1980 Austin Princess - 11/05 - Update

[Vulgalour]

Here's the finale for this update. I don't really ever use the video recorder function on my camera, so I'm not great at it, but I thought a walk-around after the hard work my brother had put into the engine would be a good idea.



So there you go. I am a happy, happy person.

[stealthstylz]

Looks tidy, nice to see a survivor. My old boss used to buy loads of em for pence and weigh them in minus the front calipers as they're worth a fortune. Never even tried to sell any other bits. Quite a cool shape now.

[Vulgalour]

Feb 18, 2012 17:46:12 GMT octagonalpaul said:

Feb 18, 2012 1:23:26 GMT Vulgalour said:

...the speedo (reads 50mph at 45mph!). I'll swap the wheels around front to back when I get chance to cure this.

Swapping the wheels will make the speedo misread even more, as the wheels will then have smaller rolling radius!

I wrote the numbers the wrong way around, I guess I must've been tired. The speedo reads 45 at 50 so swapping the wheels *should* work.. I think. Sorry for the confusion there.

Soon as I have a spare 5 minutes we will get that centre joint on the exhaust sealed .. just depends if you can get it somewhere that I won't get crushed (don't fancy attemting it on a 1 in 4 slope)

when it's done she will be as quiet as a mouse eating cheese

[Vulgalour]

The lane is a bit flatter just outside the drive, but it's very muddy at the moment. If the weather's good tomorrow we'll do some more tinkering, I really want to get those rear pillars sorted and get some paint anyway.

[vonthrash]

ahem . . . . my Dad had one of those! . . . *cringe*

And due to brain-etched memories of suffering as an innocent bystander of my sisters travel sickness whilst sat in the back of one, it's only recently I've been able to appreciate them.

I remember my dad claiming he bought it because he was tall and it had masses of front legroom. I now believe it was because he got it cheap from my uncle, who was in the army. It came with the silver on black MOD number plates and a no-expence-spared history. It was replaced by a brand new mk2 cav in about 1988 I think. The princess went to Mr Moles in Skellingthorpe

Just realised I'm rambling like an old man . . . .

[Vulgalour]

vonthrash: Your Dad was right, it does have lots of legroom in the front, though I'm yet to have complaints of car sickness. Old Austins do seem to make people ramble like old men, I think I'd blame that if I were you

Today, I got some work done, but not as much as I wanted to. The interior is still waiting for a quite literal scrub of all surfaces. In the meantime, I thought it wise to crack on with that passenger side C pillar and investigate the scariest bit of grot we've found on the car.

There were some limitations; time, no cover so had to leave the screen in, and the temperature. It was a gloriously sunny, if chilly, day so I at least got some of what I wanted done.

First job was to get the panel ready. Before that could happen, the trims needed to be removed. These fit at the top of the vinyl and appear to have been painted brown to match, but someone has painted them badly with chrome paint at a later date. I don't think I need to put them back on because I'm going for a full 'vinyl' roof rather than just the rear pillars.


The bottom trims were also removed. This involved popping out the plastic end trims and then sliding/prying/wiggling them off the rusty trim clips.


Much action with turps and kitchen towel saw the panel look much, much cleaner. A great deal of the badness is actually glue rather than rust, reassuringly. Tougher to get it off where it's left here.




I'm not too confident with drills, my wrist injury that plays up from time to time seems to mean using a drill leads to random loss of grip, which isn't good for fiddly work. So it's brother to the rescue so we can drill out the rivets holding the trim clips in place.


Most of the clips are held in with rivets and came off cleanly (bottom) but some were held in with long bolts/screws and nuts (top) for no apparent reason.


All free of random bits of metal, I could clean up the difficult areas.




Then I could attack the rust bubbles and blebs with sandpaper. If I'm honest I was worried about this, we couldn't tell how bad this rust was and it's in a common rust spot. Ideally, it should be cut out and replaced but I don't have access to the relevant tools for that, so it was done another way.


All the rust areas were given a go over with a wire brush too, so all the loose stuff was out and any holes that might be there would show up. For all it was heavily pitted, it's still strong and free of holes other than where the trim clips go.






Time for the magic paint.


Use the blister pack it comes in to serve as a handy pot. This prevents you contaminating the Kurust in the original pot.


Paint all the rust!




Then... problem. I knew I had a big tin of primer, but I couldn't find it anywhere in the house. The day was drawing to a close and I had no means to get out and buy some. One call to Dad and the problem is solved. Also, Dad got to help out and cast his critical eye and opinion on what was going on.


Mask, mask, spray, spray, shiver, shiver...


Brother and I had decided on the colour for the roof earlier when we went to buy the top coat.


It was getting darker and colder, but I wanted the panel waterproof at least. This is one coat, done in a rush, in the cold and dark. It's terrible, but it's not porous, and that's the important thing. Depending what the weather does tomorrow, I hope to get this rectified properly.


The colour is great, but will look even better when it's applied better and has a few more coats as the primer is showing through at the moment. Being metallic, it's a nice contrast to the rest of the car without being too out of keeping with it. There was a can of Russet Brown in the shop, but I thought it was a bit too boring.

Later, Dad magicked a cloth for cleaning car leather and gave the steering wheel a brisk wipe. The steering wheel looked and felt smooth, but would leave my hands black every time I used it. This cloth was pure white.


I seem to be amassing a lot of odds and ends from inside the cubbies in the car too.



There's a lot of work still to do, but the scariest bit of bodywork is prevented from getting too bad now. I still need to pop out the rear screen to deal with all the rust fully, but I'm happy that for now the screen seal is sitting flush with the bodywork and the rust on that panel isn't going to get any worse any time soon.

[slacker]

hearing aid beige-a british classic ;D

[Vulgalour]

I'll have you know it's called Champagne

[rovamota]

If there are no drain holes then it means the bottom of the doors are full of bodge! There should be three drain holes on the front doors and two on the rears. Princess rear doors rot like there's no tomorrow and are almost impossible to source and even more impossible to repair when they are full of bodge.

I'll get some pics on tomorrow of rotten Princess door bottoms so that you can see how bad they get.

[rovamota]

By the way, I have the correct walnut brown 'leyland grain' vinyl to do both of those rear pillars if you want it.

Kev.

[Vulgalour]

Thank you, but I'll pass on the vinyl, I'm not keen to return a trouble maker and I'm going to stick to paint instead for this one.

As for the doors, starting with the worst one I'm going to go around the car and clean them up, inspect the damage and get them repaired. I know it'll cost me, but it will be worthwhile. There's not too much bodge, from what I can tell without getting the tools out, but there's more than I'd like. I'm guessing someone quickly repaired them when they were minor rust bubbles but never treated the rust.

As I've said earlier in the thread, it smacks of old fashioned 'restoration for show use' all over and thankfully many of the bodges are easy to find. I'm just limited as to how much I can do in a day on her. Next shopping list item is some Champagne paint so I can blend in further repairs as I go along. I'll be picking one area at a time and getting each area safe and as rust free as possible to avoid things getting any worse.

[rovamota]

Properly applied vinyl will last for years, but brown just doesn't last as well as black as its UV resistance seems to be lacking. In any case, if it is replaced it's going to be looked after like never before. If you do stick with the paint on the pillars it would be best to paint them beige to match the rest of it as per the Princess 1700L which didn't have any vinyl on the bodywork.

In any case, this time of year is the worst to paint outside; the moisture in the air will cause 'milking'.

[Vulgalour]

I don't like how it looks with just beige on the pillars, hence the brown paint. I know I'm going to ruffle a few feathers with the roof choice but it's really the only thing that's going to differ from stock that can't be immediately reversed (I plan on optional wheels, for example).

I'm probably going to look out for a set of HLS seats to match my interior, and carpet the boot. Again, personal choice that's wrong for a stock Princess, but I don't see sensitive modifications like that as a bad thing.

[rovamota]

Rover 800 seats will fit straight in more or less. Princess interior trim is scarce.

[Vulgalour]

The Rover 800 thing keeps getting said, but I'm not sold on it. I may end up getting the existing seats reupholstered in some suitable velour, reusing the original vinyl if possible. I'll see how they come up after a good clean first, they don't appear to be faded or fragile, which is nice.

I think that most ppl with adenoids are really going to hate you for painting the roof line of the princess ... personally I think it will look awesome . Any use of vinyl roof coverings is always going to end in disaster in the long term (I don't care how well it's applied), The glue will eventually rot/break down and then moisure will get trapped underneath ... then before you know it *POOF* bye bye roof may take 10 + years but it will happen!
The choice of ford metallic pooh is way better than any vinyl can ever be and offers loads more protection to the metal.
Rover 800 seats would look too "up to date" for the look you are wanting I think and don't have a wide enough range of colour choices .
Love the minimal custom/restoration, it's the best route to go IMHO

[Vulgalour]

Feb 19, 2012 21:50:43 GMT rovamota said:

In any case, this time of year is the worst to paint outside; the moisture in the air will cause 'milking'.

That's true, it can, I've had it happen in the past. But if I time the work right so the sun is shining on what I'm doing and it's a mild day I should be okay. Shame I can't get her in the garage, that'd help no end, but Wilhelm is hogging that space.

If the weather is good tomorrow I'll be getting the other C pillar cleaned and painted to match. Just a case of playing it by ear really, at least until the weather improves.

[Vulgalour]

I'm not going this route, but I wanted to remember this that OctagonalPaul posted in the NRNR thread.

[lincolndanny]

That picture above is the first time I've looked at a Princess and gone "OOOOOOFFFFFFF!!!!!!