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1980 Austin Princess


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Posted

It is dark and cold and I am ill so no, I couldn't.  I end up out of breath just making a cup of tea at the moment, this cold that's been doing the rounds is just bloody stupid and can FRO.  Changing wheels is pretty much beyond me at the moment.  Maybe this will appease you, taken back when I first got the wheels.

 

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  • Like 2
Posted

Best not to run any wheels you care about, through the winter, anyway...

 

Are they polished and lacquered?

Posted

The center bore of a wheel should bear absolutely no load when the wheels are on the car and the bolts tightened (hence most of them are made of plastic). The wheel/hub joint is a friction interface, with the friction created by tonnes and tonnes of clamping force provided by the bolt torque. If the wheel slips across the hub at all (even 0.5mm) something has gone very wrong already, and a plastic spigot ring won't make any difference to the impending wheel falling off situation.

 

 

Spigots are only there to help centralise the wheel initially when you first fit it, which (if they are the right ones and a tight fit in the wheel) the sleeve nuts will do anyway. The vast majority of aftermarket (and factory) wheels up until the 80s had no spigot location whatsoever.

 

PS the wheels look cracking!

Posted

I've been trying to find out what else could be amiss with the fitment and I've come to a few conclusions.  I know the offset is okay and I know the PCD is identical.  I know the sleeve nuts and locking nuts I bought are the correct length and thread for the wheels and I know I'm getting no banging or other horrible noises or generating any heat in the wheel nuts even at higher speeds, which would lead me to believe there's no untoward stresses on them.

 

I suspect I've measured incorrectly, there's a trick of the light making things appear wonkier than they are or that the sleeve nuts are actually a little too thin allowing some movement.  I'm also not sure spigot rings are the answer because there's no shoulder on the rear hubs for it to locate on anyway, just the hub nut cover which I don't think the spigot ring is designed to locate against.

 

I have to shelve any spending anyway, I'm all spent up now until after I've done the Maidstone meet, but research is generally free.

Posted
The wheel fitment issue has been discovered and it's down to shank thickness.  I've since discovered that Lotus had wheel nuts made specifically for these wheels and they have a slighter thicker than normal shank so regular sleeve nuts will allow the wheel to move off centre quite easily when fitting.  With no shoulder on the rear hub to utilise I can't make use of spigot rings for helping me line things up either.

 

So I'm on the look out for 12 Lotus Elite or Eclat specific wheel nuts.  Places that have listed them online - usually at around £55 for 12 - are out of stock and Dad is presently chasing up a potential supplier to get this sorted.

 

I could continue to run the car on the existing sleeve nuts but since the fitment is less than perfect I'm not going to.  The wheels are the only thing keeping me and the tarmac apart so I want to make sure they're on the car properly.

Posted

Try Mr Tee , in South London. He's specialises in stuff like this.

Posted

I have tried eBay, that's where my first set came from but they were wrong.  I'm going to try www.lotusbits.com tomorrow and see if they've got anything suitable in stock, if so it'll only be about £30 for as many as I need.

Posted

The wheels do look the biz. hope nuts turn up w/o too much aggro or cost.

 

First time I saw a 18-22 (blue, Morris) I mistook it for a Lotus Elite, introduced around the same time. Wedges rule!

Posted

I can has the choonz!  Okay, so it's not fully properly installed because to make the radio sit in the dash perfectly I have to remove the binnacle to screw it all in place as there's no cage for the radio with these dashboards.  But, my brown Panasonic radio-cassette is now wired in and fully functional.  It has a delightful yellowy glow when turned on and while it is stereo, my car only has enough wires for Mono and the radio goes louder than the factory door speakers can cope with... not ideal then, but it's better than driving in silence.  Here's a rubbish picture.

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Additionally, Dad did some hunting while I've been catching up with my man-flu and injury related work back log and has ordered a set of 12 correct brand new wheel nuts direct from Lotus for £50 (inc. postage) because he experienced how rubbish my tyres are in the wet and would rather see me safe on the tyres fitted to the Lotus alloys.  It's also because he thinks the Lotus alloys are awesome and he commented with amazement at how much better the car now feels as a passenger than it did when I first got it.

 

I don't know why, but today feels like a bit of a milestone.  I feel rather positive about my old boat.  So that probably means something is about to go terribly wrong.

Posted

What tyre size do the Lotus alloys take? Could you get some decent performance boots for £not that much? I remember you saying the OEM Princess tyre fitment was a bit hit and miss. I imagine it'd be a bit like the Amazon (165\80\15) - you can either have 'crap' (Firestone F560) or 'exorbitantly expensive' (Vredestein SprintTrac, Michelin XZXs from Longstone).

My top tip would be to find some Phonocar speakers (they punch far above their weight for the price) and then modify the Princess grilles to fit. I've done that with my 460 and they're excellent cones for very little outlay. 

Posted

From memory...

Lotus - 205/60/14  Dunlop SP Sport

Princess - 185/70/14 Infinity, Kelly, Euromaster and Arrowspeed.  The Roadmaster is flat and in the shed.

 

Seems van tyres are the easiest match, car tyres tend to be lower profile and/or wider fitment.  I'd rather run the Lotus wheels full time even though they're a much more expensive size to accomodate.

Posted

Van tyres are easiest match for the 70 profile... I doubt you'd get many tyres to match the Dunlops on the Lotus wheels too!  Mind you, I did see a Dubmong van today on lattice alloys with stretched tyres that looked pretty low profile.

Posted

From memory...

Lotus - 205/60/14  Dunlop SP Sport

Princess - 185/70/14 Infinity, Kelly, Euromaster and Arrowspeed.  The Roadmaster is flat and in the shed.

 

Seems van tyres are the easiest match, car tyres tend to be lower profile and/or wider fitment.  I'd rather run the Lotus wheels full time even though they're a much more expensive size to accomodate.

Damn, they're weirdo sizes by modern standards. I remember the sharp intake of breath when I went tyre hunting for the Piazza years ago which takes 195 60 14s and having to settle on 205 60 14s instead. 

 

The cheapest new meats I can find are these:

 

http://www.camskill.co.uk/m4b0s402p49404/Nankang_Tyres_Car_Nankang_XR611_Nankang_XR_611_-_205_60_R14_88H_TL_

 

 

Can the Prinny do 110 mph?

 

I have a set of nice 195 \ 60 \ 14s but I'm saving them for something else. 

Posted

20131206-01_zps207f7a15.jpg

Looking good, another step forward - oh, can you turn the cigar lighter so the cigar is level & the 'smoke' is up Cheers  ;-)

Posted

It depends. Some people prefer to smoke lying down, with the seat fully reclined, and the cigar sticking up vertically out of their mouths. I think that you have failed to take such people and their perfectly legitimate smoking habits into account.

  • Like 2
Posted

VA, where do you stand on whitewalls?

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These bad boys are Delta Majestic 185/75/14s, ordered through a tyre supplier in Paphos for me.  From Atlanta, Ga.  If we could get them in Cyprus I'm sure you should be able to get them over here.  If you wanted to re-tyre the steels, that is...

 

I'm constantly impressed with this story, you are making a real statement with this car.  Great Stuff!

Posted

185/70 R14 is an odd size nowadays, which is irritating as that's what mine are too. I got Barums which are okay though, certainly better than the "Corsa" tyres which were on it.

Those Lotus alloys look bloody brilliant on this.

Posted

Looking good, another step forward - oh, can you turn the cigar lighter so the cigar is level & the 'smoke' is up Cheers  ;-)

 

:lol: You'd go mental in a modern VW. The radio's volume knob has the power symbol on it so it's nearly always rotated the wrong way. I was very happy to read a post on another forum by someone who said they would turn their radio on, set the volume, then turn it off and rotate the knob the right way before turning it back on. That damn knob is even the wrong way round in this VW press shot

  • Like 3
Posted

Be very careful if you're asking Angyl to adjust his fag lighter. It's a touchy subject between him and his partner. Heated discussions have been had, and continue.

Posted

The tab lighter symbol facing up like that, always reminds me of the World Trade Center towers.

 

Maybe he is part of an Al Qaeda sleeper cell?

Posted

whitewalls... redlines... Syd Mead.  I like all these words.

Posted

Today, the Princess was being used to tootle over to Lubenham which is just off J20 of the M1 for a Triumph Club open day.  All was well, no issues of note at all, but about 30 miles from our destination the temp gauge suddenly jumped up from the usual 1/2 to 3/4.  I backed off and the temperature dropped a bit but the car didn't seem too bad.  We pulled off at Leicester Forest East just for a loo break and I popped the bonnet just in case.

 

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The thermostat housing had a bit of steam coming from it and had overflowed.  At first I thought the bodge of chemical metal had failed and it had just dumped all the water out again.

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But popping off the oil filler cap proved otherwise.  I'd checked the water and oil a couple of days ago and there was no mayonnaise or warning that anything was amiss.

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We filled the expansion tank and started the car to see what would happen.  Lots of water and steam out the exhaust was about the result of that and the gauge rising steadily.  That proved conclusively that it was a head gasket failure.

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Thankfully, back in February I signed up for AA membership and today was the first time I've ever had to make use of it.  The first AA thing to arrive was a van and I laughed when the driver suggested we might be able to put K-seal in, and then he laughed when he saw the contents of the oil filler.  He didn't have the relevant A-frame* with him so we waited for a big lorry to take us home instead.

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Tonight I spent my last bit of cash on 4ltrs of oil.  I'll get the head off, check it for level and use the stuff I bought to do the HLS head on the HL instead now.  The only thing I need to acquire is some engine flush to clean out the gunk and I can borrow the relevant stem seal tool so that can be done at the same time.

 

It's a frustrating set back, but it will allow me to get the engine in tip top health, something I was putting off until the Spring as I'll likely have to do this job in the street as I don't have enough driveway space to use.

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