My Princess Story

www.leylandprincess.co.uk

Wedge Stories

EBAY ENTHUSIASTS UNITED

My Princess story has a bit of an unusual beginning

In August 2005 whilst browsing the classic cars on Ebay I came across a 1981 Vauxhall Cavalier 2000 GLS Sportshatch that, without hesitation, bid on & bought. I loved this car and ran it until the winter when it was put away in my brother’s garage until the spring.

The time came to put my car back on the road – I went to my brothers, reconnected the battery & away she went first time!! Then came the crunch – because I was going to keep the car at home where I did not have a garage and the insurance company wanted £1200 to insure it for the year, which I could neither afford nor justify so with great sadness the Cavalier was sold.

At the same time I was buying the Cavalier a workmate (Martin) was also busy browsing through Ebay looking for an Austin Princess. Along with many other workmates I too was thinking what on earth does he want one of them for? My earliest memory of the Princess was when my dad was looking for a car to tow our caravan and the salesman from the garage rang to say that he had the ideal car a Russet 2000 HL that my dad took one look at & said no way!!

Martin kept on browsing until he found a 1981 1700 HL in Emberglow that had been stood for 9 years (the tax disc on the screen had expired in 1997) but was one owner and had covered 36,000 miles. He set off with a recovery truck & a friend down to the West Midlands and collected this non-running, seized clutch, and brakes stuck on Princess.

Upon his return the Princess was parked on the driveway and was to be a project for the winter months – this was until Martin found another Princess, which was in a very sorry state, parked up outside an old peoples home in Skipton, which was very close to where we worked. Martin found out whom the car belonged to & went to see the elderly gentleman who was only too happy to sell the car to Martin as he had just been told that the car would be removed if he did not dispose of it within the next few days.

The owner of the car had lost the keys and the registration document but we did not think this would be much of a problem to sort out & so this car went to Martins house to be parked next to the 1700HL.

This Princess turned out to be a quite a find as it happens because it is a 1980 2200HLS auto Special Wimbledon Edition complete with the Webasto roof & electric windows.

This car is going to be a major restoration project but we have started collecting items that will be required to complete the repairs and we will keep you posted on the progress, which is going to be very slow but definitely worthwhile.

Now being totally hooked on Ebay classic cars & classic car parts myself & Martin came across a 1978 Reynard 2200HL that had covered on 26,000 miles that looked really tidy and more to the point would come with a years MOT – Martin was convinced and proceeded to buy this car as well!!

This car did not disappoint – but for one or two to be expected minor defects the car is in excellent condition and being the 2200 sounds well too.

So back to myself, Martin who now had three Princesses was getting rather over run with them and he asked me if I would like to get the Emberglow 1700 back on the road and without hesitation I said yes.

So came the day the mission began.

Having no idea when the car was last running or even if it would turn over never mind start, I armed myself with some fresh petrol, jump leads, a can of WD40 & my toolbox I set off to Martins house.

Having checked there was some oil in the engine, removed & cleaned the plugs, points, rotor arm & distributor cap I put the petrol in, connected the jump leads on came the wipers, the interior lamp and the ignition lights WOW!! Now all we needed was the engine to start.

After an hour or so of turning it over, removing & drying the plugs and turning it over again the engine spluttered & coughed – at last a sign of life! Some more turning over and some more plug removing & refitting she started. A sense of great achievement came over us, and we commented ‘I bet you couldn’t get a new car to start as easy as this after 10 years!!’

Over the next few weeks the battery, front brake discs & pads, the rear wheel cylinders and the exhaust (which disintegrated upon the first start up!) were replaced all in preparation for the dreaded MOT.

Before I could drive the car anywhere, we had to try & free off the clutch and that was interesting – after trying other methods we ended up driving the car up & down the hill until BANG the clutch broke free & it worked perfectly.

After insuring the car for just over £120 the car was booked in & taken for an MOT – I must admit I was very concerned at what it was going to need doing especially with all the money that had already been spent doing all the other work but I need not have worried.

All she needed for the MOT was a tiny bit of welding on the o/s/r inner arch, the emissions adjusting, the headlamp aim setting & a small fuel leak repairing.

So the first week in August 2006 and after going on 10 years sitting idle the Emberglow Princess was back on the road.

The car still needs quite a bit of work doing – this mainly being the paintwork – most of the car has been painted over the years but this has micro blistered and really needs taking right back to the metal – this will be done but I am not sure when. To make the car look a little more presentable I flatted the paintwork & machine polished it to end up with the below result.

Both Martin & myself are now members of the Princess & Ambassador Owners Club & the Reynard 2200 has been in two classic car shows; my Emberglow 1700 entered its first show in October.

As an update to the earlier paragraphs my car has now had the bonnet & roof painted and looks a whole lot better for it.

We have since bought a 1979 1700HL (below), which we were also going to restore but we have decided we have got enough on with the Wimbledon so we are going to use this one for spares.

I hope you have found my story interesting and we will post updates on the progress of the Wimbledon project as we go along.

Steve Marshall

Keighley

West Yorkshire.

Martin Hudson

Earby

Lancashire.

Added 17^th March 2008.

Tell us your Princess story. Email it to me and I’ll put it on the site, and don’t forget the pictures!