Vulgalour's Vehicles - 10/03 Ignition Switch Woe

Post pictures and stories about your cars both present and past. Also post up "blogs" on your restoration projects - the more pictures the better! Note: blog-type threads often get few replies, but are often read by many members, and provide interest and motivation to other enthusiasts so don't be disappointed if you don't get many replies.
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rich.
Posts: 6893
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 9:18 pm

Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL

#281 Post by rich. »

:thumbs: :thumbs:
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JPB
Posts: 10319
Joined: Fri Jan 07, 2011 3:24 pm

Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL

#282 Post by JPB »

:shock: You lucky dog! :thumbs:
J
"Home is where you park it", so the saying goes. That may yet come true.. :oops:
vulgalour
Posts: 674
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL

#283 Post by vulgalour »

Today we drove to Wellingborough and I managed to get lost because I left the A45 too early and I could probably get lost in a paper back. No drama for the 220ish mile round trip and good fuel economy. There is an annoying jiggle in the steering at 65ish now instead of 55ish so I reckon the other TRE is on its way out, it doesn't feel like a lost wheel weight and feels like a really toned down version of what the other TRE was doing. But, the car was perfectly fine for the trip, no silly issues, no break downs, for once!

I was heading over to deliver some Princess seats and to collect 3 boot lids, 5 bumpers and a box of miscellaneous stuff. Of the three bootlids, the Sandglow one is knackered, the Arum White one is reasonable and the metallic green one (the name of this colour I do not know, but it is lovely) is very good so there's too usable spares. Both boot lids that are worth keeping are better condition than the one currently fitted so I will be doing a swap. Of the bumpers, one is excellent, one is reasonable, two need dents knocking out and one is scrap.

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Then there was the mystery box.
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driver's side headlight trim
2 pairs of brake shoes, one pair look unevenly worn so may not be new.
1 Tex door mirror
2 dipsticks
1 bonnet catch painted Pageant blue
1 set of round dash telltales
1 Princess 2 boot badge
1 Rover speedo cable NAM4330
3 driver's side indicator/sidlight units and lenses
1 passenger side indicator sidelight units
1 passenger side indiciator sidelight unit back
2 pairs of rear light units.

It's a reasonable selection for a tenner is that. It does give me enough spare lenses to build some clear light units for front and rear to see if the idea will work or not.
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TerryG
Posts: 6757
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 1:54 pm
Location: East Midlands

Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL

#284 Post by TerryG »

If you keep going at this rate you are going to corner the market on princess spares!
Understeer: when you hit the wall with the front of the car.
Oversteer: when you hit the wall with the back of the car.
Horsepower: how fast you hit the wall.
Torque: how far you take the wall with you.
Topaz
Posts: 246
Joined: Fri Oct 12, 2012 11:52 am
Location: Derby

Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL

#285 Post by Topaz »

Amazing to find those Renault wings - I bet there's not many of those in UK - and as a gift well - very generous :thumbs:
Toledo Man
Posts: 201
Joined: Mon Feb 07, 2011 11:55 am
Location: Halifax, West Yorkshire

Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL

#286 Post by Toledo Man »

You should've changed both TREs at the same time and for what they cost it makes sense to do both sides. This is a job I need to to on my Dolomite so I'll be replacing both sides.
Toledo Man

1972 Triumph Dolomite 1850 auto (NYE 751L)
2008 Citroen Grand C4 Picasso 2.0 HDi Exclusive (MA08 WCL)
1995 BMW 318i (M265 PNC)
1991 Toyota Celica GT (J481 ONB)
vulgalour
Posts: 674
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL

#287 Post by vulgalour »

Normally I would have done, but normally I'd expect more than a year's motoring out of brand new TREs. I thought - wrongly as it happens - that one had failed just as one of those things so I just bought a single replacement as the other side had no detectable play in it and wasn't really offering any problems. Typically, now I've done one side the other has decided to fail too.

First Line parts used to be quite good and reliable quality, I've used them with other cars with no ill effect. Thankfully there are still some NOS QH parts out there which have a heftier higher quality feel to them and I hope means I'll get a couple of years out of them.
vulgalour
Posts: 674
Joined: Mon Sep 23, 2013 10:28 pm

Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL

#288 Post by vulgalour »

The weather decided to be tolerable and I had a helper so I made use of it. Annoyingly, to get the rear window drop glass in I had to drill out the new rivets for the quarter light bars and re-rivet but other than it being a bit fiddly they went in okay. Also, the poor condition front window scraper utterly disintegrated. Happily, there were some spare channel felts in the replacement doors which, when put together with the felts from the old doors gives a full set of felts instead of a mish-mash of newspaper, draught excluder tape and tatty felts.
Image

The bonnet crown had been put on with the previous bit of work but here's a picture anyway. Being an '81 it shouldn't really have one, but then it shouldn't have the front doors or seats it has either... it's still very much in the spirit of a Princess and only the most anoraky of anoraks is going to be bothered by these little details.
Image

I didn't put the door cards and furniture back on the passenger side, I want to wait until I've put the glass in the driver's side so everything is properly weather tight first. I was going to get the driver's side glass in but it rained, started just as I got the electric drill out and pretty much put a stop to proceedings.

Jobs to do:
Driver's side glass
Door interior furniture to reinstate
Battery to refit (now charged)
Replacement rear sphere and Hydragas pump up
Handbrake cable to fit (in stock)
Rear brake hose to fit (in stock)
Rear suspension rebound straps to fit (in stock)
Rear brake shoes to fit (in stock)
Radiator leak to plug
Hazard warning switch to wire in (in stock)
Dash to fit - built up as much as it can be off the car, just needs fitting to the dash rails once the hazard switch is wired up
Purchase good part-worn tyres
Locate and fix exhaust blow
Door mirrors to fit (in stock)

The weather is the only thing stopping me making better progress and realistically it will probably prevent me from hitting the end of February MoT target.
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TerryG
Posts: 6757
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 1:54 pm
Location: East Midlands

Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL

#289 Post by TerryG »

You are making good progress :)
Putting this much in to it, you won't want it to go!
Understeer: when you hit the wall with the front of the car.
Oversteer: when you hit the wall with the back of the car.
Horsepower: how fast you hit the wall.
Torque: how far you take the wall with you.
mach1rob
Posts: 1787
Joined: Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:22 pm

Re: '80 & '81 Austin Morris Princess and a '75 Renault 6TL

#290 Post by mach1rob »

Your metallic green boot lid appears to be Tara Green, lovely girl ;)

Image
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