1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

That land crab looks a bit if alright. 👍🏻 good work pal.

Got to love a LandCrab, my 1800S was awesome, cornered like a big Mini and you could have a party in the back, a better car than the Austin 3 litre I had, more interior space due to no gearbox/prop hump, quicker, more nimble, and less eyewatering fuel bills. I'd have another Landcrab but must be an auto now as I'm knackered. The only draw back on mk1/2 Landcrabs is the under dash handbrake, and the velour trimmed ones ended up looking like badly fitted stretch covers from your Nan's old sofa had been fitted.

Keep it & sell the 1100! It looks a nice car.

Princess update.

The suspension pipe has been repaired.  It was leaking where suspected, I'm not sure how they sealed it up because it's not clear looking at it but it's been pressure tested and shows as fine so I just have to hope it's okay.  They did find another leak on the pipe I wasn't aware of where it's had a bash.  This area is really vulnerable when the suspension is flat, especially so if you've got to get it on a flatbed or similar.  The damage was there when I got the car so I have no idea when it was done.  Happily that too is now repaired and the pipe is ready to go on the car, possibly even today if it stops raining sideways for long enough.

20171004-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


20171004-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Collected that after running to the tip with a Mazda Brawny full of conifer hedge, which saved us fannying about with car seats.  The Brawny then decided it wanted to started leaking oil a lot so that's another job on the list which never seems to get any shorter!  We suspect a propshaft seal on that one because of how its throwing the oil but didn't really have the time to check, yesterday was a bit full on.

Today, an early birthday present arrived.  I had been asked what I wanted and couldn't really offer any suggestions, the things I need these days are well beyond birthday money and there's very little that I actually want.  Just at that point in my life where I don't more stuff unless it's useful, helped by finally being settled after a few years of turmoil.  Anyway, friends quizzed and brainstormed and eventually asked if there was anything the cars needed in budget.  Of course there were things the cars needed but it's mostly big stuff like paint now so that wasn't really an option.  Then we got talking about how as much as I like the rear lights on the Princess they're not quite what I want on it, close but not quite perfect...

Even though it's not for another month, happy birthday to me!
20171004-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

1960s Ford 500 tail lights, complete bar the fixing screws and in pretty good order.  This was a gamble but everyone was happy chipping in to get them knowing that they were something I really would be happy with without breaking anyone's bank account.  The other excellent thing was the chap selling these refunded the excess postage and it was like a proper old fashioned eBay transaction with regular communication and the lot, one of the best eBay transactions I've ever had and certainly not what I expected these days.  If you want an equally satisfying experience, head over to www.ebay.co.uk/usr/stationstuff and see if Fred's got what you want.

First thing was to check exactly how these are wired up and what bulbs and stuff they take.  The red lens has a built in reflective ring around the edge and the white lens in the middle is a reversing light as standard.  All the wiring is present and looks in good shape.  I intend to put the indicator (orange bulb) in the original reversing light location.
20171004-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

The other light socket is in the back of the bucket, this means that the light bulbs are cleverly hidden so you only get the glow, which is very appealing.  There's only one socket with a bulb holder in and this would have been the brake and turn signal originally, as far as I know.  There's three additional holes in the bucket, two with plastic blanking plates and one just open, I'm not sure why.  I'm considering fitting an LED festoon/ring for the sidelights inside the bucket with the running/brake being the central bulb, those extra holes will make running the wiring in for that easier.
20171004-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I did think these lights would be bigger than what was one and that too is a good thing.  One pair of larger outboard lights and nothing else will look better than what's on there at the moment.  I'll probably french the new lights into the rear panel slightly so they sit properly rather than fitting a tube that sticks out.  I can't just flush fit them to the back panel because then they'll point at the floor, which would look rubbish, and frenching the lights into the panel isn't that difficult when it's just round shapes like this.
20171004-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I could probably modify the existing frenched buckets on the car to accept the new lenses and modify the new buckets for the fittings, etc.  I'd rather leave the new light units as Ford intended than chopping them about, it's likely much easier to rework the back panel than try and modify the new light units.  The lens wouldn't sit this far forward, it's sat on top of the BMW light here just to demonstrate the size of it.
20171004-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Exciting stuff anyway

First part of this is for blackpopracing who wanted to know what space was available around the front displacer. Answer is not a lot, I'd got that guess completely wrong which is why photos are better than memory. I was going to remove the displacer and measure the pocket to get an exact size but that's more work than I have time for today. I'd say there's at most 5mm of free space between the displacer's widest part and the wall of the pocket, I'd know for definite if I dismantled it all and measured. Certainly not the 10-15mm I thought there was. Difficult to photograph but hopefully this gives some idea of the space available.

20171005-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr



20171005-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr



20171005-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr



The main job to attempt today was fitting the hydragas pipe. Mike helped me remove it last time and it turned out to really be a two person job if I didn't want to dismantle large portions of the car. I was hoping I could get at least part-way on my own today while Mike's at work. Because I needed to be in two places at the same time I comandeered some blue rope to hold the engine bay end of the pipe and hold it in place in the hope that I could then wiggle the pipe into location underneath the car.

20171005-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr



That worked moderately well until I got to this point. The car dumped a big splodge of oily grime directly into my eye, somehow bypassing my specs which didn't put me in the best mood while I was trying to get the flexible repair section through the awkward gap. I also realised the schrader valve hadn't been removed from the block which I needed to do to remove the pipe and on looking in my toolkit I was reminded that's the one size of spanner I don't have and the one deep reach socket I do have that fits isn't deep enough.

20171005-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr


It's one of those jobs where you'd swear the car changed shape between having the pipe removed and the refitting attempt. The main obstacle is the steering rack because the pipe has to feed up behind it and that means getting around some really tight bends that you can't actually see while you're trying to navigate the pipe. It's likely that the pipe was one of the first things attached to the bodyshell looking at the way everything is layered and that means refitting one is always going to be really involved. Here's the gap I've got to navigate which I can't actually get myself into a position to see laid on my back on the driveway. This view is also obscured from the engine bay side by things like the exhaust manifold and carburettor

20171005-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr



Got out the relevant sockets and extensions to remove the steering rack bolts, or at least loosen them enough to have some wiggle room for the pipe. The first thing I found is that access is atrocious, the second that I don't have the right combination of extensions and wiggly bits to really get tools in properly and the third that I haven't the Herculean strength required to undo these bolts since I haven't the access to get a decent sized lever in to help.

20171005-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr



Brilliant. That concludes this update where I achieve nothing other than learning about a lot of annoying obstacles. I'm sure with an extra pair of hands this job will be only slightly irritating so I'll wait until Mike isn't busy so he can help, which could be several more weeks with what he's got on lately.

try a 5mm bit of wood poked between sphere & body - easier than measuring.

Cos your not as old as me?

Correct. It's basically an 1800 if you strip it all down to the shell and running gear. Bigger engine, more chrome, more plush interior, I expect more soundproofing given how quiet this one is, usually an automatic gearbox, plenty of unique bits of trim. You could get a Wolseley 18/85 too which was all the lovely plushness with a slightly smaller amount of chrome and a smaller engine. The Six was top of this particular pile. Armrests on BOTH front seats, and those front seats are enormous, you could probably curl up in them and have a little nap.

Hopefully that won't be an affliction on this one!

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Got a Paprika carpet set for the Princess through the club. It's in better condition than the black carpet currently fitted and complete, which the black one isn't. It's obviously sun faded and has some mystery stains.
20171007-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

First job then was to get it vacuumed and get the Vax machine on it. Pulled out a good amount of dirt and pretty much all the staining. Obviously couldn't do anything for the sun fade.
20171007-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

It's now drying in the house with the dehumidifier running ready for the next phase.
20171007-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20171007-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

I'm going to be trying out a carpet dye on this as it's magnitudes cheaper than trying to get a custom carpet made or even buying the carpetting to make my own set. The sun fade and areas where there's original dye are light enough that I can use a colour rather than resorting to plain black. The carpet seems compatible with the dye I'm planning to use too, I won't know for definite until it arrives. Plans are afoot but I'm keeping them under one of my many hats for now so you'll just have to wait and see what happens.