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    A brochure from 1971
February 2010 and the car has been under wraps for a couple of months. Despite the excessive cold weather it fires up OK, when I remember to pull out the choke that is. In March I take it to Autocraft in Mexborough for checking the underseal & waxoyl protection, greasing of all joints, fixing a couple of small paint issues and replacement of the front engine mount. Despite the greasing, my feelings are that the CV joints are worn and will need replacement in the near future.
08.04.2010    Since the purchase of the car, there have been scratches evident on the driver's door glass. Today I managed to get hold of a replacement door glass from a breakers yard at Balby, Doncaster which was fitted at Autocraft the following day. A very fiddly job not made easier by the design of the door - there being no removable panels.
The left rear tyre shows signs of age so is replaced using the (new) spare. The old one is now the spare.
The following Sunday sees the first show of the year. A sunny, but chilly day out at the Elsecar Heritage Centre in Barnsley brings out the cars and the crowds.
31.05.2010    Many miles covered over the weekend of the 29th to the 31st of May. My first attendance at Carlton Towers near Goole/Selby for their steam rally saw a reasonable show. However, incessant light rain (from start to finish) dampened spirits! It also affected the car which would not start when requested. Apparently the solenoid was stuck and was soon rectified. Thanks to Steve Turner of the Cambridge and Oxford Owners Club. The following day at Thornton le Dale near Pickering saw sunshine and only light showers. A good show of Vehicles in this typical North Yorkshire village. Finally, at Sherburn Aero Club, probably the best show so far with agreeable weather. A wide variety of vehicles (from 1908 to the present day) and aircraft with a Spitfire Trainer and the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's Hurricane taking the starring roles. No further problems with the Princess.

Sentinel DG6 steam lorry at Carlton Towers, Vintage line up at Thornton & display at Sherburn

06.06.2010    A 60 mile trip down the motorway to Nottingham through a thunderstorm for the Autokarna rally at Wollaton Park ends in disaster. On leaving the motorway the car misfires and loses power. I notice white smoke at the rear. Initial thoughts are that it has something to do with excessive water getting in to the electrics. I crawl to the show ground and discuss matters with other attendees and come to the conclusion that the head gasket has blown. This is further borne out when No. 2 spark plug is cleaned and the fluid thereon is found to be pink - the same colour as the coolant. The radiator needs topping up too. The RAC gets a call to recover the car home and, for once, take no more than 10-15 minutes to turn up.
07.06.2010    As expected, the head gasket has failed between No.2 & 3 cylinders. Plenty of water (coolant) spurting from these cylinders when the engine is turned over. The cylinder head requires attention and is sent for machining. 4 of the valve guides need replacing and the remaining 4 are 'marginal', therefore, to replace all. The picture shows the affected area of the gasket.
18.06.2010    The head is returned from the engineers. It has been refaced, as was the manifold, and the valve guides replaced. New studs were manufactured and a new copper gasket set supplied. To make it look the part, I undertook a bit of painting to both the cylinder head and the manifold with very high temperature enamel paint.
On initial running the engine sounds rough and is no better when taking the car for a run, so is returned for tuning. A couple of hoses are split (fuel pipe from the carb. & manifold breather hose) and the vacuum advance/retard mechanism of the distributor needs replacement. These matters are temporarily fixed until I can get the correct parts and, consequently, the engine is now running perfectly.
It was discovered, during this time, a couple of holes in the bodywork which will need urgent attention as water ingress is evident. Both sills are affected, so carpets out for further investigation!
30.07.2010    The sills mentioned above are, apparently, in good order but required cover plates on both sides. Repair also made to left rear floor near subframe mounting. Front interior floor and boot floor repainted.
01.08.2010    The engine sounds as though the exhaust is blowing but am unable to find the source. This later proved to be the manifold to front pipe joint.
15.08.2010    The wheel bearings and brake cylinders are in poor condition and the distributor retard unit was found to be leaking. It appears the retard unit is not the original so a closer matched unit was purchased and fitted. All other jobs completed prior to successful MOT on 23rd August. New CV joint boot kits fitted. To replace the front tie rod & lower arm bushes in the near future.

Despite the amount of work done (and yet to do!) on the Princess, the 'show season' has largely been quite successful mainly due to the good weather encouraging people to bring out their vehicles. Here are just a few pictures of some of the shows attended throughout the year.

From left to right: June-An evening at 'The Baxters', Fenwick; July-1935 Lanchester at Thornes Park, Wakefield; Jowett and Bedford Campers at Newby Hall, Ripon.

All at Newby-Ford Y&C Club, Model T Ford, 1953 David Brown Lagonda Drophead, 1937 Cord 812 Phaeton

 
1933 Austin 7 Box Saloon at Newby; August-Brodsworth Hall near Doncaster, 1975 Type 2 VW Camper; September-Daimler 'Empress' at Rotherham.

 
October-Skipton, North Yorks, Albion Coach; Commercials & Buses at Sandtoft Trolleybus Museum near Doncaster

20.11.2010    The tie rod & lower arm bushes are replaced along with a braided fuel pipe. A stone damages the exhaust near to the silencer box and this is rectified as well.

28.01.2011    The car has been in the body shop for 8 weeks and was returned today. Hopefully, the water ingress problem (mentioned 18.06.2010) has been solved. A portion of the 'A' post was actually missing (it appears a previous repair was badly done) and required attention. Water was running down the the 'A' post where it meets the wing, getting into the sills and into the cabin. Therefore, the lower wings (both sides) and first 2 inches or so of the sills had to be repaired & repainted. The missing part of the 'A' post was replaced by welding in new metal. A couple of paint chips (on the nearside sill & inner wing) were attended to. The wing mirrors were replaced as a mark where they were previously was becoming evident (they were removed to provide a more aesthetically pleasing look!). A thorough coating of waxoyl should see the year out and with the carpets replaced the car should be ready for the road. The paint on both wings has not been matched correctly and needs to be redone.

State of nearside & offside A post to sill. Right, new metal welded in

Showing the finished article.

22.04.2011    Smashed the left front sidelight/indicator lens - too embarrassing to say how. They are quite rare and hard to find (and therefore expensive) and, after a few days of searching my spirits were low. However, a Scottish contact (see Contacts page) came up trumps and hopefully I will receive one in the next few days.
27.04.2011    New lens fitted.
04.05.2011    The paint for the wings, mentioned above, has been matched as closely as possible. It appears the original paint used in the respray in 2009 was not correctly matched, being too dark. The codes for this mixture have now been recorded.
10.05.2011    The wings are repainted there is, however, some overspray on the front bumper rail. It later transpires the area where the wing meets the rail was poorly prepared as bubbles are appearing beneath the paint.
21.05.2011    Oil flush, oil and filter change at 77,742 miles. Note to self - remove old seal before putting in the new!!!
July 2011       The engine sounds as though it is not firing on all cylinders on starting, only settling down after a minute or so.
20.08.2011    Changing the spark plugs cures the misfire. No.2 plug is 'gunged up' - probably the reason.

At various shows during the year including; Newark, Notts; Glossop; Heath near Wakefield; Hayfield Lakes near Doncaster; The Travellers Rest, Hope Valley; The Moor, Sheffield.
25.09.2011    Following a visit to York, there is a strange noise coming from the engine bay. It seems like a new dynamo is required as it is getting hot and the exclamations coming from it are persistent.
28.09.2011    Purchased rear exhaust mountings (bobbin type) to replaced the existing two which had a couple of splits in the rubber. I took the opportunity to shorten the exhaust as it was protruding beyond the rear bumper and causing a nuisance.
30.09.2011    After a lot of 'huffing & puffing', I finally managed to replace the dynamo. There was movement around the bushes of the old one and, as refurbishment would cost as much as a new one, it was replaced.
06.11.2011    A run to Lincoln was the final show of the year. The car has covered a little over 2,300 miles attending ahows this year.

04.03.2012    The car has slept in the garage over-winter and, surprisingly, started first time. After a short run all seems okay.
27.03.2012    Spoke too soon! On turning the ignition - nothing but a click. As a similar problem occurred before, I assumed it was the solenoid, but after purchasing one it turns out the starter motor is kaput and so is sent for refurbishment. Unfortunately, it is beyond repair - a new one ordered.
30.03.2012    It appears the new starter motor has 10 teeth on it's shaft whereas the old had 9. As the old shaft was in good order it was fitted to the new motor. The car fires up but is misfiring. Adjusting the position of the distributor cures the problem. As I have found in the past, the Haynes Manual over-simplifies the removal & refitting procedure. The manual states; disconnect cables, remove 2 bolts and lift out, where in fact; disconnect battery earth cable, remove the grill to gain access, remove the distributor (do not undo the distributor clamp as I did) as the starter motor will not come out as it is blocked by this and the oil pump housing. Disconnect the other cables, remove bolts & lift out. On refitting, ensure the distributor is in the same position to ensure the timing is the same.
30.05.2012    Discovered some 'play' in right front wheel. As there has, for some time, been some cracking noises on turning it was decided to replace the diveshaft collars & nuts, right front ball joint & wheel bearing, both track rod ends and the CV joints were swapped over. The left front brake was binding due to a seized cylinder so this was freed up & both brake pads renewed.
18.06.2012    The left front brake binding has returned and is much worse.
22.06.2012    Apparently, the brake hose had become blocked probably due to deterioration from the inside. This was cleared but replacement hoses would be a sensible purchase.
As there had been a knocking noise emanating from the engine bay (?against the bulkhead I thought), this was investigated and found the exhaust front pipe catching the right side driveshaft. In an attempt to ease it away the exhaust manifold broke at its neck. A replacement was sourced and fitted. It did not have the breather nozzle, however, so the crankcase breather hose was re-routed and now fits onto the air cleaner box. This, however, proved to be unsuccessful as it appears the 'air flow' was disturbed (not enough vacuum?) and oil was forced out of the dipstick & filler neck openings. A Mark 3 manifold was found which had the appropriate breather nozzle plus a nozzle for a brake servo hose. The latter was blocked off as my car has no servo. All is now back to normal! A small hole in the exhaust back box was welded and probably means a new exhaust soon.
26.07.2012    Oil & filter change. MOT passed at 81,015 miles. Still cannot find the source of the knocking noise. All in the engine bay appears to be fixed firmly. The photos at left show the car on The Moor, Sheffield and Locke Park in Barnsley.
12.08.2012    The 35 amp (3,4) fuse blows three times in 12 hours. Suspicion falls on the flasher unit and the brake light circuits, possibly a wire shorting out somewhere.
15.08.2012    Circuits tested by my local auto-electrician but no fault found. A 10 amp fuse was inserted at the brake light switch in order to isolate this circuit and to see if this is the problem.
26.08.2012    The fuse continues to fail and even though the brake light switch fuse is intact, the brake lights also fail
30.08.2012    All circuits on the 'ignition side' now have 10 amp fuses. Testing again proved fruitless but it was noticed the washer bottle pump leads were touching the bodywork. As this too is on the 'ignition side' it may have been shorting out and causing the whole circuit to fail. To continue the saga, the circuits again fail when driving so I decided to purchase replacement flasher and temperature sender units. When installing the temperature sender, I noticed the wire from it was resting on the cylinder head. With the washer bottle and temperature leads well 'out of the way' it was time for another drive around and, for the moment, all seems well - apart from the fact that the coolant temperature is now much higher than it should be! This did not stop me from attending Rotherham Show and the village gala at Harley (photos right).
Nope, the electrical fault remains. Need to pause and have a think!!!

March 2013    Purchased a few items from Earlpart ready to fit next month - brake hoses and thermostat amongst others.
22.04.2013     I decided to replace the ignition switch in an effort to rectify the electrical fault described previously. Excellent service from Tim Hodgekiss of Vintage Motor Spares (based in Norfolk) who supplied the correct part at reasonable cost - Lucas 47SA.
24.04.2013    The car starts first time after being laid up since October last, but the electrical fault remains.
13.05.2013    So it is back to the auto-electricians where it was found that the main wire supplying the power to most of the electrics had a spade connection which was corroded and was held together by only a couple of strands of wire! This was removed (i.e., fell off) and the joint was soldered together. Initial driving for a reasonable period produces no fault. It was always going to be a simple problem to fix, but it took almost 12 months to find! Because of this I put back the original ignition switch (to keep the new as a spare) to cut down the number of keys on the fob.
20.05.2013    Sent the car to Wilsons of Cudworth to replace brake hoses, thermostat, flush the radiator and have a general 'look see'. There are some areas of corrosion which will need attention, i.e., the right front corner of the driver's footwell and the 'trumpet' inside the right front wing. The thermostat replacement and radiator flush were carried out because the engine was getting hot.
01.06.2013    Attended the Rossington Vintage Vehicle Rally near Doncaser which was a very good show and well attended for a Saturday. The car managed reasonably well but the exhaust seems to be 'blowing' a little and the rattle emanating from the 'engine bay' is getting annoying. I have searched for the cause of this for quite some time, but cannot find it.
05.06.2013    The welding described above was attended to at SJ Autowelding of Barnsley along with a crack in the exhaust. No more 'blowing'.
08.06.2013    Despite the above problems, the car won only it's second trophy at Braithwell Church & Country Fair twix Rotherham & Doncaster. Most satisfying.
12.06.2013    Engine still getting hot despite a new temperature sender and thermostat so the radiator was re-cored. The old radiator (left, which was not in too bad a condition) had 3 small rows of cores whereas the new has 2 larger rows to allow coolant to circulate more freely. After a few 'drives' of over an hour each, I am not convinced the recent work has cured the problem of excessive water temperature.
It looks like the crankcase breather hose, when hot, is becoming soft and needs replacement.
02.07.2013   The breather hose is replaced, but the hose supplied is too short, so an extension is fashioned using a spare piece of hose and metal tubing.
The joint of the left wing to bumper rail has had paint bubbling in the recent past. This was refurbished today at D&S Motors in Mapplewell, Barnsley and the whole of the bumper rail repainted.
03.07.2013   The heater motor has not been working for the past few weeks so it was stripped down and found to be in good overall condition except for a little 'blacking' on the commutator. This was cleaned and the motor is back in working order. Removing the motor from under the parcel shelf is very 'fiddly' and twice as 'fiddly' to get it back in! Rear brakes sticking on when hot.
The high temperature of the engine is getting frustrating - is it a blockage, an air lock, the water pump or a blockage in the heater matrix? Or is it, perhaps, simply the excessive ambient temperature?
06.08.2013    All 3 rear brake hoses replaced. The the middle hose attached to the subframe was found to be partially blocked causing the brakes to 'stick on'. Wheel cylinders & brake shoes in good order. Duct tape applied around radiator until a proper radiator 'skirt' can be found or fashioned.

 Time to renew the brake hoses (far left).

 Improvised radiator skirt (left).

March 2014    The car has been under wraps for a little while, but, as usual, it starts first time. On idling, the engine, however, continues to get excessively hot.
08.04.2014    Taken to the garage for a new water pump and head gasket test. This found the head gasket had failed between cylinders 2 & 3 yet again (3rd gasket in my ownership). Gasket replaced & a new fan belt fitted.
04.05.2014    On the way to an event the car breaks down. Whilst driving along, the engine begins to 'miss' a little, then stalls. Nothing obvious under the bonnet so need to call the the breakdown club who diagnose a faulty fuel pump. The car is eventually recovered home to await replacement parts.
12.05.2014    A new fuel pump purchased and the car is taken for it's fitting. However, the fuel line from the tank to the pump is too short to enable the pump to be fitted and had to be replaced. A fuel leak was detected and a hole discovered in the pipe fitting at the fuel tank end. This remedied, the car refuses to start. Now it has no spark! The plugs, contact points, condenser and air filter were changed. The engine fires up, but is running 'rough'. Time to reset the carburettor which cures the problem but the engine is probably running a bit 'weak'. There is also some 'blowing' on driving. The exhaust to manifold joint is re-sealed - some improvement. I feel the manifold to cylinder head gasket may be faulty. Time will tell.
18.05.2014    Oil (20/50) and filter changed following engine flush. Idle speed on carburettor increased and mixture enriched.
20.05.2014    Carburettor found to be 'out' still - reset, but now the distributor back plate is faulty and the spring keeps jumping out. The ignition timing was set, but after a short drive, was found to be about 10 degrees out. A recommendation of replacing the distributor with an electronic one was advised.
27.05.2014    Having purchased an electronic distributor and coil from A-Series Spares of Ilkeston, Derbyshire, they were fitted for me at Bell Lane Garage. As the more recently manufactured coils are only filled with oil to 7/8ths of their capacity it is prudent to fit them in an upright position. To fit them horizontally would mean that part of the coil would not be covered by the oil. As usual with the older cars, nothing is straightforward. My old coil was horizontal and, therefore, a new bracket had to be made for it to sit upright. This was achieved by rotating the existing bracket and adding a plate and drilling a couple of holes for the new coil to fit. After a bit of coughing and spluttering and putting the HT leads in the right order, the car fired up and ran fairly smoothly. The engine is running a little fast so the idle speed is reduced to a satisfactory level. Thanks to Keith at Bell Lane Garage for his help and knowledge of 'what goes where'.

Below: The dynamo/coil strap 'A' was rotated 90 degrees, allowing bracket 'B' to be fitted. The coil will have to be removed to enable removal of the oil filter housing 'C'. New electronic distributor 'D'.

It looks as though someone has backed into the car at some point. The offside corner of the front wing near the bumper is cracked as is the perspex covering of the number plate.
June 2014    A number of shows attended during June and the car seems to be coping fairly well. Perhaps the engine revs are a little fast on idle when hot. Should I leave alone or have a tinker?
12.08.2014    MOT failure due to corrosion to nearside rear area under the car near the subframe.
15.08.2014    Welding to above area and to hole in offside sill at the front - all undersealed. The cracked number plate is replaced.
18.08.2014    MOT passed, but, on entering details into the MOT computer system, the car is only recognised as a Rover! A journey to the local VOSA area office in Sheffield is in order and the details are corrected without too much fuss - its a Vanden Plas again!