I already have a Princess that I use daily, she's a 1.7 HL manual and I love her to bits and pieces. There's an extensive story over here.
So I didn't really need another one. In fact, I was on the lookout for a hearse, 1.3 Maestro or a series 3 Allegro and I already owned a Mk1 Golf cabriolet that I was having trouble bonding with so getting another large car wasn't something I had any thoughts of doing. That is, until one appeared at the price of free to collector.
I do know this is a little bit of a gamble, but it's one I can't really lose on. If the car turns out to be a basket there's still plenty of spares on it to make getting it delivered the 280 miles north from Plymouth and if it turns out to be anywhere near as sound as my HL I've got a very comfortable barge to enjoy when I want to crank the Velour-o-meter up to eleven.
There was some history to the car. 12 years ago the car was put in a garage in Swansea and pretty much forgotten about. Two years ago it was bought by the present owner and the engine was persuaded not to be seized. The car was mothballed with a view to recommissioning at a later date but, as happens in life, plans changed and the old HLS had to be rehomed.
The weird thing with Princess values is that they don't seem to be consistent. Stranger still is that a late model Princess which is easily the most sorted and best specced of the whole range, is often the least desirable. Even so, prices have been steadily on the rise this year and they could go the same way as Marina and Allegro values so even though I want to keep these two cars because I have massive Princess love, it's reassuring to know that should I need to sell for some reason I'm likely to see some return beyond scrap value.
An introductory thread is nothing without pictures, so here's what the present owner has sent through to me. I'm comfortable posting this now as the delivery ball is rolling and I'm expecting the car to arrive by the end of this month, money has already exchanged hands for that to happen.
Possible replacement wing on this side, but equally it could just be faded paint. This is one of many parts I'd find useful for the HL.
Sitting a bit low at the front, but that's to be expected since hydragas cars do sink over time if they're not used. The car has sank evenly and the back still looks to be holding some pressure so it probably just needs a pump up. Some rot evident in the door bottoms and a dent on the rear door but otherwise pretty solid looking.
The now familiar sight to me of the O series engine. This one is the 2 litre unit and has PAS as standard. There's nothing of visual concern in the engine bay and it looks nice and original so I shouldn't have any bodges to undo like I have had on the HL. Due to the mention of previous engine seize I will be getting this running again carefully though the O series is renowned for being pretty much bulletproof so I'm hopeful on that front.
The interior is my favourite colour, but not my favourite condition. I'm expecting rot in the four outer corners of the floor but I'm not expecting it to be serious. The sill-arch juncture is about as bad as it is on my HL and you can see the usual rot on the rear door. The vinyl isn't too shabby so I might be able to get away with not removing that, certainly looks better than the brown stuff that was on my HL.
Front seats come complete with arm rests. The steering wheel will likely be transferred to my HL, swapped for the Ambassador wheel I'm not too keen on. Everything will need a clean, there's 12 years of storage dirt and detritus to clear out of here, but the HLS seats tend to be a bit more robust than the HL ones so shouldn't be too shabby once I've worked my magic on them.
Here you can see the last year side vinyls and the proper graphite/dark grey hubcap and chrome rim embellisher. I'd like to keep as much of the original details of this car as I can providing it's worth saving as these very late Princesses are probably the rarest of the lot.
The other side shows a bit of vinyl lift at the end of the gutter and either weird reflections or primer on the rear arch hinting at repair work. This is fairly normal. There looks to be a little hole under the filler flap too and my HL has just started to show bubbles in the same location so it doesn't worry me.
My plans are really just to restore this one if it's not too rotten and keep it as true to factory as I can on the trim side of things. I can have my modifying fun with the HL. I'm fully aware that owning two Princesses makes me some sort of mental too, but I don't think I needed this particular incident to prove that fact.
So I didn't really need another one. In fact, I was on the lookout for a hearse, 1.3 Maestro or a series 3 Allegro and I already owned a Mk1 Golf cabriolet that I was having trouble bonding with so getting another large car wasn't something I had any thoughts of doing. That is, until one appeared at the price of free to collector.
I do know this is a little bit of a gamble, but it's one I can't really lose on. If the car turns out to be a basket there's still plenty of spares on it to make getting it delivered the 280 miles north from Plymouth and if it turns out to be anywhere near as sound as my HL I've got a very comfortable barge to enjoy when I want to crank the Velour-o-meter up to eleven.
There was some history to the car. 12 years ago the car was put in a garage in Swansea and pretty much forgotten about. Two years ago it was bought by the present owner and the engine was persuaded not to be seized. The car was mothballed with a view to recommissioning at a later date but, as happens in life, plans changed and the old HLS had to be rehomed.
The weird thing with Princess values is that they don't seem to be consistent. Stranger still is that a late model Princess which is easily the most sorted and best specced of the whole range, is often the least desirable. Even so, prices have been steadily on the rise this year and they could go the same way as Marina and Allegro values so even though I want to keep these two cars because I have massive Princess love, it's reassuring to know that should I need to sell for some reason I'm likely to see some return beyond scrap value.
An introductory thread is nothing without pictures, so here's what the present owner has sent through to me. I'm comfortable posting this now as the delivery ball is rolling and I'm expecting the car to arrive by the end of this month, money has already exchanged hands for that to happen.
Possible replacement wing on this side, but equally it could just be faded paint. This is one of many parts I'd find useful for the HL.
Sitting a bit low at the front, but that's to be expected since hydragas cars do sink over time if they're not used. The car has sank evenly and the back still looks to be holding some pressure so it probably just needs a pump up. Some rot evident in the door bottoms and a dent on the rear door but otherwise pretty solid looking.
The now familiar sight to me of the O series engine. This one is the 2 litre unit and has PAS as standard. There's nothing of visual concern in the engine bay and it looks nice and original so I shouldn't have any bodges to undo like I have had on the HL. Due to the mention of previous engine seize I will be getting this running again carefully though the O series is renowned for being pretty much bulletproof so I'm hopeful on that front.
The interior is my favourite colour, but not my favourite condition. I'm expecting rot in the four outer corners of the floor but I'm not expecting it to be serious. The sill-arch juncture is about as bad as it is on my HL and you can see the usual rot on the rear door. The vinyl isn't too shabby so I might be able to get away with not removing that, certainly looks better than the brown stuff that was on my HL.
Front seats come complete with arm rests. The steering wheel will likely be transferred to my HL, swapped for the Ambassador wheel I'm not too keen on. Everything will need a clean, there's 12 years of storage dirt and detritus to clear out of here, but the HLS seats tend to be a bit more robust than the HL ones so shouldn't be too shabby once I've worked my magic on them.
Here you can see the last year side vinyls and the proper graphite/dark grey hubcap and chrome rim embellisher. I'd like to keep as much of the original details of this car as I can providing it's worth saving as these very late Princesses are probably the rarest of the lot.
The other side shows a bit of vinyl lift at the end of the gutter and either weird reflections or primer on the rear arch hinting at repair work. This is fairly normal. There looks to be a little hole under the filler flap too and my HL has just started to show bubbles in the same location so it doesn't worry me.
My plans are really just to restore this one if it's not too rotten and keep it as true to factory as I can on the trim side of things. I can have my modifying fun with the HL. I'm fully aware that owning two Princesses makes me some sort of mental too, but I don't think I needed this particular incident to prove that fact.
