1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

[vulgalour]

As far as I'm aware, after several years of looking and asking, Pilko's are the only company both listing the screen and supplying it. I've found listings that have turned out to be obsolete or for the wrong Princess (the smaller ADO16 version, or the older Farina version), never for wedges. The only other car I'm aware of that uses this screen is the Ambassador, which is basically a Princess with shoulder pads so doesn't really count. I've challenged people to find another supplier before and it always comes back to Pilko's as the only one there is, even companies that have said they can supply the glass have turned out to have got it through another company that leads right back to Pilko's and is no cheaper.

Unless someone pops up with an alternative within the next 24 hours, I'm just going to go with what I'm going with. Given I've been asking for a screen supplier for at least ten years and this is the only one I've found, I suspect it's the only one there is.

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Not sure if you're interested, but there's a NOS front bumper up for grabs on the Bay of E:
tinyurl.com/ycknswsb
(no connection with seller).

[vulgalour]

I'm not, but if anyone out there is hunting for one they know where to find it. Would be much too much work to put bumpers back on now.

It'd be nice to just hoover all the wedge stuff up so I can be certain of parts supply. I'd love to be the sort of rich weirdo that just runs a business restoring wedges, buying all the parts, and not worrying about any sort of profitability.

[vulgalour]

I have been spending cash. Little stuff, like some square tube to replace the crushed jacking point, balljoint dust covers, steering rack gaiters... and big stuff like a new windscreen. The windscreen is something I've been putting off since getting the car, there was always something else to spend on, and it's taken me a little while to save up for it. Special order from Pilkingtons to match the original screen in the car, comes out at £614.99 including VAT and delivery. That's a big oof but balanced out by the fact it's for a car whose manufacturer hasn't existed for a couple of decades and is itself heading towards fifty. Sometimes, things are just expensive. I do have a new seal, have had one for ages, and just never pulled the plug on a new windscreen to go with it.

Next big spend is going to be ordering paint since it makes no sense to fit a new screen and seal without sorting the paint on the roof out at the same time, that's going to be considerably more palatable since a friend is helping with the labour on that one. Suspension is also on my spending agenda since I need all of my displacers regassed. Just as well I like this car!

[vulgalour]

Good news! I finally found someone supplying valve shims that are suitable for the Princess.

Purely by chance I ended up reading an American forum where they were discussing using Jaguar parts to fix Triumphs and someone mentioned that Stags take the same 5/8" shims as most British cars from the period. That somehow sparked a connection in my brain and I measured the Princess shims which I'd done in metric up until now, and sure enough they're 5/8". Sent a message to Robsport International who I also found by accident coincidentally with the forum post and they confirmed the measurements and have a huge range of sizes available.

Sometimes you just need to know what question to ask and while I had looked at Triumph shims previously, they weren't the correct size because I was looking at the wrong Triumphs.

That means tomorrow, weather permitting, I'm pulling the cambox apart and disabling the Princess so I can measure the shims, work out what size I need, and get an order in. Worst case I need to buy 8 shims and at £2-3 each that's still not terrible. I suspect I actually only need one or two since it was only one I was struggling to get when I last did them and it has quietened down a lot over the last couple of hundred miles.

I'm making good progress on the Princess at the moment, the only fly in the ointment has been my friend's paint supplier of choice being unable to make RAL Luminous Pink which is the colour I want to use, they also can't do RAL Telemagenta or RAL Antique Pink which are my secondary choices. We'd like it in a water-based 2k since that's what my friend prefers to paint with. I'll probably do a shout in the help section for this for an alternative supplier, the pink is pretty important as part of this car's identity and my personal happiness.

[kevins]

If ypu need another source of shims Burton power sell them for the Lotus Twin Cam. (same as TR7 / Stag).

[vulgalour]

If it turns out the ones I've ordered are wrong and Robsport don't have the size I need, I'll check out Burton. They had come up in my searches but I couldn't confirm the shim diameter and Robsport got back to me first.

---

I've now disabled the Princess. On measuring the valve clearances, six out of the eight were the same, which is good and reinforces what my ears were telling me that it sounded like one or two were off. Turns out two of the clearances were a bit smaller, on valve 2 and 7 (counting left to right, looking at the front of the engine) so those were the ones I need shims for. Did all the number things, several times because I'm terrible with maths, and made use of online valve clearance calculators which honestly took so much stress out of the process for me!

Have ordered two shims, and am hoping that's what I need. If not I re-measure and try again. Made me feel a bit better about the health of the engine too, I've been worried about the rattle but given how clean everything looked inside, and how close the clearances are to one another I think I've perhaps been suffering from an abundance of caution on this one.

Still, it'll be nice to have the car back to sounding less rattly, the O series should be a nice quiet engine really so you can hear the wonderful noises the gearbox makes.

[kevins]

I did all of them on my elan but one is still a bit noisy, one day I'll get round to doing it again.

[vulgalour]

Yesterday the new shims arrived and I got to work on putting the engine back together. I installed both, measured the gaps, and found that what I'm calling #7 actually needed the original shim putting back in to get the gap correct. I've now got 0.30 gap on 7 out of 8 which is great. Unfortunately, #2 is just above tolerance of 0.20 so I need to work out what size shim I need for that, take it all apart, and do it again.

A friend with more engine experience than me did tell me that this is normal. When you replace the shims sometimes the size you think you need isn't actually the right size and you need to try out shims slightly thicker or thinner until you find the right one. Changing one shim can alter the gap on another for reasons I don't actually understand.

I did have a bit of a moment with the job where I was very worried I'd completely fudged it. As I put everything back together I cranked the engine by hand to check for tight spots and be sure I hadn't mucked up the timing somehow and all seemed well. One last hand crank to make sure it was good and it felt okay, I'd got compression where expected, nothing felt like it was binding or amiss so it was time to turn the key.

Quick flick and a listen, all seemed fine.

Second turn of the key to try and start it and something was wrong. There was a hard spot in the rotation, as though something was binding. This was very concerning. I'd not kept an eye on the time either and had gone into too-hungry-to-focus territory without realising it and was about to throw all my toys out the pram... took a step back and left it alone to have some pizza.

Came back with a full tum and refreshed brain and had a think. Tried turning it by hand and I could hear compression where expected, but there was definitely a tight spot. Checked the cambelt hadn't jumped a tooth (it's done that to me before, totally randomly) and it was fine. Distributor seemed okay. So I felt like I probably hadn't smashed all the valves into the shims.

Went through the process in my head of what needed to come apart to investigate. First thing was the camshaft end plate and that reminded me the last time there was a binding issue was when I hadn't put a gasket in there, leading to me smashing all the valves into all the pistons. Eureka moment had because I had made a new gasket since the old one tore on removal (and it's good practice to replace it anyway). Took the end plate off and sure enough, there was a problem. I'd cut the top hole in the gasket just a bit undersized and there was a witness mark where the camshaft end had been rubbing on it. Opened out the hole a bit larger than the witness mark and put the plate back on with the adjusted gasket then turned by hand. No more tight binding! Gave it a few more rotations by hand to be sure and then tried turning the key again.

No start. It was behaving like the plugs were out of order, which was something I did know they weren't since I'd very sensibly labelled everything and could easily check my work. Knew the timing belt was correctly positioned to so that meant it had to be the distributor at fault if it was an ignition issue.

Sure enough, I'd put the distributor in on the wrong timing mark. Pulled it out, repositioned it, and hand crank again just to be extra safe. All systems appeared okay. Turned the key and hey presto it ran! What a relief.

It's a lot quieter, not as quiet as I'd like as I still have that one shim to adjust. I had to tweak the distributor a tiny bit to correct the advance/retard from where it was before (I'd marked it so I knew where it should sit to avoid guessing), and then we were good to go for a test drive. Quick whizz around the block far enough to get it up to temperature and I was pleasantly surprised at how much nicer it drives, much more like its old self.

Now I just need to order another shim and have another go at that noisy one. I don't really want to, unlike a pushrod engine to make any kind of valve adjustment on this one it involves a lot of dismantling and nonsense I can't be doing with so since things are within tolerance it can wait for now and I can get on with something else, like welding the jacking point I have the parts for now.

[vulgalour]

I have been made aware of Nissan Cerise, as used briefly on the Primera GT.



The friend that's doing the paint is going to see if he can get a sample so we can spray a spare wing and see if we like it. I think I will. If it does work, I'm going to have to hunt down a metallic black to compliment it since I don't think flat black is going to look right alongside a metallic pink and I'm also not interested in doing away with the two-tone.

The reason for not doing metallic was because it's easier to do rust repairs in the future when paint needs blending. Since it's not really any more effort to do metallic or flat for my friend who is doing the spray work, it sort of makes more sense to go with whatever suits and is gettable rather than trying to give Future Me less work.

[Rich]

Ford panther black is always a winner for interesting black metallic.

[vulgalour]

Ford Panther black is indeed very nice. However, I was reminded on the other forum of the name for one of my favourite metallic blacks: Peugeot Raven Black. Hard to photograph but stunning in person when the light catches it, very aptly named colour.

[phil1380]

How about Honda Pirate Black, or Subaru Ebony Mica for interesting blacks??

[bmcnut]

That nissan pink is a good pink, but it looks more pearlescent than metallic. One thing I learnt from doing the hotwheels is its better to match a pearl with a pearl, but metallic are easier to match. Pearls 'move' more in the sun and sometimes the difference can be quite striking. I think a metallic would suit the princess better.

[vulgalour]

Jun 13, 2024 20:37:26 GMT phil1380 said:

How about Honda Pirate Black, or Subaru Ebony Mica for interesting blacks??

Do you have pics of the paint?  I can find cars labelled as being painted in it but honestly they just look plain black in the photos, something closer to the actual paint so I can see what it's doing would help, especially since I don't know either of those by name.

bmcnut it's listed as a mica metallic so I assumed it was metallic rather than pearl.  Could be wrong on that, I've never seen it in person.  If it is a pearl then I would be looking at a black pearl to match so it looks more intentional on the colour choices.

[jimi]

Can't remember if this was metallic or pearl, either way a very nice colour

[vulgalour]

Paint samples of Nissan Cerise and Peugeot Raven Black have been ordered... more on that in the future.

In the meantime, a set of Rover P6 wheel trims turned up super cheap so I snagged those since I like options. They need a refurb, as most things I get do. However, they are also stainless steel so rust is not a concern, and unlike the big chrome trims they don't obscure the valve stem so I can actually do my tyre pressures without removing my wheel trims now.


I wasn't entirely sure the P6 trims would fit, rear wheel drive trims don't always fit front wheel drive wheels. Happily they do fit. I'd been warned P6 trims can be a bear to fit and these were no different, requiring application of a rubber mallet to get the spring-grips to seat fully. Once on, they don't show any signs of wanting to come off on their own. I do like that these mirror some of the design elements in the rear lights and when the Rover badges are removed from them, the stainless polished, and the painted bits redone I think they'll look a lot better.




I've got some gold BL plughole centre caps I intend to fit in place of the battered Rover centre badges and I think if my steel wheels were a colour - probably copper to match the bits in the engine bay and the coachstripe I'm thinking of having on the car, or hot pink to match the bodywork - they'd look better and make the wheel look bigger. I don't love the P6 trims yet, but I don't hate them either.

[vulgalour]

Agreed to help the housemate collect a new armchair to save them £30 delivery. Didn't think to ask how big the chair was. Luckily, I've got a roof rack and some hairy orange rope and I'm not afraid to use it!

[Waxoyling Lyrical]

Quite an improvement. Would look even better if you could get hold of some stainless rim embellishers as well...

[vulgalour]

I've got some Volvo 240 stainless rim embellishers and they look great. Unfortunately you can't fit beauty rings with the P6 trims because the spring clips occupy the same space the rings need to fit into. If I were determined I could probably cut the P6 trims down so they worked more like big hub caps held in place by the rings like those Ford lattice trims from the 1960s.