project 1980 Austin Princess

[vulgalour]

Frustratingly, the car isn't agreed value, that was something I was going to be doing on payday (tomorrow) as I've not been able to afford it until then and I don't think I can retroactively put agreed value on the car. She is insured at a value £2000, but that probably means nothing since it's not an agreed value.

 

I don't fancy fitting a vinyl roof after the mess I discovered under the original vinyl, I'd rather just have the top painted, or better yet painted in a vinyl-effect paint for the best of both worlds.

[coalnotdole]

Sorry to hear about this,

 

I think it depends on the insurer if they take the declared value into consideration. I claimed on my insurance when I was hit in the scimitar 18 months ago, It was a classic policy but I'd not filled out the agreed value paperwork... They paid out at the declared value and I bought the car back from them. I sorted the repair myself in the end with a section from a doner car. Fingers crossed the claims process will be straightforward and the princess can return to the road again... !

[Guest]

'Rear ended by Princess' is not something I'd want to put on my claim form. Sorry to hear of your crap run of luck at the moment.

 

Nevertheless. I'll echo the sentiments of everyone else on here - glad to hear you're OK. It does look saveable and with your acknowledged attention to detail, you should be able to put it right and piss away a few weekends getting her back to her former glory.

 

As ever, if I hear of any parts going cheap - they'll go in the boot of my car and can stay at the unit until further arrangements can be made. You're not that far from me.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I'm close too - I have places in Sheff and Mansfield so you're in the middle. Shout it you need owt, and I'll look out for parts.

[vulgalour]

Thanks for your votes of confidence, chaps Here's some more good news.

 

Right, just spoke to the chap with the donor Princess and found out it's ideal. I've arranged to go and view on Tuesday, when we're both free (work commitments) and we'll go from there.

 

Bad things:

knackered carpets

rotten door bottoms

rotten arches

rotten sills

 

Good things:

Owner likes Princesses

2.2 HLS

Beige with brown trim

Good chrome

Good driver's wing, only non-rotten arch.

Runs and drives (important for getting it into the garage)

Has tow bar

 

This means that it is knackered where mine is good, and vice versa by the sounds of things. Being the same colour as mine means I don't need to worry about resprays (though the purple will happen anyway). The only difficulty really is getting the welded bits off in such a way they can be reused, it all depends how they've been fitted.

 

Next job today is to visit Pentagon since my brother needs to go through to Mansfield anyway, so that I can see my car and put my mind at ease by talking to a person and getting some pictures of her, checking she's not full of water, that sort of thing.

[RedSparrow]

Good news. And you are in the fortunate position of having a garage to store all the bits.

[vulgalour]

I think she may be living up to her name again.

[vulgalour]

Been to see her and she's being very well cared for. Yes, she's outside, but she's free of ponds, extra damage or any of that and has been put in the quietest corner out of possible harms way and treated with a degree of respect, which was very reassuring.

 

The bodyshop chap I spoke to said that while I have done a fair bit of damage, it's not unusual for what was probably a 2-3mph crash. The damage is down to where and what I hit rather than speed.

 

Unfortunately, he did point out that I have bent the inner wing slightly so her nose is out of joint and I noticed that the driver's side wheel looked too far back in the arch again, so I don't know if that's something to do with the deformed wing or a more serious problem. Time will tell.

 

I just have to wait and see on the assessment now to see what they say. I'm off to look at this other Princess for parts possibility and if I don't resurrect this Princess I've decided I shall obtain another one anyway because I can't think of a single car that even comes close to ticking the boxes this one has.

[Lankytim]

I doubt the wheel would have moved back because the suspension is all on the bulkhead rather than attached to the chassis leg. The front end of these do go out of shape quite easily in front end smashes as the chassis is quite thin and very long. Lust stretch it all back into shape. I recon a bit of pushing with the porta power and small amount of hammer work will have it all usable again, although it won't look pretty until you add new panels.

 

This Allegro had been smashed in the nose in a low speed shunt but most of the damage was pushed out ok...

 

 

 

 

 

Unfortunately it was pretty rotten so I scrapped it anyway!

[fordperv]

this is sad to hear, It will soon be right again, I suffered a similar ordeal in my capri in January but with the help of a very kind friend (i couldnt use 1 arm properly after the crash) she got straightened out and was back on road within a couple of days, unfortunately it took me until august to find the right donor car (only needed a donor for the n/s headlamp bowl) that wasnt an overpriced heap of crap but now she is going through a makeover

[Des]

 

I found the lamp among a huge pile of crap, looks like it's nearside, shout if and when you need it.

[AnthonyG]

Sorry to hear about the crash VA. Hopefully you'll get the car back and if you do the bodywork yourself, there might be some money left for a purple respray !

 

At least it sounds like the body shop are aware of the (non-financial) value of the car to you, which is good.

 

Good luck with the assessor.

[vulgalour]

I went to view the donor Princess today. It's a 1980 2.2 manual HLS, one of the later Mk2 types with the chunky plastic boot badge, but it must be just at the start of when they did that. The interior, likewise, is the later type that only the run out models got, and there's a few other small trim details that mark it out as one of the last.

 

Things of use to me are:

Proper steering wheel

Good driver's wing which is partially bolted on, partially welded on, so should come off easily without damage (what luck!)

Good bonnet in slightly better condition than my pre-crash bonnet

Teddy bear seats and late, good condition door cards all round

Rear pillar interior lights

Tow bar and electrics

Good bumpers front and rear

Boot carpets, spare wheel cover, seat board trim and light cluster covers

Healthy sounding 2.2 straight six engine

Nice tight manual box

Excellent glass all round, didn't check regulators, but there should be one good one

Good slam panel

Trapezoid lights and brackets

Sidelight/indicator units

Front spotlights.

Tatty bootlid, but salvagable.

 

Things of no use are:

Rotten inner and outer sills

Rotten arches (all bar driver's wing)

Rotten front and rear valance

Rotten floor pan edges

Rotten door bottoms (all four)

Rot holes in the roof, rotten seams at top of A pillars and knackered vinyl top

Mouldy headlining

Mouldy, torn and soggy carpets

 

It's not great, it's probably restorable by someone with a lot of time and money, but for me I'd say it's too far gone. Three arches, four doors, two sills (inner and outer) repairs to all the floor pans and at least a front valance mean that it's not in great condition. Add to that the rot holes in the roof caused by the split vinyl top that let water in which has in turn ruined the headlining beyond what cleaning could salvage and the mouldy, soggy and torn carpets and it soon adds up to a lot of work being required.

 

We've agreed a price of £350 which includes delivery of the car to me and, when I've removed everything I need/want, removal of the rolling shell by the vendor. I wanted to talk him down further, obviously, but he knows what he's got and what it's worth and since I'll be spending the time to get as much value out of it as possible for my own car I don't really want to pay any more because I know a lot of the dismantling is going to be a ballache, not to mention finding enough storage space for all the bits.

 

I'm waiting on the result from the assessor, which should be any day now, and if mine is repairable and not too badly broken then I will be purchasing the HLS and at least one Princess will rise from the ashes. Exciting time. Oh, and yes, there will be some photographs later, I need to update my Photobucket account again first.

[michael t]

Best of luck with the rebuild if it goes ahead, fair play to you for not just chucking the towel in and giving up.

[Rod/b]

Make sure you get the displacers and calipers off the donor if they're good. In fact get everything that isn't wrecked from it, if you've got storage.

[Split_Pin]

Sounds like the ideal spares car, not cheap at £350 but as you say these are rare now.

 

Keep the faith, even if those around you don't!

[Skizzer]

Sounds promising. Really hope this works out for you VA - I only just caught up on your bad news. Top man for hanging on in there.

 

Have you thought of financing the repairs by selling the movie rights to this saga?

[vulgalour]

It looks like the movie is going to have to wait a bit, I'm still writing the script

 

Now that I know what's going on, it's time for another update on where we are with Serendipity. Today, I got word that I restart at my old job on Tuesday, mainly because of Skattrd's kind loan of his Maestro to get me there and back reliably for the morning shift (6am-3pm, no public transport option), this means some money gets freed up sooner than would have otherwise happened and the hours are kinder to dismantling and rebuilding cars than a 9-5 would be.

 

First thing I need to do is pull in all the help that's been offered and make a start organising costs so I can provide a quote to the insurance company. I want to provide them with a quote that will realistically cover the works needed, but won't be 'uneconomical' and write the car off.

 

Second thing is to pass on the info I've received after this accident, I'm sure it will be of use to those of you who might end up in a similar situation.

 

Assessor: Car has a bent chassis leg and inner wing, but the main body of the car is fine. Needs bodypanels and paint, and someone to straighten her nose again. They can't find any supplier for parts so have quoted repairs based on a similar sized car and submitted this to the insurer.

 

Insurer: Haven't yet received the report, however they are interested in offering me a cash in lieu settlement since I can provide parts and labour at a much reduced rate. They're waiting on a report from their engineer so they are assured the car isn't fubarred and will call me in a couple of days. They want a quote from me (at least £350 for the donor car, then other expenses such as straightening and paint) for the repair and will then issue a pay out. As I understand it, because this will then be an economical repair the car isn't written off as a category anything, which is even more bonuserific.

 

Me: A very happy chappy. I have access to parts, an excellent community that has come out in force to see this car live on and the motivation to get it done. Yes, I shall be trying to get the money for the purple paint in with this even though the replacement panels I've sourced are Champagne beige, they'll need repainting anyway as the paint is a bit dead on them.

 

What happens next? Well, I work and save as much as possible to make the best job I can of all this. It's likely I'm putting the 2.2 HLS engine and manual box in my 1700 because it's a better engine in the donor. I may keep and rebuild the 1700 lump I've got as there aren't so many of them out there now, I've not decided. When I get Serendipity back I shan't be doing much of anything until the donor arrives as I only have the one covered area to work in which the donor needs to use when I strip it down.

 

It's all going to be a bit crazy because I'm going to have to focus pretty much all of my spare time making one car out of two as quickly as possible due to a lack of storage space for everything. My housemate is tolerant of my house-car idiosyncracies, but I'm sure even he has his limits. I will, obviously, keep you all posted. I can't get in touch with the owner of the donor until I have a date I can pay him and that is reliant on when my wages hit my bank account/the insurance company pays out.

 

I'm really quite excited, I just hope the last mini hurdle of the engineer's report to the insurer doesn't trip it all up.

[catsinthewelder]

Excellent news VA

 

Could you get them to drop it somewhere for the straightening en-route to you, or is there an epic Autoshite workparty on hand with Tims Porta-power whatsit?

[Danblez]

What ever you do don't under quote the repairs. If you over do it they will only negotiate, if you under do it they will snap your hand off and leg it.

[keef]

Gutted for you, especially after all that work!

 

Hope you manage to salvage the car.

[PhilA]

That's good news! Best of luck with it all.

 

--Phil

[vulgalour]

Little update on the car.

 

Car is with the engineers at the moment, I've been given a timescale of 24-48 hours for their report on what's what with her. Cash-in-lieu is still looking good, though there's some confusion over how I get the car back, so I may incur some costs transporting her home again, we shall see on that one. Providing the damage is what the assessors said it was, all should be rosy. There is still the possibility that the car may be a Cat C or D even with a cash-in-lieu payment, according to the chap I spoke to, but while he wouldn't give me a figure for the repairs or how much they were willing to pay, my estimate of £500 (bare minimum donor car and some labour) -1000 (all the whistles and bells) was less than they were expecting me to ask for, so we shall see, I can adjust the figure accordingly to fit in with whatever they have planned. I would have liked to have been given a monetary figure to work with, but I suspect it would have been easier to get blood out of a stone.

 

So, the long and short of it is that I should have finalised answers by the end of this week and then know what I'm left with, how much cash they're giving me and when I can have her back. I really, really hope it is just her nose out of joint like the assessor said and not anything more serious than that as I'd quite like her to live on again. In the meantime, I'm on the hunt for a 1.3 manual Maestro as it'll cost about the same to insure as the Polo, possibly less with a different insurer. Oh, and I'm told this accident doesn't affect my NCB because I didn't make the claim with Admiral who hold my NCB but with Performance Direct/Haven who insure the Princess, so that was a happy little thing.

 

Going to have to sit on my hands for a bit longer I guess. How frustrating!

[DSdriver]

Fingers crossed.

[Cheggers]

That actually sounds pretty positive, fingers crossed for ya

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

Glad to hear it's coming along.

 

Would Cat C/D really be a problem?

[trigger]

I know this is against the grain a bit but if I was you I'd be getting as much money back as i could from the insurance company and using that i buy myself a nice Maestro instead seeing as you like them so much, I wouldn't bother fixing the Princess.

[vulgalour]

@Trigger: it's been a consideration of mine to do that, it's true. I would far prefer to fix the Princess if at all possible, there's no real logic behind it behind heart ruling head, there's something special about the car that I just haven't had with any other I've driven.

[mouseflakes]

Lust stretch it all back into shape.

 

Yes, it can have that effect.

[vulgalour]

This is, I think, the conclusion to the Insurance episode.

 

Car valued at £500

Cost of repairs estimated at £2,500

Result of a claim going through is a Cat B write off, spares only.

 

So, instead I shan't be making a claim and will instead have to arrange collection of the car to get it back home and repair it myself, footing the bill out of my own rather shallow pockets. This is not ideal but I am not about to see this car scrapped for want of a little love by some people who know what they're doing. I'm not in a particularly great mood, even though I shall be getting my car back, I wish I hadn't gone through the insurance at all now because it's just delayed me getting the car fixed, but I had to be sure for my own peace of mind that it was repairable, which it is.

 

The final verdict on the actual damage is a slightly bent chassis leg and inner wing which can be massaged back into shape and some deformed panels which can be replaced or reshaped accordingly. The car *is* repairable and *is* possible to be made safe again, but it's going to cost time, effort and money which I don't presently have. Thankfully, I have the space to keep her warm and dry in the meantime and the people and means to put it all right again eventually. Won't be sorted this side of Christmas though, that's for sure.