project 1980 Austin Princess

[Rocket88]

7 months is plenty of time for fuel to go stale...........nice pics by the way, very moody.

[Alexg]

Great to see this back on the road. All that hard work has been worth it. Well done.

[plasticvandan]

modern unleaded goes off after about 3 months i think these days,or at least looses its punch,7 months stat outside with damp and rain and snow floating around would certainly loose its edge,fortunately older stuff will often run on anything

[Cheggers]

Well done Volksy, good to see the old girl back on the road!

[RichardMoss]

Is the dampness on the carb just condensation caused by the fact that carbs get cold where the air goes through the venturi? If the carb was grimy then the condensation would be greasy as a result.

 

Or does it stay damp long after any water would have evaporated off?

[fordperv]

Well done, now enjoy the fruits of your Labour

[barefoot]

I'm not happy about your front number plate, but the rear neons have made up for it.

[vulgalour]

@colc: I expected it modern fuel to have a longer shelf life than that, how rubbish.

 

@richardmoss: Not thought about that, it could be. The dampness seems to get no worse or better and it's not something I used to get last time I used the car. One of those things I'll keep an eye on I guess.

 

@barefoot: I'm guessing it's the location rather than the plate itself that bothers you. It'll have to do for now and it's perfectly legible, at least until I get a new bumper and some nicer plates.

 

@everyone else: Thank you for the continued support. There's a handful of people behind the scenes that really have kept pushing me along with this and to them I'm eternally grateful, they know who they are.

[Wilko220]

Good to see it back on the road. Well done for saving it against the odds.

[Spiny Norman]

Good to see it back on the road. Well done for saving it against the odds.

 

WHS!

Well done for all the hard work you've put into this car, great to see another one on the road.

[purplebargeken]

Deffo a day brightener hearing that VA. Congrats.

[stuboy]

welcome back to the highways of shiteness

 

well done

[vulgalour]

I'm enjoying this sunny weather, and the opportunity to nip out in the Princess WHENEVER I WANT. That particular novelty will likely not wear off ever. I gave the car a quick clean yesterday, but also got sunburn so I didn't do all the niggly bits I like to because I'd forgotten how unpleasant sunburn is. Last time I got sunburnt was in 1995, I kid you not, I really do live in a cave or something. Anyway, first up was the steering wheel which, after getting the tracking done, is wonky. Off with the centre trim and try and find a socket big enough. The largest socket I have is a 30mm and I think this is a 32mm, at any rate it's more than a 30mm, so that didn't happen and I'll just have to put up with it for now.

 

I then went out to Lambs Garage in Clowne, a local specialist who seems to always have Mini Marcos on the forecourt and deals with old stuff pretty much exclusively. Booked in for a Hydragas pump up on Saturday morning which should improve the ride and handling and comfort somewhat.

 

 

That, in turn, got me thinking about what needs doing so I drew up a fresh to-do list.

 

Important stuff

Bleed brake system, fit new rear shoes - I have all the stuff to do this, just not got around to it yet. I might get a garage to do it which is very lazy of me.

Fit new clutch kit - release bearing has been grumbling for over a year now, I really should get it done. No clutch slip or burn though, so it'll be okay for now. New three part kit is £40-50

New oil and filter - this is overdue. Filter, engine flush and oil is about £30.

Valve stem seals - I'm burning oil, sometimes visibly, all the signs of valve stem seal wear are there so I've bought some new ones but not changed them yet. Thankfully, I've only had to top the oil up once by 1ltr after about 1200 miles of driving.

Timing belt - While it's not due until 80k, I'm at 72k and will be refreshing quite a few things so it makes sense to do it along with the rest.

Wheels & Tyres - finish the Lotus alloys and/or de-rust and repaint the steels so that I can get brand new tyres fitted, probably Uniroyals. My current tyres are very noisy and mismatched.

Suspension - Booked in at a local garage on Saturday morning, cost is a maximum of £20 providing it is just a drain and refill job and nothing breaks.

Underseal - there's not a lot under the car and none in the front arches, this must be remedied.

Ball joint - one of them sounds like it's on its way out, only just started doing it. Will probably do both.

 

 

Other stuff

Sleeve nuts - for the Lotus alloys

All the paint - purple and red oxide primer, paintbrushes, lots of sandpaper

Bodyshop - repair the rear screen surround, and repaint the whole roof in beige. Also need to fit a new windscreen seal at the same time.

Interior - full retrim (unless I can source a complete beige/ivory HLS interior) in ivory velour, vinyl and shagpile.

Bodywork - Replacement front wing (driver's side) and front valance to get the nose properly straight. Probably another bodyshop job.

Front bumper - need a new one eventually

Rams - bonnet and boot gas rams are still fubarred, though the new bonnet is lighter and will sometimes stay up on the existing rams.

Steering Wheel - rotate by one or two splines, it's now wonky after the tracking and that's annoying.

 

I'll just plod along with the above until it's all done. I'm hoping to have her mechanically sound by Autumn and cosmetically done by this time next year.

[vulgalour]

I've driven 152 miles since the 1st and every one of them a delight. Made it to the Retro Rides meet without any drama, leading my brother in his Rover 216 SLi auto and meeting up with Sam and his pristine Montego.

 

These pictures taken towards the end of the night, when most folks had headed off home. I doubt I'll be able to beat this line up any time soon.

 

 

The carb seems to be behaving itself now, I've certainly not had another instance of hot start flooding since I last mentioned it. I also got lucky with some brand new top quality tyres that were bought by my other half in error for his 90s Honda Prelude that just so happen to be the right size for the Princess, the company he bought them from won't let him send them back, so I'm buying them off him for a sensible price as soon as the cash is saved up. This is a good thing, as the tyres that are on have a weird habit of being twitchy on certain road surfaces which I'm not keen on.

[vulgalour]

Today has been a good day to be a Princess owner.  Was booked in to get my suspension pumped up this morning at a local garage but since I was a little early, I stopped in at the nearby Tescos for some refreshments and look what I found to park next to.

 

 

 

Happily, as I was scribbling a note to leave under the wiper of the Maxi, the owner returned and we got chatting and I told him he has to get himself over here as soon as possible.  You don't often get the chance to park next to such an excellent example of the marque.

 

At the garage is an ancient Michelin tyre pressure guide next to the air pump.  Newest thing on it that I could see was a 92 Civic.  I thought this bit was of interest.

 

So, out with the dalek and on with the pumping.  Possibly the strangest bit of maintenance I've seen done on a car yet, and looked really quite an easy job.

 

Went for a drive around the block to let things settle out a bit and was surprised at just how much better the car handles.  The steering is lighter, it doesn't pitch and yaw so much when stopping and setting off and it's much flatter over the lumps and bumps.  The car felt far more stable and chuckable than before, even if it does now look like a 4x4.

 

So, we'll see how we go with this and if there's any changes to the ride height I'll go back to the garage to have it investigated.  I think this has been altogether too much excitement for me for one day.

[Skizzer]

Brilliant to see this up and about again.  Top effort.

 

The ride height looks about right in the last picture from what I remember of Princesses when new - none of this newfangled SICK STANCE YO nonsense.

[dollywobbler]

Aye. Looks good. There was a Princess at Pride of Longbridge that had been hideously over-pumped. It looked stupid.

[Spiny Norman]

I remember when I had mine yonks ago that having the suspension pumped up made a huge difference to the way the car felt, it was as if it was about half a ton lighter!

Don't know if you know this but there is a 'correct' height that you're supposed to measure from the wheel to the arch, think it tells you what it is in the HBOL if you've got one.

[vulgalour]

The mechanic doing the work had a book with a great big long list of all the different cars and settings and according to his list 14" was the required so that's what we went to.  Princess forum say it should be 14.5" but I doubt a half inch will make any difference, especially since the car can gain and lose that much just down to the temperature.

[ayrshirelad]

Well done looking gd. The steering wheel nut if it i the same as a Marinas is 34m or 5/16th witworth!. I had to acquire one to remove my ITALS steering wheel. However that i now on the back burner untill i get a heater motor that works on both speeds!. I got 2 spare both of which work on one speed only. Both knacked unless i can get a resistor for one of them!. 

[vulgalour]

Since we had such glorious weather today, I treated Dad's Omega and the Princess to a wash.  Not a proper deep clean, but certainly enough to make them both look more presentable.  When I'd finished I had a chance to get some photographs of how the car is sitting now the suspension has had chance to settle a little more.  The top of the drive is the flattest area I have to work with, it does have a very slight slope to the driver's side of the car, but not enough to throw measurements off too far.

 

Today and yesterday I've measured the hub-centre-to-arch-lip a few times to keep an eye on it, as advised by both the garage and the online forums I post on.  At the highest when it was really rather warm and the same day as the pump up, we had 16 1/2" at the back and a whopping 17" at the front but its since settled to a far more reasonable maximum of 15" at the front when hot and 14.5" maximum at the rear.  Normal daytime temperatures see the car sitting between 14 and 14 1/2" front and rear and dropping not much lower than 14" in the cooler evening so I'd hazard a guess that all is well.  I also made sure to check the rebound straps today to make sure they were sitting relaxed as they should and not overly taught.

 

 

 

As you can see, the ride height has settled down a bit now with time and use.  I'm wondering if a combination of being used to seeing the car a good 2-3" lower, the mismatched trim and the colour/s are what's making it look higher than it measures.  I ought to get that driver's side headlight trim fastened back against the valance, it makes that side look a lot further pushed back than it really is.

 

This is a good example of why I want the Aconite over the Black Tulip.  If I painted the car in Black Tulip it would just look black most of the time, the Aconite is far more favourable to the lines of the body.

 

I'd like to fit a nicer foglight eventually, I really don't like the one that's on too much, it doesn't look neat enough.  It also makes the back end look wonky which is probably why a pair was originally fitted.  I still have the other foglight in a box, but I'm not fighting with the bumper to refit it.

 

All things considered, I don't reckon her face looks too bad these days.  She's certainly done me proud for the 200 or so miles we've racked up over the last 9 days without any drama or problems.  She's a proper get-in-and-go car now and just getting better with every little job I undertake.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Does look like its siting a llttle high there, but TBH I would probably leave it like that, its a bit of extra free 'boing' innit.

[vulgalour]

You're not the only one to say it looks high, but it feels right and drives really nicely now.  It's not crashy or bouncy, it's floaty like I expect it should be without being wallowy.  Taut, would be a good way to explain the driving experience, yet still quite organic.  I'm tempted to have the system drained and refilled with fresh fluid, but I've been getting conflicting opinions as to whether or not this is necessary.

[purplebargeken]

if you are  happy with it then all is fine. Round my way it would need another 4" to cope with the bastard speed bumps.

[stuboy]

looks ok to me...

[vulgalour]

A little job done today.  Remember that Austin Morris J van badge I got?  Turns out the profile of it is rubbish for the rear end but near perfect for the front grille.  I set about modifying it to fit the grille rather than having it sat on a shelf in the house.  First job is to wrap some lengths of wire around the original fixing pins which are much too short to go through the Princess grille.  I didn't want to chop the grille about as it's in pretty good condition and I was happy enough with a dry fit that the badge would look at home sat on top of the grille rather than recessed into it.  If I get another grille, this may change.

 

Then mixed up some milliput to fix the wires to the badge.  This was also quite useful to create a step in the milliput that helps locate the badge snugly on the grille bars.  The other advantage to milliput is that while it's quite strong and sticks to things well, it can be chipped off at a later date if I want to salvage the badge for any reason.

 

Finally, to decide on the location for the badge.  First attempt I thought it sat a little high.

 

Moved it down a bar and now it sits just right.  I'm pleased with this, in part because it has the barest hint of Marina about it.  It will be easy to revert to stock if I want to at a later date.  A straight front bumper and moving the number plate will help out further.

 

In other news, the Lotus alloys look like they're going on the car once I have the new tyres in my possession as it'll be cheaper to get them put on the car than the steels due to the fact they'll require no refurbishment to get new tyres to fit and seal properly.  Happy days.

[beko1987]

If its anything like the xm (which it probably isn't) its behave oddly for a few hundred miles, then settle down and be lovely!

 

Looking good now, I'm glad you didn't give up hope last year

[barefoot]

I'm in two minds about that!

[dean36014]

Can remember pumping these up when I was a mechanic. IIRC the measurement was 14 1/2 inches from the centre of the wheel to the wheel arch lip.

[plasticvandan]

i pumped my allegro estate up,splashed out on one of the proper pumps when they were on offer,still cost half as much as the car,got my money back for it tho made an enormous difference to how it drove,it had suffered from the pass side dropping down,stayed up for the time i owned it.