project 1980 Austin Princess

[PhilA]

I just like having lots of lights.

Understandable. As you were.

[Rocket88]

Looks like a hammer head shark...........menacing........and v.kool

[vulgalour]

Must not sharknose the bonnet... must not sharknose the bonnet... must not sharknose the bonnet... must not sharknose the bonnet... must not sharknose the bonnet...

[Parky]

Have you considered Sharknosing the bonnet?

[Inspector Morose]

I'd shark nose the bonnet if I were you. It'd look good.

[Christine]

I'd keep the spare wheel in the shark mouth 

[Noel Tidybeard]

Must not sharknose the bonnet... must not sharknose the bonnet... must not sharknose the bonnet... must not sharknose the bonnet... must not sharknose the bonnet...

must distract Angyl

 

HEY ANGYL LOOK OVER THERE, IS THAT A PRISTINE RENNER 6 BEING TOWED BY A RENNER 20TX

 

 

i think i did it

[vulgalour]

Little not-picture update today.  Went in to do the last important bit of welding at the front, that being the small hole in the passenger inner arch.  I couldn't get in to cut everything out in the way I wanted to so I cleaned it all up and ended up applying a patch.  It's not the way I like doing the job but since it won't be seen and will be protected by the arch liner and such it's fine as a solution.

 

Welded three sides of the patch and then the gas ran out.  Arses.

 

Mike helped me cut through the twisted Hydragas pipe - a new one will be custom made - so I could remove the duff displacer.  Wouldn't you know it, without the pipe attached a deep-reach socket got the fixing off the displacer really easily!  Never mind.  I haven't put the new one back in yet.  Judging by the quantity of fluid that came out of the old displacer and the fragments of what looked like black rubber shavings I imagine it was the internal diaphragm that had ruptured as suspected.  I've kept the old one as I have with all the dead displacers just in case someone in the future can refurbish them, I'll be asking around locally too, costs nothing to ask.

 

That was it really.  Not enough time left to me today to do more as I've got my regular job to attend to tonight.  Was good to have something different to do today as a start, even if it wasn't as productive as I'd hoped.

[vulgalour]

I finished that patch on the inner arch today which looks far better for some seam sealant and paint than I'd expected.  It's almost entirely hidden by the bump-stop bracket which has lost one rubber bump-stop and the other is waiting for the sealant to set that I've used to glue it back on.  Dealt with as much of the rust as I could see and get to and gave everything a liberal dose of stone chip and purple paint.  I was going to use beige but I'd run out and since all this is going to be covered by the arch liner I'm reinstating I didn't think it mattered too much.  There's been a few other repairs in this inner arch in the past of a similar nature to the one I've let in, I didn't pick at them as they're solid and functional if not that pretty.  I went back and touched up the paint after these photos were taken, fitting the displacer meant I managed to knock a few bits of paint off here and there.

 

 

I also, with help from Mike, got the replacement displacer installed on this side which was quite a frustrating job as more often than not it was a two-person co-ordination challenge to get everything to line up.  Not fun.  Screwed the nubbin of the old pipe onto the displacer to stop anything falling inside it until I can get a replacement pipe made.  I may have a spare I salvaged from the orange car, I'm not certain, if I have that'll save me a little bit of cash. .

 

First fill on the front wing was pretty good.  Put some primer on to highlight areas that might be a problem (which doesn't show up so well with the camera flash enabled) and it'll need localised second fill before I get top coat on.  Promising start to the job.  You can just see the replacement bolt in the top left of the bump-stop bracket in this picture too since the old one decided to run away until I was cleaning up in that way important bolts do sometimes

 

 

The other thing I started work on was the bucket for the new rear light.  It's seriously fiddly stuff because of how I want to do it.  If anyone has that bit of bodywork from a Viva kicking around do let me know, it would save me bags of time in fabrication.

[vulgalour]

Good progress happened on the Princess today.  I'm determined to get her out of the workshop this weekend which meant getting the front end sorted out and weatherproof, which primer and filler obviously isn't.  Got the filler to an acceptable level of finish if not perfect (I will go back and sort that out) and was happy with how this was going until I got to the top bit of the front wing I hadn't stripped the paint back on where the worst of the micro-blistering was in the bad paint.

 

Well, if I get it removed it's a bit more bodge out of the car.  The very top corner has a much better fill of fibreglass to remedy a very common rot spot.  I've left that alone for now but I will be going back to weld a patch in there.  If it weren't for the scarcity of wings I'd just replace this one given how much work it will have had.  So, what was hiding under that massive chunk of filler?  Not a lot really, looks like it's been scraped along something in the dim and distant past.  The rear wing this side has been stripped down and found free of damage so at the worst this bit of scrape on the front wing will be on the doors for some distance.

 

I went on to put some filler on and get it smooth, considerably less filler than had been used!  Again this will need refining later but for now I chucked some paint at it.  Annoyingly, I ran out of beige and the nearest thing I had available was some white paint.  It'll do for now, this is purely a temporary measure.  I also removed the passenger side headlight unit and made an attempt to remove the bent driver's side one, thwarted only by access and rounded screw heads.   As you can see, the front end has a quick blast of beige all over.  I'm going to be fitting a black tube or mesh grille on the front rather than trying to get the original trims to sit as I want them.  This will hide the headlights moderately well too and is very easy to achieve and revert at a later date should I want to.

 

Before I started the next job I decided to investigate the rust that was reappearing on the C pillar.  This has been an issue since I bought the car nearly 4 years ago and now it's actually holed next to the rear screen rubber.  The rear screen will be coming out this year to repair this properly, for now I removed as much of the rust as I could and later doused it in rust converter.  I'll cut out this rust at a later date and eliminate the problem completely.

 

Then it as time to employ the cake tins.  I've been looking forward to this because it seemed like a genuinely easy job.  Offer the tin up to the car where I want it to sit and draw around it with a pen, cut out the hole with a combination of tin snips and angle grinder (not too difficult given how large a hole this is) and gently tap the tin into place.  It was a very snug fit which made tack welding it into place really easy.  The cake tin welded better than the car, not that I was too surprised.  After the tin was secured I cut off the rolled lip so I could weld the rest of the bits of metal that meet up.  We tried a light in the new cake tin bucket and it fits really, really nicely.

 

Once I was happy with that I nibbled back the excess metal with a coarse flapwheel until it was flush with the bodywork.  This part really surprised me, I was expecting it to be quite difficult in practice and yet it proved as easy in practice as it was in theory.  There's a bit more to go which I'll do when I've filled in the gaps I cut for the Viva lights I found too difficult to fit.

 

I absolutely love how these look on the back of the car, especially the curved shape of the bucket opening.  You can see the funny shaped bit I need to fill where I didn't cut the hole for the bucket perfectly, I did expect that might happen given how in-and-out the back panel is, I just have to make a really awkard patch to go in there to solve it.

 

They do protrude into the boot space more than the original lights.  I don't lose functionality of the boot space as the spare wheel can still be got in and out as easily as standard.

 

Very happy with that, I'm looking forward to doing more on it this week and reporting back on it.

[Bren]

Sterling work Angyl.

[Timewaster]

I'm curious. Does the new bake off light sit upright in the tin? In some of the pictures out looks like the lights point down at an angle.

[vulgalour]

It's only held in with tape in the pictures but it will sit properly when the backing plate is welded in so they won't be pointing at the floor.

[michael1703]

One thing I'd say..... From what distance are the lights visible?

 

You might need packers to get them flush with bodywork as your brake lights might be invisible in today's tailgating culture

[vulgalour]

No worse than the originals.  I'm supplementing with a high-level brake light on the parcel shelf and possibly some little high level indicators too.

[Pillock]

More headlights you say?

Pointy bonnet you say?

 

[purplebargeken]

The rear lights look perfectly acceptable to me )

[beko1987]

Wow, that is some amazing progress! Having a garage must be awesome!

[vulgalour]

Having a garage is the best thing ever.

[KruJoe]

Rather sad to see the Viva lights won't be happening What problems did you encounter there?

[worldofceri]

Looks brilliant.

[vulgalour]

Joe:  The shapes were too complex.  I just couldn't fabricate the curves and steps I needed or get the repair panels/pieces cut from an existing Viva to make the job easier.  Additionally, I was having difficulty finding the bulb holders (Princess ones were just wrong and couldn't be modified to fit)  and I was just way out of my depth fabrication wise on it.  A shame, they would have looked ace but it wasn't to be this time around.  I do like the BMW lights, but I am going to have to put a pair each side so the boot lid shape makes sense.

 

---

 

Turns out, British Leyland made some screws that round at the barest glimpse of a screwdriver and yet are hard enough to blunt drill bits.  Can you imagine how horrible it was taking an angle grinder to the top two screws holding the driver's side headlight bracket?  It was very horrible.  Headlight alignment on this side was off due to a bent light bracket and a slightly bent bracket mounting plate.  This is all easy to straighten out and gives me the opportunity to refurbish the slightly crusty headlight brackets and bowls which are in need since the adjusters don't work properly.  Front end is looking quite empty again now.

 

I determined to get that rear corner finished on the welding front today.  First job was to make up some templates which was very easy for the inboard section and very difficult for the outer corner.  I thought I'd kept the piece I cut out of the corner of the wing but I couldn't find it anywhere today so I must have uncharacteristically thrown it away.  To get the shapes as close as possible I used the Viva light template I'd made, taped it to the car and drew on the tape to give me the extra I needed to add to fill the hole.  Then taped this to some fresh card and cut out new templates.  It almost gave me perfect patches, I'm getting much better at this side of things.

 

The most difficult patch to make was that tiny infill section for the corner of the light bucket where I'd cut the hole slightly too big.  This was added after I'd tacked the bigger patches in place.

 

Everything was then tacked and welded in place ready for filler.  The old bumper bracket holes were blanked.  For the corner section I tacked it along the straight-ish part of the panel and then bent it in situ to follow the curve of the car.  I knew this would be pretty much impossible to do otherwise because the panel tucks in at the bottom while curving around very specifically at the same time.  All of this corner is a bit lumpy because of a neighbour reversing into me with his Corsa B, did much more damage to his car than to mine.  After I was happy that the panels were sitting as well as I could make them I seam welded it all before dressing back with the flap wheel.

 

Then it was on to first fill.  I had to use more filler than I wanted to because of the imperfect nature of the rear corner.  For a first fill it's not bad, the primer is to prevent flash rusting and to let me see where areas need improvement.  I want to get this as close to perfect as I can before I put the top coat on.  There's still quite a few low spots to build up and the edge of the light bucket needs some refining yet.  Promising start, all the same.

 

 

I won't be able to work on this tomorrow, instead the earliest I can get to work on this now will be Saturday, when I'll hopefully have a shiny purple paint update.

[twosmoke300]

I love the front end with no lights in - very Dodge Charger ! Jury still out on the back. In grey it looks like a sharks eye 😄

[vulgalour]

I've worked out how to keep the front end looking like it has no lights too, in theory at least.  All will be revealed when I attempt to put it into practice.

[Alexg]

This is going to be one crazy Princess. Can't wait to see your vision complete

[junkyarddog]

I quite like the round taillights,

a brave move.

 

Personally I would have gone for something smaller,that didn't cut into that lower bodyline.

 

These might have fitted?

Although they may not be to your liking.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4-X-12-24v-14-LED-Hamburger-Brake-Indicator-Tail-Light-E4-Round-Trailer-Car-Van-/131583677652?hash=item1ea2ff94d4:g:b4UAAOSwd0BV1FN3

[michael1703]

It's got a cool dodgem car look about it without the bumper too

[vulgalour]

@Junkyard:  Smaller round rear lights may have been better, certainly more conventional and necessary had I kept the bumpers on.  Since I had the BMW lights and the cake tins and I liked them I thought why the hell not.  The other option was slightly smaller Ford Cortina pies or smaller still Fiat Coupé lights but I'm glad I went with the ones I did.  I definitely didn't want to go with brand new lights because it would look just a bit too kit car.  Remember, my main visual reference with this is 1980s Custom Car just seen through the prism of my own opinion.  You wouldn't believe just how many lights I looked at and dismissed over the last year, it's ridiculously difficult to get the look you personally want - and this car is about what I want, not what other people want - and in the correct size.

 

I'm dreading the rest of the filler work I have to do.  Got to do it all by hand and I hate hand sanding, it's so tedious!

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

 

 

I'm dreading the rest of the filler work I have to do.  Got to do it all by hand and I hate hand sanding, it's so tedious!

 

Well, like me*, you're no good at it. I hate filler work with a passion and now have a guy who works at a bodyshop to do it for me for a few tokens. To see a professional apply and shape filler is amazing to watch - I just wish i could do it.

 

Top tip: find a bodyshop bloke who is shit hot, bung him some cash and set him loose. It'll be worth it to see the job turn out exactly as you want. 

 

 

 

 

No shame in admitting it. I think I'm fractionally better. But still crap. 

[vulgalour]

I'm pretty good at filler work, I just don't enjoy it, especially when I'm on a bit of a deadline to get it done.  Doing the filler work at home in my own time over a few evenings would be preferable to sitting and slogging away at it during the day for several hours.  I have a habit of under-filling rather than over-filling because I hate hand sanding so I always try and get as close to the final profile as possible to reduce the amount of sanding I have to do.  One more pass with the filler this weekend and a few hours with the sanding block and it'll be done, no bother.

 

 

I'm not paying someone else to do it, why would I, of all people, do that?