project 1980 Austin Princess

[AnthonyG]

What's that two tone tray coupe in the corner Vulg? A 1960s Lancia?

[vulgalour]

1964 Lancia Flavia coupe.  Long term resident and patiently waiting it's turn for interior, a little bit of welding, brake overhaul and paint blending on some of the edges.  Lovely old thing it is too, even in the current condition, should be glorious when finished.

[fordperv]

Your welding will get there with practice fella, good effort

[M'coli]

Indeed, practice helps. That piece a few frames up looks slightly cool, a little more current will help it flow. You'll blow through at first too, but you'll soon get the hang of it.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

I can't weld for shit, so you're already a winner in my book.

[xtriple]

I've always wanted a go with a TIG welder,looks cracking fun.

 

MIG is dead easy, it's just confidence. Practice on your own with scrap, blow holes, lay pigeon shit, and then experiment with settings/technique and it'll suddenly come to you. I taught my son when he was about 6 (he wanted to make a gun like he'd seen in the computer game 'Doom') and he got it really easy. Granted, he forgot again and had to be re-taught about 18 years later...

 

For fun though, it has to be gas welding. I just think it's brilliant fun, shame the gear is so expensive/hard to keep.

[vulgalour]

Indeed, practice helps. That piece a few frames up looks slightly cool, a little more current will help it flow. You'll blow through at first too, but you'll soon get the hang of it.

 

Power dial could do with being progressive rather than clicky, I could do with it sitting just one side or the other of what it's at.  As I was working I fiddled with the wire speed and gas flow and got better results, I can certainly see what's an older weld and what's a newer one.  I also found I was working a bit close but it's a fine line between the right distance and too far away.  In fact, the whole art of welding is just that, it's not very easy to master and you have to figure it out by feel, something that's complicated by metal that isn't all brand spanking new and regular.

 

Must have been improving though.  Where I had blown through in a couple of spots I went back after some time spent and found I could build the blow throw up with new weld and clean back to a smooth piece of metal so the settings and my ability must have been improved to some degree.  I had planned to do more on this today, but I have the ill.

[M'coli]

Try thr "touch and freeze" technique if it's too harsh - weld a bit, stop for a second or so, weld a bit more and so on.

[dollywobbler]

I'm no welder, but the best folk I've seen doing cars do short sections with gaps, then go back and fill the gaps in. Trying to lay down an actual seam, especially on 2CVs, is almost impossible.

[vulgalour]

The welder and I are getting along now.  This is a good thing.  I managed to finish off the welding on the floor pan and even got the crossmember back in.  I've marked up the outer sill which will be cut and cleaned up after I've repaired the rear arch inner and outer.  I'm feeling a LOT better about this now, putting an axle stand under the rear axle certainly helped get things to a better working height.  Did find and took the better camera and completely forgot to put a battery in so I'm on potatocam for today's little update.

 

 

Looking at the rest of this corner's repairs I need to repair the rear arch before fitting the outer sill to the car.  Gave some of the rust on the sill a go over with the grinder and found it was flakey paint more than it was rust so it looks like the sill is going to tidy up pretty well.  Feeling very relieved about this and getting it finished in the next few days, the other patches are much less complicated.

[mat_the_cat]

Power dial could do with being progressive rather than clicky

 

I've often thought this, but my last welder failing now seems a blessing in disguise, as the replacement has an infinitely adjustable dial rather than selector switches. Bliss! Although (maybe force of habit) I find myself sticking to a current high enough to burn through if used continuously, and just sticking to short bursts. Just seems neater that way.

 

you have to figure it out by feel, something that's complicated by metal that isn't all brand spanking new and regular.

 

Very frustrating...you lay down a lovely bead and then hit a thin patch! If it's at all possible now I just cut out any rusted steel - if it's rusted enough to need grinding down, then chances are once you've removed the rust it will be too thin to easily weld to.

[vulgalour]

With today's work there was only one small bit that was thin where I'd ground back a bit too aggressively on an old weld.  Other than that it all went really nicely, even got some tidy seams going on that once ground smooth were invisible from the side I was welding.  Underside doesn't look too shabby either so I'm happy it's strong enough and tidy enough, just got to put lashing of protection on all surfaces to make sure I don't have to do this again too soon.

 

Got to make prettier welds for the next bit because they're on display.  The stitch-pause-stitch technique did finally click with me today, once you get into your stride with it you do get some really nice lines.  I am FAR from a pro in the consistency of the work, practice will resolve this and there's plenty of rusty car for me to practice on!

 

I only set the sound proofing on fire once.

[meshking]

Nice tidy work there! I enjoy welding but I hate the 'setting other bits on fire' aspect to it.

[vulgalour]

Hoping to be wheeling the Princess outside soon so Nugget can come in for paint detailing, it's just too cold to be doing it outdoors at the moment, especially with much of the work being fiddly stone-chip repair. So, the Princess then. I'm actually really excited about the progress made today because it's ALL positive.

 

My first job of the day was to strip down the remains of the orange donor car. I've salvaged the wing that's good where my damaged one is bad (and vice versa) so I can splice them together later and a couple of other bits. There's a chap in Germany who needs a front valance and cross member and since mine is solid but a little bent where his is completely rotten it makes more sense to sell this bit to him as he needs it more than I do. Took me less time than I expected to strip it all down.

 

I don't have a picture of the spare driver's door I brought in to repair. It's in slightly better condition than the door fitted to the car, but only slightly. I've cleaned it up and worked out what needs replacing but I have no easy way to make the long bits of rectangular metal I need for the repair, could really do with a guillotine. The repair to the door is super simple, but I expect it'll warp if I think about it too hard let alone attempt to weld it.

 

Next, my Winter Beater of Distinction sticker for the bonnet.

 

Made a start on the scruffy rear arch. It's pretty solid, all I've done is blitz it with the flapwheel and weld up the trim holes so far, I've got various small sections to patch back in to finish this off before top coat. For now the metal is protected with some weld-through primer.

 

The most awkward bit to weld in was the sill closing plate. I put this in before welding the outer sill on and I didn't enjoy doing it at all. Plenty of seam sealer to keep the water and dirt on the proper side of it and to give a nice smooth finish.

 

Offered up the outer sill section and found it welded in really easily, surprisingly so! You may recall that the old sill had been bashed in and given a lot of filler that I didn't know about which means the profiles aren't a perfect match. Welds ground back lovely, I feel much more confident about getting a consistent bead now and while a little filler will be needed it's not too horrendous.

 

Top edge is fastened down and just needs neatening up with some seam sealer.

 

 

The bottom sill rail needs welding together to pull everything nice and tight. I feel like I've broken the back of the bit of the car I was dreading the most now and have a lot more confidence about doing the rest.

 

I'm not worrying about making things pretty yet, I just want it all solid with as much rust chased out as possible.

 

 

Things set on fire while welding today: underseal in rear arch, waxoyl inside sill, my hair

[vulgalour]

Urgh, today was no fun. I found that the trailing edge of the sill wouldn't sit close enough to the bottom rail. I should have checked this when I first fitted it and I'm not sure why I didn't. The problem turned out to be part of the curve on the sill closing plate was a fraction of an inch too big. Could I get in with tools? No, of course I couldn't.

Off with the sill repair, a tweak and a trim of the closing plate and I offered the sill back up again, this time it fitted a bit better. While I was at it I also took out what I could of the dent in the original sill so the two parts line up without that step. Silver lining I suppose. I also fabricated a repair panel for the bottom 2-3" of the arch where it meets the sill. I haven't the means to make the repair in one piece as it's a bit complicated with the curves and whatnot and spare panels just don't exist which means two or three smaller patches cunningly snipped so I can fold and weld them into a continuous piece. All that time reading and enjoying welding and fabrication porn has helped me understand this task a lot better.

Will all my pieces set and me on target to get the corner finished today bar top-coat paint I was feeling pretty positive about it all. Got the welder all set up, cleared my work space and set to... zzaapstackatacktacka... One tack, and not a very good one at that. Now, last time I'd done the welding there was a moment when it played up a bit and just made this staccato noise as it welded badly, I'd put it down to needing a break which I took, after which the welder was fine. Today it was down to the gas bottle being completely empty, couldn't get anything out of it at all. I could have carried on without the gas, but the welds were going to be ugly and I suspect not as strong. I decided to be sensible and down tools.

Rather than get too huffy I had a good tidy up of the inside of the car, everything has been a bit rushed and I've been struggling to find decent chunks of free time to really get through the work on the Princess. Clearing out the cabin meant I could properly inspect the floor and reminded myself of the dent that had appeared in the passenger floor pan shortly after it was taken for inspection for welding after she failed her MoT last year. Happily the metal hadn't split and judicious application of the universal adjustment tool saw it bashed out pretty well so there wasn't a big lump sticking in or out of the floor. There is another smaller dent further forwards which has split the floor pan, no rust on show so I'll knock this back and give it a tickle with the sparklestick to make it good again before painting and undersealing.

After that I had a think about what was actually left to do. Since the car was so recently in daily use and I hadn't gone mad taking it apart I knew I was still likely to be able to get everything done by the end of February. There's probably a week's worth of full-time work to get it all done properly, especially if I have someone to help me with things like the brakes and suspension. So here's the list.

Welding
Several small patches on the passenger floor pan, nothing more than about 4" square
One large patch on the driver's floor pan. Happily I have a good section of floor liberated from the donor car for this
Reattach sill end and spot weld bottom rail
Rebuild rear arch inner and outer

Electrical
Refit rear wiring loom - I've got a good spare which has already been modified for the towbar I will fit later
Fuel pump. I'm fed up of the mechanical one leaking and have admitted defeat, I've got a spare blanking plate for the new head and I'll get a suitable electric pump wired in somewhere tidy and as much out of sight as possible
Check fan switch, I recall this was being a bit funny

Mechanical
Strip and rebuild the rear drums again to try and get the handbrake working properly
Replace front sphere and pump up hydragas
Swap later rocker cover onto rebuilt head with good thermostat housing and fit in place of existing head with knackered stem seals and knackered thermostat housing
Fit carburettor/manifold heatshield to try and alleviate fuel vaporising issue
Bleed brakes, a job overdue by at least 12 months now

Trim
Refit carpets and seats and anything else that needs to go in
Purchase appropriate trim clips to reinstate C pillar trims
Reattach sill trims
Weld up remaining arch trim holes
Weld up door mirror mounting holes


When that's done I can get an MoT booked. It's not that scary a list of stuff to do really.

[overrun]

^ Love that Count Duckula reference.

 

What a cartoon!

[vulgalour]

If ever a car could be Nanny, this is it.

[Noel Tidybeard]

2.0 carb montego had leccy fule pump

[vulgalour]

I was probably going to get an MG B suitable one.  Similar sized but thirstier engine and an easier car to get parts for.  Admittedly, the AS way to do this is to carry on regardless, mopping up the leaking oil when it gets too smelly/smokey.

[vulgalour]

Didn't get much time on the Princess today.  Acquired a new gas bottle and then found that it didn't have the right fitting for the regulator we've got so I'll have to try again, or get a different regulator or something.  Rookie error that one.

 

I had mentioned in a previous update the repair I'd started to do on the rear arch.  I've also splashed a bit of orange paint on to keep the moisture away from the metal I'd previously primed, I've got no beige in at the moment and this was the nearest to a match I had.  As you can see, with that first bit repaired at the bottom of the arch the rest of it is pretty straightforward if a little fiddly.

 

 

 

Okay, so I can't do any welding.  I've got brakes, suspension and engine on my list for attention instead.  Could not be doing with messing around with brakes today, and I haven't a pump accessible for getting the car back up once I've replaced the sphere so engine it is.  I was going to swap the head over for the rebuilt one so the first job is draining the water out.  Which somehow evolved into me removing the radiator, and the front grille when the bonnet release cable decided to break a clip and not work.  I now know how to get my bonnet open if the cable snaps in the future, which is handy.

 

Battery needed to be disconnected so I thought I might as well remove it... and the tray... and the three horns (why are there three horns?), and the expansion bottle...  A lot of degreasing action happened too.

 

With all that lot out I could clean up the scabby bracketry too.  Pleased I did this as the battery clamp had some really thick, really flakey powder coat on it which I've now removed.  Took an age to clean up the battery clamp.  Everything primed I went to put the top coat on and realised just how cold it was when the paint just refused to cure and mostly wanted to run straight off the metal slowly.  I'll finish these another day then.

 

I brought the expansion bottle home, it's disgustingly mucky.

 

 

This engine bay used to look a lot cleaner than it does at the moment, I want to get it back to being clean again if I'm doing engine work in there.  A few localised bits of degreasing and a few tiny areas that need a bit of paint touch up should see it all shipshape.  I may have to unwrap, tidy and rewrap the wiring loom too, there's a few non-factory connectors I don't like the look of and some wiring from the old electric fuel pump that needs sorting out and labelling correctly ready for the new one going in at some point.  I'll also give the halogen headlight set I've got a whirl, they're quite old and could even be worse than the sealed beams currently fitted.

[vulgalour]

I've had a very busy day working on all my cars today, including this one.  I finally finished the satin black on the Princess bracketry and took the worst picture of it.


Then I removed all the relevant ancillaries, got the engine to TDC and took off the head which was surprisingly easy, I didn't even need destructions and knew where everything went.  Strangely, one spark plug was finger tight, all the manifold bolts were loose (apart from the one that's sheared off in the head) and one of the fuel pump bolts were loose.  Thankfully, the head bolts weren't.  Everything still looks nice and healthy and with it all apart I can do a better degrease and refit than I did last time I did the head gasket.  Almost seems a shame to redo the headgasket so soon after doing it, but the replacement head is in much better shape.


I shan't be able to get the new head on until Tuesday so I covered everything up in the meantime.  I am considering blanking off the oil filler tube so I can use the filler hole in the rocker cover on the replacement head instead, it looks tidier and cleaner.  Shall have to make a blanking plate to achieve that though.

[vulgalour]

I'm getting better at taking this engine apart and putting it back together. Removed the perfectly fine head gasket and cleaned the block face before dropping the rebuilt head in place. Torqued it all down as per the book, fought with the cam belt and got that on and tensioned up and spark plugs back in. Then fought with the stupidly designed manifold and eventually got all the bolts in and tightened up, this should hopefully completely eliminate the minor chunter the car has always had. The donor car offered me a better and more complete heat shield for behind the the carburettor and a full set of proper spring washers to replace the mismatched assortment the car has always had so those went on along with the carburettor and air box.

 

 

 

 

 

I removed the spacer block for the mechanical fuel pump from the old head but couldn't budge any of the rocker cover bolts to liberate the cambelt cover bracket so the replacement head doesn't have that luxury at the moment. The fuel pump spacer block wasn't leaking where I thought, it was so firmly attached to the head it couldn't leak while the pump side of the block was quite wet, I have no idea how to resolve that which is why I'm planning to switch to a remote electric pump. I'll have to refit the mechanical pump in the meantime and just keep an eye on it.

 

The front of the block got a degrease but wasn't that bad, it looks worse than it is due to really thick lumpy black paint that's starting to flake off so that's a job to sort one day. Later I'll get the battery and expansion bottle brackets refitted, a new O ring seal for the distributor before that's fitted and then it's a case of popping the coil on, radiator and refilling with coolant before first fire.

 

I'm happy I've got the head swapped over, it's one of the bigger jobs. Getting the rest together and the engine running shouldn't cause too much of a headache.

[brickwall]

Great stuff. The welding is really coming along. I'm in such a good mood when my welding is boss and I get really upset when it isn't.

 

I gotta learn to relax.

[michael1703]

I'm happy I've got the head swapped over, it's one of the bigger jobs. Getting the rest together and the engine running shouldn't cause too much of a headache.

Aww, did you really just say that?

 

You've cursed it now

[vulgalour]

ROOKIE ERROR KLAXXON!

 

I'm sure it'll be fine.  Just wait till I get that engine bay wiring loom dismantled, rewrapped and routed tidier.  The more I've been doing on the car lately the more the wiring in the engine bay is annoying me, it's messy and clumsy and could be hugely better with only a few quid and a bit of time.

[vulgalour]

I've taken today off work, much needed, and determined I'd do some fun, easy, engine detailing stuff. The problem with the engine bay is you can see very clearly where I've been, the repainted air box, cleaned up carburettor and rebuilt head make everything else look really shabby. It was a bit colder than I would have liked to be doing paint, thankfully we have a new heater in the office at the unit so I could get paint to dry off better in there.

First thing to do was remove things I wanted to clean up and paint. That meant pulling off the starter motor first which I thought had just been badly painted like quite a few things in the engine bay. It was actually caked in grime and some bad paint on the cylinders, it made such a mess removing it that I couldn't use the camera to photograph it so you'll have to take my word for it. The oil filler tube was removed so I could create a blanking plate template and I could now get to more of the block face to clean off yet more crust and flake.


I've got as much of the grime off as I can without removing the alternator (which I don't particularly want to do) and pulling the engine. Eventually I'm going to get the block painted purple and will likely strip the bell housing back to bare aluminium to match the rest. You can see part of the wiring loom that runs across the block face here too which needs cleaning and re-wrapping ideally.


With the filler tube removed I decided to use it as a test bed for an idea I wanted to try out. I'm going to be ditching this part eventually, but until I get the blanking plate it needs to go back on the car. Spent a while cleaning the flakey paint, rust and bad powder coat off the outside and cleaning the remains of blown-head mayonnaise out of the inside before setting to with some purple and beige rattle cans and fine line tape. The end result looks like a souvenir from Willy Wonka's chocolate factory and I'm okay with that.


It took me far longer than I wanted to get the starter motor cleaned up. It needed up to half an inch of oily crust to be scraped off before I could degrease it and then needed brake and clutch cleaner applying to the aluminium parts to get it back to silver again. The steel cylinders - normally painted satin black - had so much gloss paint badly brushed on over layers of oil and rust that it took me a couple of hours to strip them back far enough to be okay for painting. I was going to do something similar to the filler tube until I discovered how bad the steel cylinder surfaces are, if I do something super fancy in the future I'll do it to a brand new starter motor, this one is worth only really using a single colour. In this instance I've completed the cylinders in Velvet Purple, a nice contrast to the Champagne Beige and a match for the new dash panel I completed a little while ago. You can also see the finished battery tray brackets, the cleaner expansion bottle and the starter motor bracket that's also been repainted in Velvet Purple.


Even though I've still not got the cam belt cover bracket removed from the old head I did get the cover repainted, again in Velvet Purple. I'm going to do something more interesting with this eventually, it's a bit boring as it stands. I'll have a think.






I didn't get anything refitted to the engine, too risky to handle freshly repainted parts. I've got to clean up the coil and distributor and repaint the coil bracket. I might repaint the brackets I've done in satin black to match the bodywork they fix to, so that means more Champagne Beige. Once that's done I can put everything back together and try and fire it all up again.

I'll likely eliminate all the satin black in the engine bay and keep it limited to Champagne Beige, Velvet Purple and bare aluminium. The only exceptions are likely to be the distributor cap, spark leads and battery, I'd like them to be purple but it'll probably be a bit too strong and look a bit... rubbish.

[fordperv]

That filler tube looks like a mushroom that's guaranteed to get you mashed, good work vulg. Be a belter when it's finished

[Squire_Dawson]

Just a thought about the fuel pump. It could be the gaskets were ill fitting, in which case you should cut your own from cork sheet; or a design fault of the pump itself. This happened to me as the pivot ran right through the body and it weeped from there. It took me ages to realise.

[vulgalour]

The other thing that might cause the issue is poor threads in the old head meaning it was difficult to get one bolt to tighten up fully, indeed it was loose again when I removed the pump this time.  The new head is much better in this regard.  I reckon I'll probably fit a remote Facet cube near the petrol tank so it's completely invisible.  I'm also considering moving the battery into the boot and other things to get as much stuff out of the engine bay as possible, I just haven't decided yet.

[Asimo]

will the bonnet clear the filler in the cam cover?

I completely agree with the mod, so much tidier than that wobbly tube.