Sold 1981 Austin Princess - [expletives removed]

[KruJoe]

Until the video loaded for me, it looked like your dad(?) was puffing on a pipe. Sadly he wasn't.

[vulgalour]

Neighbour is the one in the stripey top, Dad's on the fence side of the car.  No pipes, sadly, and if there were I'd be the one smoking it.

[Grundig]

Does the cigarette lighter work?

The HLS had a cigar lighter - only the lower spec ones had cigarette lighters 

[cms206]

BOING!

 

Good work gents, my day has brightened up considerably now.

[Sigmund Fraud]

That's brilliant stuff !

 

When is it booked for an MoT, then ? 

[Pillock]

Why pay a reconditioning firm to build the engine? It can be removed and stripped in a weekend, and once measured, the block/crank can be sent away for machining as required, and you can have it rebuilt at home. Seriously.... I have all the kit and knowledge required to remove/rebuild/fit engines. Sort of a "Rent-a-shiter" (Crates of beer and cans of diesel work well here)

If there was some sort of rate-a-shiter website, I would give Mr A Ross a full five stars for his engine furtling services.

[Paul Dupart]

Great stuff!  Looking forward to your further progress!

[vulgalour]

I was thinking, what does this car need before I take it for an MoT?

 

4 tyres - part worns, obviously

bulbs - some bulbs appear to not work, not gone through them yet

wiper blades

head gasket

head skim - pretty sure it'll need this

2 core plugs

clutch bleed and fettle

brake bleed and fettle

suspension pump up

fresh oil

fresh antifreeze

Carb dashpot inners circlip/o-ring - this pinged off when I was servicing the carb, never to be found again.

1 spark plug

points  - the spare new points that came with the car are dead

timing belt - just on the safe side, I already have one I bought for the HL that it doesn't need

water pump - might as well if I'm doing the timing belt

exhaust blow fixed - could be a joint, could be a box, don't know yet.

air filter

driver's door lock to work on the key

welding? - No MoT failing things found so far

fuel pipes - cheers Skattrd, I had forgotten this.

 

It's only really a head gasket failure more than the HL needed and that had an MoT when I bought it.

[skattrd]

I think you may want to check the fuel lines as well, anything rubber could be on it's way out.

[vulgalour]

yes... fuel lines.  Knew there was something I forgot to add, especially since it's already destroyed two old rubber fuel lines.

[Alexg]

More great work, excellent to hear it running

[greengartside]

Marvellous work on getting her going! Well done looking forward to seeing it hit the road again!

[fordperv]

good top see another one having life breathed into it, i remember when my dad couldnt sell his minty green silvery metallic, straight as buggery ambassador in the mid 90s for £250 with tax and test  i loved that car, so many happy memories

[vulgalour]

Working through my checklist, I can update it again now.

 

Engine Stuff

£10-15 - second-hand battery

£15 - head gasket (bought full gasket set)

£? - head check, skim if necessary.

£? - 2 core plugs

£0.20 - Carb dashpot inners circlip/o-ring - lost during service, still hunting for it.

£1.50-2 - 1 spark plug

£10 - contact points

£? - water pump - might as well if I'm doing the timing belt

£10-15 - rubber fuel pipes

 

MoT stuff

£80 - 4 tyres (probably part worns) and wheel balance

£15 - Tracking

£FREE - bulbs

£12 - wiper blades

£FREE - clutch bleed

£0-10 brake bleed

£FREE - inspect discs and pads - preliminary check shows they might be okay  Drums seem to be functioning well.

£? - Brake flexi

£20 (estimate) - suspension pump up

£15 (pair) - suspension rebound strap

£15 - fresh oil

£FREE - fresh antifreeze

£? - exhaust blow fixed - could be a joint, could be a box, don't know yet.

£8 - air filter

£? - driver's door lock to work on the key

£8-16 - Track rod ends, pair

£? - Balljoints, at least one

£? - any necessary welding 

 

eBay is very useful for some of this stuff and competitively priced.

[Tetleysmooth]

 

Working through my checklist, I can update it again now.

 

Engine Stuff

£10-15 - second-hand battery

£15 - head gasket (bought full gasket set)

£? - head check, skim if necessary.

£? - 2 core plugs

£0.20 - Carb dashpot inners circlip/o-ring - lost during service, still hunting for it.

£1.50-2 - 1 spark plug

£10 - contact points

£? - water pump - might as well if I'm doing the timing belt

£10-15 - rubber fuel pipes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MoT stuff

£80 - 4 tyres (probably part worns) and wheel balance

£15 - Tracking

£FREE - bulbs

£12 - wiper blades

£FREE - clutch bleed

£0-10 brake bleed

£FREE - inspect discs and pads - preliminary check shows they might be okay  Drums seem to be functioning well.

£? - Brake flexi

£20 (estimate) - suspension pump up

£15 (pair) - suspension rebound strap

£15 - fresh oil

£FREE - fresh antifreeze

£? - exhaust blow fixed - could be a joint, could be a box, don't know yet.

£8 - air filter

£? - driver's door lock to work on the key

£8-16 - Track rod ends, pair

£? - Balljoints, at least one

£? - any necessary welding 

 

eBay is very useful for some of this stuff and competitively priced.

Tesco are doing double discount all next week, if you have a priviledge card.

You haven't?

Oh shit.

[M'coli]

Vulgalour to the beige courtesy phone, please...Princess in Market Weighton being broken, could be a good source of parts, including a tow-bar.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUSTIN-MORRIS-PRINCESS-2200-HLE-1977-ENGINE-AND-BOX-ONLY-/141074055926?pt=Automobiles_UK&hash=item20d8ab42f6

 

 

[vulgalour]

50ish miles away from me and doesn't have a great deal I could use since it has the 6 cylinder E series in it.  I am also broke, which is a bit annoying, especially since it does have some useful things like the bumpers, possibly some interior bits, wheel trims... bits and bobs really.

 

I may give them a call anyway, just to see if I can get some bargains and borrow some cash from somewhere or something.  Thanks for the tip-off, I reckon this is the nearest a breaker has been to me so far.

 

Must not find out how much it would be to buy it and have it delivered.  That would be a bad thing and I'm definitely not finding out how much that would be.

[Shep Shepherd]

Utterly superb! Kind of makes me want a down-at-heel Princess of my own as a 'Shepstoration' project

[Grundig]

Working through my checklist, I can update it again now.

 

Engine Stuff

 

£? - 2 core plugs

 

The last time I did core plugs (mk4 cortina) they came as a set (blister pack) from the local factors -quite cheap, so just as easy to do them all 

These on the 'bay' £20 http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/LEYLAND-1700-ENGINES-O-SERIES-MORRIS-MARINA-SHERPA-CORE-PLUG-SET-/130858786937?pt=UK_CarsParts_Vehicles_CarParts_SM&hash=item1e77caa079

[vulgalour]

It's Sunday, and it's been a stunner of a day.  Clearly, tinkering with cars is the only thing anyone ought to be doing on a day like this.  Given the recent success of a wooden steering wheel I'm restoring I felt confident to tackle the walnut veneered insert on the dashboard of the HLS.  I was going to strip the HL down too, but that doesn't look like it really needs doing so it can stay as is for now.

 

The procedure for removing the dashboard is actually pretty straightforward until you get to unplugging things. Once the top trim rail is removed - just snaps into place on metal clips - it's a case of locating the various screws and just undoing them then reaching behind the dash and unplugging relevant wires and cables.  The only issue I had was that one of the heater control knobs had paper wedged inside it and wouldn't come free without considerable effort but after that it was plain sailing and I had the unit out in one lump.  I'm fairly certain that on the HL the instruments all stayed attached to the main dash rather than coming out with this part so perhaps the HLS was built slightly differently on this front.

 

This also gave me a chance to have a look behind the dash at the wiring as I wasn't sure what wildlife, if any, had been living in there.  Just spiders, as it happens, and on the whole the wiring is in pretty good fettle.  I though the radio was an original jobby, it certainly looked right for the car, but it turns out it was housing the only bit of dodgy wiring and is actually from an Allegro that might have been called Flipper.

 

The factory connector block for the radio just had the wires shown above twisted and pushed into the relevant holes.  Any spare holes have matchsticks wedged into them.  So we'll be putting that right before the radio goes back in then.  There's lacquer lift in all the usual places on the wooden insert.

 

This chip is the worst bit of damage, funnily enough the HL has a similar chip in the same location.  I'll fill and paint it to match the wood as best I can before revarnishing the insert. 

 

With all the plastic exterior trim stripped off it's not a huge amount of work to redo as there's not a great deal of wood to have to fart about with.  I'll be very careful as the veneer looks to be exceptionally thin but all being well it'll come up better than new.

 

I found that the choke telltale filter is missing completely, I had hoped it would be hiding in the dashboard.  There is a hazard filter but it looks for all the world like it's from a different car.  I'll probably just use appropriately coloured sweet wrappers or something until I can find a new pair of appropriately coloured filters so I don't get dazzled by the telltale lights.

[Jon]

There's much to comment about the worthy work going in to your Princess saving efforts, though I don't think I've ever posted anything in either thread, so will settle for a generic "well done, keep up the good work!" line. Good to see that you're willing to persist where others would just throw in the towel, too.

 

You mentioned needing a small filter for a hazard switch; got any lighting equipment dealers nearby? They often have swatch books with their range of filters available and most offer them gratis, as who's going to make use of a couple of square inches of filter? Lee filters are probably the most ubiquitous brand but I'm sure there'll be plenty of others.

[overrun]

Yo1 Instead of ket wrappers, try and get a sample book containing lighting gels.

A much more fitting short-term solution.

 

Don't taste as nice when you like them though.

[vulgalour]

I will check out lighting type places, there's a few theatres in the area so I don't doubt there'll be a supplier for their lighting gubbinz too.  I'll keep an eye out for spares too, the scrappy Princess I viewed had the wrong telltales as the early cars have round ones instead of obloid ones and I wasn't about to try removing the dash due to time and money constraints.

 

----

 

I was going to update my checklist first with this update, but since I've spectacularly failed to purchase or otherwise acquire a single item on it I deemed there being no point to that particular exercise.

 

Instead, I've been making a start on a few jobs that wanted doing and I've got more planned to do today.  I accidentally worked on Sunday so I'm taking today off in lieu to make up for it otherwise I'll end up working a fortnight without break and that is a Bad Thing.

 

I finally managed to find a shortcut for getting the shot lacquer off the dash fascia.  I've got this weird square cut craft knife blade which has never really been much use until today when I found it could persuade the lacquer to lift from the veneer without causing damage.  There were a few stubborn spots  that had to be persuaded with sandpaper, but overall it took me probably an hour or two to clean up the fascia back to bare wood.  The lacquer that came off had gone cloudy and was obscuring much of the detail of the burr walnut.

 

A little bit of fill and stain work was required on that chip.  Must be something about the design of the dashboard because I've seen a few that have this chip in the same place.  I just wanted to make it look less obvious so I've not gone all out trying to mimic wood grain or anything.

 

With a first coat of varnish on two things were immediately apparent; the first was just how richly hued the veneer is when you can actually see it properly...

 

... the second was how dry the wood had become where the old lacquer had lifted.  It's definitely going to be at least a 3 coat job to get this looking how I want it to but initial signs are promising.  You can see where the varnish looks flat and purplish, that's where previously the lacquer had lifted and looked yellow around the edges.  There's no evidence of bleaching or staining of the veneer which is comforting so it should look very smart once I've build up a good layer of clear coat.

 

Another pleasant surprise was the driver's door.  There has been a rusty strip poking up from behind the door trim and I'd assumed it was the remnants of the frame where the chrome trim and weather strip clips on.  Turns out the rusty bit was actually the remnants of the weather strip itself.

 

I'm hoping I can get a length of this stuff as all four doors need it replacing.  It looks like it might be a universal thing and it has trim clips that hold it to the stainless trim which then pushes onto the door frame.  Any ideas where I might purchase this sort of thing?

 

Some repair work has been done to the frame rail and it's not perfect as some of it is filler and mesh but it seems to have prevented things getting any worse and I should be able to sort this out without replacing the whole door.

 

The bottom of the driver's door is amazingly solid all things considered.  For all I was going to write this door off as being dead it's actually pretty good.  The two screws in the door go through the original captive nuts and are correct for the door mirrors.  Looks like BL changed the location of the mirror fixings for the final year of production which technically makes the 1981 doors unique to that year as the mirror fixings are differently spaced with captive nuts on the earlier cars.

 

Likewise, the rear door this side is also in good shape overall.  I've removed the door cards to clean them properly and to fit the new regulator I sourced for the driver's door.  You can see the incorrect window winder on this door which I'd like to replace with a correct 1981 handle which is similar, though not identical, to Maestro and Montego items.

 

This is the inside of that door.  Could be better but could also be far worse.

 

Best of all though was yesterday when Dad admitted that the car wasn't worth scrapping or breaking.  I'm not sure exactly what changed his mind, whether it was my determination, how much I've managed to improve just by cleaning or whether it was seeing how badly rotten that scrapyard car was, but it was certainly nice to hear.

[RedSparrow]

Great work as always! That instrument panel has come up amazingly well.
Pretty sure that weather strip stuff is BL standard. I've seen it on TR7s Metros and SD1s. Nothing special, I'm sure somewhere could flog you some.

[overrun]

Nice work on that instrument surround. It's going to look great.

As for seal suppliers, see a previous thread of mine for some supplier suggestions;

 

http://retrorides.proboards.com/thread/145541/where-buy-mk3-sunroof-seal

[jakebullet]

Why not bugger off points / condenser for an electronic version? £25 notes on the bay, and you never have to change the hateful things ever again.

[michael1703]

As above, " simonbbc" is the guy I use, don't be tempted by cheaper ones as they don't last

[trigger]

Electronic ignition is 'DA BOMB'.

[vulgalour]

I guess it makes sense.  I always forget it's a thing you can do because usually my P&C are okay, except for the points that melted on the Polo and the Condenser that conked out on the HL shortly into ownership... yeah, I should remember to get a set really.  Cheers for the SimonBBC tip off too.

[Junkman]

After I installed an electronic ignition in the P6, fuel consumption increased by 30% (I am NOT kidding), at the same time power noticably decreased. And no, I'm NOT too stupid to set ignition and carbs.

I then returned to breaker point ignition, like God and Spen King had specified in the first place, and immediately petrol consumption was back to normal and power back up where it belongs.

 

I shit on newfangled tosh.