1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

[vulgalour]

That's closer than I ever managed digitally! It's hard to say where exactly the hem will sit, I think it will probably be a bit lower at the front and a bit higher at the back than you've done there, but not by much. The curve and perspective is going to change how it looks too. There's a lot of shapes going on in that area. It does make the rear end look heavy and I'm okay with that, it's heavy in the right place.

The pin the top with deadbolts on the lower corners is the method that seems most common and easily done so that's probably what I'll go with. Just needs a minor adjustment to the return lip (both rears need repairing anyway) to accomodate and it's basically invisible when the skirt is off the car.

Eventually I need to figure out what to do with the exhaust because that's pretty ugly. I was planning on lakes pipes once upon a time and have since changed my mind, physically routing them will be a pain, the O series is not a nice enough sounding engine, and it's just not going to work with the rest I don't think. I did consider something like bellflowers, but I think the rear overhang is too short and upswept for it to work.

[braaap]

Jul 4, 2024 17:42:26 GMT horrido said:

Like this? Covering the corner on the arch?

Hm, I'm not sure if this works without a good hit withe the stick?

[vulgalour]

That's what the suspension schrader valves are for

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Or perhaps, take the Hyundai approach:

[vulgalour]

After six or seven hours and a full bottle of welding gas, I got the inner and outer sill sorted on this side of the Princess.


There's significantly more weld holding this all together than when I took it apart so while it's not yet finished, it's certainly in better shape. I've been putting this off for ages because it also meant taking both doors off to get access to a couple of spots. Also means I've dealt with some hidden rot around the rear jacking point that I was totally unaware of because it's only seen when you get the outer sill off, so it was nice to address that.

A larger gas bottle would be nice, these small ones don't last as long as I'd like, trouble is I can't physically carry a bigger one when it's attached to the welder and still don't have a welding trolley so I'll have to stick to the 9 litre ones for now.

Nothing else on the car is as big a job as that sill, welding wise, so I feel like I've got over the hump of that work now.

[horrido]

Sorry, I can't stop myself. I felt like this was more what you were after though.

[vulgalour]

Yep, that's got the vibe. I like that take on the colour split too, definitely has more of that 70s slightly tacky luxury look about it. Skirt looks about like it does when I mock it up IRL too, I'm impressed you got it that close from my rubbish description.

As for tinted glass... I'm hoping I can make one good set from what I have. I've got the car's original set which has the number plate etched on to them, and another set from a donor car. Neither are perfect, a couple have grinder spray (from before me) on them, so they're not great for getting tinted. Finding a set of complete and matching tinted Princess glass, even just the side glass, is very difficult to do these days, so tinting a good clear set is the best option unless I get really lucky.

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Did you see that blue Princess in the "Scrap yard cars" post recently? Could be worth asking for parts there...

[blackpopracing]

Why not fit lakes pipes and just keep the original exhaust? Many 60 cars did this.

[vulgalour]

Waxoyling Lyrical That's actually an Ambassador, new to me all the same. Not much I could use from that on mine, sadly, maybe the front valance and lower wing sections to see if an Ambassador chin works on a bumperless Princess. There's no info on where or when the pictures were taking either, newest thing I could spy was a 55 plate, so it could all be long gone. EDIT: the displacers!  Almost forgot.  Probably the most valuable part of any wedge, and always a gamble when rescued from a scrapyard car.

blackpopracing Dummy lakes are a lot easier to install, that's very true. You'd still see the factory tailpipe sticking out the back, that's the bit I don't like the most and the bit I want to hide.

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Ambassador glass not compatible with Princess, I take it?

[vulgalour]

Some of it is. Rear doors and windscreen definitely are. Tailgate is different to the rear screen in the Princess. Front doors might be different too, the mirror was moved from the Princess door location to a little triangle at the front corner of the glass on the Ambassador and I don't know if they also reshaped the glass to accomodate that.

That said, you could just chuck the Ambassador doors straight on the Princess and get around the problem that way.

[vulgalour]

Dodging the rain today, which was intent on stopping me doing stuff, I both gave the car a wash and used up some of the paint leftovers. There were two things I wanted to do, the first was the new colour split on the front and that proved that you can't really use a hard line at the arch curve, so we'll be doing a fade there for extra bonus custom car points.

I don't mind the colour split in the Cerise, because it changes colour so much depending on the light, it doesn't have the same heaviness to the nose as the flat pink does so I'm okay with that. The P6 trims have really grown on me too, I wasn't sure at first but the longer they've been on the car the more right they've looked so I reckon those will get a refurbish. Wheels definitely want a repaint, I'll have to get my spare set up from Kent so I can get those properly shotblasted and painted rather than a DIY job, so they'll hopefully last longer.

The other paint job was to use up the Peugeot black and a few other cans with dribbles in so the back panel is finally matching rather than that faded burgundy. Looks hugely better for it. The spoiler will be going Cerise when we've got the paint for that to happen. The spoiler is just the right size to put a cuppa on so it gets to stay for that reason if nothing else. Looks a bit smokey because it's on choke and stone cold and raining.

At the front, I've got to do a little work to the panel that goes under the lights and grille because it's a little bit tweaked from being worked on a few times over the years. The whole front end will go Cerise because the front end looks clean enough now that I'm pretty sure that will work. There might be some sort of decorative grille or other element applied at a later date if I find something suitable, for now just going to keep it simple.

The only other significant styling change I'd like to make is some pressed metal serck font number plates, which would be period correct and just another nerdy little thing. Not yet found anyone making those and they may not be a thing that exists even. The front plate has picked up a small crack from a stonechip at some point so it's only a matter of time before that needs replacing.

I'm also hoping by adopting a patchwork look while I work through the bodywork flaws people will stop asking me why the paint looks bad, or at least when they do ask I can say 'I'm working on it, be patient' and they'll actually believe me. Honestly, you'd think shiny paint was the only important thing.

[vulgalour]

This weekend I was fiddling about with some minor things for the fun of it. There's more serious jobs to attend to, and I will do them, I just need to not be under the stress of sorting out this new job, keeping the existing job going, trying to rebuild some sort of social life, saving for a house move..... the list is ever growing. Anyway, rather than welding and that I got the tat out and had a look at what I actually want to do because with paint coming in the near future I need to make sure I know where trim and stuff is going.

I've had a whole bunch of individual metal letters from various cars - Ford, Triumph, Austin, maybe some others - for an idea I've had for a while. This weekend I finally found a D to complete the set and am just waiting on that arriving. The spoiler will be going pink soon which will look better than the matt black it's currently in. You'll also notice the =?= badge on the boot. I found this on eBay a while ago and have no idea what it's from, it's black plastic with 'chromed' raised portions. I suspect it's off an old arcade cabinet or something of that sort. Certainly an appropriate thing for the back of the car since most people have no idea what it is. Eventually I want to smooth off the boot lock, I've got a remote cable release from a Rover 200 I want to fit, I just haven't had the brain to figure out the latch side of things.

The next thing was to figure out where those letters were going to go. The car is named, in the style of questionable 70s and 80s customs, and that name is Serendipity. Reason being whenever something is needed it generally just turns up without me looking. To reflect that, I wanted the name on the car more visibly than the bottom of the number plates and started collecting individual metal letters a while ago. I wanted a whole set in different styles and weirdly the one I was having difficulty finding was a D so the project stalled. I've since found a D from a Zodiac, the other letters are from Ford, Triumph, Austin, and possibly one other manufacturer, I'm not sure. Anyway, they look the part and I like them on that bit of black at the top of the boot lid. I tried them in various places and that's the one spot where they looked right. 

The last minor update was the high level indicators. These are Austin A30 sidelights originally, and have a domed glass lens which looks quite nice and which I'd used glass paint on the inside to tint amber. Over time that glass paint had faded and they were nearly white again which meant either repainting them or seeing if an idea I had actually worked. The front side repeaters on the Princess looked a very similar diameter so I popped a lens in the A30 holder and it's a perfect fit. Added a rubber o-ring to keep the moisture out, and gave the back of the plastic lens a sand to slim it down a smidge and they're locked in nicely. As a bonus, they do look visibly more amber and seem to be brighter than the old glass lenses. 

The weather is making it very difficult to do anything at all on the car. It's so wet so much of the time that I can't do anything on the car. I'm holding off getting a fresh bottle of welding gas because there simply hasn't been a break in the weather to allow me to get on with these next little bits. Same goes for some of the minor mechanical jobs I want to attend to. I have been hunting through my spares and I'm going to attempt to revert the top hose between the thermostat and the radiator back to factory, I've got a spare good waxstat housing. The trouble is the silicon hose I've used is now sometimes sagging a bit when hot and I think that's affecting the efficiency of the cooling system, many people have pointed out the kinked hose but honestly that's not impeding flow since it's a very large diameter pipe and not squashed flat.

Oil consumption continues too. I have no idea where the oil is actually going because the leaks it did have are basically all sorted now. It just goes through a bit of oil all the time. Every few hundred miles I have to give it a little drink, it's a lot less of a drink since solving the oil leaks as best I can, but it's still more of a drink than I'd like it to have. Coolant consumption isn't, as far as I can tell, a thing. Fuel economy is about what it should be. I'm a little anxious about using it for commuting which I shall soon have to do because even though it hasn't let me down yet I'm pretty sure it's only a matter of time.

As always, I want to sink much more time and money into this car than I have access to so we'll just have to keep picking away at what we can and hope it lasts another year. 

[vulgalour]

Bobbled over to the Humber Bridge car meet last night on a total whim, was a great time, there's a thread here: forum.retro-rides.org/thread/227405/humber-bridge-meet-fashioned-report



Princess behaved herself nicely, was a pleasant drive on fairly nice roads, car seemed a lot happier for the run understandably. Today's job is going to be greasing and fitting new boots to the lower ball joints up front, the old boots have split and one of the balljoints was a bit squeaky on the way back, hopefully no harm done and not too horrible a job, at least it's stopped raining for a bit.

I'll be curious to see if the Princess pops up in videos and photos anywhere, if you see it then give me a prod over here. I know there were people recording cars arriving and leaving, and the Princess got a fair bit of attention at the show which mostly seemed to be positive.

I start my new job on Monday so we'll be doing a commute three days a week for that and I've not had to commute for over a decade now so that's going to be a little culture shock for me I think. Little bit nervous about this new job, it is something I've done before so I should be fine, I'm just out of the mainstream employment loop these days and it feels a bit First Day Of School. I'm sure I'll settle in just fine, it can't be any more stressful than being self employed and it'll be nice to have someone else to tell me what to do for a change.

[braaap]

Good luck with the new job!

[glenanderson]

Ditto. 👍👍

[vulgalour]

Ta! The ball joint cover defeated me, I can't get the ball joint to budge out of the lower wishbone so it's off to a local recommended garage on Friday. Reassuringly, he was totally unphased by what the Princess is and the job I wanted so that bodes well. If they're good on this job I'll pass them a couple of others that I just don't want to do, providing funds are there. I've got to find a way to knock some of this DIY stuff on the head a bit and give myself some room to breathe.

[vulgalour]

It me!

[vulgalour]

First week of new job completed (it's a part time role) and it's been surprisingly okay. The hospital is an absolute nightmare to navigate because it's about five million years old with a thousand buildings randomly bolted on, but I find myself navigating by hastily repaired bits of floors and walls since the NHS never has enough money to make anything look nice. I've really only been doing training this week, with a little bit of actual work, it takes a while to get through all the security guff and get set up on the various systems. It is at least familiar work, some of what I've done is exactly what I've done in previous roles just with a slightly less clunky computer system these days. I can't say whether or not the work is difficult yet as I've not done enough of it, we'll see how I fare a few months down the line.

I've been commuting in the Princess, which surprisingly I can get insured to do for a few extra groats a year. My commute is only about 4 or 5 miles, an annoying distance that's not quite short enough to walk, and just too far to be sensible on public transport (only one bus every hour for the route, not ideal) so it's not particularly arduous, and schools are off at the moment so it's also not as busy as it might be in the morning. It's not really any more mileage than I'd normally do, if anything it's a little less, so the Princess has been no bother so far. You just get in, start it, and off you go. I did get a NOS fuel cap for it because I've started getting a bit of fuel leaking past the old one even when it isn't brimmed, the new one has a much more pliable seal so hopefully that'll deal with that problem.

The only challenge I've so far faced is rejigging my usual schedule. I've been self employed working from home for such a long time I've had my routines well established, now I have to shuffle things like gym times and shopping times to accomodate the new job. I'm not falling behind on anything yet so again, this is something to check a few months down the line.

The nice thing is if this does all work out as I hope it does, I will be able to be financially independant, have some financial security and still be able to pursue my artwork career alongside the NHS job. For me, having two very different jobs is actually preferable, and only having to travel for work three times a week is a more manageable level of stress etc. than doing so full time. I'm hopeful this is the start of a good chapter of my life.