Modified Ambassadors & Princesses

[Deleted]

I'm going to raise this from the depths after octagonalpaul posted this in the NRNR thread.

[shanehaward]

[tdk]

Jun 1, 2011 18:49:16 GMT robinmasters said:

Jun 1, 2011 16:33:02 GMT dbizzle said:

My dad had a Princess too. Maybe this is the one true constant that ties all Retro Rides users together...?

My dad had one too! Sandglow yellow, with a brown vinyl roof and brown velour interior

Always smelt a bit of sick though; hydrolastic suspension & children prone to travel sickness are not a good combination

A recall spewing heavily in a mate's dads's Princess on the way back from a birthday party, chips, ice cream, jelly and coke EVERYWHERE. Sorry, chap

[Deleted]

That's why the back of the front seats are wipe-clean vinyl rather than the velour used everywhere else. BL thought of everything.

[malachi]

there is a princess in my street that hasnt moved for over 15 years an also one being stored at work in the yard

[Deleted]

I would like to know more...

[malachi]

if you google ws11 5ja you can see the one, the one at work belonged to one of the gaffers father not sure what is happening to it

[monster]

Mar 5, 2014 19:33:37 GMT malachi said:

if you google ws11 5ja you can see the one, the one at work belonged to one of the gaffers father not sure what is happening to it

Was about to say thats a very mk1 fiesta looking princess... then i moved a few doors down

I reckon Vulgalour is already on his way to rescue the Princess!

PS - A modified ambassador as per this thread would be so cool!

[malachi]

seems odd the part of the street I live the pictures are less than a year old but that fiesta has been gone a couple of years

[Deleted]

That's a late one. Could be salvageable though as the late ones do tend to be better built and less prone to the rust bug. Long, long way away from me but it might be worth a knock on the door to find out what the score is, I'd be more than happy to pass any info on to the club if the present owners are willing to let that happen. Failing that, give them this link so they can check it out for themselves: leylandprincess.co.uk/forum/index.php

Edited to add:

[fred]

There is a old gent not far from me who owns a gold Ambassador
tend to see it in Morrisons car park early on a Friday
rather like this one I snatched off Google



I hated them when I was a kid/teenager, probably because of Terry and June (old sit com for you young sorts)

but now I think they are bloody soaking in 70's gorgeousness

[djefk]

I've had a couple of Princesses and I really like them as a long distance cruiser, although even in rude health mechanically they are a little lacking in power - When i return to the UK i may get another as a project - If so then I'd want to make it more usable while keeping it standard on the outside (a bit of a Q car, if you like, with the focus on practicality and low running costs rather than outright BHP): I'd get the good old 1800 B series up to MGB spec with a high compression ratio, electronic ignition, free-flow air filters, polished cylinder head with larger exhaust valves and quietish straight through exhaust. Coupled with a mild cam (or perhaps just keep the MGB one?), I'm pretty certain that as the car as standard is underpowered, doing all this would mean you now wouldn't have to work the engine hard through the gears to make reasonable progress, plus the engine should now be more efficient at higher revs / when cruising. Therefore my logic goes that you should end up with a nippy / fun to drive Princess and get the same or even better fuel economy than standard overall (with some extra power of course as a bonus). They already have 4 pot callipers on the brakes of course, so they shouldn't need upgrading to cope.

One thought - I have never seen anything on the web where someone has successfully bestowed the car with a 5th gear - this is the only modification I think these cars need (discounting taking an angle grinder to the rear screen surround to make a hatchback of course!). Does anyone have any ideas about how to do this without going to the hassle of getting another engine to fit? The only other option is to raise the overall gearing on the 4 speed transmission, however on a Princess this is already pretty tall, I found you needed more clutch slip and revs to get them them going than most cars, hence they were somewhat fussy to drive in heavy traffic.

Strange that BL didn't engineer the Maxi engine to fit with its 5 speed gearbox as that would have solved the issue.

My Princesses:

Green 1977 1800 HL









Red 1978 1800 HL










I wonder what you had to do to get headrests on the front seats when you bought one of these new back then? A HL spec car wasn't exactly bottom of the range!

[Smiler]

Mar 4, 2014 19:36:49 GMT shanehaward said:

That looks awesome! That really does seem to work.

[Deleted]

I'm told the only way to put a fifth gear on is to either do an entire engine and box swap - which has its own problems, the engine bay is not as accommodating as you might expect - or to get the gearbox internals modified at ££££. Something to do with development costs meant they went for tall gears rather than making something like the Maxi gearbox fit. The Maxi gearbox doesn't fit. The only other option I've been told may work is to put a Montego engine and gearbox in, this gives you fuel injection and should return economy of 50+mpg when in good health and driven sensibly, but there are some issues with getting the gearbox to fit in the engine bay apparently.

The most affordable way to obtain a hatchback version is to get an Ambassador and replace the front wings, bonnet, front valance, bumpers, headlights, rear valance and rear lights. Lots of work to achieve, but a better way of doing it than trying to turn a Princess into a hatchback as per the old Torcars conversions.

[lilbob]

if a montego engine and box will fit with a little fabrication work then surely the montego turbo diesel will fit thus making a super motorway mile muncher with really good mpg and reliable to boot
***** sloping of to ebay********

[jjp666]

[79cord]

This really should have been here earlier.
1978 Triplex 10/20 Glassback concept (Ogle design)
www.leylandprincess.co.uk/Princess10-20

[djefk]

Mar 9, 2014 12:34:03 GMT @volksangyl said:

I'm told the only way to put a fifth gear on is to either do an entire engine and box swap - which has its own problems, the engine bay is not as accommodating as you might expect - or to get the gearbox internals modified at ££££. Something to do with development costs meant they went for tall gears rather than making something like the Maxi gearbox fit. The Maxi gearbox doesn't fit. The only other option I've been told may work is to put a Montego engine and gearbox in, this gives you fuel injection and should return economy of 50+mpg when in good health and driven sensibly, but there are some issues with getting the gearbox to fit in the engine bay apparently.

.

Just had a thought: I wonder whether the MGF K series 1.8 lump and box would be a better fit? They must be more compact than the Montego setup surely - This would give the car both the power it lacks as standard and the legs to cruise quietly on the motorway at illegal speeds, I was always impressed by how quiet these things are at speed apart from engine noise, they can easily handle 80+ and the chassis still feels solid / planted at that speed. Keep the injection setup and surely this would be a much better setup for extra MPGs too as you infer above. With a reinforced head gasket it'd be reliable and just as easy to live with as a modern and I believe it would be far more worthy of the Q car status in terms of performance.

Is it only me who thinks of doing such things to such an oddball / low value motor or has anyone ever heard of something like this being done before?! The other half so far has a good excuse to ban the purchase of such a machine when we return on the grounds that it won't do 90 on the motorway comfortably when we want to do the Friday night dash from London to Devon at the weekends. If anyone can help facilitate with the over-ruling of such an objection then I will reward you all with a build thread, natch.

[Deleted]

Get some ear plugs, then a standard Princess will comfortably lope along at 90 if it's in rude health, just be prepared for some bum clenching if you have to stand on the brakes to avoid collecting someone merging into the outside lane at a moment's notice.

My personal Q car desire is to get a big Lotus chassis - Eclat or Elite probably - and put the Princess bodyshell on top complete with as much of the interior as possible to keep it super sneaky.

[steveg]

I was going to suggest finding a picture of the one at Gaydon, is that the Triplex one above ?

With a lot of BL's cars the basic design was good in a 70's sort of way but was spoilt when bit's of vinyl and silly narrow wheel were fitted. My dad had a marina that was crying out for a set of sprint wheels to fill the arches and if only they had made longer doors for the coupe version.


I think this would be great with slightly tinted windows and a bit less stick on trim.