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www.leylandprincess.co.uk
Bert Drenth’s Princess Restoration I live in Ruurlo
in the Netherlands, which is a very small and very nice village in the
middle of My interest for the Princess started
in the spring of 1976 when I was 10 years old. We had moved to a new
neighbourhood where the father of a new school friend of mine had a brand new
Princess (the Princess was introduced in Later in 1987 I bought a maroon 1977
2200 HLS automatic which I new of from new. I had some welding done and a
respray, which cost me a fortune but didn’t lead to the required result. I
still was a student at that time and couldn’t afford all the necessary
repairs so I sold the car. Two years ago I found this car again, I could have
it for little money but there wasn’t one single part that could be used
again. I believe it’s scrapped now. For the next few years my Princess
obsession was placed on hold, but in 2002 I found a blue 1979 Princess 2 2200
HLS automatic on internet. It had been stored in a barn for more than 10
years and had belonged to a former Dutch British Leyland trainer. I had it
transported to my father’s former Princess dealer who had become a specialist
in restoring Jaguars and MG’s and had it repainted and reconditioned (first
they thought I was mad!) Although the blue one has become a
very nice car and cost me a fortune I still wanted something better. So in
2004 I decided to restore the maroon one to a real perfect condition (or as
far as possible with a Princess…) and started collecting as many new parts as
I could from former dealerships and through the internet. Then suddenly
somewhen in August 2005 I saw a brand new body shell on Ebay. Although I new
that it existed I had never thought I could even get my hands on it! But I
could and a few weeks later I had it delivered in With the new body I’m able to build
an almost completely new Princess, without welding and sandblasting. The rebuilt project consists of 3
main elements at this moment: 1. Preparing the new
body shell for the paint job. This work is being done at a professional body
shop and will take some time. 2. Collecting all the required parts. I want to use as many new parts as
possible. I already have lots of parts but this search will continue. 3. Investigation of the possibilities to tune the 2.2 litre engine, preferably with a conversion to 2.6 litres as used in Australian and South African Leyland P76 and Marina. I have had conversations on British Leyand Chat (Yahoo). If you have any suggestions please let me know. At this moment I’m preparing a conversion to a Rover V8 engine based on a Princess 4 cylinder gearbox. I don’t know if I can do this successfully but it’s nice to do (there are some examples on the internet). I don’t have a plan for the project
because it takes a lot of time and money but somewhen in this decade it will
be finished! In the meantime I have collected 6
other Princesses but at this moment only the blue one and a maroon 1976
Princess 2200 HLS (manual) are left. This last one is for as far as I now the oldest one in the country (in total I think
there are only 25 – 30 left). This car even has an older registration
(94-JX-18) than the first Princess I ever saw (48–MK–23); I will use the new bodyshell to
create the best possible result. Later I will give you some more of my
Princess rebuild activities. Last week the owner of the body shop
where my body shell is stored organised an event for members of a local
oldtimer (classic) club and my Princess-project was shown. It’s amazing to
see how many people have already forgotten the Princess! Got to the next page for the restoration so far… This page updated February 20th 2006. |
Our first Princess,
an 1800DL
The restored 1979 2200HLS |
