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Leyland Princess 2000


halcyonjet

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As a little bit on the side, I've dug out the Leyland (Austin) Princess kit. I've gone through my paint store to gather all the shades of beige and brown to finish it as the typical 'grandad' car I remember them being -only joking!

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Dave

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First girlfriends dad had a green one with a black vinyl roof.

Cornering like a boat in a rough sea but a very comfortable ride as I remember it, (whoops that last part is still referring to the car :sorry:)

 

Cheers Pat

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I used to love those Leyland cars when I was a kid. The Princess, the Maxi, the Allegro (Vanden Plas! The absolute last word in refinement and luxury!) Our first family car was a blue Morris Marina, MMJ 856P. It was the coldest place on Earth in winter. If Heller did one I’d be all over it.

 

Going to be following your build a bit misty-eyed, possibly.

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8 hours ago, JOCKNEY said:

Cornering like a boat in a rough sea but a very comfortable ride as I remember it,


Hydrolastic suspension, which sounds like it needed servicing! The Maxi had the same system, and when properly maintained it gave a superior ride close to the classic Citroën hydraulic suspension.

 

My parents owned a white Maxi in the 1970s, which was used to tow a caravan for family holidays. I am rather sad, as I would rather like a Maxi now. A car ahead of its time. Full hatchback, all the seats folded flat, plenty of load space, great suspension, front wheel drive and a five speed gearbox. I think I need a 1750HL for the best experience. :penguin:

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42 minutes ago, Heather Kay said:

My parents owned a white Maxi in the 1970s, which was used to tow a caravan for family holidays.

The Maxi was the caravanner’s automobile of choice. We nearly bought a maroon one, I remember thinking it was enormous inside and gave huge adventure potential. I used to travel to Blackpool in the boot of my uncle’s Cortina estate. Cousin Glen was sick in my lap once. Good times.

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Really pleased to see this bit of Leyland magic in the GB. I think it's a nice looking car, with the influence of Italian styling being very apparent. The kit looks nice and straight forward too, and really makes me wish Heller had done one in 1/24. Fun to see the Leyland "Plughole of Doom" logo on the box top again.

 

@Heather Kay My Dad had a nice orange coloured Maxi too for several years, and it became the first car I drove on my own after I passed my test. Folks went away for the weekend and Dad said "you can borrow the car, but just to go to work". Well, guess who did the full on Ferris Bueller thing for the whole weekend. Great fun. It was easily the most reliable car he ever owned, always passed the MOT and had the most space inside of any car I can remember (except for the enormous Datsun 260C estate he owned before the Maxi. That thing was massive). Yep! The Maxi was actually a very good car unless you wanted something that looked good, but it certainly was practical.

 

Look forward to this build getting under way!

 

Steve

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Hi,

 

I think I only ever drove one of these for a couple of days when I had to borrow a pool car. Turned out to be my then Area Manager's previous car, a V-P 2000 Princess. Nice comfortable car for driving around Shrewsbury in traffic, but I doubt I ever got it above 30mph so I never got to test the handling.

 

Interesting build!

 

Cheers

 

Pete

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Princesses used to be assembled at a local plant back in the day. I later worked with a guy who had worked there & was fanatical about Brit Ley stuff, strange coot, you criticised them at your peril. :D I never drove a Princess but did hire an Ambassador for a day to drive from London to Swansea to visit the DVLC & buy a UK provisional licence so I could sit a PSV licence a couple of days later. I thought it was a darn nice car. A Princess with a hatch back as the originals should've had too imho. I'll happily follow this build & should I ever trip over one of these, would buy it in a heart beat.

Steve.

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21 hours ago, stevehnz said:

I never drove a Princess but did hire an Ambassador for a day

Back in the days when things like cars and caravans got solid, patrician names because the man of the house would make the purchasing decision. Ambassador, Senator, Consul etc. 😁

 

Sorry @halcyonjet, I feel your thread has been hijacked by a nostalgiafest...

Edited by TonyOD
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Then we got the Datsun Cherry and the Nissan Cedric........ And that was that ‼️😳

All I can tell you is I've had Citroën cars for decades and NEVER had any welding done for an MOT test. 

Previous C3 came from a farm and had a hole punched right through the wing just behind the door, where it had caught a farm trailer. 

I eventually filled and finished it for cosmetic reasons after about a year , but that hole never showed a grain of rust. 

Try that on a BL Princess and see how long it takes to turn into a pile of rusting scrap. 

 

I saw a little group of 1.43 Airfix cars on an auction site just now. I bet they are from the Heller moulds. My fingers were twitching..... 😁

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Never knew there was a kit of the Princess. It really needs an Allegro next to it. Although for me the two really nostalgic cars of this era would be the Hillman Imp that my Mum always struggled to start on a cold morning, and my Manx grandparents' white Triumph 1500 which they kept going into the 90s (they replaced it with an Escort, not a really memorable car although there was that time it ended up covered in bits of seaweed...)

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Finally fully back on-line thanks to a new router, so a chance to reply and an update.

A lot of the types mentioned above have special memories for me. My father used to drive huge distances for his work in the early 70's, so got through company cars on a regular basis. After a couple of tank-like Austin Cambridge's, things got more modern with a Triumph 1300 (which seemed to be a regular visitor to the local garage). Then came a white Morris Marina 1.8 Super 4 door BKD858K-I remember the speedo reading 110mph on many occasions! Then his work required more load space, so an Austin Maxi 1750 HL in 'Harvest Gold' TCB249K replaced it. Sadly lacking in top speed and the need for an even longer load area, saw the arrival of a Marina 1.8 estate, KNG113L in orangey red (very 70's!). At that time, my mother had a maroon coloured Hillman Imp, which was registered GAY53D (probably worth a few quid these days).

Anyway, back to the Princess, and the interior is coming together and the wedge shaped body is about ready for paint.

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Dave

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi Dave

 

Have you done anything to the Princess since we last heard from you ? (That wouldn't be a good line taken out of context would it ! )

 

You have a lot of nostalgic people on here waiting for an update....

 

cheers Pat

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Hi Pat,

it's had a couple of coats of 'chocolatey' brown paint on the body, which actually looked like chocolate when it dried -d'oh!

A quick rub down and a (hopefully) decent top coat, and it should be back on track.

Sadly, the weather hasn't been too kind for much spray painting of late, and now my brother has had a bad fall on some ice the other morning and broken his arm, so I'm being kept busy looking after him.

However, M's beautiful Alfasud and Jaguar XJS are inspiring me on!

 

Dave

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  • 5 weeks later...

More love for the Princess here! Dad had a Denim Blue 2000HL that replaced his long serving and utterly reliable Austin 1800. That was dark blue & is still the most spacious car I recall travelling in (although I was small at the time!).

 

I went on to work in the local BL dealer and spent many ‘happy’ hours on various Marinas, Allegros, MGs, Princesses, Minis, Ambassadors, Triumph Acclaims, Rovers, Maestros, Montegos et al. Different times indeed.

 

We were never allowed to keep a customers car - always had to be ready on the day. My manager’s favourite saying was ‘if you were stuck in the desert, you’d fix it son!’ Ex-Army leadership at its best!
 

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Best of luck with your build.

 

Edge

 

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17 hours ago, JeroenS said:

Hi @halcyonjet, I hope your brother is doing better. Have you had a chance to get some more work in on this classic? We'd all like to see it in the gallery I'm sure. 

Thanks Jeroen, he is slowly improving (but still fairly helpless for doing much) and scheduled to have an X-ray on Feb 8th. Meanwhile, our eldest brother who lives 5 miles away has a detached achilles tendon and also needs looking after. As for me, I recently had to have yet another eye injection, which left my right eye (my better one for vision) looking like a tomato, ie completely bloodshot red. That lost me about 10 days of modelling whilst it cleared up.

 

14 hours ago, Edge said:

More love for the Princess here! Dad had a Denim Blue 2000HL that replaced his long serving and utterly reliable Austin 1800. That was dark blue & is still the most spacious car I recall travelling in (although I was small at the time!).

 

I went on to work in the local BL dealer and spent many ‘happy’ hours on various Marinas, Allegros, MGs, Princesses, Minis, Ambassadors, Triumph Acclaims, Rovers, Maestros, Montegos et al. Different times indeed.

 

We were never allowed to keep a customers car - always had to be ready on the day. My manager’s favourite saying was ‘if you were stuck in the desert, you’d fix it son!’ Ex-Army leadership at its best!
 

Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Best of luck with your build.

 

Edge

 

Hi Edge, more happy car memories there of cars gone by. That said, a mate is still driving an X plated beige Triumph Acclaim around the town. He recently tried to improve it's looks by repainting it by hand. Probably seemed like a good idea at the time!

 

Dave

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4 hours ago, halcyonjet said:

Thanks Jeroen, he is slowly improving (but still fairly helpless for doing much) and scheduled to have an X-ray on Feb 8th. Meanwhile, our eldest brother who lives 5 miles away has a detached achilles tendon and also needs looking after. As for me, I recently had to have yet another eye injection, which left my right eye (my better one for vision) looking like a tomato, ie completely bloodshot red. That lost me about 10 days of modelling whilst it cleared up.

Ouch that's a regular sick bay you're running there... Makes modelling seem less important, but still a nice distraction if you can get some time in of course. Best of luck!

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