project 1980 Austin Princess

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Good on you vulg, i reckon you've made the right call. You're defo doing a great service to the wedge population at large in my view. Carry on!

[scruff]

In my opinion old cars have to be broken to keep other ones alive.

 

 

Yep, nobody moans when they buy a used part that you wouldn't have a chance of finding new or NOS

[Vince70]

I would of thought the remains would fit in a metal recycle box.

You would be lucky to have enough metal over to make a decent can for some Tesco value bake beans...

 

Good work Vulgalour at least you now have enough spares to keep the other two on the road.. I always like your threads keep us all updated on your progress..

[vulgalour]

Found another nicknack in the orange car, it's an antifreeze tester.  I've added it to my Giffer Stuff box because I like these random bits of nonsense that I find in old cars.  Needs a new bulb but otherwise works as it was designed to.

 

Fortunately for me, the seatbelts in the orange car are identical to the ones in the beige car so I no longer need to get custom belts made.  I knew one of the stalks was frayed from the last interior swap but never really investigated it fully, now I know just how bad they were I'm very happy to have swapped to the stalks from the orange car.  I also changed the seatbelt in from the orange car as they're in better condition too.

 

The weather was changable today, less than ideal for swapping interiors around or really doing anything outside, but I perservered.  I'm on a tight deadline so I can't afford to waste a day even when the weather is appalling.  Got the carpet out and cleaned up, it was really just dusty and has barely any fading at all, it also seems to fit better than the black carpet that went in.  Rear seat too was only dusty, there's no thinning or bleaching of the top of the seat back as is normal for Princess rear seats, they don't even smell funny!

 

Front seats were the easiest install I've ever done.  Normally they're right fiddly things to get in but these just dropped straight in with no fuss at all.  The velour still feels grippy, there's no fading, no loss of pile on the fabric and the seats are still firm and supportive without any of the usual sag and bag.  These seats are frankly astonishing.

 

I got one door card fitted and swapped the good handle from the back to the front until I can get a decent black replacement.  I also got the interior B pillar trim fitted before the seatbelt and put the black door seals in only to find they're considerably plumper than the brown ones I had in and the driver's door is now difficult to shut without using considerable effort.  I'd like to fit a brushed aluminium or stainless steel trim into the grab handle recess to break up the relentless sea of black a bit.

 

The parcel shelf is removed with the use of a hammer and refitted in much the same way.  Unfortunately I couldn't remove the vinyl trim under the rear window which is still brown, it's a screen out job because you have to drill out some rivets and there's no good access to do this or to fit new rivets, I'll do it when I get the rear screen surround repaired.

 

 

I've said before I'm not a fan of black interiors and this is not my first choice.  With some adjustment I will be content with this interior and the condition of it far outweighs any misgivings I have about the colour, I've never had a car with an interior this nice.  With some subtle tweaks and additions of a small quantity of brightwork, the cabin on this car is going to be very smart and it actually does the Champagne Beige paint some pretty hefty favours, so much so that I'm actually keeping the car in the original beige with black C pillars and door surrounds.

[derskine]

I think that interior suits really well and looks fantastically good condition.

[phil_lihp]

That interior looks superb, the orange one looks well past it and will do a far greater service as a pile of bits than it ever would do otherwise so I'd say you've done exactly the right thing.

[vulgalour]

I missed a bit.  Inside the soggy and ruined HBOL that came with the car (I have another, it's pristine, I have never used it) was a little document that illustrates more goodies in this orange car that I really need.

 

 

The brake discs and pads must have been fitted just before the car was taken off the road but it looks like they might only have been fitted on the driver's side so we'll have to see how lucky I've got there when I take a peek.  The clutch has only done about 32k too so that might still be good as a spare part.  Tellingly there was a bookmark in the HBOL on the rear suspension sphere section so I wonder if it's had work/replacement spheres on the rear not long before being laid up too, it could explain why it sits so well.

[Vince70]

With all that blackness inside your wedge are you sure your not trying to turn into something modern and German..

Next you will be fitting an allegro quartic steering wheel and pretending you've got the new flat bottomed Audi wheel to finish the modern German look and fitting some dark carbon fibre look vinyl to the dash..

 

But seriously I think the Beige and Black do go well together...

[morris_ital_lover]

With some subtle tweaks and additions of a small quantity of brightwork, the cabin on this car is going to be very smart and it actually does the Champagne Beige paint some pretty hefty favours, so much so that I'm actually keeping the car in the original beige with black C pillars and door surrounds.

 

That'll look mega. Please carry on...

[vulgalour]

With all that blackness inside your wedge are you sure your not trying to turn into something modern and German..

 

 

I remind my honourable friend of these, which will be fitted to protect the seats.

[D-Dubya]

The parcel shelf is removed with the use of a hammer and refitted in much the same way.  Unfortunately I couldn't remove the vinyl trim under the rear window which is still brown, it's a screen out job because you have to drill out some rivets and there's no good access to do this or to fit new rivets, I'll do it when I get the rear screen surround repaired.

 

How about getting a sticky vinyl piece in black and covering it? less faff

[vulgalour]

I need to get the rear screen out eventually for some repairs.  All I'll do is swap the vinyl over then and do both jobs at the same time.

[D-Dubya]

I need to get the rear screen out eventually for some repairs.  All I'll do is swap the vinyl over then and do both jobs at the same time.

fair does, if its coming out. id do it properly then too! if its a while before that point comes.... my OCD would have kicked in and I'd end up cpvering it!

[purplebargeken]

Good call IMHO. That black interior really is the mutts. Fabulous stuff!

[stuboy]

blimey those black seats remind me of mates dad ital back in the 80's

[beko1987]

Compared to the interior in the beige one anyway which you were knitting furiously away at to cover up those seats are gr9! Much better o thave a good set covered up than a bad set!

[barefoot]

Needs a new bulb but otherwise works as it was designed to.

 

 

 

 

Now I don't want you to think I'm being a pendant again but surely if the bulb is fucked you're pushing it just a 

little by saying, 'works as it was designed to'

 

Seriously though, well done 

[fordperv]

Interior looks great, keep up the good work, I also think you made the right decision on the orange cars fate

[vulgalour]

More progress today, not quite as exhausting as yesterday as I didn't have to refit so much into the beige car this time around and I had a helper for a couple of hours in the afternoon to make the work a bit easier.

 

I said there was more rust to be found in the boot.  Today I took out the very good boot mat, spare wheel and assorted detritus so I could see if there was much of use to the beige car back here.  This isn't a rust hole, it's the hole for the bumper bolt to go through, there appears to be no bracket on the bumper from a cursory look either.

 

Spare wheel well usually rots out, and this is a fairly average looking one.  Beige car has already been repaired here.

 

Inner arch to seat frame, inner arch to floor both rusty and much worse than the beige car.  In addition to the plate that's undoubtedly hiding more rot, there's a few spots coming through on the inner arch on the top that the beige one doesn't suffer from.

 

Other side and you can see the rot in the corner.  The beige one has gone here too, but not quite as badly.  I dread to think what that plate is hiding.

 

Bumper mount on the passenger side is ruined and you can see the rising rot in the lower quarter. 

 

Fibreglass on the blown inner arch seam is causing problems rather than fixing them and you can see through the rear 'chassis' member where there's more rot claiming bits of car.

 

Then we get to the monster hole.  Arch trims are pretty tricky to remove, but this was one of the easiest because it wasn't really attached to anything.  There was an ENORMOUS block of filler, fibreglass, newspaper and mesh where there's now a gaping hole where the arch used to meet the rear door.

 

 

 

Got one of the door cappings off, and found even more rot.  The doors on this car are going the same way as the ones on the red one that I binned in favour of the other banger racer's doors.

[vulgalour]

So, rust aside, we've been busy.  Removed the grab handles, dashboard, glovebox, front parcel shelf, sun visors, rear view mirror, steering wheel, remaining C pillar trim and door membranes.  Then we got the steering column, pedal box and air vents out too.  we're pretty close to bare shell inside which will make removing the wiring loom, dashboard mount, glass and headlining a good bit easier to get out.

 

There wasn't a huge amount more to be done inside the car so attention turned to mechanical stuff.  Brake master and slave cylinder, clutch cylinder, both headlight trims and one headlight (pesky seized and rusty screws), steering column support bracket, manifold heatshield (finally got one!) and that previously mentioned rear arch trim.

 

Looking pretty empty in there now.  These cars are brilliant to strip down, most things are easy to access and we were lucky in that many of the fixings on this one were secure but not seized.  Wherever possible, fixings and fastenings have been put back in their respective holes so when I come to reusing any of these parts it will be that bit easier.  This did highlight that the play in my steering rack is actually the pinch bolt inside the car that holds the knuckle/rose joint to the column hasn't been fully tightened, having a (mechanically) good car to compare against was vital to diagnose this.

 

Did some work on the interior of the beige car and with a very quick wipe down of Autoglym Rubber & Vinyl spray they've come up astoundingly well.

 

 

Apart from this door.  The dodgy grab handle I had won't go back on because the little thing at the top that stops you pulling the handle off the door is broken.  I did liberate a good plastic clip from the orange car so I could fit a brown handle I have and now this doesn't pull off every time you try and shut the door.  I'm on the lookout for a new black handle for this door now because this bugs me, but slightly less than it would if there were no grab handle there.

 

Those seat covers have made it into the car, I make no apology for them because I think they look superb in the new interior.  I need to get some offcuts of black carpet for the inner sills as the ones from the orange car were in poor condition.

 

Tomorrow I should be making a start on removing glass and engine bits.  I was disappointed to find that the thermostat housing, while good, has half a waxstat stuck in it just like the red one so I'll have to get the hole saw on that which was a job I thoroughly enjoyed last time.

[320touring]

Epic work!

Really like the car seats- like a giffer gods waiting room

[Squire_Dawson]

You have been a busy bee. Very good work, and yes, that interior is a cracker. Autoglym V&R is fantastic stuff.

[phil_lihp]

It's remarkable how good the interior is as well considering the state of the car it came out of.  The black and silver looks proper sophisticated too!

[vulgalour]

It's not perfect, there's a couple of nicks to the vinyl in hidden places for some reason, but I've never come across a Princess interior with no seat top fading, no wear on the velour and no rodent damage.  The worst bits were the mangled driver's door pull and the inner sill carpets, everything else is practically brand new.  I daresay I'd've been happy to pay £280 for the interior let alone the entire car.

[KruJoe]

It's a bugger, that brake fluid!

[jbz2079]

Those "O" Series thermostat housings are a complete arse of an idea.

I have had problems with a few of them on Marina and Ital 1700's.

They are made from that shite alloy that goes powdery white as it corrodes, assisted by old anti-freeze and salt from winter roads.

 

You know your going to have bother when someone says it never gets properly warm and the heater is crap.

Then you take the steel lid off to find the top sealing lip is crumbling and the little ears that hold the cap on are dissolving.

 

So you look inside the the thermostat does not have the top part, this is because someone before you had snapped it off trying to pull the stat out.

 

Then you get creative and take the housing off the engine, that's when you find the Thermostat is made out of far tougher stuff than the housing it sits in!

 

I have drilled the thermostats with lots of small holes in an attempt to collapse it in on it's self, and then bust the housing trying to get the remains out!

I have also got the thermostat out only to find that the top leaks like a sieve after you refit it!

 

My mate had a Marina 1700L Estate and the little 6mm holding down bolt was stripped and the engine blew the whole housing out while he was on a high speed thrash.

It doused the distributer with coolant, that shorted the sparks to the engine, so it just stopped.

 

Then a spark found it's way to a plug fired all the unburnt fuel in the engine and exhaust, I was about 50 yards behind the car he had just passed.

The resulting explosion blew the exhaust backbox to bits, the tailpipe went straight through the grill of the car he had just passed and burst his radiator too.

 

They both freewheeled into the next lay-by where a few words were exchanged and a few deatails.

I pulled in at the far end of the lay-by, I literally could not get out my car for howling with laughter.

[philibusmo]

Vulg,

 

I do have a contact who has cast new thermostat housings for Mk1 Fiesta XR2s, I can see how much he would want to cast new and more durable thermostat housings for O Series engines, we would just need to be able to supply a non-smashed original to make a mold with.

 

This is all excellent work by the way, it has got my mojo going for cracking on with the Lancia today and got me all excited about seeing the red Princess in the flesh in May.

[vulgalour]

I would be interested in this magical thermostat making person of which you speak, a non-smashed example could be obtained for £40 but I don't think I could provide one at the moment as all the ones I have are wedged firmly into engines.  You'll be pleased to know I have a complete headlining safely removed from which I shall be taking a pattern and while I'm not going to make any attempt to fit the headlining to the HLS, it will be provided with the car for you.  I'm hoping that the HLS will be fully sorted by the orange car, it looks like I might have to buy new track rod ends and tyres and that's it going by all the good spare stuff the beige one isn't using.

[vulgalour]

Started early today so I could finish early. Getting the wheels off was a bit of a challenge as the driver's side were dogged up so tight even the 4' breaker bar struggled and passenger side wheels hadn't been off in such a long time that the nuts had started to rust to the studs under the nut covers. Got there in the end and I now have a spare set of steel wheels to refurbish with tyres on that need binning.

 

Got the bonnet off and I'm deeming it scrap/repair panel material. The rusty hinge mount had a seized bolt, the head of which sheared off, and the rest of the bonnet is reasonable but not great. Distributor and side repeaters removed easy peasy and had another go at the front trim and headlight fixings to no avail, going to have to get the drill on those.

 

I wanted to liberate the windscreen if at all possible, they're made almost entirely of unobtanium. Luckily, in some ways, the windscreen seal was perished on this car and letting water in so it was a fairly simple task to cut through the seal and carefully lift the screen free. The rear screen put up more of a fight, mainly because I wanted to save the exceptionally good seal. Again, rear screens and seals are made of the rarest of materials and well worth preserving and I'm glad success was had, even if it did take three of us to liberate it safely. The glass has been put in a Safe Place but I'm still terrified of breaking it. These are being kept in stock because I know the rear screen at least needs to be removed and I don't want to risk having no screen to refit.

 

With the screen out I could inspect the rear surround and I'm delighted to report that it has good solid metal where the beige one isn't so clever. I'll cut these sections out as they may make repairing the surround on the beige car easier when I get that done.

 

You can see on this side what happens if you do nothing about the rust you can't see under the vinyl trim. There's still enough for the repair I need to make though.

 

Bottom on the driver's side is on its way out.

 

These little round trim clips I haven't been able to find a supplier for. Since I'm putting the C pillar top trim back on I'm going to keep remove them. These are one of those fiddly little items you need and can never find.

 

Bottom of the passenger C pillar had a rusty patch, once the vinyl and waist trim were removed it became a hole. There was another hole lurking completely hidden from view under the vinyl further to the front too. Again, the beige car is good here.

 

 

Once useful discovery is that if I can get to the rivets on the beige car the rear vinyl trim on the parcel shelf can be removed without taking the rear screen out. I had assumed that the vinyl tucked into the screen seal as it did elsewhere but since it doesn't that's going to be easy to resolve. I also removed and kept the two white vinyl C pillar trims that tidy the small piece of metal between the removable trims and the rear screen seal.

 

Headlining out, complete, without damage. The wires holding it up are really substantial. I'll be taking a pattern so I can make new headlinings and the one from this car will be cleaned and put with the HLS for the new owner to experience the joy of fitting.

 

Front driver's side corner has a practically new set of pads and a very good disc, there's barely any wear at all so I doubt they did more than about fifty miles on it. The track rod end has utterly disintegrated and of no use. The brake hoses look in good condition and the inner arch plastics are reasonable if not perfect.

 

Passenger side brakes are a different story, they've seen a lot of use and I'll likely only save the caliper to refurbish on this side and the hoses which again look in reasonable order.

 

At the back the rear axle proved fairly easy to remove. The rebound strap mount on the inner arch is good both sides so I'll chop those out in case they can be used to repair the HLS. The brake hoses came apart nicely, and everything looks healthy and, for the most part, as though it's been apart in the not too distant past. Dropping the axle was a doddle, no seized bolts or any of that nonsense and the only problem thus far has been very tight hydragas unions, I didn't want to battle those today so that's a job for tomorrow. Best of all, the pivot shafts are free moving as they should be which means I can remove and regrease them before fitting this axle to the beige car.

 

That was about all I had the energy to do today, but it's a good chunk more sorted. There was a really healthy amount of pressure in the hydragas system, the pipes look in excellent shape and all the spheres are good. I'll inspect the rear drums but may end up putting this axle straight on to the beige car with the brakes and everything as they are after checking it's all working properly. End of play I dropped the bonnet back in place and we'll do this all again tomorrow.

[320touring]

Its taking you less time, and more care to dismantle it than they ever put into building it:)