1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

Uh, my XZX's are tubeless, and so were the car's originals (I know because I removed them myself).

Anyway, good progress, and good luck!

I'd brought some bits of the Renault back for a scrub before they go back in the car once it's all water tight. Some of it cleans up really well, like the rear rubber mat. Here's a half-and-half shot, it's now fully cleaned and vinyl treated to keep it that way at least until it goes in the car.


Unfortunately the front carpet-and-mat combo was beyond even my cleaning skills. As MrDuke had told me, the pile was just coming away on the carpet when you tried to clean the black whatever-that-is off. I've unpicked the stitching between the vinyl and the carpet and stored both parts so I've got a pattern to work off for some new carpetting, I'll likely replace the centre console carpet to match as that looks similarly too far gone. While I do want to keep as much of the age and wear of the car as I can, I draw the line at festering carpets.


The rubber boot mat has fared much better and is fundamentally sound, just scruffy.


There are a few tears in the rubber which I've temporarily fixed with some black duct tape. Later I plan to repair this with some relevant rubber glue and patches, for now I just don't want the tears to get any worse while the mat is handled.


Scrubbed up really well and being rubber it was hardly any work to clean.


The driver's door card and handle are faded. I'm making no attempt to un-fade them so long as they're clean, it's all part of the car's charm. The steering column lower shroud was on the receiving end of the soapy water too, it has a split fixing collar that I'll repair before refitting it to the car.


As is traditional, the result of today's labours are shown below.


The last bit for me to sort are the rear arch and boot liners. These are incredibly fragile made of plastic that's really thin and brittle, it's quite scary to handle them because tiny pieces break off really easily. When they're in situ they're nowhere near as fragile. This is the worst of the two with a large piece missing and since I didn't want the soundproofing of the arch poking through I wanted to work out a solution to make it look tidier without worrying about it being perfect.


First I went around the back of both panels, taping up any cracks I could find to prevent further damage as much as possible. More black duct tape for this. I didn't tape over the hole just yet, instead I made the edges secure without having the tape visible from the other side.


Taking a piece slightly larger than the hole, tape it to the back with another piece of tape, sticky side facing you. This can be a bit awkward because the tape wants to stick to everything.


Then just tape over the tape-patch so there's no sticky on this side of the panel.


The camera has made this look a bit more glaring as a repair than it is in reality. The large shiny patch nearest you is the one that's now repaired. Further back are a couple of damp patches from earlier cleaning. This panel now holds its shape and is less inclined to crumble.


I won't be refitting any of this until the car is watertight, no point undoing the cleaning work. I suspect one of the rear side windows is leaking because there were some small rust dribbles on the back of one of these panels. Tomorrow I'm going to investigate the boxes of bits and get the gutters taped up, I might even get chance to get some engine work done. I may also do none of this as we've been forecast for snow this coming week!

R6 seats (same as or similar to R5 seats I expect) have the power to make even a Land Rover comfortable, of that I'm sure. They're so boingy! The whole car is comically boingy, I still can't get over that.

It's more solid than the Princess and it has no right to be. Unlike the Princess which had spent a long time in garages and had a restoration at some point, this car was punted out of the barn it had been resting in so that it could fester in a boggy field for a year, was then dragged to a not-boggy patch of outside in another part of Wales quite near the sea and left in all weathers, just getting mopped out to keep it dry-ish. There's no way this car should have survived in the condition it has, I should have had to collect it with a dustpan and brush.

I'm an avid follower of Kev Barlas' Thames thread and that's why I'm aware of just how horrible the gutter repairs will be when I do them. He had the disadvantage of less metal to work with but the big advantage of thicker steel than the Renault has.

I can't repair the headlight as I don't have the lens, that's long gone, otherwise I'd be bodging it back together. I've since learned that I should have a RHD/LHD switch on the back of the headlights so I shouldn't have to try and find a LHD specific light and since the 6 is still relatively commonplace on the continent I should be able to get a new light.

Fibreglass is something I dislike working with. I've made attempts with it in the past and never got very satisfactory results, it's one trade I'm not a jack of. I may be able to source replacement side panels if they're the same as the 4, which is likely given that the 6 is essentially a rebodied and slightly more plush 4.

On the watch list since he has 122 of them. It's not the only listing I've found but it is the cheapest so far. I've been told I might be able to turn a right hand headlight upside down for the left side as the R6 should have RHD/LHD direction beam switches on the headlight units.

I can always fit the round headlights and install some blanking trims to fill up the gap if I'm really in a pinch, round R6 lights are easier to come by. I'll have to check what the lights are capable of before making any decisions on what I purchase. Easiest way to do this is to do a headlight beam alignment check with the one complete light I've got and see what happens when I turn it upside down if for no other reason than to demonstrate why it is or isn't possible as a solution.

There would have to be some clever moulding on the lense to allow for a left/right kick up on the beam pattern that is only appropriately lit with the direction of the bulb and for the same to be in effect when you turn the lens upside down. I suppose it is possible, it likely means you also have really rubbish headlights as a result.

I'll measure the lamps and see what size they are, open up a few more options.

I've heard mention of those water trap things before, how do they work? In your picture it looks like a Tupperware of chicken stock. I'm guessing it's some sort of silica gel. Could do with one in the Xantia more than the 6 or the Princess.

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Could have chosen a better day to work outside, there's been an icy wind today turning an otherwise pleasant day into one that's been trying at times. You know me, I'm pretty stubborn when I want to get a job done and today I wanted to at least rebuild the head and tape up the gutters. First, I emptied out the two boxes of Stuff so I could see what I was dealing with.


MrDuke had the foresight to label all the bits of the engine. This sped up the process of rebuilding considerably, if you ever take a car apart do this! I assure you the next person that has to rebuild the jigsaw puzzle will thank you for it.


I wanted to get another look around the car to find water leaks as it had rained early in the morning. I've found one point of water ingress into the boot which will be cured with some sealant.


That rust-stain on the tailgate is definitely leaking. This is a rear screen out job to resolve so I can tidy the surround, paint it and refit the screen.


There was some more water in the footwells again, not a huge amount. The ingress point isn't clear, it looks like it's coming down from the steering column somehow. I also noticed the cardboard trim on the driver's A pillar was a bit soggy, removed it and the sound proofing behind was saturated and rotten. Looks like the dashboard is definitely coming out to resolve this.


Mike demonstrated the valve I'd missed on the compressor so I got the tyre inflated. 20psi on the front and 24psi on the back as per factory. You can also just about make out my duct tape gutter, a temporary solution to hopefully keep the cabin drier.


Checked out the front lights to get to the bottom of what was possible. There is no obvious sign of a LHD/RHD switch and while the user manual - amazingly that's survived being in the car all this time - does instruct there's vertical alignment for use when towing I wasn't sure where this is. I will need a right hand light of some description at some point. It will be easy to bodge something from another car into the hole if I can't get a proper R6 unit. I forgot to measure the lens to see what other square lights are available out there.


Rebuilding the head was easy, ridiculously so. Again I was glad for things being in labelled envelopes because the collets are two different sorts for inlet and exhaust. There's no stem seals on this engine so I expect it will consume some oil in normal use. I didn't take any pictures of the valves, it was such a quick job to clean them up I was done and they were back in the head before I even thought to do it, a far cry from the Princess valves I did.


All the rockers were reinstalled and the head bolted down before refitting the pushrods. All the tappets need adjusting and I'll hand-crank the engine before trying to fire it up. I did find the points are completely worn out, the plug leads are very stiff and the distributor cap has heavily corroded points. Given the affordability of electrical components I'll get points, condenser &c. to refresh what's fitted now, I see no point in going for electronic ignition and would appreciate it if people hold back on suggesting I must do that.


The exhaust manifold was refitted, or at least I attempted to. It lines up nice and easily but the two lower nuts are almost impossible to access, I managed to drop two nuts into the engine bay somewhere and given how cold it was I could not be doing with rummaging about for them. I'll be sure to fish them out later. The front of the exhaust is more solid than I'd expected too.


Fitted a new gasket to the rocker cover and got that bolted on. Really awkward thing to slot in, everything seemed to be in the way of it. This is just to keep the head internals clean and free from anything falling in.



The lovely thing about this engine is that all the components are light and small, it makes it so much nicer than having to lug massive lumps of metal about the place. It's not the easiest engine I've worked on, being pushed so far back in the engine bay makes access on the awkward side. Happily, the liners hadn't budged and the pistons looked to have fared particularly well thank to the oil bath MrDuke had kept them in.

Still a lot of things to put back on and adjust before I attempt to fire up the car. I'm also on the lookout for what laid the car up, there are hints at an electrical issue (oh, Renault) in the scraps of history with the car, that won't be much of a problem since there's so few electrical items on this car to deal with.

I need points, condenser, plug leads and spark plugs. Might also need a distributor cap and a battery. When I looked through your list I didn't see a match for the Xantia glowplugs, I will need some as when it gets a couple of degrees below freezing they don't work too well and I know only 3 were changed by the previous owner.