1994 Volvo 480 Turbo Diary - Update August 2022

[jifflemon]

Amazing work. I'm not a fan of "perfect finish" paint - Simply because I think if you obsess about having perfect paint, it means you'll want to keep the perfect paint, and thus, turn the car into an ornament, never going out for fear of getting a flaw.

[heavend]

Good on you for taking the time to post an update. It's encouragine to read of another owners fun in keeping a 480 alive. I'm having a spell on my 480, having just replaced a noisy fuel pump and not rebuilding the rear bumper, there's plenty of new steel and MIG wire going into it.

[Jay-Kay-Em]

July 2022 - Rebuilding!

Soooo, here we go then!

False Start...

After getting it off the transporter and admiring fresh paint, how did it greet me?



Literally the first job - reconnecting the battery - instant 480 hassle!



I hunted high and low for the "closest-to-factory" earth strap. It's quite difficult to find a flat strap terminated with a post clamp. This is the best match I found from AES...



Battery and battery tray removed to fit. I should be fitting stuff, not taking it apart!




Anyway, this is where the actual rebuilding begins...


Glass

Fitting the new front screen...



Really happy with it. It's a 2018 made Pilkington with a perfect colour top tint (as OE as possible).

Applying the bonding mastic...



Fitting the non-bonded side glass using the "rope-and-soap" method...




Washer Jets

These were victim to the windscreen removal - sawn clean in half!

I visited "The Lakes" and tried to salvage a pair of jets off a blue 440. Snapped the securing tags on them both. These are non-salvageable now, even if you do find a pair.

I researched as many alternatives as possible. A Land Rover Defender is pretty close but not quite.

Anyway, I found these...



I wish I could provide a part number or make, but they are just generic "universal" items.

To fit them, the following is necessary...


Wiper Motor

You need to remove the wiper motor assembly for access to the offside washer jet.

Sadly, this happened...



Snap!

Still it fights me!

The bolts go into "floating" nuts which makes the wiper assembly rubber bushed and insulated. This is presumably to cancel out motor noise resonance within the cabin.

Floating nuts removed with the offending broken bolt in situe...



Time to use my new purchase - a rivnut gun...



Made some new captive nuts...



Fitted and still maintaining the rubber insulation...



Enabling washer jet and scuttle trim fitment...



Scuttle trims fitted with a few small pieces of double sided tape against the windscreen to prevent rattling as advised on here, although no tape was ever used from factory.

Wipers

Sanded down, primed and painted...



New Bosch blades, with the driver's side getting a spoiler...



I must admit, on my newer cars, I have had great results with these single piece or "flat" blades. However, in my eyes, they are incongruous with older cars and don't look right, irrespective of any performance benefits. Therefore, the old style mechanical blades used.

All fitted with new yellow zinc flange nuts...



Note of Warning!

A common trait of right hand drive 480's is the offside wiper arm fouling the bonnet. My wiper arm was historically worn away, in conjunction with a tiny chunk of bonnet worn away too. My making of new bolts for the wiper arm mechanism affects spindle height. Upon reassembly, the wiper motor assembly was shimmed to achieve optimum wiper arm height...



Basically, you need this measurement as small as possible or you'll have a hell of a time fitting & adjusting the bonnet. Ask me how I know!

Mirrors

With the door quarterlights fitted by the windscreen guy (again, rope & soap), mirrors can follow....

The bases were looking pretty scabby....



Stripped down further...



Bases zinc primed and painted...



Freshly painted mirror caps fitted and mirror assemblies fitted left & right...




Sunroof

Sorry, I mean Moonroof

Joking aside, the glass has an amazing bronze tint. It's like some special coating worthy of a spaceship. Perhaps that's why it has the 'moon' name?

Anyway, as magnificent as it is, it has never worked

The motor worked fine, but upon opening, it immediately strains then stops.

Time to diagnose...



Upon disassembly, it was noticed this little pin (tip of my finger) had backed out ...



The slider (arrowed, back & forth) was hitting this tiny little pin and sliding no more as its path was blocked.

Stripped apart, pin pushed back home and all lubricated...



What more can I do... I can't introduce glue to a moving hinge?!? Let's just hope that if it has taken 28 years for that pin to back out, then it will only back out in another 28 years time....

All the crud washed out with the drainage ports cleared...



Amazingly the pieces known to be the weak point - the push/pull rods - are just fine. Packed with fresh grease regardless...



Before reassembly, the sun shade needed some attention...



Contact adhesive used to secure the leading edge fabric...



All reinstalled and looking great...



Also, I remembered struggling with the sunroof switch when I was removing the headlining. Memory tells me it was impossible to disconnect with the headlining in place. This is very silly if the switch fails in the future. Harness therefore extended with a switch disconnection method...




Tailgate Overhaul

First annoyance, the third brake light had what appeared to be a dead earthworm when looking through the glass...



The seal had dropped down and subsequently gone rock hard and glued itself to the lens.

All cleaned and refitted...



Then, attention turned to a common 480 problem; the wiring...



This is all fairly standard, but it became a lot worse on dissasembly...



What to do when that rubber jumper 'flex' is long since NLA?

This is my take.

Firstly, extract, repair and waterproof the actual harness. This is made easier (not) by Volvo making all the wires black. Some are a different gauge of wire, but just make sure you mark everything up as per the pin-outs...



All tagged for correct reconnection...



Then, remove the clip-on top spoiler, drill and tap two M4 holes...



Steps to make a support bracket with templates...



A new 'lower' bracket then fabricated from stainless steel, with two grommets...



Pass the new wires through the grommets and install to the tailgate frame with some silicone and tiny M4 bolts. Secure the harness to the bracket with a tiny cable tie...



Next, construct an 'upper' bracket to cap the top off...



More silicone in the 'sandwich'...



Install the top bracket and smooth the excess silcone from the sandwich...



Install a cable tie through the drilled holes to secure the loom...



All done. Hopefully we now have a durable and watertight connection point that is now serviceable (by being unscrewable)...



Then, make a third bracket from stainless for the vehicle body. This will secure and waterproof the body connection point...



Again, use the rivnut gun for the body aperture...



I use rigid corrugated tube and a VW/Audi grommet 4H0915143. I like this grommet as it is "half-blind"; i.e. whatever gauge tube you pass through, it creates a seal...



Pre-fitment trails...



I ran some trials looking for the best tailgate seal...



This is critical as the tailgate harness can foul the seal upon tailgate closure...



It's super super tight up there. I picked the best seal that gives the strongest fit vs. provides the most space.

Anyway, all done, time will tell as they say...


Rear Wiper

This had lost all its spring effect. The pivot hinge was seized. All lubricated and free'd off...



Again, new Bosch blade that is surprisingly awkward to remove & reinstall without damaging the trim...



All fitted with the new gas struts from previous...




Rear Washer Jet

Some minor repairs required to what is becoming a rare item (when intact!)...



Heavily rejuvenated with plastic reviver and installed...




More updates to follow next month. We are cracking on....

[jamescarruthers]

Some lovely solutions there!

[WillC9303]

looks great!

I had the same problem as you with the battery terminal & 3rd brake light gasket. However, the battery terminal broken on mine was the positive, so didn't have the luxury of just swapping it out - rather had to SAW it off and put a new one on.

[Jay-Kay-Em]

August 2022 - Bonnet

I have collected quite a few photographs here, so this is an update solely for the bonnet.

Again, I have wasted far too much time on this, and a whole update just for a bonnet seems a bit bonkers I know. But here goes.

How do you work with a freshly painted bonnet, both top and underside? I was scared to touch it, move it, even go near it!

The 480 bonnet is a genuine work of art. I love the intake louvres....




Under-bonnet Insulation

I wanted something as OE as possible here. This is how I did it.

Carefully flip the bonnet up on well protected surfaces. Start by building an aluminium foil layer in 60mm strips...



Shame to cover all that beautiful new paint, but there you go.

There has been debate if this is needed or not, but it's factory, so I have to do my best.

This foil layer is in three pieces under the bonnet, left, centre & right. You therefore need continuity between the sections. You also need to create the earthing wires that go to the wiper scuttle.

Strip wire back and create a fan...



Then foil over the top...



Testing the individual sections have continuity...



Then, when all the sections are foiled, strategically place some matt black vinyl in key areas (to be revealed why later)...



Now, there is plenty of foam on eBay, but I don't trust any of it. Once bitten, twice shy with eBay. I'd rather have stuff that's designed for the job, because:

a) it's an extremely hostile environment
b) it comes already adhesive lined - with adhesive supposedly designed for the said hostile environment
c) it needs to look as "OE" as possible

With this criteria, I searched for another car that has the biggest area of insulation possible. My search turned to the Mercedes W123 and I ordered this from Partworks.de in Germany.



It's designed to be resilient between -40°C to +150°C and conforms to automotive standards for fire behaviour according to DIN 75200.



Arrived from Germany in no time at all. It's certainly big enough!



I made paper templates in preparation for cutting...



You can trace the outline using the brown paper...



I then visited Jeff's (sorry to pester you Jeff, thanks as always) and measured all the late turbo cut-outs required...



These measurements get transferred to the brown paper templates...



Supplied foam cut accordingly and applied...



Not looking too shabby...



You can just notice the earth link wires between sections...



With the main earth-to-body wire secured with a clip-tie...



Another victim of the paintshop - the little grey clips that hold the earthing wires. The bonnet came back bare, so I presume my original clips went in the bin (or snapped). The closest I could find new were Restagraf "359" which are 99% identical...



Earth wires all clipped...



...terminated...



... and secured both nearside & offside...



Job job'd as they say. Overkill? Of course.


Bonnet Striker

This is also a bit OTT, but i'd gone to all the effort to paint the underside and apply foam to as close to OE as possible. Just felt a real shame to refit the skanky corroded striker...



All stripped apart and de-greased...



Over the years, I have really struggled to find a plater in Cambridgeshire. Many companies who do chemical plating, just aren't interesting in the classic car scene. Too fiddly, too low volume and customers who are too fussy! Anyway, success. I used "Vehicle & General Polishers & Platers Ltd" in Arlesey, Beds.



I was told yellow passivate was illegal now due to various haz-chem laws, but whatever substitute they are using, it's amazing.

All rebuilt...



That is a work of art. Shame to smear it with grease really...

All fitted...



Type Approval Striker

Sadly, another item that didn't survive the paintshop...



My bestest Paintshop skillz...



Printed and applied...



Let's hope it's durable enough under there. It's the same sticker material and manufacturer as the timing belt cover sticker, so lets hope so.


Wing Top Seals

All cleaned and secured solely by 6mm self-adhesive strip tape...




All done...

Between you and me, i'm quite pleased with that...



Not going to lie, adjustment was a pig. There's about 6 elements that all have to look good, and adjusting any one element, compromises another...



That's as good as it's going to get, trust me!

Even with the bonnet adjusted correctly, and my wiper motor assembly "shimmed" as deep as possible, its still bloomin' close....



Next update to follow very soon... with even more headaches

Best Regards

JKM

[jamescarruthers]

Puts my afternoon rush job with wonky Dyanliner and Dynomat to shame, especially on the radio interference suppression front! Well done as usual mate.

I had my new pipes plated in Cambridge at Cambridge Electro Platers who seemed decent enough. I’ve been meaning to take the bonnet striker to them to complete my own engine bay but never had the time yet. They even re-did one for free after I had to rework it.
https://www.yell.com/biz/cambridge-elec ... e-1390991/

[MisterH]

O.M.F.G.

That is an incredible job JK, I am in shock

It really makes me want to get the Wing Top Seal on my car sorted, currently it is poking out of the front nose cone, I thought it was because the paintshop messed it up, but it was actually the wing itself needs straightening, but we will see what can be done.


And I am in love with that insulation, all those beautiful knobbly bits to aid in insulation, great stuff!

[Jay-Kay-Em]

Cheers Ben, James.

Cambridge Electro Platers

Thanks James, I'll check them out. Problem is, once you find somewhere decent, every bracket from this point forwards needs doing...

I did the Ford Festival at Santa pod just gone, walked round Show & Shine. The guys with mirrors under their cars.... what they have spent on zinc plating must be phenomenal....