Advice please.

[gingherheed]

I'm new to this forum so pls bear with me. I've got two 480's. One with some minor front end damage that I want to repair. Advice pls!!

The other is a two litre ES that I want to make into a decent convertable. More advice pls!!

Cheers.

[esta]

I think someone mentioned something abotu the floor pan not being strong enough for a topless 480...so perhaps some advice would be to see an engineer before undertaking anything yourself...?

[Cerberus]

This thread.... Useless without pictures....

What is the front end damage...?

There's loads of us have built and rebuilt 480's so we're bound
to be able to help... but as Number 5 said... "NEED INPUT"

As far as the convertable goes... I know of ONE 480 that has been
chopped by someone (it started life as a half decent paris) I've seen
it up close and personal and while from a distance it looks ace.. the
concept of it is ace.. Tha actual car looks half finished and compromised.
Looks like the owner never quite figured out a way of finising the
rear cover and hood.

Also bear in mind that the self chopped car was made possible because
the owner managed to 'aquire' the rear deck cover from an original
convertible (or a replica of it at least?) so if you want to do a chop
you will need to find a convertable and take a mould of it's rear deck.

That will be tough because the officially the converables that aren't
in a museum were destroyed. If you find one in the wild it is a fugative
from justice and the owner is unlikely to want to talk to anyone about
his/her car that does not officially exist and that volvo would love to
send to the final resting place it never made it to first time around...

It's not an impossible task.. but neither is building a ladder to the moon..

In a nutshell? Forget about it..!

So... got some pics of this front end damage then?

C

[gingherheed]

ok chap/chappess thanks for both of your kind responses. I guess I'll be binning the convertable idea and sticking to two renovations then!! As for the front end bit on the 1.7 what's happened is the guy broke down. he then totally missed the front towing eye and put the rope through the grill and round the panel near the rad fan. Missed the bar and everything! I got it from ebay as a source of spares for the 2 litre but when I saw it I loved it more and decided to bring it back to it's former glory. No pics as yet as I don't know how to upload or anything. Can text a pic if anyone would like to see. it doesn't look that bad in the cold light of day and I'm confident of a repair though it has to be said I'm on a budget. By the way Esta great name and ta for telling me that a 480 has the desired effect on women. that'll do me fine!! Cheers.

[esta]

By the way Esta great name and ta for telling me that a 480 has the desired effect on women. that'll do me fine!! Cheers.

Ha ha no problem

[glasgowjim]

Right if I read you correctly he has tied the rope round the middle of the front so no problem just get a new front bumper assembly it is held on by 2bolts either side an easy fix you should have no problem getting a cheap replacement and respray it yourself before fitting . I have a couple of them lying around but I am based in Glasgow but there are far more english based 480 owners so it should not be a problem (and a cheap fix).

regards jim

[gingherheed]

Car still got the damage. I've done all the other bits I wanted to sort inside it and am ready to get it looked at re the front end.

Can someone recommend a decent and reasonably priced bodywork specialist in SOUTHAMPTON who would be prepared to look at my car.

Oh and I need a bumper from an early model 480 ES. Not colour coded.

I'd love to meet up with anyone in Southampton who loves the 480.

Cheers.

[gingherheed]

I want to use only the right parts for my 1988 ES. I thought this model/year had only the plain black "rubber" type bumper.

Can someone please tell me if colour coded bumpers were ever supplied with this model as a factory fitted accessory? If so I can use the bumpers off my breaker but I don't want the car to end up looking "wrong" especially as I intend to sell it once the work is done.

I'll be pretty happy if I can use the colour coded ones because I prefer them to the plain ones.

Still got plenty spares for any 480 lover in Southampton.

[SMOOTH 480]

search "KEVS" posts as his beauty started life as an "S" but is now a stunning example of how a 480 should be !!!!