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So, with the FTP sorted, daily driving continued and we hit a nice round number.


In my quest to get a pair of mirrors I liked the look of and could actually practically use (the originals are RUBBISH), I got a bargain with a pair of Suzuki Jimny mirrors, of all things.


They're really nice to use. No wider than the clamp-on door mirrors previously seen, but about twice the height. They also adjust easier and stay where you put them. The reason they might have been cheap is that when I tried to fit the other side, I realised I had 2 driver's side mirrors. Ah, but that's not a problem because I also have access to a vise, fire, and a massive pipe wrench so now I have a pair of mirrors.




I may remove the mirrors again (they bolt into the door mounts, so they're easy to remove and refit) so I can bend them out just a little further. For now, they're the mirrors I can see the most in and while the style of them is a bit utilitarian, they're not too clunky. I like being able to see things a lot more than having pretty mirrors. The most recent job after this was one I've put off for a while. When we last had the rear suspension apart, the rubber of the rear bump stop on one side fell off the metal bracket it was bonded to. My attempt to reglue it off the car didn't work. After some discussion with club members and far too long procrastinating, we decided to refit it. First job is deflate the rear suspension, much easier since I've got individualised displacers on the Princess rather than the interconnecting pipes.


Then squidge some PU Sealant on there, put the car back on the ground and reinflate. Even if it comes unglued again, the displacer will hold the bump stop in position and the rebound strap will stop the displacer dropping far enough for the bumpstop to fall out. It hasn't come unglued yet. Flash makes everything look really rusty, which it isn't, so I'm not sure what that's about.


With that done I noticed a knock I heard sometimes at the back is now gone and the ride is just a little nicer than it was. I guess that'll be the missing bumpstop. Then, most recently, I was doing a general health check to try and get to the bottom of the engine feeling a bit off. After regapping the plugs and refitting them, I found one of the spark plugs was just a plug, no sparks. It wasn't until I had a think that I realised they've been in there five years because I last replaced them when I bought the car and removed four plugs of totally different brands from it. New plugs in and the car starts much better and the 'bit off' feeling to the engine is gone away, so I'm happy.

So that's you up to date on Princess exploits. Hopefully the next update will involve showing you lovely repaired wing and doors with fresh paint on. Hopefully.

It needs some serks to finish the look of the front off!

Best plate font ever!

_________________
should you wish, you can contact me on rich@minispares.com

'long beard boss'

I agree. Pressed, preferably. I can't find anyone doing a proper replica though, only stuff that claims to be correct and isn't.

Let's have an update. The recent hot weather, which I'm lead to believe is something called 'Summer', has put paid to me wanting to don protective gear and do welding. Especially so, in fact, because the unit has this amazing property where on a hot day it's hotter inside and on a cold day it's colder inside. Probably something to do with it being an ex-RAF hanger with no insulation. Anyway, I digress.

All has been running fairly smoothly, with a couple of niggles. The dieseling/running-on problem I had seems to have been down to the fuel mix being a tiny bit lean and knackered spark plugs, having sorted out both these things I appear to have fixed that problem, even in the really hot weather we've been having. Then, a little while ago the fuel gauge wouldn't read more than 7/8ths full which led to me overfilling the tank and spilling petrol all down the side of the car because I was sure it should take more fuel. More recently, the fuel gauge started going up and down at random and yesterday it stopped working altogether. Today I determined to start fault finding and naturally the fuel gauge was working again, sort of. There's 3/4 of a tank of fuel in the car at the moment but the gauge read here.
20180701-11 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

It bobbed up and down a bit when idling, I turned it off, had a bit of a think of what I might check without removing the dashboard, and then went back to it. The gauge then decided it wanted to work normally, but only up to half tank. I suspect it's a faulty gauge or voltage regulator. both known issues on these, and I've already replaced the regulator once when the previous one failed randomly. It's a dash out job to investigate and since I want to refinish the dashboard to match the interior properly, I decided to order some veneer and have a go at doing that rather than painting it. I've never done veneer work before but the theory seems simple enough if I take my time and given the simple flat shape of the dashboard, I'm hoping it doesn't give me too much grief to spruce up. If it does give me too much grief I've always got my fallback option of paint.

The other irritation was discovering the occasional knocking noise is actually a failed waterpump bearing, on a waterpump that's not more than 6 years old since it was one of the first things I replaced when I got the car. Fortunately, they're not too difficult to get hold of and a new one was delivered for a total cost of £15. I've not fitted it yet because it's been too darned hot and it's difficult to swear at annoying bolts when there's sweat running into your eyes. I've been keeping an eye on leaks too, and it wouldn't be a BL product if it didn't leave its moniker everywhere it stopped. That said, it's a very small moniker these days, so I'm just choosing to live with it and deal with bigger problems.
20180701-10 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

The summer has been less kind on the rear window stickers, which it is steadily destroying. The Leyland Princess one hasn't been in there very long, the Autoshite one a few years and is now suitably foxed, and the RR one has been in there pretty much since 2012 and appears to be slowly catching fire.
20180701-09 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20180701-08 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

It's also been seriously dusty here lately. Car seems to need washing daily, but nobody has time for that. Look at the state of this.
20180701-07 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

So mostly all I've been doing is driving the car and using it as a car. I'm enjoying it too. It's been a little while, so here's where we are with the bodywork and paint. I actually repainted the rear driver's side wing today when the weather had cooled down a bit and it turned out okay, even though there's welding work still needed on that panel. Having more of the car in the correct colours makes the work to do seem much less daunting and I'm looking forward to cracking on with the welding and last bits of paint once the weather has cooled down a little bit.

20180701-01 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20180701-02 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20180701-03 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20180701-04 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20180701-05 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

20180701-06 by Angyl Roper, on Flickr

Might do the water pump tomorrow, we'll see how I get on.