1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

[vulgalour]

Here it is, the final Maestro video.


I sold the car in November and it's taken until now, almost March, to get through the backlog of footage. That's the nature of video release schedules.

This weekend is house move weekend. Today the Princess is collected since that's getting delivered ahead of me for logistical reasons and the housemate at the new place will be there to make sure all is well and safe until I arrive. I'm as prepared as I can be for it and very much looking forward to spending less money. Moving house is a ridiculously expensive endeavour and I hate doing it, which might be surprising considering how often I seem to end up having to.

On the project front that means my attention is on the Princess primarily, and the Lanchester secondarily. Pat has already been picking up the various jobs to do on the Lanchester and getting things in action for how he does things. He's not a fan of taking photos and video and that's fine, he's project lead now so he can do it his way. I will still be visiting since Pat and I are still friends and happy to share ownership of the Lanchester but since I'll be 200ish miles away from it those visits will be less frequent. Happily, Pat has stumbled across some fresh contacts who he didn't know were into cars of this era until mentioning the Lanchester. I've got video backlog on the Lanchester to get through so you will still see some footage that was recorded a while ago even though I won't be here actually working on it.

Princess wise that's now effectively my only car. That means I'm going to be knuckling down on the jobs that do need attending to, most of which are actually pretty minor outside of the cosmetic. I've got some new contacts myself that might give me access to indoor working space for bigger jobs, and even a back up vehicle should I need to take the Princess off the road for a while for whatever reason. I'll still mostly be working outdoors on the drive at home and I won't have a garage or covered space at home but since that's how it's been for a few years now that means nothing really changes so that's fine. There's also backlog footage for the Princess to release which I'll be doing soon too.

The key thing is that I've got the resources to keep me focused on just the Princess now and I should therefore make much better progress on it. There's some big ticket items I'd like to do like getting the suspension regassed, a new windscreen, and fresh paint (in the same colours as currently) and lots of little things like small welding bits, servicing, and general cleaning. Having people in the real world closer to me that are some of my oldest friends is really going to help a lot too, I'm really looking forward to getting caught up with everyone and us helping each other out with our projects variously.

We shall see what happens. It's going to be a wobbly few weeks as I get resettled yet again, and then I'll be able to figure out where I'm going.

[gtviva]

Good luck with the move, hope it all runs smoothly!

[TravellingNigel]

Yes, good luck with the move, hope it goes smoothly.

[glenanderson]

Best of luck with everything. 👍👍

[eurogranada]

Here's to a smooth relocation! I hope you find what you desire from it.

[vulgalour]

The Princess has been delivered to the new house safely. That Rover isn't mine, though I am familiar with the car and do know who owns it, it's just visiting for a while.



That's the last really expensive hurdle out of the way and a bit of a load off my mind. The neighbours are no stranger to weird old British cars on that driveway, though this is probably the weirdest that's ever made an appearance.

[vulgalour]

Well I'm in the new house now and with internet. It was very weird pulling into the street and seeing my own car on the driveway of the new house. I've been absolutely knackering myself getting the studio set up anew and trying to get everything put away as much for my own sake as my new housemate's.

My new space for everything is sort of more and sort of less, everything is a different shape so figuring out where things go is tricky. Especially so for the car stuff really since I've lost the garage and am currently repurposing an awkward under stairs pantry sort of a thing.

Princess has been out on the local roads briefly today for that first awkward house move shop, and I have to say they're significantly nicer to drive on than the moon surface that passes for roads in Kent.

The biggest hiccup has been that I underestimated the van size but because my friends are awesome, the handful of things I couldn't fit in the van (and it was so well packed *nothing* moved over the course of the 200ish mile drive) are going to follow along later this week.

Actually working on the Princess at home isn't impossible but it is awkward. The drive is very narrow and while long, there's not a lot of space beside the car to use for things like welding. Just another thing to adjust to, at least I have some offroad space to make use of.

On the drive up, Peter (friend with the really nice red Maestro I did a vid on a while ago, and driver of the removal van) and I were talking about the paintjob on the Princess. It's definitely going to cost a *lot* less than I expected on the proviso that I put the prep work in, which I'm entirely happy with. I'll also be helping Peter with his ever changing collection of Rovers and that's no bad thing either. We talked about lots of other stuff too but that was the only bit that's relevant here.

I'm eager to get back to work next week, I doubt I'm going to realistically be able to do it this week because of how much there is to do with a house move. Never much fun since when you're self-employed if you're not working you're not earning, but it's fine, we'll manage, and if you'd like to help hop on over to www.angyl.co.uk to find out more of what I do.

[vulgalour]

Pat delivered the last of my stuff today, most of which was awkwardly shaped car panels for rust repairs on the Princess. Unfortunately I've no outdoor storage at the new place, and the living room has had to become temporary storage while I just get things put away. The biggest trouble with working from home as a creative is you end up with so much stuff related to work without realising it until you have to move it all. I'm definitely just going to have to work with what I've got for a while and thin things down considerably. The goal is to get all my stuff down so it can fit in a single room, that way the next time I move house it should be a lot easier.

It is good news for the Princess. What resources I do have will be focused on getting it in the best condition I can and while I can't do any of that right now, come the summer I should be in a better position to progress. I no longer have an easy way to set up my welder, and no gas for it, and no trolley... so there's logistical stuff like that to overcome too. This is made more annoying by the fact I have no outdoor storage (and no money to buy anything) for tools so every time I need a tool outside to work on the car I'm going to have to get it from the cupboard in the house and navigate the massive double glazed door steps. It is not going to be fun at all.

I'm hoping I can have some stability for at least a couple of years before I get uprooted again. I don't see the current place as being particularly permanent, landlord and housemate have been pretty open about expectations and whatnot and I appreciate being informed on that front. I definitely don't see things getting any easier in the future, quite the opposite, so I've got to make the best of what I've got while I can to hopefully future proof myself. At least being in North Lincolnshire opens up more options for me since I'm much more geographically central and the cost of living here is significantly less than Kent.

I shan't worry about the future, it's not here yet so I can't do anything about it. I'll just look at sorting out the things I can right now.

[vulgalour]

Unexpected pink car at the supermarket!

[vulgalour]

Did a tip run in the Princess. You can get a decent amount of stuff in it even though it's a saloon. Still haven't washed it, had the weather for it today and I just don't have the brain for it so it can stay dirty a bit longer.

[vulgalour]

Drove to a little social thing tonight - it was good, will go again - and it wasn't fully dark on the drive out so all was fine. On the drive back it was fully dark and it wasn't as fine. Oncoming traffic up here has a lot less LED nonsense, there's still quite a few yellowy halogens out there which is nice. However, the bright-dark street lighting plays havoc with my night time depth perception, another flaw of LED lighting. Also, while I can see where I'm going, I can't see very well. I stuck main beam on for a bit to see if it made a difference and it did... also nobody flashed me at all which kind of told me all I need to know about the brightness or lack thereof of my headlights.

The two take aways from this is that I probably need some non-photochromatic night time driving specs and to upgrade my headlights significantly. I already knew this of course. What is money if not for spending?

[braaap]

You may want to try Osram Night Breaker LED bulbs. Although they are very expensive.

I've been to the dentist recently and read about them in german mag MotorKlassik, being tested in a classic beetle. The article was actually about modern bulbs in classic cars, when it comes to TÜV approval for historic plate registration. A few testers don't want to approve, but a lot see it as a safety improvement thing just like seat belts and so are fine with them.

Anyway, they really improve the front beam lighting and come in a growing number for classic cars. A competitor was mentioned, too, maybe Varta.

They cost a lot more, but are considered to last longer, too.

[vulgalour]

It's probably the best compromise. I'd actually prefer to upgrade to a full LED unit with sidelights and indicators incorporated but there's so many options out there, much of which are suspiciously cheap, that bulbs from a decent quality manufacturer might be a wiser investment.

Honestly, it's like being back on sealed beams again which is what led me to upgrade the lights to halogens years ago, before LEDs were so commonplace.

My night vision also just isn't what it was these days. Didn't realise that it had got worse until moving to the new place and the new housemate mentioned that I need lights on a lot more than they do, which I do because otherwise I can't really see what I'm doing. I'll be getting myself to the optician when I can, get some night driving specs and a check over to make sure it's not something with my eyesight in addition to poor headlights. Makes sense, I did recently get prescribed varifocals after all which were a huge improvement to quality of work life for me.

[blackpopracing]

LED replacement bulbs are pretty good nowadays, and amazing clear & bright. Got them in my Pop and it's like Mercedes lights

As long as you use a reputable manufacturer they are good.

[Davey]

I'm using the exact Osram's outlined above and they doubled the output of the H7 halogens they replaced in a standard bowl. 3 years so far. Still going well. Not ruinous either.

[vulgalour]

These ones?

www.ebay.co.uk/itm/166363767974

The listings I'm finding (just pick ebay here for convenience) all seem to be in the £150ish for a pair range. I need two pairs. That's £300 for light bulbs. Seems a bit excessive.

[blackpopracing]

Check out Classic car leds, I got mine from them. Give him a call and he will advise the best ones for your car (I recommend 6000k for really white light)

www.classiccarleds.co.uk/collections/headlight-led-bulbs

[braaap]

As I said, those Osrams cost a lot more. The article said around 120€ which keeps me from upgrading, too.

But blackpopracing gave You a more resonable source I think to chose from.

[vulgalour]

It'll have to wait at any rate, still skint from house move.

Princess popped up on Facebook again, it's always a bit of a laugh seeing what people leave as comments, though this time around there's more positive ones so maybe the tide of public opinion is turning for the much maligned rusty wedge?

[logicaluk]

North Lincolnshire, where abouts I'm just over the river in Hull.
PM me if you would rather answer in private. It would be good to meet a local RRer.
I run a local Classic car club meeting if you want to come join us for dinner and a natter.
Dan