Update after 20 months of owning my 480
Posted: Thu Jun 29, 2023 4:13 pm
Bought in Croydon from the second owner back in October 2021 as my first car. Despite being pretty solid underneath, it was unfortunately in a bit of a state with a failed driver's door check strap, 20 year old tyres, no coolant, a dropped passenger door and mangled front wing and no service history bar old MOT certificates. However, the car was very solid for its age, was low mileage (had a brand new fresh engine at 70k miles fitted by Volvo) and had been garaged almost its entire life. After tracking down the original owner I learned that the car had been given the name 'Josephine'.
So much work has gone into this car that it would take me all afternoon to list, so I'll just list the changes since December:
So much work has gone into this car that it would take me all afternoon to list, so I'll just list the changes since December:
- Sanded, resprayed & refitted the front spoiler
- Both doors fixed so now open & close without issue
- Many thanks to richard-smyth, who kindly provided me with a Philips RC348 radio as well as a 6-disc changer. Surprisingly, the hardest part was trying to find the correct cable to link the two
- New Pioneer speakers in the front (rears coming soon)
- Fit the Zebrano wood veneer insert onto the dash
- Repainted the heater knobs in ceramic white
- Sound deadened the inside of the roof
- Replacement number plates. Keeping the old ones of course, but controversial choice? (See pic)
- Managed to pick up a cheap set of plastic mats for a 440 not realising they are completely different than the 480 ones. Turned out not to be a problem though as I found they still fit without any modification
- Took the sagged headliner out to try and re-stick it. Refit and it's sagging even more now
- Fixed the dashboard mounts with JB weld and some brackets to keep the rattles at bay.
- Many thanks to Jifflemon who undid my corroded seat bolts allowing me to completely gut the interior and give a deep clean of the carpets and seats. Oh, and I shamelessly stole the idea for silver 'Volvo' valve caps after seeing how good they looked on his car
- Thanks also to Nicklee who sorted me out with a set of black leather seats. Plan to get them fixed soon.
- As I found out a few days ago never ever remove the bright orange fuse thinking it has no purpose - It actually supplies power to half the interior! Thanks again to Jeff and David for helping me with that one.
- Removed a couple of previous 'upgrades' such as the dodgy Digital clock and the cassette storage which is nice to have, but is a bit useless!