project 1980 Austin Princess

[plasticvandan]

queefers gonna queef

 

bonnet needs a bulge out of a 3.0 capri aralditing on top

[Felly Magic]

Or a Knight Rider bonnet bulge? LED scanner bar behind the grille, and suddenly we have 'Shite Rider'

[Rocket88]

Do this!

 

 

 

[vulgalour]

^ I'm not even sure what I'm looking at.

[Ghosty]

It was a Passat once.

[vulgalour]

Well... tonight a thing happened.  I intended to just pop into the unit and tidy up a bit, show my brother what I'd got up to with the rear end.  The boot was all cleaned out and tidied up.

 

A view of the back of the buckets, showing how user friendly and not-sharp they are.  Just the wiring and a little bit of metal tidying on the back panel to do here.

 

Then we sort of got talking about the suspension yet again and my brother asked why I didn't just patch it for now so we could at least move the car around.  Worst case scenario is that it wouldn't work.  So we repaired the broken hydragas pipe by cutting the broken ends off smooth with a pipe cutter from the pipe fixed to the car, and the spare incomplete pipe, then sleeved it with some suitable rubber hosing and four jubilee clips. THIS IS NOT A PERMANENT FIX.

 

Anyway, there's no photograph of that.  What there is a photograph of is our offering to the patron saint of bodging, Heath Robinson.  It turns out the schrader valve connector on my hydragas dalek is broken and I didn't have a replacement.  What I did have is a spare air line and a tyre inflating fitting. 

 

It was a little tricky, you have to hold the schrader fitting on at a particular angle and the trigger leaks a bit.  You also have to have one of you holding the inflation fitting and the other pumping the pump.  I would not recommend this method, it is appalling.  The important thing is that it worked and that I'll be getting the pump refurbished so I can do it properly next time.

 

We took things steady, partly because we had to, partly because we didn't want to risk breaking anything.  The main reason for doing things this way is to find out if the new displacer works (it does, yay!) and to make it so the car could be driven around the unit easier.  We got it all up to the requisite pressure but couldn't get it to sit level, no matter how much we jiggled the car. Not wanting to risk overloading it we decided to leave it slightly wonky.

 

A bit disappointed, but still really happy to see the car off its bumpstops for the first time in a long while, I decided to just roll it back and forth to check it would still run and the brakes hadn't got stuck on.  Then the wonkiness went away!  Because of course you're supposed to do this with the handbrake off and I'd forgotten.

 

 

All level  It's good enough until I get the pipe replaced and it'll allow me to see whether or not the displacers are any good.  So far, no leaks, not even on the pipe bodge.  It's a big step closer to getting everything sorted.

[Tayne]

we decided to leave it slightly wonky.

 

 

 

Just like the rear lights 

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Wow I would have bet £50 that a jubilee clip pipe repair would have popped straight off. Now I would be £50 worse off!!

[Rocket88]

It was a Passat once.

Snide.........................in fact F.R.O

[vulgalour]

Wow I would have bet £50 that a jubilee clip pipe repair would have popped straight off. Now I would be £50 worse off!!

 

I bet it would if I hit a pothole at more than 5mph, so that's why it's temporary.  We were surprised it didn't even balloon the pipe.

[JeeExEll]

I've only just started to read this thread from the start, am currently at about March 2012. Have not read any of the recent pages.

Epic.

 

A local to me funeral director, and family friend, ordered a factory- black 2200 auto saloon and a new 1978 hearse which was kept for many years, well into the 90s. The hearse was up to about 200,000 miles in the mid 90s as the nearest crematorium at that time was 60 miles away. The 2200 saloon was replaced by a black Regie 20TS in 1979.

 

The Princess hearse was called The Dodgem.

[vulgalour]

@Capree:  It is an epic, this old diary, I'm amazed you've decided to go back to day 1 on it, there's a lot to trawl through.  You must be up to about the time it came off the road.  Was there any particular reason the hearse was called The Dodgem?  200K is pretty good going too!

 

---

 

Popped into the unit at lunch to fettle a bit with the car, get some fresh air, that sort of thing.  I'd got pretty fed up of the knackered tyres constantly deflating so took the Lotus alloys with me which still have air in the tyres even though they've been sat around for a couple of years unused.  Topped them all up and they were ready to go.  I love how these wheels look on the car, they just fit so well. I've also decided I'm running the suspension at this height rather than factory because it looks 'right' even though it's slightly lower than stock and is a little bit more squidgy.  Squidgy is good, we like squidgy in this car.

 

 

The tyres on the alloys are nicely meaty for the rear end and visually it needs it to pull everything together.  It all just looks 'right' to me.

 

At the front I figured out what the fitment issue was with the central bar and corrected that with hammers and gentle manipulation of the top return lip.  Then I fitted my only good grille and the headlight trims along with the new MG B sidelight/indicator units.  I was going to get the headlights in too but I'm missing the bits that the brackets screw into, I can't remember if they were square plastic lugs or metal clips, either way I need to get some fresh fittings to get those in.  I love how the front end is looking.  I might even leave it on the standard plastic trims rather than fitting the full width hideaway grille.

 

And here, for those of you that love accidents looking for a place to happen, is the pipe bodge that shouldn't work but does.

 

The last thing to report is a parts hunt.  This is the schrader fitting from my dalek pump that needs replacing.  We think it's missing the bit that pushes the pin in on the valve so you can get enough fluid in.  It also doesn't lock in place particularly well.  I have no idea what that tap bit is about either.

 

 

If anyone knows what that part might be called and/or where I can find one, I'd appreciate it.

[Rocket88]

@Capree:  It is an epic, this old diary, I'm amazed you've decided to go back to day 1 on it, there's a lot to trawl through.  You must be up to about the time it came off the road.  Was there any particular reason the hearse was called The Dodgem?  200K is pretty good going too!

 

---

 

Popped into the unit at lunch to fettle a bit with the car, get some fresh air, that sort of thing.  I'd got pretty fed up of the knackered tyres constantly deflating so took the Lotus alloys with me which still have air in the tyres even though they've been sat around for a couple of years unused.  Topped them all up and they were ready to go.  I love how these wheels look on the car, they just fit so well. I've also decided I'm running the suspension at this height rather than factory because it looks 'right' even though it's slightly lower than stock and is a little bit more squidgy.  Squidgy is good, we like squidgy in this car.

 

 

The tyres on the alloys are nicely meaty for the rear end and visually it needs it to pull everything together.  It all just looks 'right' to me.

 

At the front I figured out what the fitment issue was with the central bar and corrected that with hammers and gentle manipulation of the top return lip.  Then I fitted my only good grille and the headlight trims along with the new MG B sidelight/indicator units.  I was going to get the headlights in too but I'm missing the bits that the brackets screw into, I can't remember if they were square plastic lugs or metal clips, either way I need to get some fresh fittings to get those in.  I love how the front end is looking.  I might even leave it on the standard plastic trims rather than fitting the full width hideaway grille.

 

And here, for those of you that love accidents looking for a place to happen, is the pipe bodge that shouldn't work but does.

 

The last thing to report is a parts hunt.  This is the schrader fitting from my dalek pump that needs replacing.  We think it's missing the bit that pushes the pin in on the valve so you can get enough fluid in.  It also doesn't lock in place particularly well.  I have no idea what that tap bit is about either.

 

 

If anyone knows what that part might be called and/or where I can find one, I'd appreciate it.

 

 

 

Try MGW racing.............................

[dean36014]

Have to say I'm liking this, its getting that 80's custom look about it. Just don't fur the interior!

[JeeExEll]

Vulg, the hearse was called The Dodgem because it looked like a dodgem car from the front and it was a 2200 auto in which you could use both feet to drive.

 

Dodgem as in

"Right, John and Rob we have a collection for you this evening. It's the old high school headmaster, he was 89.

Take The Dodgem".

 

 

(Fire up the dodgem).

[oldcars]

Those wheels look really smart on it. Are they Lotus wheels?

[Ghosty]

Coffin dodgem

[vulgalour]

Those wheels look really smart on it. Are they Lotus wheels?

 

I'd got pretty fed up of the knackered tyres constantly deflating so took the Lotus alloys with me which still have air in the tyres even though they've been sat around for a couple of years unused.  

 

 

[JeeExEll]

Looking forward to reading the ongoing saga Vulg. I try not to look at your more recent posts yet.

 

Those Lotus Elite wheels on a Princess are as cool as a Zoom ice lolly tho.

 

Perfect period wedgery detail.

[JeeExEll]

Coffin dodgem

Has to be said.

[scaryoldcortina]

 

The last thing to report is a parts hunt.  This is the schrader fitting from my dalek pump that needs replacing.  We think it's missing the bit that pushes the pin in on the valve so you can get enough fluid in.  It also doesn't lock in place particularly well.  I have no idea what that tap bit is about either.

 

 

If anyone knows what that part might be called and/or where I can find one, I'd appreciate it.

 

 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MG-Rover-Austin-Morris-Hydrogas-Hydrolastic-Suspension-Pump-Low-Loss-Connector-/291852803852?hash=item43f3c85f0c:g:-t4AAOSwQTVWCUec

 

It pops off because someone crossthreaded it in the past. New connectors are more expensive than second hand pumps!

[vulgalour]

Oh... is there supposed to be a thread inside it? Because this one has no thread at all inside it, you just sort of push it on and push the collar down and it holds to around about 70psi.

[scaryoldcortina]

Yeah, they start out with threads inside and gradually end up without!

[mouseflakes]

Lookin' good Vulg.

[mat_the_cat]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MG-Rover-Austin-Morris-Hydrogas-Hydrolastic-Suspension-Pump-Low-Loss-Connector-/291852803852?hash=item43f3c85f0c:g:-t4AAOSwQTVWCUec

 

It pops off because someone crossthreaded it in the past. New connectors are more expensive than second hand pumps!

 

Or http://www.tyre-equipment.co.uk/acatalog/High-Pressure-Inflating-Connector--2755-2755.html

[ruffgeezer]

I think there is a hydragas pump at the auction I'm due to attend on Saturday, want me to have a look for you?

[vulgalour]

A kind offer, and appreciated, but I'm all tapped out for a bit now, been spending quite a bit on the Rover of late.  I'm going to see what the one I've got actually needs to be 100% operational and probably just redo this one.  It'll help me understand how it works too.  Goodness knows I need more projects like I need more holes in my head, but I'm sure this one will be easy*.

[Tayne]

I like the front end of the Princess, it looks like a Dodge Charger.

[PhilA]

You need a set of these.

 

http://www.getallparts.com/Dodge-Challenger-2013_p-75402-original-equipment-driver-side-head-lamp-assembly-ch2518137niq.aspx?variantid=702895&ref=g-pla&gclid=CKSmtYqF_M4CFY-MaQod98oIMQ

 

Two lights front

Two lights rear

 

Phil

[plasticvandan]

get rid of the beige and then we will see how it rocks, this is going to look amazing* in cadbury purple