Rescue car: R7 - black 2 litre ES Auto

[dragonflyjewels]

Another small win today,



now in the bin, the only place for it



much better, albeit paler than the original, but I changed both so at least they match

[just_somebody]

Still got me eye firmly on this to go with the R6 I’m getting. Following its progress closely

[jifflemon]

Still got me eye firmly on this to go with the R6 I’m getting. Following its progress closely

As I like to remind people, the correct number of 480’s to own is N+1, where N is the number of 480’s you currently own….

[dragonflyjewels]

Still got me eye firmly on this to go with the R6 I’m getting. Following its progress closely

As R6 and R7 came from the same previous owner, it is entirely appropriate that they are re-homed together with their next owner - can't split siblings up !

[dragonflyjewels]

Things are finally moving !



R7 has now gone to Andrew Vanham, our latest recruit to the cause. He has kindly volunteered to do the welding needed and has already sorted out the alignment on the back hatch so it shuts without needing to be thumped down.

[jamescarruthers]

Nice one!

How did he realign the rear door? Is it adjustable outwards on a serrated plate or does it need shimmed… something else completely I haven’t considered?

[jifflemon]

Depends where you need to adjust.
The rubber buffers wind in and out, and the top hinges are slotted

[jamescarruthers]

Depends where you need to adjust.
The rubber buffers wind in and out, and the top hinges are slotted

Cheers. Will take a look some day….!

[jifflemon]

Or wait until I see next…..

[jamescarruthers]

Once the world is put to rights…

[Anadinolin]

Depends where you need to adjust.
The rubber buffers wind in and out, and the top hinges are slotted

This is exactly what I did

[Anadinolin]

So, R7 is currently sitting with me, once I have finished trying to suss out my cold start issues on my own 460 turbo (ray-le-otter) I will begin work on R7.

From what I remember there are a few blown sections reaching up inside the wheel well to what I can assume is the seat belt mount for the rear seats.

The aim and the skill level of my work is such that it will suffice for an MOT, I do hope to keep the standard the same or better than what I have done with my own 460.

Progress unfortunately will be on the slow side, as appart from Ray, I have a 2 year old and shift work. Christmas is a busy time of year for us aswell, we have birthdays nearly every other day in our family I guesstimate that the work would be around 6 months depending on what I find, I will try and get that down sooner.

The neighbours like the car aswell, while sitting on my driveway I can see a few hand and nose prints where people have peered inside

Hopefully we can see R7 out and about soon

[Anadinolin]

So, iv moved R7 today for the first time myself. The beeping from under the dash made me jump as I wasn't expecting it when I first inserted the key and turned the ignition.

She did not want to start straight away, but got there in the end I did not expect her auto box to be so torquey she wheelspinned as soon as I put my foot on the pedal the 460 turbo gearbox is very lazy and sedate in comparison!!

Put her up on a jackstand on one side and had a quick nose around.

The sill has blown, could tidy up with a wire wheel and paint, there's been a rear end shunt at somepoint as the boot is bent put of shape. There are little patches of rust behind the rear wheel on the corner so I'll need to remove the back bumper and assess from there, nothing shocking or scary so far

[dragonflyjewels]

I suspect shocking and scary will emerge when the rear bumper comes off.

I realised after the trailer left that I totally forgot to also send the 2 bumper reinforcing bars that need welding.
Not sure if they are fronts or rears, they've been lurking in our garage for so long.

[dragonflyjewels]

I have been meaning to make a confession of spying for some time.
I dont know why, but I have been very curious about the history of R6 and R7 but both came with no paperwork and the previous owner had died. It has worried me that R7 appears to be an S even though it is registered as an ES. Another thing that puzzled me was that R7 drove very nicely, and had the feel of a well maintained car even though it was last mot'd in 2017. On the other hand, R6 drove as though it had been off the road for a long time even though the mot had recently run out and it was still taxed. V5s no longer give the name and address of the previous owner, but luckily there was a jiffy bag in the boot containing 480 locks which was posted way back in 2008. The name and address was still on it, so I gave way to curiosity and had a look at google streetview to see if either car was parked nearby. I magine my surprise to see this



The image dates to 2012, and we can clearly see this one is badged as an S and been off the road for some time on a garage forecourt, so not on a public road. DVLA records revealed that a V5 was issued for R7 in 2012. Just wanting to confirm I had the right address for the owner rather than perhaps a fellow 480 owner who had passed the jiffybag on to our man, I switched to satellite view for a more up to date but less clear image



So, by 2020, the same garage with the red door had a black car with a sunroof in front of it with a burgundy one parked opposite. Due to the angle and distortion, it's impossible to see what make or model the cars are, but by 2020 not many cars had a sunroof, and burgundy was an unusual colour so I'm confident these are indeed R6 and R7.

As R7 came with a box of parts, including service items in the boot, it seems reasonable to assume that the owner was doing his own repairs. He was obviously a long-time 480 owner and his method seems to have been to buy one, run it until it needed something he couldn't do himself, then put it on the garage forecourt and use it as a donor plus cupboard for parts. So, the replacement rear hatch on R7 probably came from its white predecessor, along with the S front grill (no fog lights, and no cutout to fit any). I'm now happy that the ES registration wasn't an error. It seems likely that the banging about underneath is a broken engine mount and our man couldn't change it, or couldn't find a replacement hence it became the spares car and along came R6. This was confirmed by DVLA records showing a V5 issued in 2017, shortly after R7 passed its last MoT.

My conclusion on the differences in driving R6 and R7 is that the owner was becoming less able to do his own repairs, so R6 didn't get the love and attention that R7 did.

[WillC9303]

Interesting find!

In regards to it being an S, Iam positive it is an ES model for a couple of reasons. The first being that the 2.0 engine was exclusive to the ES until the 1995 model year, when the S finally got it as well for the last few months of production. Another giveaway will be that R7 has an automatic gearbox, which was never available on the S, not even as an option.

If you can’t tell already, I’ve been reading lots of brochures and price lists

[dragonflyjewels]

Another walking encyclopedia !!

[edie_fox]

I would SO do this.

[Anadinolin]

So, Thursday I decided to tackle Ray-Le-Otter's weak boost and low cold idle. Turned out it was a manifold leak somewhere, so I'm going to have to lift the engine out. Game over for a little while.

The attention then turned to R7, I had a good ole poke around in depth with her now being up in the air before stopping for lunch:

[Youtube]https://youtu.be/cDxihOhTsT0[/youtube]

After lunch, I decided to wire wheel the rear driver wheel arch and along the sil, I needed to remove the wing, which proved a little tricky, iv not taken one of these cars appart before and I'm a little shy of damaging it as its not my own to damage really , this is what I found:




Lots and lots of body filler, no real attempt to replace the metal underneath, as soon as I hit it with the wire wheel it fell off.






Inside the rear wheel arch, loads of filler again, I hope that this car didn't have passengers, this is what it was hiding. Large holes around the seat belt mount, the sils had rubber grommets inserted as drain holes, all where clear but held water around them just simply due to the shape, rubber is great at holding moisture aswell, I feel its better to let it breathe.

The wing was quite fiddly to get off, as I had said already, this car is a bit different, I loosened all of the nose cone, loosened the bumper and pulled it all forwards, the light cluster came with it, I would like to figure out how to seperate these and take the lights out for access. *note to self, study HBOL*

This is what I found underneath:




Standard affair according to the others, all that grot hidden behind the plastics. I dislike wheel arch liners for this reason, but it seems I'll need to put them back on this car, protect the doorjams etc.

End of day roundup video
[Youtube]https://youtu.be/KSpmUoD2ibk[/youtube]

So a little scary, and a little bit of work in the rear wheel arch, but time and patience will be key here. I am hoping to get myself a cheap 3x3M party tent type thing with sides so that I can work without disturbing and upsetting the other cars and give me all weather space if necessary.

When I begin welding and grinding I will need to cover the windows with something relatively robust, maybe rugged bin liners?

Paint will need organising aswell, so far I will do what I did with ray-le-otter and just paint with weld through primer when I'm resting between jobs. Should at least stop any more rust.

[Anadinolin]

Ah that 6 months was a poor estimate! Since that time I have had another small one, who is now 10 months old, life has been taking a lot of focus away from several areas, my partner is trying to start her own dog grooming business which means i have the children when im off shift now. i have also started developing CFS. Either way; Time really flies!

So I booked time off work to give me a little rest and to try and get some pieces sorted on R7.

So Saturday 17th I reacquainted myself with the work that was upcoming, the rear tub was gaveled in, by, I guess a small rock or bollard as there is no other collision damage.


Next is the welding, both rear arches are gone and she was thick with filler. Hiding plenty of sins under that!




So like a half rabid dog I took to the interior to get it out of the way of the side with which I wish to work. The plastics where mostly pinched up by eachother with a few screws here and there. I was disgusted to find wet foam behind one of the plastic covers, yuck. Out that came, I'm positive it's not helping the rust situation. The speaker in the rear quarter panel was perished, I doubt it will sound good anymore. Another item to add to a list somewhere in the aether.




Once all of that was out of the way it was time to look at removing the metal cancer. The piece that was in my face: the rear passenger seat belt point. It was a complex piece and I don't think I could break it down into smaller components.





So I cut it out in a large chunk and did my best to form something rudimentary with the vice. From there it was a case of weld it in spots and tickle it with a hammer as I worked round the edges.




Once satisfied I dressed it down with my finger sander and grinder, then painted over with weld-through primer. The panel looks satisfactory to me, next I need to weld a backing plate on and drill though, then weld a nut on the back.