It has been an interesting few weeks here, I’ve been far busier than any person has any right to be and have been well and truly burning the candle at both ends.  This has definitely caught up with me today and I’ve been struggling to be motivated physically or mentally to get anything done beyond the barest work essentials.

So what’s been keeping me so occupied?  First of all was the opportunity to own the first Princess off the production line.  This is, to me, an historically important vehicle and one that I would very much like to own but it has arrived at a time when I simply cannot give it the time, money and effort it requires.  I did manage to secure storage, but the time frame to get it delivered to the storage location compounded with other car issues meant it was just one car too far at the moment.  A shame, it will take an enthusiast of truly moronic proportions like myself to put this one back on the road.

To make things worse, I got a tip off from a friend shortly after struggling to meet the requirements of the number one Princess of a car less than ten miles away from me, complete, and sitting in a breaker’s yard.  I went over with the intention to just have a look and see what price he wanted for important things like suspension spheres.  I was quite surprised to see a vermillion 1979 1.7 HL which was remarkably complete and original bar the addition of a towbar.

 

This car gave me something of a quandary.  It’s done about 75,000 miles, has had only 2 previous owners and has been off the road since 1995.  Brand new outer sills were fitted, the interior was practically brand new and overall the car appeared to be in reasonable fettle.  I’d taken my beige Princess for a pre-MoT check over to find it needed a little welding, a wheel bearing and some attention to the steering components on the passenger front corner as well as a service of the brakes to get them up to spec. There was every chance on initial inspection that this orange car would prove easier to MoT than my beige one.  Not a pleasant situation to be in as the beige car has its faults but not so many it should be binned.

The sensible course of action was to get digging into the orange one and inspect the trouble spots.  Thankfully, after two years of ownership, I now know where to look on Princesses to find just where they will rot and the orange car had gone in just about every location it could.  With the exception of the driver’s front footwell and the top of the rear screen surround, the orange car was worse in every location than the beige car and this, combined with all the other work involved to recommission the car, sealed the orange one’s fate as a breaker to keep my beige car going and to get the red car up and running that bit better.

 

I don’t like breaking cars if I can help it, I like scrapping them even less, but this car had more value in parts than as a restoration project.  Yes, the car could have been restored, the areas that had rotted were all fixable.  It’s clearly had work done on the rear axle which I shall be swapping over to the beige car along with some other items like the good thermostat housing, the radiator that looks in good order, some of the front wing that is crushed on the beige one and so on.  But I haven’t the time, money or energy to restore this one at the moment and I’m in desperate need of a few crucial parts that I can’t afford to otherwise purchase at the moment.

Better yet, the interior in the orange car was, after a clean, very nearly pristine with only the inner sill carpets, one interior door grab handle and a broken window winder to complain about.  The seats are still like new with no fading, collapsing foam, or torn velour.  Almost the whole interior has made it across to the beige car, with only a few items I didn’t need going into storage or helping the red car’s interior look that bit better.  Not being a fan of all black interiors, I’ve brightened things up with my crochet seat covers.  This is easily the best condition interior I’ve had in any of my cars and I will make every effort to keep it that way.

 

 

I have a tight time frame to get the orange car dismantled, all the bits cut off the bodyshell I want and the remains collected by the local scrap metal recycler so I shall be exhausted for a few more days to come.  The car more than pays for itself, all the same, the interior and rear axle alone – with pivot shafts that aren’t seized, no less! – are worth what I paid for the whole car and with some of the parts being of use to other Princess owners as well as my own cars this orange car will live on by helping others to survive for at least one more year all being well.