I suppose it's time I introduced myself...

[dick dastardly]

Guess i'm what you might call a long term lurker, as i've been browsing this forum off and on for quite a while now, and felt it was about time I broke the Ice.
Don't own a 480 yet, but it's next on my shopping list as soon as my current toy's gone on to a better home. My plan is to find a half decent 480 turbo, add a few subtle personal touches, and enjoy. Yes I know, things never quite run that smoothly, but as much as I love owning and driving A 1973 Ford Cortina (think Life on Mars style), it's just too much of a compromise as I can't bring myself to modify it too much, so it's got to go.
Enter the 480.
It's a car i've always planned to own at some point but never got round to actually buying one. I'm no stranger to the 480's engine, having owned and modded a couple of Renault 5 GTX's in the past, but the blown version is a little new to me, so i'm sure i'll be pestering a few of you guys for advice as soon as I get my hands on one!
After reading up on what some of you guy's have, it's gotta be a turbo version for me, as the appeal of a Rich-modded engine is the way I wanna head.
So heres where you guy's come in.
With a budget of arround £1000 or so, what can i expect to get? An Automatic is not what i'm after, gotta be a manual box. Leather and other options would be nice although not essential, i'm more intrested in as less milage as possible and as solid bodywork as I can hope for... I don't expect to get a minter, just something presentable. The £1000 is just a ball park figure really, There'll be more for mods later. So if any of you guys are thinking of selling something along these lines in the next few months let me know!

Thanks guy's,

Andy.

[catgroom]

Hi Andy and welcome to this brilliant club!

A grand should certainly buy you a very good late Turbo.Prices are right on the deck at the moment.Some people still overprice their cars at last years prices,no,the year before's,but you dont need to pay silly money.

One thing I will say though,and thats be prepared to travel quite a distance for a good one.

You should expect to be able to buy this kind of car for well under the grand mark..

1994/5 Turbo Manual,20-30% will have full cow!Miles around 90-120k approx.They're run in at 110-115k and are looser then.All things working,well,mostly.Air Con.Most you see will have FVSH up to about 60/70k then independent.This is just an average based on what I've picked up over past few years..

Faded clusters or problematic electrics are a strong bargaining point.Get one with a Full years ticket or thereabouts unless you take a 480 person with you to view the car!They can die on MOTs these cars so many are force to break them wayyy b4 their sell-by!

Oh well,just my two penneth worth.Theres stacks of other folks' opinions here as you'll have seen...

Good Luck
Steve

[macaroni]

Hi and welcome (I've been here long enough to feel I can say that!).

I got a 1994 manual turbo, with 1/2 leather, no aircon, no rust, 95K miles and 10 months tax for £500.

There are a few niggles wrong with it, mainly broken trim and a non-working Infocentre, but it is great!

Good luck with your search, hope you find one as good as mine.

Antony

[blanki1981]

Hi Andy

Welcome to the club, just to echo the others 1k should get you a decent example, you just need to be patient and see what comes up.

I tend to look for cars with good bodywork and worry less about electrics/mechanical as I can fix that sort of thing myself. Steve is right about being prepared to travel though, its been an age since ive seen any nice ones for sale around Stoke.

Good luck with the hunt, it'll be nice to see another 480 knocking around in the near future!

regards

Ian

[Brasco]

1994/5 Turbo Manual,20-30% will have full cow!Miles around 90-120k approx.Theyre run in at 110-115k and are looser then.All things working,well,mostly.Air Con.Most you see wil have FVSH up to about 60/70k then independant.This is just an average based on what I ve picked up over past few years..

I have to say tho, that finding one is the hard part. 94/95's are not on Autotrader that often.

[stu chacks]

I have to say tho, that finding one is the hard part. 94/95's are not on Autotrader that often.

And the ones that are Brasco buys and sends them to the scrapyard.

Only kiddin. The late 93+ cars do feel a lot more 'modern' than the earlier cars, but saying that there's always plenty of parts for sale to update the interior/clusters etc.

If I was buying again, I'd go for a cheap 'sound' early turbo and spend some time and money with a full respray, clear clusters, leather interior, decat and richmod.

Actually if I got a few quid for the Gt and.......

Stu.

[dick dastardly]

Thanks for the warm welcome guy's.
Also nice to see I'm not the only Stokie on here either!
So my grand budget might stretch further than I thought, thats good to know. I'm not too fussed about the travelling aspect really, as it goes without saying that you won't usually find what your after in your own backyard, unless your damn lucky!
Have to admit the thing that sealed my descision to buy a 480 centres around the posibilities for a decent stereo install. Yes really! After fitting far too much silly powered gear in most of my previous cars I can safely say that the 480 lends itself to this very well indeed, with minimal effort on my part to get things the way I want it. Not everyones cup of tea I agree, but after spending far too much time checking out a dead one in my local scrappy a while back, i got my thinking cap on and came up with a plan. Since then, i've been stockpiling all sorts of bit's and bobs ready for a decent sounding install. All I need now is the car.
Don't go thinking I'm one of those baseballcap wearing carpark racers who blast out 100's of decibels worth of thumps and bleeps, thats not the idea. Trying to replicate that quality 'HIFI' sound is what I want to acheive.
Of course, when the time comes, i'll post a build thread in the ICE section for those whose brain is warped in the same way as mine!

As for the car itself, An earlier car would be my preference, just so I can ditch that strangling CAT, but again, it's not essential.
But for the next few months i'll be keeping my eye on the classified section. I'll probably be needing a spare set of door cards to butcher, so I still have the option of putting things back to standard if required, so theyre on my shopping list too. But i'll leave that til I've found a car and assessed it's more urgent needs!

Til then, I'll probably be pestering some more in the technical sections!

Cheers,

Andy.

[macaroni]

I'll have some early door cards available soon and lots of interior trim.
My parents live near Stoke, so delivery would be easy.

[blanki1981]

Also on the door card front I went to McGuiness's scrapyard just off the A500 at Longport (Stoke) on Friday and they had a white G reg turbo in there with nearly all its bits on it including a leather interior. I think it had the cards in there too, even still had its fabric boot cover and intact front spoiler!

Just thought i'd mention it as they don't seem to show up in the scrappies as often as they used to.

regards

Ian

[dick dastardly]

Thats two theyve got in there now then. Last weekend there was a black turbo in there too. Door cards were gone, as was much of the usefull electrics. Bodywork looked above average too, apart from a dented drivers side wing.
Spooky coincidence.
I'll see if i've got time to pay "Freddy" a visit this afternoon.

[1900sr]

Just noticed this one, 94 Turbo if it's any use.

http://www.friday-ad.co.uk/AdRef/WS6021 ... etails.asp

I hope that works anyway.

[MGB_GT]

You'll find a decent ICE install pretty easy in a 480.

Firstly, make sure it'll take some rear speakers, most 94+ cars have as standard anyhow, otherwise you'll need to get hold of some speaker pods and cut one circle in the side of the rear pannels to install. I've a couple sets so PM me if you do ever need some.

Secondly, the front's a pain to get speakers that fit well because of the way the door pocket it fits into has two screws in either direction (2 from the back to go in from the front). The front tweaters are more than adequate, and I wouldn't change or amplify them. Also because of the cheap plastic in the front I find I can't use my speakers full potential as it causes too much vibration. Simply modifying the door pockets or changing them for something made from wood would likley sort this, however it's pretty loud now, just could be louder.

Thirdly, a sub in the rear doesn't need to be that powerful, just something to compliment a good set of component speakers because there is a gap in the middle of the rear seats, you get great sound from a half decent 10" Active sub, plus it's easy to remove should you need that extra bit of space.

Hope some of this helps and that you find a decent car, someone was selling a tidy 90 Turbo with 85k miles recently. Celeb (best you can get) Leather, AirCon, Elec Sunroof and Celeb 15" Cetus Alloys. It'd already been richmodded too, and just £750, so you can get a real decent car if you hold out for the right one. 94+ Cars if you can find them are much better though. See here for car I'm refering too, it's gone now, but just a guide as to what availible. http://volvo480.dragons.org.uk/forum/vi ... hp?t=13823

[dick dastardly]

1900sr -
Unfortunatley, I've still got a car to get rid of before I can get a new one, as I just don't have the space to store it yet else thats definatley worth a look! Hope to be on the serious look out before the end of the month tho, really do need to pull my finger out and sort out the last couple of niggles on the Cortina and get it advertised. Thanks anyway.

MGB_GT-
Youre probably gonna think I'm going a bit OTT when I tell you what kit I've got planned to install, but at the end of the day it only goes as loud as you wanna play it, and theres nothing like a little bit of 'headroom' to play with, so here goes...

Alpine CDA-9812RR headunit
Alpine ERA-G320 14 band graphic/EQ processor with DIN size spectrum analyser display
2 sets of Alpine SPR-176 6.5" component speakers, both sets to go in the doors.
Alpine MRV-T420 amp to run these, giving them a total of 320watts RMS.
Alpine MRD-M1000 Mono sub amp, kicking out a shade over 1100watts RMS
2 Crystal CMP8 8" subwoofers, to be mounted in a custtom made enclosure in the spare wheel well.
A rediculous amount of sound deadeding material for the door skins and boot area.

Still got a few things left to sort, but thats pretty much all the bits sorted. Should sound nice clean and accurate, yet still have the ability to wake the dead should the need arise!

And I have big plans for the fornt door builds. Should be intresting to say the least!

[MGB_GT]

No I agree, there is no such thing as too loud. However since I had a £1,000 worth of kit taken from a Ford Sierra a few years back I've been really cautious about what to install myself. The good news is, it can sound decent for about £400-£500. Of course, if you wanna go louder, I don't think you'd be over the top until such times as the bass physically moved the car from the road.

[ozturbo]

As for the car itself, An earlier car would be my preference, just so I can ditch that strangling CAT, but again, it's not essential. Cheers,
Andy.

I had an exhaust specialist fit a high flow cat when my old one fell apart and it is like not having one at all. It improved the performance quite a bit. A company called Walker make universal cats over here in Australia that exhaust specialists can fit to almost any cars. They have standard and high flow versions and they are a fraction of the price of factory ones. I don't know whether you can get them in UK or not.