1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

Well yes, it's hardly Minnesnowta here, barely even a light dusting really, but we do like to be dramatic about the weather here in the UK. Remember, it's not winter, it's OMG SNOW CHAOS. -30C though, that's proper big coat weather is that.

Scottish weather, for Scottish people.

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It's that time again.



I'll do the words and pictures update later when I've a bit more time to devote to it. Don't forget to do all the Youtube usuals on the vid, the interaction helps promote the channel and motivates me to do more and, hopefully, will get info out there that other folks can find useful in the same way the channels I watch have helped me out with all sorts of jobs I didn't know how to do.

Give the screen a good clean, toothpaste is good for de glazing the glass of road film. Wipers should glide over them better then.

Your point ?

A small sprinkle of snow and things grind to a halt up here as well, like last week

Keep an eye on the black strips on the roof, they're prone to leaking. Also check the heater inlet/outlet pipes. All the ones I've seen were steel, so if it's been run without antifreeze they'll rot and leak.

We had the Lanchester out of the garage for the first time this year to try and fit the door cards. This job was... not great. What we expected to be a straightforward job ended up being anything but due to the fact we were reusing old parts and combining with new. Unforunately, it means all of the door cards are going to need to be partially dismantled for some minor modifications. Thankfully because we put them together with the original style tacks, it's not going to be anywhere near as difficult as it would had we used contact adhesive and staples. I'd share a photo, but the only one I have of the day's proceedings is a blurry shot of a screw, so you'll probably have to wait on the video for that one.

Speaking of video, there's a new Maestro one coming out tomorrow at 3pm and while it deals with water, it's a diversion from the water ingress updates. In fact, car videos go out at 3pm every other Tuesday, and then the photos and write up happen here either on the same day, or shortly after. I'm still getting the hang of what works best with the time I have available and working out an update schedule that keeps things interesting for folks on the two different platforms I'm using. The other Tuesdays are devoted to sewing and crafts videos, probably some furniture restoration in the future... basically the other DIY stuff I do. Again, still getting the hang of that, but the support of the folks that tune in is motivating and it's keeping me focused on projects at the moment, which is very welcome.

Write up time then. After replacing the temperature and fuel gauge pack, I discovered that the car wasn't really getting hot, it was barely getting warm. I suspect a stuck or maybe missing thermostat so ordered one but, with Covid, it meant waiting a while. So I decided to have a go at making a radiator muff. The theory was sound but I found the vinyl I was using wasn't really suited to the shape I was trying to create on my machine with its standard foot. I made a couple of attempts at it and just couldn't get it to keep the shape I wanted so gave it up as a bad job when I ran out of material. Ah well, not every job works. The original plan was to blank off the upper grille and have an openable flap in the middle if it proved to be too much air restriction. If the muff proved inadequate I was going to make a second one for the lower grille.


As it happened, I resorted to plan C which was to wedge a bit of cardboard into the back of the grille. This was MUCH easier to do, and invisible once the grille was reinstalled. Since the grille can be removed by unscrewing just two screws, it really wasn't difficult to sort out.




The end result of that was that now I was getting heat into the engine and some out of the heaters. It was still taking a bit longer than I would have liked to warm up, however it was still significantly better than when the car arrived so it would do in the meantime.


When the new thermostat arrived I set to fitting that on quite a cold day. I totally failed to get any pictures of the process, check out the video for the process in full. I was amazed that the fixing bolts came out with no trouble, it looks like they were greased at some point so they hadn't seized which was a huge relief. The thermostat housing is a bit confusing, it's got a what looks like a spacer block with one outlet that goes on the block, and then another piece that goes on top, and a bracket on top of all that which bolts the thermostat housing securely to what I imagine is an engine mount? It's a fiddle. I made two fresh gaskets since the new thermostat didn't come with any for some reason and installed the new thermostat. Since I didn't have anything to copy, I had a look in the book and put the thermostat in the bottom so it lives in the block. Turns out it should actually go on top of the spacer piece instead to work optimally for the heater, so I'll correct that when I change the coolant later this year. The big difference is that now the car got up to temperature much quicker and stayed at half gauge, or just under, quite reliably. The heaters do feel okay, not fierce, and since I can't remember what the heaters were like in the other Maestros I've been in I didn't realise anything might be amiss there. It's good enough for me at any rate, and I can drive without gloves on now.


Then it snowed. I was grateful for the now working heater. Recently I found that the centre fresh air vents weren't putting anything out and the wheels were unwilling to move, then all at once they unstuck and now work fine and I can confirm the blower motor is nice and strong so that's going to be welcome when we switch from rain to unbearable sunshine and heatwaves.


I'm also on the look out for a tailgate. I'd like a really good one, obviously. I'd also accept a tatty one so I can take mine off and repair it once I've got the welder up and running again. The tailgate does have some rot in it, just not so much it can't be repaired. Unfortunately it's going to be one of those jobs that's a small repair that needs a lot of work to get to so that it can be repaired properly... I'll be bodging it in the meantime. Big issue at the moment is losing a month of work due to a shoulder injury (mostly healed up now, thankfully) so funds are a bit on the low side and I'm a looooong way off earning anything through the Youtubes.

Have you checked behind the rubber roof strip for your water leak? I've had a couple of acclaims let water in there, I find parking the car in the sun to warm them up before starting to work them out helps soften them up.
Dan