Practically Classics Forum

oven cleaner from the pound shop works wonders on mucky engine bays, remember to wear PPE though and thoroughly rinse the area around the ground where you are using it.

Kev

@terry: There are three Princess here at the moment, it's precisely one too many! Parents are being worryingly tolerant about the whole affair as even they can see the value in the orange car.
@kev: I've done this to great effect in the past. Vinyl is fantastic for being super easy to clean.

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Today I planned to get the interior (apart from the dashboard) stripped and fitted to the beige one. If it hadn't been for the weather I would have managed it, I came very close. Before I get to that bit, I want to show you all the reasons the orange car is getting broken. All of these areas are in better condition on the beige car.

Floor to sill under the rear seat both sides.




Floor over the outrigger under the driver's seat.


Floor over the outrigger in front of the passenger seat and floor to sill seam.


Rear driver's side arch.


Rear driver's side door.


Front driver's side door.


Rear lower quarter, driver's side.


Lower trailing edge and lower leading edge of driver's side front wing. Incidentally, these areas are good on the beige car so I can make one good wing out of two bad ones and that's exactly what I plan to do.




Lower leading edge of passenger front wing.


Passenger side rear arch.


Passenger side lower rear quarter and bumper mount.


The sills shouldn't be too tricky to remove either, under the weather strip it looks like a pigeon was given the task of gluing them to the car.


Even if I swapped the better panels from the beige car to the orange one, I'm still left with a much larger welding bill to even get through an MoT, let alone the additional work the orange car needs that either doesn't need doing or has already been done on the beige car. This isn't all the rot in the orange one either, the front valance isn't as perfect as I hoped and I found another patch of rust where the rear seat support joins the passenger side inner arch.

I meant the oven cleaner is good for cleaning engine bays not vinyl?

Kev

@Kev: works on vinyl too I'll try it on the engine


Found another nicknack in the orange car, it's an antifreeze tester. I've added it to my Giffer Stuff box because I like these random bits of nonsense that I find in old cars. Needs a new bulb but otherwise works as it was designed to.


Fortunately for me, the seatbelts in the orange car are identical to the ones in the beige car so I no longer need to get custom belts made. I knew one of the stalks was frayed from the last interior swap but never really investigated it fully, now I know just how bad they were I'm very happy to have swapped to the stalks from the orange car. I also changed the seatbelt in from the orange car as they're in better condition too.


The weather was changable today, less than ideal for swapping interiors around or really doing anything outside, but I perservered. I'm on a tight deadline so I can't afford to waste a day even when the weather is appalling. Got the carpet out and cleaned up, it was really just dusty and has barely any fading at all, it also seems to fit better than the black carpet that went in. Rear seat too was only dusty, there's no thinning or bleaching of the top of the seat back as is normal for Princess rear seats, they don't even smell funny!


Front seats were the easiest install I've ever done. Normally they're right fiddly things to get in but these just dropped straight in with no fuss at all. The velour still feels grippy, there's no fading, no loss of pile on the fabric and the seats are still firm and supportive without any of the usual sag and bag. These seats are frankly astonishing.


I got one door card fitted and swapped the good handle from the back to the front until I can get a decent black replacement. I also got the interior B pillar trim fitted before the seatbelt and put the black door seals in only to find they're considerably plumper than the brown ones I had in and the driver's door is now difficult to shut without using considerable effort. I'd like to fit a brushed aluminium or stainless steel trim into the grab handle recess to break up the relentless sea of black a bit.


The parcel shelf is removed with the use of a hammer and refitted in much the same way. Unfortunately I couldn't remove the vinyl trim under the rear window which is still brown, it's a screen out job because you have to drill out some rivets and there's no good access to do this or to fit new rivets, I'll do it when I get the rear screen surround repaired.



I've said before I'm not a fan of black interiors and this is not my first choice. With some adjustment I will be content with this interior and the condition of it far outweighs any misgivings I have about the colour, I've never had a car with an interior this nice. With some subtle tweaks and additions of a small quantity of brightwork, the cabin on this car is going to be very smart and it actually does the Champagne Beige paint some pretty hefty favours, so much so that I'm actually keeping the car in the original beige with black C pillars and door surrounds.

I missed a bit. Inside the soggy and ruined HBOL that came with the car (I have another, it's pristine, I have never used it) was a little document that illustrates more goodies in this orange car that I really need.



The brake discs and pads must have been fitted just before the car was taken off the road but it looks like they might only have been fitted on the driver's side so we'll have to see how lucky I've got there when I take a peek. The clutch has only done about 32k too so that might still be good as a spare part. Tellingly there was a bookmark in the HBOL on the rear suspension sphere section so I wonder if it's had work/replacement spheres on the rear not long before being laid up too, it could explain why it sits so well.

the orange one looked quite good until you started poking about, i think you made a good decision..
here is some info on the bottle you found, i used to be a shepherd...
http://www.ukvetsonline.co.uk/hampton-v ... mb-disease

rich. wrote:I used to be a shepherd...

Ah, that explains everything

Hasn't rich mentioned that he is part welsh

It's a shame about the orange car but if nobody ever parted a car out, there would be no good used spares for everyone else. Given the sea of rust there is on that, unless you have a deep sentimental attachment to it i would be doing the same and recovering my investment selling bits on ebay.

my grandfather was born in northumberland, & had a welshist surname....
my fathers family are from bristol im a city boy but brought up in the forest of dean (gods country) my family are all builders & for some strange reason i was interested in agriculture & worked as a labourer/shepherd/stockman/tractor/lorry driver/manager & all jobs inbetween.. after several years of working 120 hours a week i gave it all up & got a job that pays a reasonable wage as most of the farmwork was slave labour.. it makes me laugh to see nowadays that there is a lack of qualified staff in the industry..

The staff we have on the farm (apart from the herdsman) are all local youths who couldn't get a job in Tesco stacking shelves as they weren't qualified. I have no idea why it is difficult to get someone who has an education to scrape up cow poo in to a muck spreader