1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

Had a bit of a setback today on the Austin. I finally got myself to a point where I had free time and headspace to get on with the floor replacement and filling in that massive hole and in the process of cleaning things back, found that a good deal of the intermediate sill panel is completely gone on the driver's side. Here's what I mean.

20170824-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170824-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170824-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

The outer sill panel is only attached at the top, there's nothing holding it to the car at the bottom. There's also rot setting in on the outer sill panel. The only remedy here really is full sill replacement and I haven't the money or time for that at the moment. The job I can do is replacing the floor and inner sill portions that need it but before I do that I've still got to address things like the rear subframe mount which isn't actually attached to the car at all because all the bits that hold it on are actually rust and air.
20170824-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

This is not what I wanted to discover. Financially, repairing this makes absolutely no sense. Emotionally it doesn't make sense either, I'm not as well invested sentimentally in this car as I am with my others. I know I don't want to scrap it and I know I'll get nothing if I try and sell it so I've decided to mothball the project for the time being. That way I can save up some money, focus on finishing other projects that are eating my spare time and get myself in a healthy position to deal with these problems. It will probably be a few months before I pick this up again and I may dip in and out to do some smaller jobs that don't require more than time investing in them, of which there are quite a few.

For now, the little Austin is sat outside huddled for warmth with the other long-termers and eventually I will get around to getting this sorted, or sold on, or whatever. I'm not going to stress about it. Instead I'll focus on the few bits and bobs the Princess and Rover need that I've been putting off in favour of trying to get the bodywork done on the Austin.
20170824-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20170824-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Mike has been very busy in the background with the Churchill pump and giving it lots of lovely new parts and paint. Just waiting on one fitting arriving in the post before it can be tested.
20170824-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Finally, the spare dashboard (Morris, I think) that came with the Austin is up for grabs should anyone want it. I'm not going to use this so make an offer and it could be yours, sale of that can go into the new sill fund for the 1100.
20170824-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

i think its more basic than that, just the pure definition of a hatchback is to have shared cabin and load space.

I'd love the dashboard but that would just give me an excuse to buy an 1100. 😆

^ I have a soft spot for Mk1 Cortinas 
I got a full set of clocks and gauges from a scrapper, then bought my first Mk1 to fit them into   

I see no reason why you can't get the 1100 dashboard then get the rest of the car to suit   

Take ages to paint though with those little tins of paint!

Re engine bay cleaning.....



I consider this shabby and dirty as there is dust everywhere from 400+ miles

It takes a good while to get to a point that it looks brand new. But that Rover engine is much cleaner than it was!

I find that the Meguires products are excellent, especially the black restorer. Downside is they are expensive. Positive side is that they go a long way!

I'm not sure it's the peanut butter, more likely the licking it off that cleans the plastic

I would imagine it's the oil in the peanut butter that makes things shiny. Probably be easier to use warmed peanut oil instead.
I can't imagine that it would smell nice after a couple of hundred miles either ..... would also leave oily residue on everything using peanut butter. Dirt would stick to it and you run the risk of stinking like the back end of a chippy I would guess.

Its the peanut oil that does the business. You don't need a much of it, used it for a while now. No smell, don't smother the plastic in it, you're not making a sandwich, lol. Just a small amount and polish it off, no adverse effects and black plastic stays black