which, coupled with the wandering habit on the motorway and general vagueness of steering at anything other than serious lock, led us to find that the track rod ends were, in actual fact, completely shagged.


First thing was to get them off, especially since we also had to fit a new steering gaiter rubber to the passenger side having already done the driver's side. All of the nuts were pretty solidly seized so we tried the old trick of hammering a slightly smaller socket over what was quite a crusty and slightly round looking nut.


This did not work, instead just making the nut more round when we tried to move it.


Instead, we had to resort to a combination of blow torch, penetrating oil (tip: WD40 should not be sprayed onto a naked flame, fire happens), an angle grinder and the largest Multi Purpose Tool we could find, a 6lb one in this instance. Eventually, it was free. Much heat and spanners were employed to free the other nut and eventually we had it all dismantled as required and the new one ready to go back on, which went much easier than it came off.


Worth noting that while the passenger side was a bit worn, the driver's side could be rattled around as though there were no resistance at all once removed. The rubbers were split and completely useless and the old ends were doing little more than holding the wheels on. It's a wonder I could drive on these at all and no surprise that anything above 50mph for more than 20 miles was hard work.

The other job I did was to remove the crud catchers which have been split, badly repaired and otherwise crap since I got the car. I wanted a good look behind them anyway as in my experience they're never good news on a car of advancing years.


As with the rest of the car, the inner arches have been 'restored' which seems to involved applying primer and overspray to the original paint and not attending to anything but the worst rust. It's all nice and solid with the exception of the bottom of the trailing edge of both front wings, which have trapped mud and rotted through a bit so will need repairing. There's also one small area of corrosion on the inner wing on the passenger side that should be easy enough to get fixed but is directly caused by those plastic rot makers.





I wasn't pleased to discover that the rot has spread from the bottom of the passenger wing on to the leading edge of the outer sill. Again, it's not massively serious, but it has been left unattended for too long and will need a patch. The black underseal/paint has caused more problems than its cured and seems to be applied directly over bare metal in places, particularly the sills, which isn't very good. The underside of the car looks in good order with a good amount of waxoyl all over. I have concerns about the rear of the driver's side sill where there's some obvious filler work, but this could turn out to be similar to the solid-but-ugly repair on the passenger side.

Peeling away the layers of this particular onion, I think I'm the owner of a 'traditionally restored' car. It's a bit daunting, because there's a lot that's been avoided in favour of the appearance of the car that I would have rather seen done right. Happily though, I have a more reliable wage to work with now at least for a few weeks, so I should be able to get the welding and mechanical niggles straightened out. I've also noticed today that the front end is sitting a bit low, but there's no sign of any fluid leaking out so I guess she's just a bit more obviously ready for a re-gas than she was.

In short:
Sort out that leaking tyre, again. Need to refurb the wheel really.
Get tracking done now it's been disturbed.
Price up getting small bits of welding done.
Regas

MoT, Tax and enjoy again.

[Morgan84]

You do work to a high standard

[vulgalour]

Well fuck.

On the way to the MoT as well. Chap I ran into was an absolute gent about the incident, made sure I was okay, sorted out swapping of details and took photographs at the scene, didn't leave until he was sure I was okay and even let me borrow his 'phone to call my Dad. The woman in the taxi ahead of the chap was less considerate, claimed to have been hit by the van I hit (but no visible damage on the taxi) and even tried to get my policy number out of me after I got home. She also didn't give me any details (had to get them from the van owner) before driving off as quickly as possible.

Happily, apart from a bit of back pain around my shoulders, I'm fine. The car still drives just as beautifully as she did before the crash with one exception; there's a grinding noise at one point of lock on the driver's side. It's very likely I've written the Princess off, there's only a slim chance that I haven't if I'm realistic. If she does get written off it's a very sad end to what has been a very enjoyable car.

This is my first proper accident, and it was caused by a momentary lapse of concentration. Getting stuck in the school run, on a wet day, in stop-start traffic and I didn't notice the traffic that was moving ahead of me had stopped until a second or three too late.

I feel like I've let the side down with this incident.

[wuvvum]

 

Glad nobody was hurt though, that's the main thing.

[Bobthebeard]

So sorry to read about this, hopefully not an end for the Princess? You brought it back from the brink once so maybe again?

Been following this thread since day one. Glad you weren't injured btw. That is the main thing of course! Chin up! Princess 2?

[Mr_Bo11ox]

What rotten luck VA, i feel for ya.

 

I would say just forget about the car for a few days, put it out of your mind. It looks to me like it will repair without loads of expense, maybe a new bonnet and a bit of time mucking about straightening stuff out, but I would just forget it till a few days have gone by and you can think clearly about it. The noise is probably the OSF wheel rubbing on the wing. It probably will get written off, but thats not necessarily a big deal if you’re in the right frame of mind for bartering with insurance twats....!

[Micrashed]

Bumhats:-(

 

Still, its metal and can be fixed with big hammers.

You are flesh and big hammers tend to make things worse when used on skin & bone.

 

There will be other cars if you decide that this is the end for the Princess. There wont be other Volksys.

[MikeKnight]

Like I said on the phone, with the gaffa tape holding the bonnet on at least it's a true BL car now.

 

Hopefully just needs a bit of knocking out and new panels, from what you've told me the chassis seems ok but I can't know that for sure without seeing it myself.

[trigger]

Oh man, what shit luck Angyl, It's easily done though, especially in stop/start traffic, at least your not hurt, only your pride.

 

I guess the future of it now hangs in the insurance assessors hands, I suspect he'll write it off, what are these like for finding second hand panels?.

[Angrydicky]

Oh shit man

[HillmanImp]

 

Glad nobody was hurt though, that's the main thing.

 

I bet there were several people 'hurt' by the time the claim is over.

 

Bad luck eh? I think it will probably be okay will it not? Old cars dont have crumple zones or owt like a modern so as long as the total car is not bent you should be able to repair it yourself pretty easily. If the insurer writes it off they will probably let you keep it for next to nowt (or nowt).

[barefoot]

Saw all the gaffa tape, thought it was already fixed just waiting polishing!

On a serious note, being unhurt is what counts.

[Timewaster]

Admit it VA, you were admiring yourself in your super cool beige and purple wedge in a shop window weren't you!

Or were you in a tunnel? Wouldn't be the first princess to meet a sticky end that way

Glad you are ok and the wedge may well live on.