1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

Cracked on and got the towing eye surrounding metal replaced and then the towing eye itself welded back in. I cleaned the whole crossmember back, which was difficult because whatever it was painted in was seriously tough stuff. After that, doused it all with rust treatment, then paint. Looked loads better after that too.




While the paint was drying I had a look at the front-to-back pipes. Removing them without taking off the rear subframe is possible and since I wasn't keeping these, I just snipped through them where it was difficult to get them out. This made removing them annoying, but possible. I also checked around the rear axle mounting points as much as I could and there was nothing particularly terrifying to see, it all looked pretty reasonable. Then the first casualty when trying to remove the pipe that goes into the hardline connector, somehow I managed to snap the pipe and the stub of it is left in the union. This is very annoying and I don't know how to fix it.




Then the next annoying problem was the union at the back, which decided to round off. Access to this particular union is terrible and I can see me having to dismantle quite a lot of stuff that has nothing wrong with it, just to get in with a tool big enough to undo this union. The union in question is the top right one on the four-way block.


The pipes themselves are a bit scabby in places, so they definitely needed replacing. However, I couldn't find where either of them had failed so I begin to wonder if it was one of these pipes that had burst. Before putting LHM in I'll be dismantling the suspension on this side rear corner to see if I can find anything else that might have failed because while the pipes are actually quite dry, the displacer and surrounding area is still a bit wet with LHM that's leaking from above them somewhere.




The only other thing of note was a slightly squashed section. I couldn't figure out what had caused this, so I assume it was a manufacturing defect.


I'll get some fresh pipes made up by Dean, if the offer still stands, now that I know what length these need to be. With that done, I couldn't really do anything else on the suspension, I didn't want to get into dismantling the rear corner because I hadn't got enough time to be getting into that if it became an involved job. Instead, I finished off the work at the front with lashings of underseal.


That should keep things happy for some time to come. Then I made an attempt to fit the bumper. I'm pretty sure this is a two person job because I can't seem to get the side blocks on the bumper to go into their respective holes without another part of the bumper coming out of alignment somewhere. I also have to think about a solution for fixings since the bumper was previously held on mostly with cableties, a perfectly adequate solution, just not really the way I want to put this back together. I'll probably use bolts/screws and trim edge clips looking at how Citroen have put everything together. The bumper is essentially decorative at any rate, so it doesn't need a lot to hold it in place since there's not really anything to it.


I do have one bit of welding left to do. I would have done it today if I hadn't chosen to do battle with the pipes, because to fix this little bit of rust I've got to remove quite a few trim pieces to access it properly. There's also a little bit on the rear arch to sill join in the usual Citroen place that needs cleaning up and might need a little patch, depending if it's pinholed or not. Flash makes these areas look far worse than they are.




Another little job was putting the rear wiper back on straight.


While not quite finished, it does at least look like a car again.

Thank God that wiper’s straight now. It’s been giving me palpitations.

The Rover has gone to pastures new. Not far away, Mike has taken it on, so you might see it in the background of my updates for a while yet. It's actually a relief that it's no longer a responsibility, for the last three months it's sat pretty much unused while I've been pootling about in the Princess and every time I've got in the Rover, I've enjoyed it a little less. Not because the car is bad, far from it, I just enjoy driving the Princess that much more and given the choice, even in horrible weather, the Princess was always the car of choice for me.

Still, I don't have any regrets. I've really enjoyed my time with the Rover and I'd definitely recommend one to anyone after a good all rounder. It's the very epitome of 90s motoring and is extremely good at being a car. Get one while they're still cheap and still available would be my recommendation, because the sporting models are already starting to command stiffer prices and the regular versions can't stay sub-£1000 forever.

The Renault issues was it was a sodding Renault. Never again. At least, not until next time.

Princess Update end of Week 12:

All systems normal, as usual, with one exception. A peculiar wubwubwub noise and a vibration through the passenger floor, an occasional vibration through the brake pedal under heavy breaking.

Today being the first day of Week 13 means the following are identified as part of this week, rather than last week. The peculiar noise and vibration could be a failing wheel bearing as there is some slight play in the passenger front one and the noise is localised there. The other peculiar thing it did was on setting off home today, the starter motor decided to drag after the car had started, and then behaved normally once I got moving, I'll keep an eye on that and hopefully it won't require replacement or another rebuild and was just a random occurence. I'm not superstitious, but this is Week 13 of the experiment so...

It could be? I honestly don't know, there's no obvious point for the leak so I'm thinking that when my LHM arrives I'll chuck it in, we'll get the system pressurised, and then see where the LHM spurts out.

The bonnet looks high at the grill too. I take it it's not just that the catch needs to come down so the bonnet sits on both bump stops?

Sweetpea: It's the bonnet itself at fault. The bumper is sitting a little low because it's not properly on yet, which is making the grille sit low too, but the fault is with the bonnet which seems to have got itself twisted somehow.

Yes, usually you would. Thing is, even with the bump stops removed completely, the bonnet is still like that. The bonnet is warped.