project 1972 Vanden Plas Princess 1300 - The Forum Bike VP

[SiC]

As many will know who read my posts on here know I've been scouring auctions and eBay listings for something new. I mean the last car I bought was the 330i and Z4 - over a year ago now! 🙃

Anyway I've found something and it's incoming tomorrow. I should have collected it really as it would have been a fun adventure but I delivery costs weren't too different to train and petrol costs. So my laziness took hold and it's being picked up tomorrow by a delivery driver.

 

[Matty]

With your buying history it could be anything from a brand new Civic to something with running boards and acetylene lighting. Good luck 👍 

[purplebargeken]

I know what it is but am not going to spill the beans 🤣

[IronStar]

Z20LET swapped Ferrari 355?

(this is an actual thing btw)

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1NDbdy5v4R/

[Peter C]

[SiC]

20 minutes ago, Peter C said:

I have a strong fascination with them. (The car that is, not Michael Aspel/Una Stubbs/Lionel Blair!)

[hairnet]

mira avanzato II

[Matty]

17 minutes ago, SiC said:

I have a strong fascination with them. (The car that is, not Michael Aspel/Una Stubbs/Lionel Blair!)

1100

[SiC]

4 minutes ago, Matty said:

1100

Yes it's in that family.

I probably gave too much away by that post...

[SiC]

Insurance sorted. ETA I imagine sometime around lunch. Need to make a bee-line to storage soon as the delivery driver is taking my Dolomite on his truck as a next job for someone to do some more rust prodding on it.

[Erebus]

Frogeye Sprite?

[Verysleepyboy]

Maybe a nice VDP 1300?

[Split_Pin]

I hope it's a Landcrab!

[Noel Tidybeard]

the 1300 plaS?

[GMcD]

I'll go with a Clubman. 

[SiC]

Swaparoo

[SiC]

I have too many cars. Fwp and all that.

[PhilA]

50 minutes ago, SiC said:

I have too many modern cars.

Fixed that for you

[SiC]

A quick walk around video 

 

[SiC]

4 minutes ago, PhilA said:

Fixed that for you

Too many (working) modern cars!

[PhilA]

That's a bit of shabby chic. That's one of BL's crests before they hit a serious trough 2 years later. You get all the mod cons without all of the cost cutting.

[SiC]

2 hours ago, SiC said:

A quick walk around video 

 

The noise of the mechanical engine whine going up and suddenly falling back down isn't a camera audio artifact - it actually is doing that. It's like a slight misfire as it gives a puff of white smoke of exhaust out as it stumbles. No idea why it does that! 

Presumably it's something to do with how the auto box is working? Building up pressure till it hits a limit, load off the engine, falls back down and cycles? This is my first ever AP auto A-Series (tbh my first classic auto) so I have no idea how they are supposed to sound like.

 

The gearbox also caught me out when parking up and putting the gearbox in Park ... there is no park on these! That position is reverse. Which I learned pretty quickly as I was getting out of the car and it was moving backwards inside the storage unit.

[PhilA]

Sounds like the pump is a bit noisy. By this age, I suspect TADTS.

Didn't realize the AP box can be used as a manumatic, ie select the gear and the transmission will engage that gear, rather than the 1-2-3 being a limit to how far up the gears it'll change. 

White smoke is not good... Sure it's not just gray, ie partially burned fuel? Sounds like a fairly heavy miss at idle, maybe eyeball the plug gaps, the coil might not be making full voltage and you're getting the occasional drop-out, because that idle is very good for an A series otherwise. 

(They're good at firing well on 3 and being weak on 1, with a regular misfire. That behavior is weird, though the auto box provides much more drag than a manual when in neutral so the revs will drop hard if it doesn't fire.)

[SiC]

I'm not stressed about it as I know it's got @Andyrew from Milton Keynes area to Scotland and back! Just an interesting peculiarity. I did go for a quick drive and it didn't seem to be missing at all when driving. Gears changed are a bit fierce but then it's a 50+ year old automatic box that runs off engine sump oil and is a bit fragile design anyway. Plus I can't help but compare it against the only other recent auto box car I've driven - my 330i with a ZF 6HP that is a world away in design and function. 

[captain_70s]

My mind was blown when I realised it ran on engine oil like the manual box. Had no idea that'd even be vaguely viable.

[Tickman]

This is the biggest unsurprise ever 😂

Glad the Dolomite is getting a bit of magic thrown at it too.

[Matty]

7 minutes ago, Tickman said:

This is the biggest unsurprise ever 😂

Glad the Dolomite is getting a bit of magic thrown at it too.

Agreed. I need to see that Sprint on the road and get a real world appraisal. Then i can sell everything and try to find one worth having.

[Zelandeth]

I reckon you'll really enjoy this one.  It really is a nice old thing to float around in.  I did a couple of hundred miles in it over a couple of weeks and I could absolutely see me dailying one.

I think quite a few A series have the occasional stumble at idle, both of my Metros did it - I think the extra drag of the auto box here just makes it more obvious.

It's kinda strange seeing an A series with so high and steady oil pressure - which makes sense once you realise they have run the engine lube off the transmission pump. 

I wouldn't be at all surprised if the auto box responded well to the governor linkage just being adjusted - I really had to sit on my hands not to meddle with that when it was here!

[grogee]

What an ace car. It's so nice to hear an A-series. 

I may be missing it, but where is the Autoshite dealer sticker? 

[High Jetter]

Am I misremembering that the AP box likes regular oil changes - 3k miles ish? - as it's shared with the lump.