1977 Princess 1.8 HL

[SiC]

Which fuel pump did you get in the end? Iirc it was an electronic one?

The electronic ones come in different ratings too, based on how capable their fuel supply is. 

[SiC]

Also are there any old rubber fuel lines left on this? They can swell up and restrict flow. Likewise can come detached inside and then jam up in the hard fuel lines. 

[phil_lihp]

1 hour ago, SiC said:

Which fuel pump did you get in the end? Iirc it was an electronic one?

The electronic ones come in different ratings too, based on how capable their fuel supply is. 

It already had a brand new electric one on it when I got it, I always intended to get the mechanical one back operational again but as it was working I left it alone.  It's been ok until now.

59 minutes ago, SiC said:

Also are there any old rubber fuel lines left on this? They can swell up and restrict flow. Likewise can come detached inside and then jam up in the hard fuel lines. 

Under the bonnet no but back from that I can't be sure, again I think this is all good reasoning to drop the fuel tank so that will be the next big job.

Edited September 3, 2020 by phil_lihp

[vulgalour]

That's exactly what mine did when it was on an electric pump, except I was in the outside lane of the motorway when it did it, not ideal.  Fitted a mechanical pump and it solved the issue.  I know you're on a different engine, but the symptoms sound exactly the same and it was down to the pump just not being able to keep up with demand once you did more than pootle, so any sort of hills, anything over about 65mph, and it was like you'd run out of fuel/power until you eased off and then it went back to normal again.  Blocked/collapsing fuel filters can generate similar symptoms.

Edited to add: For fuel lines, you'll have a flexible one at the tank and it might be flexible all the way to the front if the original one has rotted away, if not you'll find it's rubber to about the rear end of the sill, then steel until about the front of the sill where it'll be a rubber hose again.  From memory, fuel line runs along the inner sill under the car on the fuel filler side.

[phil_lihp]

Yep the steel line underneath the car's still in situe and seems to be in good nick.

Thanks, that is good to know, will see how I get on with it this weekend.

[phil_lihp]

I think we have our answer.

 

[SiC]

Yum!

[LightBulbFun]

I noticed I accidentally fell behind on this thread so as you may be able to tell by your notification box now full of "LBF liked your post" notifications, I have now caught up  

keep up the good work always very interesting reading recommissioning threads like this one

 

 

On 09/08/2020 at 21:19, phil_lihp said:

To cap it off, I think both plates are original, the front one is quite mashed up and I will probably replace it if I can find somewhere that makes accurate reproductions but the back one's decent enough, it was previously attached to the tow bar and I noticed today that it's got the supplying dealer name on it - not sure if G Kingsbury & Son of Hampton sold it new in 1977 or used in 1979 to the chap who then owned it right through until last year.  I'm pleased to see that they're still trading!  

 im pretty positive those are Tippers plates, in fact the same make/style of plate as found on my own car! 

who still make plates today  https://www.tippersvintageplates.co.uk/phdi/p1.nsf/supppages/tippers?opendocument&part=4

so you may be able to get new plates made in the exact same style still or have your existing ones refurbished by them 

(I have noticed the pressed style plates they show at the bottom of the link above have rounded inner corners where as yours and mine have squared/90 degree inner corners, so I would check with them if they still do the "hard" corner style still however)

 

 

 

[dozeydustman]

16 hours ago, phil_lihp said:

I think we have our answer.

 

Looks like the coffee I just made. Wonder if that's tank silt or dissolving fuel hoses

[Tadhg Tiogar]

57 minutes ago, dozeydustman said:

Looks like the coffee I just made. Wonder if that's tank silt or dissolving fuel hoses

Suck it and see?

[danthecapriman]

I bet that’s tank mank! My Mercury did exactly the same thing. It’d been sat in a barn for years unused and all the crap, rust and silt in the tank settled in the bottom, then when it was dragged out and started being driven again it stirred up all the muck in the bottom of the tank and kept sucking it through. No amount of fresh fuel or filling the tank would solve it. New filters would block solid within a couple of hundred miles and the carb float bowls & jets would just clog.

Only way forward was remove the tank, and replace for a brand new one in my case, but for you it will probably just be flushing out and cleaning a few times as I doubt you’ll find a new tank now. Might be a good time to replace all your rubber fuel hose with ethanol proof new hose too and blow through any metal fuel lines with compressed air or something ideally.

[phil_lihp]

I'd concur that the tank needs cleaning out,..

Once the fuel in the pot had evaporated, hard to believe this all came out of one filter and the car was actually running very well, clean fuel was coming out of the output too so these filters have done a good job.

New fuel filter fitted and it's running nicely again but the filter immediately got dirt in it so unless I want to change the filter every 2 weeks the tank will need sorting very soon.  I've got other jobs to sort at home before I can put any time to major car jobs again but will make it the next priority.

I fitted the new sealed beams...I've made a nod to modernity and gone for halogen conversions, these have sidelight bulbs fitted as well which I might use in the future.  They were a pretty easy swap and work nicely, hopefully I will be able to see and be seen more easily as the nights draw in. New halogen on the right, sealed beam on the left.  Both have now been changed out.

Headlight mounts are pretty crusty but functional.  43 years of accumulated dirt as well.

The spare wheel strap snapped when put to use so I've replaced it with a bungie cord for now, I've kept the strap though in case I or a future owner wants to sort it properly.  Any bits I take off this car which have any life left in them are going in the spares box, only completely broken stuff is being binned.

The other day I fitted the spare indicator stalk which @vulgalour kindly sent me, unfortunately it had the same problem of dirty contacts and wasn't working but after a couple of flushes through with electrical contact cleaner it now seems to be working OK - I'll keep an eye on it, the original one never went back together properly after being dismantled as the little springs inside pinged out and wouldn't go back in so while it worked, it felt horrible to use and had no self-cancelling.  I've left it in the boot as a spare.

Last things for today was working out why the driver's side indicator had stopped working.  The sidelight had never worked and I think this might be why.

Sidelight bulb and holder...

Lamp unit, completely rotten and both earth leads had snapped off.

I got a half-decent replacement from eBay for the passenger side one which is working fine now but haven't yet found a driver's side one.

Anyway, that's enough of that, I have a fence to put up.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

What diameter are the headlamps?

[phil_lihp]

Thanks for the numberplate suggestion, I'm in two minds at the moment as a new one would look better but will look odd on the car given its current shabbiness!

[phil_lihp]

1 minute ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

What diameter are the headlamps?

5 3/4"

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Just now, phil_lihp said:

5 3/4"

Reason for asking is because I wondered if there were modern projector lens versions in that size.

[phil_lihp]

Incidentally, yesterday the Princess got to visit my office car park as I picked it up from the tyre place round the corner at lunch time.  It got quite a lot of attention - it doesn't blend in very well.

I moved it from this space shortly afterwards, the car park's on a slope and there are 3 rows of spaces in front of the car.  We've had two minor incidents involving staff car handbrake failure in the past, one of which happened only a couple of weeks ago, and I realised that the two spaces directly in front of the Princess were empty, meaning if something happened it had a good long run downhill which led straight to our operation director's brand new (like, 1 week old) Audi A5!  I always leave it in gear anyway but didn't fancy taking a chance.

7 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Reason for asking is because I wondered if there were modern projector lens versions in that size.

I don't honestly know but these seem to be decent quality, they were cheapy ones off eBay but more or less the same price as a standard sealed beam. They should mean it's easier to change bulbs in the future, plus light output will hopefully be improved.  The main beam units are still the originals as they still work fine.

[dozeydustman]

⬆️ Calendar shot

[Asimo]

Old cam belt makes very good spare wheel strap.

[danthecapriman]

Love the car park shot! Makes you think though... 
 

...what the fuck has gone so awfully wrong in car design!? It’s difficult to fathom how people can intentionally design modern blobs to be that fucking ugly on purpose! The Princess looks absolutely gorgeous, actually styled and thought about.

Anyway, enough modern bashing!

[Tadhg Tiogar]

11 minutes ago, danthecapriman said:

.....what the fuck has gone so awfully wrong in car design!? It’s difficult to fathom how people can intentionally design modern blobs ....

...because "safety"

[SiC]

Tank off, sender out and then pressure wash through the sender hole to wash the insides. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Come to think of it, @beko1987 probably has a flexible vacuum hose for sucking out the debris from that tank.

[beko1987]

51 minutes ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

Come to think of it, @beko1987 probably has a flexible vacuum hose for sucking out the debris from that tank.

We used it on the invacars, it's a dirt cheap micro attachment set for your normal vacuum.. Seemed to work quite well! It kills the airflow so will take ages, and anything bigger than a fingernail will get caught but it'll do it

Problem is the fuel tank is the worst place to use a brushed vacuum as the brushes spark against the comm, so add loads of fuel vapor and it would be fun to watch, but I wouldn't want it in the garage... 

[LightBulbFun]

6 hours ago, phil_lihp said:

Thanks for the numberplate suggestion, I'm in two minds at the moment as a new one would look better but will look odd on the car given its current shabbiness!

No problem  I personally would keep the original plates, they are original  to the car, match its atheistic and and are still clearly legible  

the only thing I would check is how retroreflective they are still

[Daviemck2006]

The car park shot also shows how big and fat today’s cars are. The princess was a big car when my dad owned one in 1977 and I passed my driving test in it in 1980, but looks small compared to the “baby” Vauxhall it is parked next to.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[vulgalour]

I'll have a look in the spares, I might have the backing plate/lens you're after for the indicator unit with the wiring intact, not sure which sides I've got from memory.  If you wanted projector headlights, BMW E39 ones do theoretically fit, there's just not really any point since good halogens are perfectly adequate for the speeds you're going to be going.

[phil_lihp]

A friend pointed me in the direction of someone local selling a stack of old car manuals - he thought the one on the top of the pile might be of interest.  He was right, it's like brand new and from a brief flip through it seems to be a little better than the Haynes in terms of diagrams etc.  We'll see.

I have the rest of the books for sale over on the For Sale section here.

Next weekend, the bonnet is coming off and being taken to be sandblasted and painted.  They're going to try a bit of it for blasting to see if it does any harm - if it does, it'll have to involve a more manual paint removal process but that's down to the experts to decide.  I've been told it shouldn't cost more than £300 and his work is good from what I have seen.

In other less gooder news, a smell of petrol and a wet patch on the driveway caught my attention this morning and sure enough, the sediment-filled petrol tank is leaking from a seam.  That just got more critical to fix, fortunately I have next week off so at some point I will empty out the fuel that's still in it - annoyingly, still quite a bit I think - and get it off the car.  I hope it's repairable, new ones aren't exactly easy to come by.

[Asimo]

18 minutes ago, phil_lihp said:

Next weekend, the bonnet is coming off and being taken to be sandblasted and painted.  They're going to try a bit of it for blasting to see if it does any harm - if it does, it'll have to involve a more manual paint removal process but that's down to the experts to decide.  I've been told it shouldn't cost more than £300 and his work is good from what I have seen.

Blasting will need to be very gentle on something that big, thin and flat.

[phil_lihp]

1 minute ago, Asimo said:

Blasting will need to be very gentle on something that big, thin and flat.

Yes, that's what they said.