1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

This might match your rear lamps; link

Or these fit really easily and only sink into the car about 15mm - link
They are truck fog lights so search for those instead.

They'll do for now. The main reason for fitting them is to be legal. Moving them from where they are now to a prettier location is going to need more work than I can invest at the moment so I'm just going to get them working and change this at a later date if I discover something I'm happier with. Certainly I'd prefer to have done something more subtle, that means spending more cash and I'm trying to keep that to a minimum until I've got the car through an MoT. If I get bogged down in the details now I shan't ever get it home and it's easier to sort out the details when I've got the enjoyment of use as a distraction, especially now that I'm having to work outdoors for the forseeable as the weather and nights are closing in.

I want to focus on getting the lights all working as they should now. We've got some intermittent switch issues that are getting in the way, probably because of all the dust that's got into everything while I've been working on the car. I have a very short list of pre-MoT fixes to run through and I'm hoping to get it booked in before the month is out.

 for info - I've just noticed a 4TL for sale   www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Renault-4TL-/172363981347?hash=item2821b1a223:g:JjgAAOSwOyJX89ak or search for item 172363981347

love the rear lights, but those fogs hanging off the rear end really spoil the look

princess is looking great now. its a car that needs a certain type of vision/creativity to see through and improve what has always been an unfairly slated design.
mate, you really have that vision. to be able to see potential in anything is a gift i wish i had. keep it up!


this threads been bookmarked from day one and will remain so far into the future

What other tools than Plastigauge, one or two micrometers and maybe a telescopic bore gauge do you need to inspect the engine? I think I read somewhere you already have Plastigauge; good used mics and telescopic gauges can be had very cheaply on eBay.

Good call, machine shops know what they are measuring and can spot issues easily with the right tools and experience.
You could try measuring and finding out, but then you still need to get it fixed and the money spent on tools could have gone on a regrind etc.

Now heal up & get that Princess finished

I may repeat myself a bit, I'm not sure where I am on various fora I update so here's a brief recap:

Hydragas pump bodge resulted in me dropping the suspension half an inch by accident and then the pump stopped working. Pump is currently in bits while Mike gets new stuff to make it work again so we can lift the car back up. Awkwardly, that now means the car is stuck with arches on the tyres again.

Headlights were earthing through the throttle cable for some reason. This was resolved by checking and fitting good new earths to the new headlights, courtesy of my brother and Mike, and now the headlights work fine.

Weirdly, after fixing the headlights and doing nothing else, we went to start the car to run it for a bit to put some charge back in the battery (we'd had lights on and off for a while testing stuff) and it wouldn't start. Even stranger, the handbrake warning light was on with no key in the ignition but would extinguish if you release the handbrake. Choke and oil pressure lights came on as normal with the ignition but turning the key to start the car just resulted in those and the handbrake light going out and nothing else. The interior light wouldn't operate at all. No fuses blown, no bulbs blown. The car was, effectively, dead.

A few days and much headscratching later it was determined the problem must be in the dashboard part of the wiring as it was the only part that hadn't been tidied and debodged. Today, just to see if it would, I put the key in the ignition and the car started fine, perfectly normally, and all electrical functions were restored. I didn't fix anything or inspect anything, just literally put the key in the ignition and started the car.

I came to the conclusion the car must be haunted.

Then my brother pointed out some electrical tape on one of the ignition wires so we unwrapped that to see what was going on and in this blurry picture you can see that there's a split in the casing of the white wire with bare wires exposed at the kink. Although these were insulated from the rest of the wiring by the tape, this could in fact be a broken wire offering a poor connection so it will be repaired. It's possible this was used as a live feed for a radio or the old tape deck that was in the car when I got it.


The other small bit of news was that I found an indicator flasher relay that I believe to be the correct sort to replace the later 90s Nissan one that was bodged in by a previous owner. Plug and play at least and when I have the dashboard plugged back in I'll be able to check that.



More updates when I have them.

Keep the updates coming

An idea for the Renault in the future - I got a good result from my local engineering shop in the past. Gave them 2 dead part stripped engines, they picked the best bits and rebuilt as 1 decent engine. Might be worth asking around? I used Rosamund rebores @ Blyth and recommend them for retro stuff!

Cracked insulation on the ignition wire looks like it's had a scotch lock there in the past, like you say maybe to tap a radio supply or similar.

Fog lights. It's sensible to get it legal first, gives you time to find something you like. Small and round feels right but not sure where you could fit. Or single rectangular with very rounded ends on the boot - matching shape high level brake light near the roof?