oops, we did it again !

[dragonflyjewels]

Buses galore !
This time it's not 1 but 2 480s, being offered for free on Facebook. One is a much loved Celebration auto - unbelievably it's storm grey again ! Owned 25 years but off the road for 5 years (hasn't said why) The other is a 2ltr. We have little information on either of them apart from they are solid but in need of tlc, which could mean anything. We had to move fast on these as someone else was wanting them, but he is new to 480 ownership so immediately we had concerns about his ability to sort out our tricky electrics or source unobtanium. The owner decided in our favour provided we can collect within in a week.

Bye bye R2, hello R4 and R5 !!

Now comes the hard part - Jeff has arranged for R3 to be collected on Wednesday so that only leaves him with space for one of these. Collection of R3 is long overdue so we can't possibly postpone it. Al & I could accomodate the other one but it's a very long way from Guildford to Norfolk and of course it would have to do the long return journey at a later date. Do we have a member anywhere in the area with off-road space to squeeze a 480 in ? Ideally, either not too far from Guildford or not too far from Milton Keynes, (not too far as in a lot nearer than Norfolk!)

[dcwalker]

Brilliant stuff!!

Obviously I'm even further for the idea of housing one, but I am very happy to help out in any way I can.

David

[dragonflyjewels]

Putting heads before hearts, we decided that maybe the 2litre was just one too many. As the condition of both cars remains shrouded in mystery we dont yet know if the Celeb is saveable and if it turned out not to be we would have a breaker on our hands anyway. Having been given it for free we could spend money on bodyshop work as long as it's not too rusty so fingers crossed.

The donor asked could he give the 2litre to the 480 newbie so after much thought ( and swayed by the £350 bill for trailering it first from Guildford to Norfolk and later Norfolk to MK) we decided to be fair and let him have it as long as we get the Celeb. The donor is keen for the Celeb to come to us as he is sentimentally attached to it - rather worrying that he laid it up 5 years ago and bought the 2litre to drive! If he's that fond of it I can only assume something went dramatically wrong with it. Anyhow we have booked a transporter to transfer it to the Sanctuary tomorrow so not too long before we find out what the underside looks like. At worst it will provide a pile of useful spares and hopefully a drivers door and rear bumper for Pud.

[dcwalker]

That sounds very wise, actually. We can't really lose that way, however the Celebration turns out...

Plus the 2.0 going to a newbie may mean another new face on here!

Keep us posted, Sylvia!

David

[edie_fox]

Looking forward to the pictures and report.

It's good the 2L found a home too. Took some pressure off, no doubt!

[dragonflyjewels]

O lordy ! The Celebration is even more rusty than I'd imagined and that was bad enough. It's got a broken spring, duff starter motor, rusted solid rear brakes and leaking fuel filter amonst the corrosion horrors and that's only on a cursory inspection. Some of the rust on the body is in very strange places. As Jeff said, it would be a VERY brave save !

dc has kindly offered to spend a day at Jeff's after lockdown so they can brainstorm possible ways of saving it, but it's really looking more like B1 than R4, B being breaker

The Celeb is on cheap look-alike wheels and has no splitter. The photo I've now been sent of the ES shows it with a splitter and what look like Celeb wheels. sigh... I'd asked the donor if the Celeb still had the roller blind cover in the boot, just in case he'd transferred it to the ES and the reply was - 'it's still there, I wanted to keep the Celebration intact' so I asked no more about other things (like wheels). Didn't want to sound too picky about a freebie.

We had thought if it ended up as a breaker we might get a driver's door and rear bumper for Pud. Sadly, the door is rusting at the bottom (but arthuy has kindly offered his spare which is in better condition). The rear bumper has a split, looks like it's backed into something, so dc is continuing with his repair of Pud's own bumper. However, he thinks the bonnet is better than Pud's so maybe that will be transferred. The rear lights are also pretty decent which would be a real bonus given the horrors on the back of R3. It would of course yield all sorts of useful parts for future saves, including a fairly decent leather interior.

It will be very disappointing if we really can't save it but of course we have to be realistic. We could spend a reasonable amount of cash on bodywork as we didn't have to pay for the car, but it looks as though it needs a much bigger budget.

[dcwalker]

Obviously it's a shame when things aren't as we'd have hoped

But looking on the bright side, if 312 is, indeed, to be B1, then her rescue will not have been in vain. Granted there were transport costs but we didn't have to pay anything for her, and we can already see where certain parts might be helpful to both Pud and R3, so that's a plus. Additionally she might help replenish the stocks of spares given how we have all been busily raiding our supplies for Rs 1-3...

Still, we won't write her off yet!! As soon as Jeff and I can get together we can do a thorough assessment

Onwards and upwards - 3 cars rescued so far, one already re-homed, and our senses tuned and alert now for any more potential rescues. I think that's pretty good given the idea of a "UK Rescue Group" at all is only a few months old.

Be proud of yourself, Sylvia!

David

[Norm57]

Obviously it's a shame when things aren't as we'd have hoped

But looking on the bright side, if 312 is, indeed, to be B1, then her rescue will not have been in vain. Granted there were transport costs but we didn't have to pay anything for her, and we can already see where certain parts might be helpful to both Pud and R3, so that's a plus. Additionally she might help replenish the stocks of spares given how we have all been busily raiding our supplies for Rs 1-3...

Still, we won't write her off yet!! As soon as Jeff and I can get together we can do a thorough assessment

Onwards and upwards - 3 cars rescued so far, one already re-homed, and our senses tuned and alert now for any more potential rescues. I think that's pretty good given the idea of a "UK Rescue Group" at all is only a few months old.

Be proud of yourself, Sylvia!

David

Spot on David, and don’t fret too much Sylvia it’s a freebie after all and there will be loads of useful spares. Well done for obtaining both of them.

[Jagwaa]

Obviously it's a shame when things aren't as we'd have hoped

But looking on the bright side, if 312 is, indeed, to be B1, then her rescue will not have been in vain. Granted there were transport costs but we didn't have to pay anything for her, and we can already see where certain parts might be helpful to both Pud and R3, so that's a plus. Additionally she might help replenish the stocks of spares given how we have all been busily raiding our supplies for Rs 1-3...

Still, we won't write her off yet!! As soon as Jeff and I can get together we can do a thorough assessment

Onwards and upwards - 3 cars rescued so far, one already re-homed, and our senses tuned and alert now for any more potential rescues. I think that's pretty good given the idea of a "UK Rescue Group" at all is only a few months old.

Be proud of yourself, Sylvia!

David

Spot on David, and don’t fret too much Sylvia it’s a freebie after all and there will be loads of useful spares. Well done for obtaining both of them.

Just thought id message to say that i'm rescuing my turbo from the graveyard too, so i will be in need of some spares very soon, i will be in touch!

[dragonflyjewels]

Here's a small selection of Jeff's photos showing the worst bits

[Alan 480]

thats 'frilly' . . .. . not an MoT there , if they did, must have had a white stick

[dragonflyjewels]

Just thought id message to say that i'm rescuing my turbo from the graveyard too, so i will be in need of some spares very soon, i will be in touch!

Glad to hear a turbo is potentially being rescued - hope it's not body parts you need.......

[dcwalker]

thats 'frilly' . . .. . not an MoT there , if they did, must have had a white stick

The white stick might be what they did all the damage with...

David

[arthuy]

the rear wings aren't that bad.

I have cut the panels off my spares car. a lot of work but if the car merits a restoration it isnt impossible. also have bonnet and odds left over in storm grey.

have you got full car pictures?

[jifflemon]

have you got full car pictures?

Pull up a pew, pour yourself a stiff drink, and settle in - Its going to be a rough ride....

Lets start with the very limited photos we were sent







Not to shabby eh?



I've seen far worse front lights....





Again, not the worse rear lights I've seen, and roller blind is present too. And underneath it, is the spring that it failed on on its final MOT





Unmolested rear hatch wiring - Nice!



That's an odd bit of rust on the roof though - it may polish out though....



Always a positive sign when the passenger side headlamp lives in the footwell eh?



Ouch... that wings taken a bashing - what's caused that?



Ah... the dirty great big hole when the bottom hinge used to be....



As it now lives inside the car...

The NSR quarter has lost it's battle with rot:









and the OSR one not far behind.





Then the bonus features like the wrong wheels:



Which are actually genuine optional volvo ones



the broken front foglamp and missing chin spoiler



the genius LHD hazard switch


Or crusty battery terminals



despite being "well cared for" it hadn't been started for 18 months because the starter had failed. whilst swapping the starter, as well as shoddy wiring I discovered this floating around...



Yup, thats the speed sensor...

With a new starter, and battery terminals clamped with Mole grips, she'd crank but not fire up. There was also a very strong smell of petrol... Yup, it's pouring out at the fuel filter joint, probably from a butchered attempt at changing it.

I'm not saying it's not saveable; Its a brave save, and being a storm grey celeb, arguable worth it. If a pair of decent quarters could be found, it'd be half the battle.

Right now, I'm just ignoring it completely, as I've got more than enough to be working on!

[jifflemon]

So, with a very heavy heart, it looks like the only realistic option for 312 is to break it.

It's not that its a bad car, but repairing bodywork is not my forte and sadly, I can’t have it sitting around indefinitely.

Obviously, covid is making this task even more complicated!

The rough idea (Unless we have someone seriously interested in buying the car before we commit to repairing the bodywork, bearing in mind that having bodywork professionally done will not be cheap) is that you send me a PM, asking for the parts you like, with your price offer.

It's not a first come first serve, we're obviously trying to inject funds into the rescue funds to save more cars.

If yours is the highest bid (or only bid!), you get the parts.

The plan is to try and break the whole car over a weekend (covid dependant), at which point you'd need to be available to collect your parts. We may be able to move parts around the country depending on who’s available to assist with breaking and the size/amount of parts you want.

Obviously, if you'd like photos of anything, big or small, just ask. I may post up pictures of "the usual suspects" to save being inudated with requests!

[Jay-Kay-Em]

Looking at the pictures Jeff I'm not half surprised.

Let me get a list together over the next day or so - keep an eye on your PM's!

Would pick up be from MK, or is that me imagining things? Covid allowing, although you would be my 480 support bubble.

[jifflemon]

Yes, Pick up would be MK, although as we're tier 4 currently, it'll be some time before anything happens!

Again, the plan is to try and get as much of it found to new homes before a single bit is removed.

[jifflemon]

Yes, Pick up would be MK, although as we're tier 4 currently, it'll be some time before anything happens!

Again, the plan is to try and get as much of it found to new homes before a single bit is removed.

[Alan 480]

Yes, Pick up would be MK, although as we're tier 4 currently, it'll be some time before anything happens!

Again, the plan is to try and get as much of it found to new homes before a single bit is removed.

as is most of the UK

maybe the faint glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel is really a freight train coming at us?

I really hope not!