Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL
Posted: Sat Jan 11, 2014 4:59 pm
MrDuke (the caretaker) has kindly uploaded a whole raft of pictures and provided me with more details so what follows is a combination of his and my observations. I really cannot emphasise enough how much of a boon the caretaker is with rescuing this car, without him I could not have made this a possibility.
Off the trailer, we get a good look at the side of the car I hadn't even really seen. I'd overestimated how much damage there was, it really isn't that bad as long as you ignore the wavy gutter. That front door could be repaired but I'm told by MrDuke that a spare dent and almost completely rust free door comes with the car anyway with what looks to be the correct colour trim card so I needn't have this door repaired if I don't want to.
A better look at the other side which we'd already seen. That front wing has lost a good slab of paint but appears to be otherwise fairly solid.
Passenger side from the rear and a hint of that spare door. Looks like the original Citroen mudflaps are there too, but they're looking a bit worse for wear now.
Driver's side from the rear, and again no real horrors of note on the face of things, the car looks nice and straight.
MrDuke got under the car to have a look at the underpinnings. Even the rubber boots look in good order! There's evidence of a good amount of rust protection and minimal surface rust under here too, we'll know better what's what when it goes up on a ramp.
Passenger side wing has been knocked about a bit and is losing paint. Probably sensible to replace it, but in the meantime I think rust treatment and waterproof paint is going to be the best course, I don't want to be wading into a full respray at this point.
This gives an idea of the state of the gutters. There's some crusty corrosion all the way along both sides and this particular spot is the worst of the damage over the passenger front door where it's been crushed. Gutters, from what I've learned on other build threads and blogs, are a difficult thing to put right. Again, I think in the short term cleaning, rust treating and waterproofing are the best options rather than worrying about cosmetics but eventually it will get put right properly. The dent in the roof is going to be tricky to repair but I think I can probably do that if I can peel back some of the headlining in this spot.
The bend in the gutter is jamming the door at the moment and the deformed trim is likely not helping. I begin to wonder if rather than the car having been lifting by its roof if instead it's had something dropped on it like a beam of wood or something.
Let's take a look inside, shall we? From what I've learned, the 6 is notorious for rotting out where the inner arches meet the boot floor. On this 6, that seems not to have happened. Here's the passenger side.
Boot floor is exceptionally clean.
The driver's side isn't quite as good and there appears to be some substantially sized plates rivetted on which will need investigating at some point. Not entirely sure what's going on with that so hopefully someone with more 6 knowledge can shed some light on this. I know the petrol filler neck is on this side and that they throw road dirt up into the C pillars so I'm wondering if it's related to trapping dirt and rotting out here. Looks like it's been repaired a long time ago.
From MrDuke himself "all the gears can be selected fairly easily (the horizontal-shift is just awesome) so no gremlins there, and I've discovered a NOS fanbelt under the seat (hopefully it won't have suffered too much in the wet). Handbrake seems to be functioning OK too, although I won't leave it on for fear of seizure. Rear seats fold & unfold perfectly, seatbelts seem fine (no inertia reels to worry about), windows all go up & down smoothly, and all switchgear is present and intact. Aside from the warping on the door-cards, I can't see any actual damage to the interior trim other than the dash fascia and boot liners, and assuming the mould hasn't discoloured the vinyl I think it should clean up very nicely indeed. "
The dash fascia is crumbly so it sounds like the plastic has degraded beyond the point of salvaging and the rear arch plastic trims - there just to protect the paint - are typically fragile.
The car has only done a meagre 31,000 miles which is probably why it's so good overall. The French are very good at interesting dashboards and I really like the look of this one.
Pinged Hill Garage is now a Kia Dealership, located in Carmarthenshire. It's likely this little Renault which was sold in South Wales and presently resides in North Wales has never actually left the land of Daffodils and singing.
This could also explain a lot on the lack of rust front. It's not a system I've heard of before, but I suspect they're all much of a muchness.
That's a fairly comprehensive look at things I think. These pictures have made me feel even more confident about this little car. The thing to hope for now is that the chassis is moderately sound and that the floor pans don't need too much work, I'm not going to make any predictions on that score because I can't sensibly do that. MrDuke will be getting the car up on a ramp to find out what's going on underneath and if there are any concerns that need addressing.
I wouldn't be surprised if the shabby paint is actually the original now that I've seen the above and I also wouldn't be surprised if the reason the brakes don't work is down to sticky caliper pistons or something similarly simple to resolve.
Originally I didn't regard this car as a barn find, but I'm wondering if I need to change my mind on that. It's a rare, low mileage, reasonable condition little classic that has actually spent a long time in a barn and judging by the prices of the few pristine examples that do come up I could be looking at something that's worth a bob or two when it's all sorted. That said, I didn't rescue this to make money, I rescued it because I could and it looked like it deserved it.
Off the trailer, we get a good look at the side of the car I hadn't even really seen. I'd overestimated how much damage there was, it really isn't that bad as long as you ignore the wavy gutter. That front door could be repaired but I'm told by MrDuke that a spare dent and almost completely rust free door comes with the car anyway with what looks to be the correct colour trim card so I needn't have this door repaired if I don't want to.
A better look at the other side which we'd already seen. That front wing has lost a good slab of paint but appears to be otherwise fairly solid.
Passenger side from the rear and a hint of that spare door. Looks like the original Citroen mudflaps are there too, but they're looking a bit worse for wear now.
Driver's side from the rear, and again no real horrors of note on the face of things, the car looks nice and straight.
MrDuke got under the car to have a look at the underpinnings. Even the rubber boots look in good order! There's evidence of a good amount of rust protection and minimal surface rust under here too, we'll know better what's what when it goes up on a ramp.
Passenger side wing has been knocked about a bit and is losing paint. Probably sensible to replace it, but in the meantime I think rust treatment and waterproof paint is going to be the best course, I don't want to be wading into a full respray at this point.
This gives an idea of the state of the gutters. There's some crusty corrosion all the way along both sides and this particular spot is the worst of the damage over the passenger front door where it's been crushed. Gutters, from what I've learned on other build threads and blogs, are a difficult thing to put right. Again, I think in the short term cleaning, rust treating and waterproofing are the best options rather than worrying about cosmetics but eventually it will get put right properly. The dent in the roof is going to be tricky to repair but I think I can probably do that if I can peel back some of the headlining in this spot.
The bend in the gutter is jamming the door at the moment and the deformed trim is likely not helping. I begin to wonder if rather than the car having been lifting by its roof if instead it's had something dropped on it like a beam of wood or something.
Let's take a look inside, shall we? From what I've learned, the 6 is notorious for rotting out where the inner arches meet the boot floor. On this 6, that seems not to have happened. Here's the passenger side.
Boot floor is exceptionally clean.
The driver's side isn't quite as good and there appears to be some substantially sized plates rivetted on which will need investigating at some point. Not entirely sure what's going on with that so hopefully someone with more 6 knowledge can shed some light on this. I know the petrol filler neck is on this side and that they throw road dirt up into the C pillars so I'm wondering if it's related to trapping dirt and rotting out here. Looks like it's been repaired a long time ago.
From MrDuke himself "all the gears can be selected fairly easily (the horizontal-shift is just awesome) so no gremlins there, and I've discovered a NOS fanbelt under the seat (hopefully it won't have suffered too much in the wet). Handbrake seems to be functioning OK too, although I won't leave it on for fear of seizure. Rear seats fold & unfold perfectly, seatbelts seem fine (no inertia reels to worry about), windows all go up & down smoothly, and all switchgear is present and intact. Aside from the warping on the door-cards, I can't see any actual damage to the interior trim other than the dash fascia and boot liners, and assuming the mould hasn't discoloured the vinyl I think it should clean up very nicely indeed. "
The dash fascia is crumbly so it sounds like the plastic has degraded beyond the point of salvaging and the rear arch plastic trims - there just to protect the paint - are typically fragile.
The car has only done a meagre 31,000 miles which is probably why it's so good overall. The French are very good at interesting dashboards and I really like the look of this one.
Pinged Hill Garage is now a Kia Dealership, located in Carmarthenshire. It's likely this little Renault which was sold in South Wales and presently resides in North Wales has never actually left the land of Daffodils and singing.
This could also explain a lot on the lack of rust front. It's not a system I've heard of before, but I suspect they're all much of a muchness.
That's a fairly comprehensive look at things I think. These pictures have made me feel even more confident about this little car. The thing to hope for now is that the chassis is moderately sound and that the floor pans don't need too much work, I'm not going to make any predictions on that score because I can't sensibly do that. MrDuke will be getting the car up on a ramp to find out what's going on underneath and if there are any concerns that need addressing.
I wouldn't be surprised if the shabby paint is actually the original now that I've seen the above and I also wouldn't be surprised if the reason the brakes don't work is down to sticky caliper pistons or something similarly simple to resolve.
Originally I didn't regard this car as a barn find, but I'm wondering if I need to change my mind on that. It's a rare, low mileage, reasonable condition little classic that has actually spent a long time in a barn and judging by the prices of the few pristine examples that do come up I could be looking at something that's worth a bob or two when it's all sorted. That said, I didn't rescue this to make money, I rescued it because I could and it looked like it deserved it.
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