Volvo 480 Club Europe

Wow I didn't realise when you called me the other day at work just what you had been through to get there, thank you so much!

Norm57 wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 10, 2022 10:54 am

Sylvia if they have the hoses I am after on the Leominster car please snap them up for me. Cheers Norman.

It’s a K plate car Norm, so won’t have them

Looks great. Always nice to see a 480 with gleaming paint. Well done to everyone's efforts, past and future.

So, about 10.15 on a very wet night last Tuesday, R6 arrived on the back of a rescue truck. Not quite the arrival I had planned!

Over the last couple of days I have had a chance to start work on her. Obviously the engine bay was the starting point, because everything on the nearside was dripping in ATF. Much fun was had with the degreaser, sponge, toothbrush and hosepipe:



Having got things clean, I established that the alternator wasn't seized - a good start! Then I freed off the PAS pump - that wasn't seized either. This was a great relief since I have a spare alternator to hand, but not a PAS pump. So no real idea why the smaller belt came off - but I found what was left of it:



Refitted everything as required, and also established that the top pipe into the PAS pump was loose and thus the source of the leak. A new clip soon sorted that.

This morning I gave the rest of the engine bay the sort of clean that any car visiting the Pamper Parlour is entitled to expect:





Inner wings now look somewhat more in keeping with the beautiful shiny paintwork outside!

Given the current weather is somewhat wet at times, in the meantime I have been tackling an interior problem too. A previous owner decided that a double din unit would be good. To fit it, they simply hacked about the frame that holds the normal single-din unit and either auxiliary gauges or the storage cubby.

Of course, no thought was given to the fact that once passed on, R6 has a massive hole in the dashboard which neither the cubby nor a single-din unit will lock into...

I have a spare frame, but these are screwed in from behind before the dashboard is ever fitted to the car. So, since I am something of a perfectionist and was determined that R6 should be returned to standard fit (ie a cubby and the VC802 that I just happen to have spare here) there was nothing for it but to start a major dismantling job.

Part way through I rather shocked Jeff and Sylvia by sending them this image:



And that wasn't as far as it all had to go - steering wheel off (with due precautions for the airbag) then once extricated strip down back of dash.

And fit the replacement frame...then spent about 4 hours grappling with the heating ducting and wiring looms getting it all back together in the right order. Never let it be said that we don't go the extra mile with these rescue cars

Part way through I grabbed a souvenir photo, since I shall most definitely not be treading this way again (not in a hurry, anyway):



By the time I'd finished getting it all back together, cleaning everything as I went and replacing various of the hard-to-reach bulbs to be on the safe side, it was dark...

But...it was rewarding when I took a deep breath and switched on:



As always, there's a catch though - I couldn't believe it when I noticed one of the heater control panel bulbs has blown...

Ah well, at least it's only minimal dismantling to get at those!

David

Looks very clean!

I noticed that your GT has a plastic cover over the alternator. Did all 480's have these or was this only the very last ones?

WillC9303 wrote: ↑

Wed Feb 16, 2022 8:47 pm

Looks very clean!

I noticed that your GT has a plastic cover over the alternator. Did all 480's have these or was this only the very last ones?

It's because the car has aircon.

On a non-aircon car the PAS pump is under the alternator; on an aircon car the compressor is down there, so the PAS pump is moved above the alternator. That black plastic cover sits over the belt as a safety feature.

David

In yesterday's lull between this week's two storms, R6 made more progress.

The driver's door card had obviously had a hard life:



so I fitted a replacement:



Also, we now have a working Info Centre - hopefully it will stay working this time



Then I decided it was time for some cleaning...

R6 shows off her lovely new coat of paint:

And inside:





Still a bit to do before she is ready to move on, but definitely getting there. Even if I am biased, I believe R6 will serve someone very well indeed

David

Great work David ! Lovely to see this very solid car getting the tlc it so deserves.

More progress over the last couple of days as I have gradually worked through the list of outstanding things to sort out on R6.

Repaired the driver's seatbelt arm - from this:



to this:



Then moved on to reasserting R6's identity as both a Volvo and a 480GT!

The body-shop hadn't replaced the nosecone badge, but that is now in place once more:



And who knows where the previous "GT" element of the boot lid badge went? Anyway, a rare replacement (thanks to Al & Sylvia's breaker "Junk") has fixed that:

Plus she now has a nicely cleaned up front grille and spoiler now in place too:



From my perspective I need to work out why the horn has stopped working - probably something to do with me removing the steering wheel the other day - and then R6 is pretty much ready for inspection

David

I do love a good re-badging!

Looks fantastic. What a change from before to after. So much work has gone into this.

What a car!

The GT is my second favourite 480 trim level (Just behind the Limited Edition of course ) The seat patterns are crazy. They look quite difficult to clean though?

The GT badge was an insane find considering they only made 250 of the things!

Well done on the seatbelt runners too

Looks magnificent especially the paint work !
Thanks for all the messages about R6's progress, including all the pictures.
Its so interesting and informative.
Hopefully the future owner has also been watching its progress here on the forum.
Cheers, Richard.

Thanks everyone for your comments.

I ought to add that the oil stains on the drive underneath the front of R6 came from my 440, not this car!!

The paintwork is really good; the body-shop did an excellent job.

C'mon Edie - can't we tempt you back?

David