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www.leylandprincess.co.uk Wedge Stories
I can vaguely remember the Princess
range being launched in 1975; I was 12 years old and my Dad had a 1966
Hillman Minx at that time, we then progressed to an Austin Maxi 1750 in 1978
which he ran until 1981 when, shortly after passing my driving test, I
wrapped it around a parked Volvo. Now my Dad, with a nice cheque from the
insurance company and 20% off his no claims bonus, was looking for another
car and a Princess was foremost on his mind and early in 1981 he bought a
1976 Princess 2200HL in white with brown plastic seats, class! Eventually I
was allowed to drive it and from then on I was hooked. In 1981 I bought myself a white 1800HL
for £350 and ran it for a year or so until I hit another car with it, so I
replaced it with a Wolseley wedge in 1983, it was a bit of a nail but I loved
it, it finally withered in 1984 and ended up on the pile at the breakers
yard. It was replaced by an immaculate black 1976 1800HL, I ran that for two
years until one day, I was waiting in a queue of traffic when some idiot
ploughed into the back of me, which effectively wrote the car off. 1986 now and my next purchase was a
very nice 1975 Wolseley wedge, this time in metallic brown with brown
interior and it also had an electric factory fitted steel sunroof along with
a set of Dunlop Denovo wheels and tyres, which I removed in favour of a
conventional set, unfortunately I never took a photograph of it; I only had
that car for a short while as I managed to put a con rod through the block at
70 mph! In those days I couldn’t be bothered with repairs so I sold it for
£50! Where is LAB 624N now? 1987, and a 1981 2200 HLS was next, another £100
purchase, this I had for about a year without any major problems until I was
offered a 1979 Rover 2600 SD1 for £100; so upmarket I went! Over the last 15 years I have had
fairly up to date Rover cars including 200’s, 400’s, 620ti and a Rover 820
Vitesse Coupe. I currently run a 1999 Rover 200 BRM LE. Early in 2002 I decided that I would
like a Princess to run as a classic car, unfortunately there aren’t as many
around as there were 10 years ago so a national search was required, I looked
on the internet as well as classic car publications and eventually a wedge
appeared on the Princess OC website, a 1981 2200HLS, unfortunately it was in
Dartford, Surrey and it was 2 hours away from me in Southampton, but the
vendor assured me the trip was worth it, though it was a non runner and had
no MOT but was FREE!. I made the trip on a Saturday in January and after a
lot of wrong turns I found it, it was in quite good condition, the
distributor cap was missing as was the top radiator hose, then came the real
blow, the vendor decided he wanted £150 for it, considering it was free the
day before it suddenly didn’t seem so nice in the cold winter sun, there was
no way I was going to pay that for a non runner, I made it clear to the
vendor that I thought he was a shyster and left. The search continued. Another look
in Classic Car Weekly revealed a 1981 1.7HL, this time in Croydon, Surrey (a
bit nearer!), a call to the vendor and a week later I was viewing the car, it
was clean and tidy with 64000 miles and no MOT and was mine for £75. Two
weeks later I trailered the wedge home and set about getting it ready for the
MOT, as it turned out it needed some welding at the bottom of the inner wheel
arch where it meets the sill on both sides plus a few other minor things but
overall it was fit and eventually passed the MOT in August 2002. I then set
about tidying the Nautilus blue paintwork as the wheel arches were a bit
scabby, though not rotten, a few cans of Holts Dupli-Colour and warm sunny
days soon sorted that and she was ready for the road. Unfortunately
the interior was not in such a good state, the seats had suffered the ravages
of ultra violet and had faded and torn quite badly, in fact the rear seat
looked as if a Dog had been chewing it. I replaced it with a complete gold
interior from a 1978 2200HLS that I had broken for spares. In August 2002
the 1.7HL was insured and taxed and I was finally enjoying wedge shape
motoring, the car performed admirably and was reliable. Early
one Thursday evening in January 2003 I looked on the AdTrader website and
typed in ‘Austin Princess’ as usual and up came a 1980 2200HLS Automatic,
32000 miles, 12 Months MOT, super condition, £220 and, it was only 23 miles
away. Now usually I would think hmm, it must be rough for that money but I
decided to phone the number and sound the vendor out, after the usual questions
the chap convinced me the car was worth viewing and as it was only a 20
minute journey I went over to view it that evening, in the dark!. It turned
out to be exactly as described and a test drive confirmed this was a very
nice example, it was sitting a bit low, particularly on the drivers side so a
suspension pump up was required immediately, and there was some corrosion on
the lower front wings below the bumper, as would be expected on these cars. £200
later I was driving it home and I have to say, I was extremely pleased with
myself for finding a 2200 HLS so close to home and for a bargain price. The
following Saturday I checked the car properly, the engine needed a bit of
fine tuning, the air filters were absolutely filthy, in fact I suspect they
were the original ones so a new pair were duly sourced, and as a result of
the engine now breathing properly the carburettors were readjusted and the
timing recalibrated using a vacuum gauge, it was pretty time consuming but it
now runs a lot smoother. As far as the bodywork goes some minor blemishes
were attended to, the worst being the rear bumper which had slightly impacted
into the body, but was easily repaired. In
September 2003, I sold the blue 1.7HL to make way for a new project, a 1981
Princess 2000HL, which you can find out more about here. And
that was how it remained for the last four years, but as time went by the
bodywork started to deteriorate on the gold 2200HLS, and I was looking at an
£800 bill to have the body resprayed. It wasn’t bad, it was just that some
small areas needed attention and in order to get the best finish having the
whole car resprayed was preferable to
trying to match the colour in patches, which makes sense. Anyway,
in April 2007 I received a call from Alex Sebbinger, who had decided to sell
his immaculate vermillion red 1978 Princess 2200HLS, and wanted to know if
I’d like to buy it. Read about it here. As
it was ready to go and had no major problems, I decided to buy it and sell
the gold 2200HLS that I’d owned since January 2003, so I placed an advert on
this site and sold it within one week from an enthusiast in Hastings, West
Sussex. I was sad to see it go, but I know it’s gone to an enthusiast who
will cherish it.
Kevin Davis. June 2007. If you would like to tell your story to
the rest of the world, email me and I will put it on the site.
More>>>>>>>>>>>>More>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>More
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This was my second wedge, a 1975 Wolseley,
which I paid £50 for in 1983. It wasn’t rusty but every panel had a dent in
it. It was scrapped in 1985.
The replacement interior – not
original but better than what was in there!
My 1981 1.7HL, just before I sold it.
My 1980 2200HLS, which I
ran for four, trouble free years until I sold it in May 2007.
The latest addition,
replacing the gold 2200HLS, a 1978 2200HLS. How could I resist?
A last gathering of my three
Wedges before the gold one went to its new owner in May 2007. |
