Alex's FREE WEDGE

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Alex SBY
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Alex's FREE WEDGE

Post by Alex SBY » Sat Oct 10, 2009 6:16 pm

The other week, I received an email regarding a free Princess 2 1700HL. The car is just down the road from me, and it seemed silly not to go and see it.

I went to see this car last weekend, and met the lovely owners who are sadly having to part with it due to an impending move. A car that has been in the family for years and I know they are sad to see it go.

The car: a 1981 X reg Reynard 1700HL. It was in daily use up until early this year (MOT only ran out in May). Needless to say I am getting it!

Body - good. Some minor areas needed from initial inspection but overall very sound indeed. Vinyl panels need removing/replacing (I will decide later).

Engine - very good. Sweet sounding O series, but looks like there is a Crankshaft oil seal leak. Clutch also takes up a bit high so first jobs on the list are to get them sorted/

Interior - not bad at all. Sadly the seats have suffered some sun damage in the usual places. I am thinking eventually this will get a Rover 800 set of seats fitted.

First steps are to appraise what else needs doing, and then get it through an MOT.

MOT is first priority as is making it oil tight. Then the cosmetics can be looked at.

Here are some pictures of it. I think it is a lovely old car and I know it will come up extremely well.

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It comes with a boot full of spares...

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Vinyl panels need sorting (why is it the brown ones always go tatty?).

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This will be a fun winter project and at the moment I am debating how to go forward - full on resto to original standard, or keep as is and just enjoy, or perhaps a full on resto but some modifications. It will be good deciding :D

And TODAY it arrived....

IT IS HERE!

This morning I went over to Ottery, and met the lovely people who are passing the Wedge over to me. I fitted a new battery and the car fired up immediately.

A few short moments later the distinctive tone of a tow truck engine came into earshot.

Some pictures of the moment it was collected:

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The tow truck followed me and dad back to the barn and it was duly unloaded:

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Yes, the reversing lights do not seem to work! :lol:

After the tow truck left, I pumped up the tyres (which are all nearly new!) and it now resides in the barn.

First steps are to let it dry out (sitting outside for the best part of 10 months without use has seen it get a tad damp - not too bad though), then give it a good thorough appraisal as to what needs doing.

Initial signs are good, I am thrilled with this dear old car. Poor photo follows, but here it is in its new resting place:

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Yes it has an oil leak! :lol:

LET THE PRINCESSTORATION COMMENCE.
One or two 800s...

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Post by Richard C » Sat Oct 10, 2009 6:29 pm

What a cracking find! good for you.
Richard

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Re: Alex's FREE WEDGE

Post by Lord Sterling » Sat Oct 10, 2009 6:44 pm

Alex Sterling wrote:...The other week, I received an email regarding a free Princess 2 1700HL...
How come I dont receive e-mails like this? :?

To be fair, I was once given a free car, a F-reg Sierra Sapphire Ghia in Black, sadly had to scrap it after a few months.

Great stuff there anyway Wedge man, your very lucky. What are your plans after the resto?

Lord Sterling

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Post by dead827 » Sat Oct 10, 2009 7:00 pm

great cars, I ran a few before getting my 800's the engine looks very small and you can climb in with it. I have a owners manual around still if you want one ( the one that comes with the car) I may have a few bits left in the junk box i'll have a look.
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Post by schuwolf » Sat Oct 10, 2009 8:58 pm

Nice one! Nice RAC badge too :D
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Good Luck.

Post by aryan57 » Sun Oct 11, 2009 10:34 am

Nice find, Alex, very best of luck to you. Looking at the shots of the engine bay, I thought how simple things were back in those days. Breaker ignition, no ECU, no fuel injection, just very basic and everything easy to fix.
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Post by Slamm » Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:32 pm

The twin headlight models are the best looking of the bunch, very nice.
Mk2 Vitesse Fastback

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Post by CHR15E » Sun Oct 11, 2009 6:36 pm

They get worse looking than that? :shock: :lol:

Sorry. :lol:
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Post by Slamm » Sun Oct 11, 2009 7:16 pm

CHR15E wrote:They get worse looking than that? :shock: :lol:

Sorry. :lol:
Yes, the Ambasador :D should have left it alone, great looking car :wink:
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Post by Kyle » Mon Oct 12, 2009 8:16 am

CHR15E wrote:They get worse looking than that? :shock: :lol:

Sorry. :lol:
It's a great find IMO, but not going to disagree with Chris on this one.


Nice X300 by the way Alex, it's skulking in the background of one of the photos.
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Post by Manalishi » Mon Oct 12, 2009 11:48 am

Great to see people caring about old cars like this. Most people would just scrap it in a blink of an eye I suppose.

Is it a dent in the left rear corner where the "princess" badge is?
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Post by rickt500 » Wed Oct 28, 2009 1:54 pm

I read somewhere that in theory you can drop a T16 in there quite easily. Would make an excellent sleeper !
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Post by rich1988 » Wed Oct 28, 2009 2:09 pm

that is incredibly ugly! but looks clean and for the price you paid you cant argue ;)
1995 woodcote green vitesse fastback, a modified (only perfomance mods!) 1998 nissan 200sx s14a, 2000 1.7 astra van (HELL YEA)

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Post by scoobyh123 » Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:23 am

What a cracking find, well done!! Have to admit to a soft spot for the later version, the Ambassador, having owned 2 of them. I can understand fitting some 800 seats in it, but why not find a set of Ambassador seats for it instead? I've always found them slightly more comfortable than the Allegro derived seats fitted to the Princess and should fit in more easily than the 800 seats. Interesting to see the distributor has a vacuum pipe on it, the 1.7 Ambassadors didn't have vacuum advance for some odd reason!!

Must say Reynard Brown was one of the nicest colours they ever made for the Princess, much better than Champagne Beige they slapped on about 70% of Ambassadors and about 90% of Metros!!

Good luck with it, hope to see many more pics as your resto comes along!!

Cheers,
Dave
Cheers,
Dave

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Post by scoobyh123 » Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:27 am

rickt500 wrote:I read somewhere that in theory you can drop a T16 in there quite easily. Would make an excellent sleeper !
I did similar to a Montego 2.0 VDP, dropped an M-Series from an '86 820SLi into it, what a beast!! Good for scaring Porsches, lol!! Did the job in a weekend by myself but had to make an engine mount up for it, other than that and i should have sorted the fuel ECU, it was straight-forward!!

Cheers,
Dave
Cheers,
Dave

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