1980 Austin Princess mild custom - 1951 Lanchester LD10

Well if it turns out that is the case I can still use the RWD engine because I've got the whole of the FWD engine for parts so I should still be able to make one good lump out of the two. Won't know until I try.

Synthetic enamel, applied with some really nice Hamilton Perfection pure bristle brushes. Can't recommend the brushes highly enough, they're a joy to use, the paint not so much because it dries rather faster than I'd like so I'm having to relearn my technique somewhat to compensate.

I really enjoy brush painting and wanted to redo in that rather than aerosol, it's much cleaner as a job and just less stressful all round, comparatively.

I don't mind you asking, if I know (or think I know) I'll answer.

Decent brushes are definitely a must. Buy the best you can afford, go for natural rather than synthetic bristles if you can, and they should last you quite a few jobs especially if you take care cleaning everything up when you're done. You can also use a gloss roller (I haven't yet with this paint, so this is just what others have said works) to apply the paint and then dress it out with a brush to smooth it and avoid orange peel.

It will probably take 2-3 coats total, if I were going over primer I'd expect 4-5 because the primer seems to soak up more paint than a keyed painted surface.

I will need to flat back what I've done to get the worst of the irregularities out of the surfaces. That said, it's worth at least keying back between coats anyway.

I learned how to do the brush painting by going on Youtube and watching videos about painting narrowboats, it was a few years ago now, but I imagine there's probably even better tutorials out there now on the type of paint, the type of brushes, and the techniques to get the best results. I believe you can spray the synthetic enamel on too, I just opted not to because I enjoy brush painting and wanting to avoid the expense and mess of spray painting.

It's not any particular brand, it's just a generic synthetic enamel from a generic online paint supplier. Not the cheapest, not the most expensive, middle of the road like I usually go for. A branded one would likely have been better, but I was being budget conscious and aside the drying time, it's no worse than the red from Dacrylate I used years ago. The black I've got from the same supplier smells different and moves in a more oily way in the tin than the pink does, that's true of the red and black I had when I did the Polo, so I wonder if it's just something to do with red pigmented paint.

Black has a much wider array of pigments in, most of which are really ugly colors and are fairly stable. It doesn't require much to go on; bright red is particularly unstable in UV so needs a lot more bonding agents and the composition ends up different to try and prevent it from going chalky and pink.

I'm still grumbling to myself about this engine thing you know because while I've been watching this auction on this local engine, and having the £500 offer auto-rejected, it's made me go through all the things this engine has had.

If I go with the new engine the recommendation is to pull it apart and replace all the rubber items which doesn't save me any of the work I'd have to do on the existing engine. The two reasons for getting a new engine was convenience (which is now not convenient since I need to pull it apart before fitting anyway) and peace of mind (which I won't have because it's a complete unknown).

I looked at it another way, let's say I've got £500 in my pocket to spend either way, that would pay for a good chunk of whatever my existing engine might need, or some tools, or even both.

Over the last few weeks I've talked about this engine and it's potential issues here, and offline, and generally it comes down to only a few issues it could potentially be that's caused the oil consumption and the blown head gasket. If I'm taking the engine apart anyway, whichever route I go, I'm as well taking apart the one I've got first and using the other engine suppliers as a fall back should I need to.

Oil consumption could be down to worn/damaged valve guides, or worn piston rings. I've got a set of new piston rings I acquired some time ago just in case and new valve guides can be fitted by any number of machine shops for not a lot. I've also got the spare head which I could get tested and skimmed if need be that can go back on the car.

The block might be warped, rather than the head. If I'm pulling the engine out anyway, I can send that away to be checked and cleaned and skimmed if necessary.

The bearings might be worn out, new ones are available and could be fitted by me, or a machine shop.

Realistically, if I'm pulling an engine apart whatever I do, aren't I better off doing the one I've got? At least to get it inspected and find out just what is and isn't worn out. I'm going to have to do all the same expense and faff with a replacement engine anyway whatever I do and if it turns out my engine isn't actually all that bad inside and it is just a duff head gasket, well... I'll have a fully inspected and sorted engine for probably less outlay than buying a replacement, right?

The other thing is that the oil consumption might actually just be the leaking sump gasket, a job I've been putting off forever because it means taking the engine out to fix due to the gearbox-in-sump set up.

What I'm wondering at the moment is whether or not it actually makes more sense to buy the tools to pull the engine and have a go myself because either way, I'm going to have to pull apart an engine, or pay someone else to.

If you don't need the car back on the road urgently I would also go for the original engine, to get to the stage where you have to start spending money (or decide to get another engine) will cost very little (Basically whatever you have to pay the machine shop to measure it), and you can do virtually all the work inside over the winter.

Building a more or less standard engine is not that difficult either

Dropping the new engine in did seem like the perfect quick solution initially but after some thinking, it really isn't. Because I've no idea how the new engines have been stored, or what they're like inside, they're going to need to be pulled apart and checked before I can rely on them for regular use.

Since pulling an engine apart is on the cards anyway, I'm as well pulling apart the one I've got and, at the very least, finding out what's actually wrong with it. If it really is something as simple as a bad head gasket then putting a new engine in would be silly. If the existing engine is properly borked for some reason well, I'll know how and why, and then I can get a new engine.

At the end of it, either way, I'm doing an engine rebuild (which I may have mentioned once or twice I really don't want to do) and should have a properly sorted engine at the end of it, which will be nice.

As it happens, if I had deeper pockets, I would just give this to a reputable professional and have them just sort it out whatever the cost so I didn't have to worry about it. But then if I had that sort of money I'd probably have a different car anyway.