1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

[vulgalour]

I really like that, but I'd have to paint the whole car that colour to make the best of it, there just aren't enough contrasting shapes in the lower half of the Princess to show off that paint to its full potential. It is gorgeous though, I like that a lot.

Or maybe it can... it gets more special the more pictures you look for.


I think this is my new favourite contender.

[vulgalour]

Just got hit with another idea when browsing for stuff.




Turns out the headlight trims for Mk1 Austin A40 Farinas are fairly easy to obtain.  If you rotate them 90 degrees they suddenly look very viable as a rear light trim that fit on the back of the Princess.  You can use the A40 sidelight/indicator unit (also plentiful) to serve as indicator and reversing light fairly easily but you're then stuck with trying to find a 7" brake light.

The best I can find are LED trailer lights from America, clearly something that would be very visible and would fit the hole but may not have enough depth to look right.  They also end up quite pricey once you factor in the delivery from America and I'm yet to find a UK company offering the same thing.

The two reasons I'm considering this is that I don't really like the stock Princess rear light design aesthetically speaking, and they have a habit of delaminating the chrome covering which then leads to crazy disco lights.  They're not a good design as standard and I'd like to improve on it.


If anyone knows of a 7" standard rear light cluster that can be got in the UK I'd love to know.

[mylittletony]

Haven't really read this as yet, very interesting and your xantia is developing into a 90s bertone styling exercise, quite splendid!

As for purples, how about volvo blackberry? Struggling to provide a link due to iPad issues...

[darrenh]

saw this and thought of you. how do you out posh a princess ?

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251682948759?clk_rvr_id=716247205286

[vulgalour]

That's bad. Seized engine, rot in all the doors and arches, I'd be surprised if there isn't rot in the floor and the boot and the sills too. The Wolseley variant is highly prized for being both the last Wolseley and for being quite rare as they were only made for 6 months. But they're still a Princess with a bad nose job wearing a posh frock. If someone takes that on they've got a lot of work ahead of themselves, but they are a very rare version of a rare car so it might just get squirrelled away by someone.

[vulgalour]

Take one decidedly tired nodding tiger.  After a couple of years in the car all the fuzz had shrunk and cracked and lifted, looking worse still than even here.

 
Apply some paint from a pair of rattle cans - Ford Velvet Purple and Citroen Polar White - before applying finer details with acrylic paint and hey presto!  One super tacky parcel shelf accessory that is utterly unique and matches the similarly unique dashboard.  Not sure why it looks very blue in some of these pictures.
 

 

 

 
 
 
Want to see it in action?  Here you go.

[jpsmit]

I think it is safe to say you have waaaay too much free time.

[vulgalour]

you'd think that, but I totally don't. I get told off for working too much on a regular basis.

[blackpopracing]

Step away from the A40 lights, step away!
Not one of your better ideas, angular lines of princess totally wont work with rounded lines of those lights.

[vulgalour]

A40 idea has been nixxed retrorides.proboards.com/thread/172037/ideas-lights-on-princess-brake#.VEw3gyLF-Ew

[vulgalour]

After much deliberation I've ended up acquiring a pair of rear lights for the Princess that nobody (including myself) thought to suggest, that I hadn't looked for and because of how cheap they were I would have been silly not to go for on the off chance. This time it's paid off, I've finally found a set of rear lights that I'm happy with and they come from Ford.




The set I bought were £nearlyfree which is a good price. Quite rough and ready as they'd been repainted at least once and I've got to get at least one indicator lens, which do pop up online for £nottoomuch. I started taking the paint off expecting them to be low grade mazac or possibly steel but they seem to be a moderately good aluminium or alloy that takes and holds a polish pretty well. This is better yet as I wanted something a bit showy on the back, be that a full width flush-fit light bar or an interesting older style light unit.







I can't show a proper mock-up on the car. I've dry-fit them to the back valance and they fit really nicely. Fog light and reversing light will be taken care of with the pair of stainless steel bodied Wipac fog lights I've got, one of which I will need a clear lens for. I'm keeping the bumpers now too, that extra chrome shelf is needed to make the new lights look right. Once I get to the welding stage I'll make a final decision as to whether or not I french the new lights into the rear panel a little bit, it may look slightly better.

You'll have to make do with this digital rendition of what I'm hoping to achieve. To me the lights make the car look less dumpy and they don't fight against the lines of the car too hard.



There's a good amount more polishing still to go on that casing too, it's good, but it could be just that bit better.

[varelse]

Not sure what your laws on position of indicators is like, but I think they'd almost look better the other way around?
Squarer edge against square edge, and all that.

[blackpopracing]

Not my choice but not my car either. I think 3 small round lights (frenched) would look far better. you could be flash & fit 59 Caddy lights.

[vulgalour]

Round lights just don't look right, not even '59 torpedoes.

[tineca]

Looks good Lamborghini espadaesque!

[vulgalour]

<3

[vulgalour]

I could cut the casing down, I think. Mounting is courtesy of two bolts that go through the panel, it's really easy, another two holes for the bulb holder tubes. What I need to do is offer the lights up to the rear of the car but get a length of metal with a couple of holes to clamp them in place rather than just holding them to get a rough idea, the original light cluster holes on the Princess are the right shape and location to let me do this without cutting anything. If the lights sit too proud or a bit too sloped I can probably trim off the excess without too much bother but if I need to trim a lot off to make them sit right then frenching is the best option.

Trabant lights on the Golf very nearly work. Need to move the number plate down and smooth the entire tailgate and original lights out. A set of square lights, like those on the Datsun 610, would work better. Why have I never seen anyone put lights in that lower bar on the Mk2 Golf? It makes a lot of sense.

[varelse]

I was looking at those squared tail lights the other day and thinking that they could work. ^
Would look better with the whole bar, though. There's a two light set up as well.

[vulgalour]

I like the rear end treatment on that silver Golf, I even like the strange looking tailgate result. The Skyline lights work, but seems really safe comparatively.

[vulgalour]

Brilliant stuff! No problems here with the hijack.