Dicky’s Disastrous Debris - Princess update 22/1/25

[Kiltox]

I’ve just bought a set of K series locking tools to do the head job on my 216 - bring it to me and I’ll do the cambelt for you

[Angrydicky]

3 minutes ago, Kiltox said:

I’ve just bought a set of K series locking tools to do the head job on my 216 - bring it to me and I’ll do the cambelt for you

Cheers! K-series kameraderie right there ?

[purplebargeken]

Ooooh, she is looking stunning mate. A blow over on that front bumper would make the world of difference.

Re: cambelt. Honestly I have no idea, I'd take up that offer as above  

[2flags]

Lovely looking car there. I had an earlier 400. Many, many miles on the clock, but it lasted us six years. Went on to a 75. Lovely car. Has since died and now have a X type. These are a smooth and comfortable car. Much better than the Escorts of similar vintage.

[EssDeeWon]

Nice looking car in the best colour for one of these.  

[Skizzer]

On 3/22/2020 at 4:39 PM, Angrydicky said:

would there be any interest if I just keep this as a general thread for different car updates?

 

 

 

 

 

You’re a top bloke and all, chap, but that is a really silly question.

The 45 is great. The Royale, now...well you know I have a weakness for big 70s Vauxhalls.

[Brodders]

Just caught up with this, nice work with it so far. Would have expected it to be tricky to get NOS wheel trims, so you've done well to find them.

Having driven it and been chauffered by PBK a few times I know it is very comfortable and a nice car to drive. Despite being a 75 guy, an early 45 is probably a better bet as an everyday car. You get the same seats, a large boot and a decent amount of wood trim, but without the fragility which you are starting to see with 75s now.

[Angrydicky]

On 4/16/2020 at 10:03 PM, Skizzer said:

You’re a top bloke and all, chap, but that is a really silly question.

The 45 is great. The Royale, now...well you know I have a weakness for big 70s Vauxhalls.

Sadly, mine continues to steadily corrode into my parents drive while providing brief excitement to  @Shep Shepherd and @The Doctor as they drive past! It’s actually not far off the road but being 60 miles away from home I can’t travel there to work on it (and certainly couldn’t stay over)

[Angrydicky]

On 4/17/2020 at 4:29 AM, Brodders said:

Just caught up with this, nice work with it so far. Would have expected it to be tricky to get NOS wheel trims, so you've done well to find them.

Having driven it and been chauffered by PBK a few times I know it is very comfortable and a nice car to drive. Despite being a 75 guy, an early 45 is probably a better bet as an everyday car. You get the same seats, a large boot and a decent amount of wood trim, but without the fragility which you are starting to see with 75s now.

With the exception of the door card fabric which always peels (I’ve stuck it down in the corner where it had come off) the interior all feels pretty good quality and robust. I feel a lot happier having a relatively simple 4-pot K series under the bonnet than a KV6 for ease of maintenance and fixing it when it inevitably goes wrong. Still, there’s always that nagging feeling about potential HG or gearbox issues with this car I never had with the 600, which is all Honda. I’m just going to keep maintaining it as well as I can and looking after it, hopefully with decent maintenance I should be able to get a couple of years out of it before I have to pull it all apart (which I don’t really fancy due to the amount of projects I have on the go already!)

[purplebargeken]

The 1.8 really suited this car and was such a willing engine.

However, I also love the oomph of a 2.5 V6 75 having had a couple of them in my time.

 

[Angrydicky]

The 75 Connie interior is far, far nicer as well - almost as nice as an 800 Sterling IMO.

[Angrydicky]

My Vauxhall Royale is quite solid as they go, but it was a bit crusty in places and I really wanted to make a start on fixing it.

No better place to start than the bottom of the front wing. The other side isn’t much better. It was stuffed full of wob and bubbling up nicely. Lovely.

Mmm, lovely.

I decided to remove the plastic trim and cut the panel off to repair off the car, as then I could hide the weld behind the trim. 

The A post was a lot better than I expected. It needed a small repair at the very bottom and had been patched before a bit higher up, but it was a neat job and was solid, so I left it alone.

Heres the mess that came out. It had been plated at the bottom and was mostly wob.

Yeah, I needed to remake all of that left side. Originally I thought I could reuse that lower mounting but it just wasn’t good enough.

I then cut out the rot and let in fresh metal. I used an old dexion shelf scavenged from work for the repairs, which was far too thick. It made it more difficult to line up but at least it should never rot again!

I then trial fitted it. I started to weld it on then decided I wasn’t happy with the shut line against the door, not to mention the door was catching against it. I cut it off again and spent at least an hour bashing and grinding before I was happy with the fit!

Welded on:

Whoever had that trim off last had broken the securing clips (which were really brittle) and it was stuck on with sikaflex or similar. I tried double sided tape which didn’t work, so I just used silicone in the end. I don’t think it’s going to fall off though which is the main thing.

Quite pleased with that!

In hindsight I probably should have bought the wing repair sections from a Holden specialist down under who has the front end panels (same as a VB Commodore) but they were quite expensive after shipping and I wasn’t sure of the quality. I might still do that for the other side as that repair section was a pig to make and get lined up properly with the correct panel gap.

[Ian_Fearn]

I love these big old Vauxhall’s. I remember quite a few people in the neighbourhood had either these, Viceroys, Senators or early Carlton’s when I was a kid and I thought they were just brilliant. Especially anything with the 6 cylinder. Those cushy velour interiors were great! 

They just disappeared seemingly over night. Such a shame. I regret not buying a colleagues dirt cheap 3 door Royale 2.8 5 years ago.

[phil_lihp]

That is a fantastic car, great to see it getting some love.

[Spiny Norman]

Great work, ?
I always wished I could do that kind of body repair. For the entire time I had my black Royale I was on the lookout for a driver's front wing for it Mine was horrible round the bottom bit under the bumper where it meets the spoiler, but I had no luck. Wings for these were unobtanium 10 years ago, doubt the situation's improved.

 

[Angrydicky]

5 hours ago, Spiny Norman said:

Great work, ?
I always wished I could do that kind of body repair. For the entire time I had my black Royale I was on the lookout for a driver's front wing for it Mine was horrible round the bottom bit under the bumper where it meets the spoiler, but I had no luck. Wings for these were unobtanium 10 years ago, doubt the situation's improved.

 

Cheers! I have seen some wings for sale but they’re not cheap, plus the red paintwork is quite good and I’d like to preserve it if possible, because there’s zero chance of finding any wings in the right colour.

[Angrydicky]

So you’ve probably seen in the grumpy thread that on our way to Surrey to drop off the Standard steering box for repair, the Rover gearbox started playing up unfortunately.

I was just coming up the A3 when all of a sudden, the car revved to 4500 rpm, I lost drive, lost the gearbox telltale on the dash and the transmission warning light came on.

Fortunately managed to coast into the car park of the new Costa they’ve built in the grounds of that fabulous old derelict house at the side of the A3.  The gears came back to life and I was able to select reverse and park it in a space (though with no “R” symbol on the dash). Switched the engine off and let it cool down. Checked the connections. Started the engine and checked the transmission fluid, which looked nice and red and there was plenty of it. Hmm.

We decided to push on and managed to drop off the steering box without incident, managed to pick up a sewing machine my mum had bought in Chessington, then got onto the M25. I kept the speed down and was only doing 50 when it did it again. Onto the hard shoulder, turned off and back on again. Managed about 10 miles this time before it expired on a section with no hard shoulder. I managed to get the car onto the verge as much as possible as it was really hairy with all the lorries thundering past. Over the noise of the traffic dad and I made the decision to limp it to the next junction and call for recovery once we were off the motorway.

Fortunately, the next junction turned out to be Clacket Lane services so that was a bonus.

And look at the bloody mileage!!

I called my breakdown provider who quoted 90 mins. 3.5 hours it ended up taking because we obviously weren’t a priority, even though the operator was based 200 yards from where we were standing. Finally we got picked up but the driver said he was only taking us as far as Thurrock. Another call to the lovely sounding Beth and she confirmed she had organised another truck to meet us at Thurrock at 6:30.

Due to Covid concerns we had to ride in the car which was a surreal experience!

The traffic was good and we arrived at Thurrock not long after. The second driver actually turned up early. He was a one man band with a Transit and his wife in the cab which was surprising as normally they use big regional operators. But he was absolutely spot on and my dad gave him a good tip as well. Finally got back to my parents house at 7:15.

So does anyone know what’s up with this Rover? My gut feeling is it’s an electrical fault rather than a mechanical one with the gearbox as it’s working perfectly  most of the time. Also it had a recon exchange gearbox fitted in 2009 and it’s only done 35000 miles since. Mind you the first gearbox failed at only 31000. These CVT gearboxes seem pretty crap really.

I’m going to see if I can get @EssDeeWon‘s tame MG Rover specialist to have a look at it, diagnose the fault and hopefully quote for a repair. But if it’s new gearbox time I may have to throw in the towel - I love this car but I can’t be having a £1300 bill for a new gearbox every three years at my annual mileage.

[Split_Pin]

Well worth the effort you put in on the Senator, that looks great. Learning to weld is my NY resolution for 2021.

Good idea on taking the Rover to a specialist, hopefully they'll be able to give you some informed advice.

[Parky]

i understand some CVT’s get very temperamental if the voltage isn’t quite as it should be.  Do you have another battery you could try?

[Angrydicky]

2 minutes ago, Parky said:

i understand some CVT’s get very temperamental if the voltage isn’t quite as it should be.  Do you have another battery you could try?

Good idea, I’ll put the multimeter onto it and check it but it’s not that old and starts the car ok. I think the one on the Royale is the same and that’s nearly new.

I was thinking along the same lines when I discovered a loose battery earth terminal the first time it broke down. But I tightened it up and it seemed to make no difference.

[Mally]

It can be a mistake to limp to a  safe area.

I've had that one. "Oh you are safe in a lay by sir"   3.5   hours in the middle of the night.

Can't help with your gearbox, suspect a big bill, but hope not.

 

[Angrydicky]

1 minute ago, Mally said:

It can be a mistake to limp to a  safe area.

I've had that one. "Oh you are safe in a lay by sir"   3.5   hours in the middle of the night.

 

Maybe. Rather that than get the car written off or worse, one of us, by a dozing trucker.

[Mally]

Yes that's what I thought.

In reality it's best to say, "6 kids and pregnant wife on her way to hospital, parked on a dangerous bend"

 

[Angrydicky]

9 minutes ago, Mally said:

Yes that's what I thought.

In reality it's best to say, "6 kids and pregnant wife on her way to hospital, parked on a dangerous bend"

 

The second driver was telling me that sometimes people lie about having children in the car to get a faster response time. He said he wasn’t bothered by it but the RAC will put a black mark against you if you try to invent a couple of kids at the roadside!

[Angrydicky]

Got the Rover booked into the specialist for Friday. He’s confident he can fix it, as long as it isn’t the actual gearbox that’s gone.

[Parky]

Mini’s are notorious for CVT issues but some are caused by electrical problems.  Here is one such example so fingers crossed it’s a similar situation for yours as a new battery would be a quick and easy fix

https://www.mini2.com/threads/mini-cooper-cvt-problem-solved.186817/

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Good luck AD!!! I must say I take my hat off to any mechanic prepared to get involved with a CVT gearbox on one of these things. I'd run a flippin mile myself!!!!!

[SiC]

I believe @dieselnutjob used this very car to provide a test bed for his Rover diagnostic tool. Might be worth a ask if he has any ideas. Getting a code out on why it threw the light on will be a big start. 

[Angrydicky]

22 minutes ago, Mr_Bo11ox said:

Good luck AD!!! I must say I take my hat off to any mechanic prepared to get involved with a CVT gearbox on one of these things. I'd run a flippin mile myself!!!!!

Yeah he said if it was the gearbox he wouldn’t touch it! Only the electrics.

Im tentatively hoping that as it’s an intermittent fault and works perfectly the rest of the time, it’s an electric fault because otherwise, I’m stuck with a useless minty 45 that’s unsaleable, I couldn’t afford to fix but would struggle to bring myself to scrap...

[SiC]

If the MINI has the same CVT gearbox as this and is susceptible to power supply issues, I'd start by checking the power feeds. I.e.

 - Battery voltage when running and charged (13.5v to 14.5v)

 - Battery terminals are tight and clean 

 - Vehicle earths and power feed wires

 - ECU connectors are clean and no water ingress or corrosion

 - Fuse and relay contacts are clean, free of corrosion + good condition. 

Ideally get that code pulled but that may take a bit more time when the above easier/simpler stuff can be checked.