On the plus side you didn't singe your eyebrows in a petrol related fireball
Vulgalour's Vehicles - 10/03 Ignition Switch Woe
Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL
That's pretty impressive for it to have gone bad that quickly. my mog was starting (but not driving) on 2 year old fuel when I had to flush the system last summer.
On the plus side you didn't singe your eyebrows in a petrol related fireball
On the plus side you didn't singe your eyebrows in a petrol related fireball
Understeer: when you hit the wall with the front of the car.
Oversteer: when you hit the wall with the back of the car.
Horsepower: how fast you hit the wall.
Torque: how far you take the wall with you.
Oversteer: when you hit the wall with the back of the car.
Horsepower: how fast you hit the wall.
Torque: how far you take the wall with you.
Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL
This might be a case of contaminated fuel which morrisons have been notorious for recently up here! Do you remember where you bought it?
I'm Diabetic,& disabled BUT!! NOT DEAD YET!!
Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL
It was probably Tesco at Clowne, but I'm not 100% sure on that, it's been a very long time since I last filled up and I've not only slept but also moved house since then!
Nothing doing on the Princess at the moment, I've been derailed by offering to help get a pedal-train restored in time for the boss' grandson. I'm about halfway done on it and it's going to be a really neat little thing for the little fellah to tootle around in, destroying everyone's shins.
Nothing doing on the Princess at the moment, I've been derailed by offering to help get a pedal-train restored in time for the boss' grandson. I'm about halfway done on it and it's going to be a really neat little thing for the little fellah to tootle around in, destroying everyone's shins.
Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL
sounds fun!! can we have pics of the train?
Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL
When the train is done I probably will, done to mimic a GNR train.
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My old red Princess is up for grabs with a full MoT for only £500! It's the cheapest road legal Princess out there. Lighthearted tone to the advert as seen in full over here: http://autoshite.com/topic/14673-1981-a ... /?p=674605
The car was taken off the road in about 1997 and put into a garage before I got hold of it in late 2013, mid-2014 I had to sell it and the new owner battled with it to get it to the point that it now has a full MoT, a solid bodyshell and a reliable engine and suspension system. It looks fantastically shabby all over and I'd love to buy it back and carry on improving it while keeping it looking as it does, but I'm in no position to do so.
This one is a 2ltr O series powered HLS with a manual box. Full vinyl roof, rare contrast pipe interior, walnut veneered dashboard, power steering and halogen headlights are the main features you get with this one. Amongst the things done to get the car sorted are proper welding to the usual rear floor corners, a fully rebuild head, oil and filter change, freshly pumped up Hydragas and overhauled brakes. There's a host of other things that have been done too and while the car isn't without a few foibles, it can be used straight away.
I do hope this finds a new home and the new owner continues to improve it. As I said, I'd love to buy it back but I'm not in a position to do so.
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My old red Princess is up for grabs with a full MoT for only £500! It's the cheapest road legal Princess out there. Lighthearted tone to the advert as seen in full over here: http://autoshite.com/topic/14673-1981-a ... /?p=674605
The car was taken off the road in about 1997 and put into a garage before I got hold of it in late 2013, mid-2014 I had to sell it and the new owner battled with it to get it to the point that it now has a full MoT, a solid bodyshell and a reliable engine and suspension system. It looks fantastically shabby all over and I'd love to buy it back and carry on improving it while keeping it looking as it does, but I'm in no position to do so.
This one is a 2ltr O series powered HLS with a manual box. Full vinyl roof, rare contrast pipe interior, walnut veneered dashboard, power steering and halogen headlights are the main features you get with this one. Amongst the things done to get the car sorted are proper welding to the usual rear floor corners, a fully rebuild head, oil and filter change, freshly pumped up Hydragas and overhauled brakes. There's a host of other things that have been done too and while the car isn't without a few foibles, it can be used straight away.
I do hope this finds a new home and the new owner continues to improve it. As I said, I'd love to buy it back but I'm not in a position to do so.
Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL
Went for a belated MoT today, I was fully expecting a fail but to my surprise got a pass! Not only that, advisories were really minimal:
1: Nearside rear brake fluctuating, but not excessivey
2: Rear registration plate deteriorated but not likely to be misread
3: Offside front Anti-roll bar linkage has slight play in a ball joint
4: Slight bind on rear brakes
There's nothing surprising there, I didn't get opportunity to sort out a new number plate and I know there's some issues with the rear brake calipers which we will look at, possibly slightly corroded pistons or similar. The front end may well be the lower arm bushes I didn't get replaced but will so we'll continue going through all that.
Delightfully, just after loading the car with the fortnightly shop, the keypad decided to fail putting both lights on static. We had meant to disconnect it before the MoT and completely forgot. Mike and I were near the unit so we picked up tools and headed back to the car. Disconnecting and reconnecting the battery didn't resolve the issue and after a while we were stumped so I called the AA.
While waiting I decided to pull the number pad panel out of the car and that, somehow, fixed it. Quickly inserted the code and unplugged the pad and now the car starts fine every time. Pretty satisfying day all round, but now I'm trying to figure out what to do about the keypad, I don't like just deleting it so I may just put it in and leave it disconnected for the sake of tidiness.
Next important jobs are to resolve the alarm so I can have the radio back and investigate those rear brakes. I have stalled the car MANY times while trying to get used to the brand new clutch but other than that the car drives like an entirely different car, I'm very pleased.
1: Nearside rear brake fluctuating, but not excessivey
2: Rear registration plate deteriorated but not likely to be misread
3: Offside front Anti-roll bar linkage has slight play in a ball joint
4: Slight bind on rear brakes
There's nothing surprising there, I didn't get opportunity to sort out a new number plate and I know there's some issues with the rear brake calipers which we will look at, possibly slightly corroded pistons or similar. The front end may well be the lower arm bushes I didn't get replaced but will so we'll continue going through all that.
Delightfully, just after loading the car with the fortnightly shop, the keypad decided to fail putting both lights on static. We had meant to disconnect it before the MoT and completely forgot. Mike and I were near the unit so we picked up tools and headed back to the car. Disconnecting and reconnecting the battery didn't resolve the issue and after a while we were stumped so I called the AA.
While waiting I decided to pull the number pad panel out of the car and that, somehow, fixed it. Quickly inserted the code and unplugged the pad and now the car starts fine every time. Pretty satisfying day all round, but now I'm trying to figure out what to do about the keypad, I don't like just deleting it so I may just put it in and leave it disconnected for the sake of tidiness.
Next important jobs are to resolve the alarm so I can have the radio back and investigate those rear brakes. I have stalled the car MANY times while trying to get used to the brand new clutch but other than that the car drives like an entirely different car, I'm very pleased.
Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL
Courage got, information acquired I made it my business to get to the unit and get on with this repair. First job was to tidy up the old work. The inner sill repair is quite secure, but could do with another bit of good weld laying to tidy it up. The floor patch, on the other hand, wasn't good enough so I removed it which took rather more effort than I'd expected.
The problem with the welder I was facing before was an irregular gas supply, after some information from a professional welder friend I finally understood how things should be set up, especially the previously absent flow regulator. Now I have lovely predictable welds.
I decided to start again with the floor patch and cut out considerably more metal than I had before to try and get rid of the thinner areas I was having issues with. This got rather out of hand. Before I show you how big the patch has got here's a picture that, I believe, demonstrates some decent weld penetration. Certainly the new patch feels and behaves much more securely on the edge that is tacked in.
Here is the new patch. It has doubled in size which is not terribly satisfying, but at least I should have eliminated the rot from this area as a result. It was also considerably easier to make as I've not fannied about with putting the ribs and shapes in this time around.
So it's progress, that's something, but it's not as much as I wanted to achieve. I had a bizarrely short temper today so this was not a good job to be tackling with that mindset.
The problem with the welder I was facing before was an irregular gas supply, after some information from a professional welder friend I finally understood how things should be set up, especially the previously absent flow regulator. Now I have lovely predictable welds.
I decided to start again with the floor patch and cut out considerably more metal than I had before to try and get rid of the thinner areas I was having issues with. This got rather out of hand. Before I show you how big the patch has got here's a picture that, I believe, demonstrates some decent weld penetration. Certainly the new patch feels and behaves much more securely on the edge that is tacked in.
Here is the new patch. It has doubled in size which is not terribly satisfying, but at least I should have eliminated the rot from this area as a result. It was also considerably easier to make as I've not fannied about with putting the ribs and shapes in this time around.
So it's progress, that's something, but it's not as much as I wanted to achieve. I had a bizarrely short temper today so this was not a good job to be tackling with that mindset.
Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL
I have a new member to my little family that I'm collecting on Friday from that there London.
It's a modern classic in the making, it really is. One of those cars that we'll wonder where they all went but is now still fairly ubiquitous even at 20 years of age. Not sure what I'm doing with this one yet, it's just turned up at the right time and I'd be silly not to take a chance on it.
It's a modern classic in the making, it really is. One of those cars that we'll wonder where they all went but is now still fairly ubiquitous even at 20 years of age. Not sure what I'm doing with this one yet, it's just turned up at the right time and I'd be silly not to take a chance on it.
Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL
Minor update. Only got a couple of hours in on the welding today as the auto-dim mask ran out of power and the other mask is too dark. On the upside, I got some decent progress made today when I changed the wire from .8 to .6, making predictable welds a lot easier to achieve. Just a shame I didn't make the change before I'd been fighting with the thicker wire for quite so long because I reckon that prevented me from finishing this patch off today.
My welding still isn't brilliant, but it's much better than it was and dresses back tidily enough.
The patch is almost completely welded in. I tried out the overlapping stitch technique which I've found very difficult to get on with and reverted to stitches and seams to join them. Trouble with the overlapping stitch technique is that I seem to end up with a selection of tidy welds that have a lot of very small holes in between them which I then find virtually impossible to accurately plug.
So yeah, it's progress. Princess needs to get out of the unit in a few weeks as the space is needed for other cars and work. With that in mind now that I have the welder operating reliably, I'm going to try and squeeze in a couple of hours most days to at least get this corner sorted, once this big patch is in that should be the worst of the job done. I'm going to inspect the underside and do more welding if required, tricky to do with this all being around the jacking point, I'm sure I'll figure it out.
My welding still isn't brilliant, but it's much better than it was and dresses back tidily enough.
The patch is almost completely welded in. I tried out the overlapping stitch technique which I've found very difficult to get on with and reverted to stitches and seams to join them. Trouble with the overlapping stitch technique is that I seem to end up with a selection of tidy welds that have a lot of very small holes in between them which I then find virtually impossible to accurately plug.
So yeah, it's progress. Princess needs to get out of the unit in a few weeks as the space is needed for other cars and work. With that in mind now that I have the welder operating reliably, I'm going to try and squeeze in a couple of hours most days to at least get this corner sorted, once this big patch is in that should be the worst of the job done. I'm going to inspect the underside and do more welding if required, tricky to do with this all being around the jacking point, I'm sure I'll figure it out.
Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL
Princess update.
Today the welder and I finally got on with one another. That meant I could deal with sorting out the welds on this patch, tidying it, get the crossmember in and then seam seal everything ready for a top coat of paint to finish the interior work off once I've made sure the underside is sealed and tidy.
After this I've got a small bit of inner rear arch to repair, a section of outer rear arch I should be able to take from the spare half-wing and the outer sill to weld on that I've already marked ready for cutting. Oh, and the closing plate at the end of the sill too of course. Then this corner is completed and I can move on to the smaller areas of rot that need attention for the MoT.
Today the welder and I finally got on with one another. That meant I could deal with sorting out the welds on this patch, tidying it, get the crossmember in and then seam seal everything ready for a top coat of paint to finish the interior work off once I've made sure the underside is sealed and tidy.
After this I've got a small bit of inner rear arch to repair, a section of outer rear arch I should be able to take from the spare half-wing and the outer sill to weld on that I've already marked ready for cutting. Oh, and the closing plate at the end of the sill too of course. Then this corner is completed and I can move on to the smaller areas of rot that need attention for the MoT.