Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:38 pm

Woo Hoo just by chance found someone willing o come and cut up the turbo body in garage and take it away for free. Magic.
Towed the litle grey 480 up onto the road drained its petrol (felt like a vampire and stripped it down quite far. Catalogued the spares just have to update on excel spreadsheet . Started to sell off some stuff as well. Spent 1day and a half on soring spares into some sort of order.
Got duffed trailer back and removed the wheel assembly that hadnt fallen off and now measuring the axle from turbo ready to cut up bolt on and then tow away and get it welded for strength. So I can take some big stuff upto the dump!

garage , shed and patio looks like this.....

So only 3 480s left! but I have enough complete parts to rip out and replace 2 complete interiors , including seats and still have some left.
Result!

Gosh went into the kitchen the other day and wondered who the good looking woman was (it was the wife

) .

Heh Heh beter than a day out at the shops

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:22 pm

sold my blue 480 .
wife now drawing me daggers thought what am I going to do with all this time on my hands .

Its at dark moments like this that the retard in you comes to the fore, took a p.ex of a 480 wih a fooked engine.

so now I can strip of stuff again and the best part is its he same colour as the one I sold so the neighbours wont notice he difference

yeeha here we go again

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 10:21 pm

Just spent the last 3.5 hours working on a 480 its alternator died a couple of nights ago. So replaced belt and fited a spare alternator tested wih votmeter - nothing. So went to swop over with an air con alternator but it has a narrower drive belt so got a 24 mm spanner and bit swopped over pulley wheel and bobs your uncle now fits . fitted in engine checked not working so after acouple of hours checked the damn mega fuse its not the black box type but a massive 80a shovy in type so the top part was unbroken but when I peeled back the insulation the bugger had gone in the centre so had to mess around swopping terminals and putting a spare megafuse in. tihted everything and viola finished at 10.30 quick bite to eat and went back out to tidy some trim back in at 11pm teatime

and now the reward going out for a quick blast vroom vrooom

a perfect end to a day.

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 10:11 am

just checked up today 23 months ago I made my first post since then I have gone through 7 480s three are still with me and one of these is under imminent sentence of scrapping.

oh and I am over 700 posts and addicted to the forum.

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 3:55 pm

Peters turbo....

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 3:57 pm

rear clusters will be replaced next weekend the nsr arch will be prepped for repair.
Just put 4 new tyres on and redone tracking.

a poorer but happier bunny

and now has all 4 alloys matching

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Sun Sep 07, 2008 7:55 pm

actually have the alloy centres as well but didnt put them on yet.

locked in a life or death struggle with the other half I want to sell the urbo bu the wife is pressuring me to keep it as she just loves the car.

How long can I hold out without hot dinners ?

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Thu Oct 16, 2008 6:13 pm

took out the old rear clusters from the turbo (Louis) and replaced with one good 2nd hand and a not very good but better than whats there cluster

cleaned out interior trashed the interior trim that was substandard and replaced with good ones. Fitted in roller bars clips.

Began prepping Keries car for mot and the rear brake discs are like the rocky road to Dublin totally knackered and one caliper not looking to clever so replaced the rear discs and both calipers. then the following day bled brakes and put car on road only to discover the engine was now sitting at an angle and hard against the front wing (OS ) and had ripped the front NS mounting in 2 !! the nosecone vibrating and drumming against the bumper and the exhaust roaring away.

Found a great scrappy and got a front mount for Ã‚Â£10 magic !

The rear mount is twisted but can be battered ino submission. Volvomax now have car to check, sort and mot .

Slowly getting there oh forgot to mention replaced rear window seal updated catalogue of spares and posted some stuff on forum.

Not bad for my winter holiday week.

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Sat Dec 13, 2008 11:33 pm

A great weekend so far.
Came home from work on friday and spent 3 hours going through my spares and collecting interior for the new car a GT + fitted the door trim.

Today spent 6 hours putting the remainder of the trim in position found the leak at the back its the os rear window seal sort that when and if its dry

put a screwdriver through the body work testing a rust spot the size of a 10 pence piece so rust treated and plastic steeled. from the inside. Tomorrow I will put the underlay down then the carpet followed by the seats. I am sitting here feeling really good about the 480s with a smug 6 foot grin. Started to toss some spare stuff away as I wont ever use it . Must cut down on the stored stuff . Going to sell the the turbo soon. The neighbourhood is starting to look like 480 central again . Didnt tell the wife but was almost on the verge of buying another 480 but the price started to go up too much.

On top of that I start my Christmas holidys on the 19th so I will have days and days of working on the 480s MAGIC isnt it

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Sun Dec 21, 2008 12:00 am

Day 1 of holiday proper.
went to scrappy for 2 bits of inteior I didnt have (unbelievable eh!) changed over the rear seat belt on passenger side.

fixed up the last pieces of trim.

If tomorrow is dry will swop over the suspension as the GT has lowered suspension and the turbo hasnt. just need 6 dry hours!!!

will put drivers seat into GT and the replacement one into the turbo.
Then rebuild the front console swop over the gear levers and hen change the insurance over and meesa happy bunny.

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Tue Dec 23, 2008 5:14 pm

Sunday wet so didnt get much done still helped tidy house

went shopping and stocked up on stuff

Monday changed over the rear shocks took a lot longer than expected finished in pitch dark .
ran the car down to garage and rear offside shock ticking away will need to readjust it .

Today started on the front shock of the gt and the damn lower bolts are seized and partly stripped

so got 4 replacements from ovlov on the same day as ordered thats a world first for them

so I swopped over the interior of the turbo so its got the nice clean jacquard half leather interior.

looks like I wont get much more done as it will take a full day to swop over and while its being done both cars will be off road. So Christmas eve will be last minute shopping. Christmas day doing nothing.
Boxing day will do the cars if weather permits but might give it a rest (or the neighbours to be precise) the old angle grinder does make a racket!
On the 28th will post out the secret santa prize to whoever wins it! Then unless its snowing/raining do the front suspension.

Oh happy days

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Sat Dec 27, 2008 6:04 pm

Christmas day off

Boxing day got things ready for posting (480 spares) and tidied my garage + watched telly + changed over osf suspension strut

today restocked fridge

then went outside to swop final front suspension strut over bloody hell had to grind off the bolts yet again

but the second one was ok until I tried to remove bolt then they wouldnt shift , was losing light as darkness fell and temp started to plummet now -2 and still falling and one of the spring compressors slipped decided to call it a day!
tomorrow if no raining/snowing etc will complete job.

dropped wife off tonight and spotted a great reggy number for esta Y*** LOL

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Mon Dec 29, 2008 10:22 am

28thDec started at 10.30 and stopped at 8.15 took off the last pair of suspension struts and swopped around. Then ran car up ramp and put in new gear lever and gaiter then the central trunking rim and radio + passenger side trim carpet.

today sealing rear side windows and rear clusters replacing instrument unit and possibly sorting out a spoiler for the car.Now off o get bulbs

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 12:29 am

spent the rest of the holiday sorting out small stuff and repainting with primer/rust killer ready for top coat.

did some rust proofing / bodywork on anoher 480.

so that was he holiday sorted . This weekend changed over a seat belt clip messed around with a radio sorted spares and listed what needed tobe done. . For he first time in over 2 weks it started raining

but never the less I managed to respray some of the rust proofed body work and sorted out a litle problem with the suspension.

Now to prep the turbo for sale. Making good progress but earlier today I thought between showers to replace the direction indictator stalk on the gt an easy job that I have done before so swapped over stalks and reassembled but didnt check before reassembly so guess what I hadnt put the clip in securely so the main beams dont work . Oh boogah have to do it again tomorrow

Met another 480 enthusiast who came to get a spare part today . Nice to put a name to a face and help keep another 480 on the road.

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Tue Feb 17, 2009 6:27 pm

Well its been quite a while since I updated the diary so I have sold the turbo and now the little GT that i bought in newcastle and done up

Beginning to feel a little lonely as I now have just the one 480 my daughter's car. The driveway is empty and forlorn all I can do is shuffle my spares collection around and sob quietly

No way have just bought another 480 celebration number 200 down to collect it on Friday . Just another hop over the wall.

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Wed Feb 25, 2009 12:17 am

new celebration turned out to be a minter

bodywork that would win a beauty contest

a classy chassis and boy does it go. Should name it after the wife

really pleased

Have now gone and bought another 480 a 1994 GT will be picking up south of hadrians wall and the other side of Offa's dyke and we aint talking sweathearts here

just need to get rid of the daily shed (VW diesel )

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Thu Mar 05, 2009 10:31 pm

Well the wife managed to get just enough money from scrapping the diesel polo to cover all my costs for the run south to Wales. When I got there I couldnt believe my luck the car a GT is in great condition. Had 4 advisories but 2 are trivial. so only have to figure ou whats wrong wih he diagnostics box fix that then use it o figure out whats up with the ABS. The brakes are fine but no ABS. So instead of stripping it which was my original intention I will be sorting it up into tip top condition. The car was absolutely chock full of spare parts as well even the VEM for the aircon in the celebration. So on Sunday replaced the celebs vem , now I have a heater again. Brilliant

The spares included 2 spoilers one of which hasnt even been unwrapped yet. A complete front bumper brand new steel cat and piles of other stuff.
I am a happy bunny.

was up at 6 in morning dropped of for the train in Glasgow at 06.45 , the train was delayed by another slower train so missed connection at birmingham waited an extra hour for connection to Cardiff , then local train to pontypridd. Crossed the welsh border about 19.00 and headed north crossed the scots border just before midnight. Roads all empty. Love the welsh accents

everyday when I go out of he house I cant help patting the GT and stop to look at it when I come home . Damn its a pity you cant drive two cars a once.

For once the Ovlov gods were smiling on me.
Wyrd bid ful aread.

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Sun Mar 15, 2009 12:11 am

So now we have 3 480's outside

a very good condition 480 ES white with 2 tone cream leather interior and button starter

200 of 480 white celebration N reg in virtually mint condition 67k miles

M reg GT in maroon 120k in very good condition.

wife growling at me for suggesting to sell either the celebration or GT , free up some cash and buy another 480 or a diesel volvo

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Sun May 17, 2009 12:37 am

Recently bought a duff turbo for scrapping, spent last friday and saturday trying to remove engine never done this before!. but got beat on the last bolt of the rear mount. Sunday went down to the deep south to pick up a 340. A killer of a drive back 5 hours and 477miles.

Another epic day 8.30 megabus from glasgow to london victoria 5.25pm then 5 47 train to polegate (just north of eastbourne) cant get over the ignorance of some people in london and surrounds! started back to glasgow just before 8 pm arrived home at 3.30am monday epic day.

spent friday and saturday finally getting the engine out and stripping it down. With long distance advice from B18ftlover and cerberus.
towed car out of garage onto driveway. Just waiting for V5 to come then I can do the final strip and scrap the car.

Damn its a pity that work shopping and the family get in the way of quality 480 time

glasgowjim · Post by **glasgowjim** » Sat May 30, 2009 10:47 pm

Well the engine came out & gear box and then I got the steering rack and the drive shafts as well as a neighbour threatening to complain to the council

.

Got a another volvo a 340 his ime and have been working on it so put my 480 round the corner in one of the car park spaces (they are not allocated) beside 2 oher cars and its been there all week as I was driving the 340 . Some barsteward let down one of my tyres , a virtually new tyre with no slow punctures or anything thats the second time I have had a tyre let down.