Lulas' Diary...

esta · Post by **esta** » Sun Apr 20, 2008 3:41 pm

*Get her through her MOT
*Re Spray-full body-(original colour?)
*New brakes-and fix hand brake prob-handbrake cable!
*New windscreen
*New/fixed rear passenger side cluster
*Lowering Springs
*Fit in new dash-install original radio cassette
*Fit in the replacement front passenger side light cluster
*Clean all the lights/lenses
*Underseal/Waxoyle
*Fix the hinges on the drivers side headlight
*Powder coat/clean up all wheels
*Custom backbox
*Make both rear fog lights work
*Make a rear spoiler
*Strip down/clean interior
*Racing Cams

Jobs completed
Got the parts, just havent done the job yet!

esta · Post by **esta** » Mon Apr 21, 2008 6:28 pm

Found this amongst my old emails:

Subject: File No: 95455 Ms. Esta-Jane Mace
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2007 13:15:32 +0100
From: gcr@volvocars.com

Your Global Customer Relations File Number is 95455

Dear Ms. Mace,

Thank you for your letter dated 1st September, 2007, inquiring about your Volvo 480 GT, Model Year 1994.

Looking in our system, we could see that the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) for the vehicle with registration Number M499 PAO is the
following:

XLBEC313ERC588640

The chassis number would therefore be: 588640.

Furthermore, you inquired about the date of manufacture and the date of
dispatch. In our system, these two dates are the same: 19 April 1994.

I hope that you will find this information useful and I would like to
thank you for taking the time to contact us.

Yours sincerely,

__________________________
Mireille Durand
Advisor

Global Customer Relations
Volvo Car Corporation
Dept. 57460/SAA2
SE-405 31 Goteborg
Sweden

I asked about the chassis number as two documents have two different numbers on!!

esta · Post by **esta** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:18 am

Been a bit of a challenege but got the exhaust on last night!!

Its kinda nice as well, cos the guy (or gal!) that had this before had obviously wanted to be different, but also wanted to be sociable. It doesnt have that horrible raspy sound most chav-mobiles have! I really love it!

Tho on the first test drive i pulled out of my drive...and right in front of a police van-doh! I wanted to give it a good run lol!

Here are the pics...

And closer up...

It was designed for a de-cat system, so i chopped the silencers off (which is where the cat is on the catalytic version) and with an elongated bracket, exhaust bandage and tonnes of exhaust gum i created a seal between the cat and the new centre box.

esta · Post by **esta** » Fri Apr 25, 2008 4:14 pm

esta · Post by **esta** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 6:46 pm

Decided it was time to get on with the new clusters.

They were a bit filthy when i picked them up:

I keyed them using wire wool and then did a once over with thinners to get rid of any oil and grease before the first coat:

This is the first coat:

And the second. Slightly thicker this time...

More pics to come

esta · Post by **esta** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 7:32 pm

Did my third and final layer. It has dried, but now there isnt enough natural light for a good photograph. Will polish them up once they have dried up properly, and take a photograph then! Probably be next weekend as i am working tomorrow. Will probably fit them then as well! And if i can get the other ones off without damaging the good one too much they'll be on ebay to hopefully help out another 480 owner!!

esta · Post by **esta** » Fri May 09, 2008 4:44 pm

esta · Post by **esta** » Sat May 10, 2008 1:55 pm

After careful prying off of the old clusters (to no avail, the passengers side one was knackered anyway, and the drivers side ended up with a couple of cracks in it!) i have now fitted the new clusters in!!

It was totally mad, i have never EVER seen so much black gunk! It was a nightmare! And then i went all paranoid fitting in the new clusters cos i didnt wanna screw them in too tight incase they cracked!

But they seem ok, and after a wash and (when cooler)a polish, i will get some photographs up!!

esta · Post by **esta** » Sat May 10, 2008 3:36 pm

After a good old wash here are the pics:

They arent looking so shiney now, but hopefully after a T-Cut they will look a lot better!

But hey! Least there are no real cracks (there is a slight crack along the top of the passengers side one, but nothing like the previous clusters crack, and hopefully the lacquer has sealed it together?!)

esta · Post by **esta** » Fri May 16, 2008 9:10 pm

Took Lula to the body spray man today, and asked for a quote.

He had a look around and just said "I wouldnt bother spraying her"

I wasnt quite sure what he was getting at-was he saying that she wasnt worth spending the money on?!?!

But he carried on "It would be a waste of money, there would be no difference for the most of it, the paint work is excellent!"

Very nice compliment from a body shop man!!!

He did say if i wanted the car done it would be in excess of a grande. However, i did point out the front and rear bumpers, nose cone and bonnet-he did me a nice quote of Ã‚Â£350-Ã‚Â£400...not too bad in my opinion, considering the cost of paints etc!

Maybe i could do these when i do my body shop training at work....hmmmm cheeky!!

esta · Post by **esta** » Mon May 26, 2008 8:39 pm

Today I set up some new 6x9 speakers as I blew the old ones and they sound very nice-very bassey so very happy!

I also am adamant that i want to keep the standard stereo-so i bought a speaker to line adapter and linekd the standard stereo to the amp. I dont car what any one says-my VC 802 sounded extremely good (even bass wise) for a standard stereo from 1994-and even now with the amp and sub, you cannot tell what headunit is in. I am astounded!!

Finally after all that i added a switch to cut the power to the amp (last time i swear it was eating my battery!) It has a little green LED to remind me to switch it off!! It was originally going to be mounted in the ash tray as i dont use it (and i wont let anyone else use it!!) But getting the wires there without getting the cubbies out is proving nigh on impossible-i cant seem to shift the cubbies! Now considering glove box...hmmmm decisions decisions

Photos to come when the car is clean and the switch location sorted!

esta · Post by **esta** » Thu Jun 12, 2008 4:38 pm

Well I wasnt entirely happy with the clip-in situation on the parcel shelf i had...remember this one...?

It was a leather effect PVC-and after all the hot weather it was also not sticking properly-the wax in the material melted everytime it was hot, so it was always tacky!

So i took it to the guys in the trim shop with an ingenious idea-covering it using the VOLVO soft spread!!

I knew it wouldn't fit over the board (which incidentally has been re cut with 18mm MDF as the 12mm WAS sagging slightly!!) so i thought (as i wanted the VOLVO logo in the corner) why not cover the board in grey alcantara and use the Volvo parcel spread as the flip up material (I wanted to follow the same design, just different materials!)

The guys had a look around but couldnt find anything that would match the grey exactly. Obviously a mis-match would suck big time and look AWFUL!!! So the next thing i thought was-how about a deliberate two tone? A black and grey which would also fit in with my speakers!!

So i left the MDF with the guys in the trim shop with the only instructions:
*Had to use the lip with VOLVO on and the correct clips
*Had to use a black material to make a two tone shelf
*Had to cover all the shelf-even underneath this time!!
*Had to put on the flap on the back so no one could see the amp (ideally the VOLVO spread flap!)

And this is what they came up with...

A fantastic two tone-the black being a soft material and with a sporty carbon fibre effect-a very deliberate two tone which in my opinion works EXTREMELY well!! I am so chuffed with it!! And the two flaps are from the original VOLVO boot spread too so i have the VOLVO logo and the volvo rear flap to hide the amp!!

What do you think???

Parcel Shelf

Close up of materials used-VOLVO!!

Parcel shelf hide-away flap

Parcel Shelf again!

esta · Post by **esta** » Sun Jul 13, 2008 7:20 pm

Finally got around to doing that service I have been promising Lula-changed the spark plugs and the oil filter, did an oil change, replaced the front running light bulbs...and thats as far as it got really!!

The plugs took a while till they got changed as i thought they were the wrong type...

But they seem to be running fine so far...!

Oil change took forever as the sumpl plug was stuck tight (after realising it needed to be undone using sump plug keys!!!) And when that finally released (resorted to using Joes strength!!

) it dripped and dribbled for hours!!!

Then i used a screw driver to remove the old oil filter...which snapped....

But the long and short is, after 5litres of High Mileage GTX she was running good! VERY good infact! This and the cleaning of the ICV have really smoothed her idling.

Still got her fuel filter to do (ran out of time and energy today despite only starting at midday!!) and perhaps her timing belt as well sometime soon...

esta · Post by **esta** » Fri Aug 22, 2008 1:33 pm

Last few weeks have been a pain in the you know where, as I discovered how bad lulas subframe actually was! And it was bad! I was able to poke my fingers through more places in this than a few months back, and also discovered a huge crack runing from the passengers side to the centre! It was shocking to sa the least...fortunately tho,I had one put aside by a fellow forum member!! (Thank you!

x )

Anyho... replacement subframe cleaned (totally polished off all surface rust with a wire brush on a grinder):

Subframe rustproofed (excuse the colour, just using up my last tub of hammerite!!)

and lula ready to go...!!!

Now to embark on the dismantling (shouldnt be too hard, with a good swipe of a hammer i think it'll all fall out!!

) ...

esta · Post by **esta** » Sun Aug 24, 2008 6:18 pm

Subframe fitted yesterday and all seems to be good.

Also fitted a replacement speedo cable.

Took her for a quick spin after fitting both to check for any odd and undesireable noises...nothing! However the speedo didnt work!

Then I went to park up and the ECU reset itself and Voila! The speedo now works!!

All in all, good bank holiday weekend!! Took Lula to the carboot this morning:

And as you can see, she looked FILTHY by the end! Seriously, I didnt think a 4x4 was gonna get across this field-she did good!!

So shes been treated to the full works this afternoon! Pampered with a whole new load of Auto Glym products, and I was gonna try this new Turtle Wax Ice Shine but couldnt find any! Doh!

Maybe tomo...!!!

O and i forgot how good the pressure washer was-kinda removed all the lacquer from the front bumper and has started on the rear!

esta · Post by **esta** » Tue Aug 26, 2008 5:23 pm

Finally published www.volvo-480.co.uk

Just for the record:

esta · Post by **esta** » Sun Oct 26, 2008 2:53 pm

Been a while since I have done anything worth recording here. And here it is!

Well heres the story....when I added the amp and sub to the car it kept eating my battery, even when the radio was off it would sit there consuming the power from the battery.

So I decided to add a switch! For ages now, the switch was just a button attached to 3 wires, hanging in the glove compartment, awaiting the final resting place.

The other week I chose the box I wanted and put the switch into the box, and then, with no real ideas coming to me of where to put it (it had to be visable to prevent me from forgetting to switch it off-hence the lighted switch as opposed to a plain switch).

Eventually the idea came to me (OK, I admit, it was a suggestion from the other half

) Hows about a removeable switch, that way I wouldnt have to worry about a place to affix the switch, and therefore no unsightly cuttings of the interior trim, no boxes stuck to random bits of trim and still somewhere that I can see clearly from the drivers seat (So NOT the glove box!!)

And this is how it has ended up!!

Still have lots of wild ideas, just not such a wild credit card!!

esta · Post by **esta** » Mon Dec 08, 2008 12:42 pm

Took Lula to the rolling road on Saturday...

It was a bit nerve racking as majority of the cars there were OTT super done up hatch backs (cupras, corsas, fiestas etc) and Lula came 3rd from last (altho not in the sub100 group!;) )

BUT she was the 2nd from top out of the standard cars that turned up!! Admittedly I probably would tune if there was anything similar the roch mod available for NAs, but hey, my next step is the Jag anyway!

So, she was put on the dyno and managed to knock out a good 108.9hp (I like to call it 109!!)! I was quite impressed! For a standard car who was built 13 years ago at 110hp and she has only lost 1.1!!

The one that made me laugh wasthe Corsa who paid Ã‚Â£250 for a remap and had gained a whole.................. 0.7hp!!!!!! REALLY!!!!!

OK, well since that run, everyone seems to be well impressed with the strength of the B20F! Only 1.1 lost!!

Such an acheivement for Volvo!

esta · Post by **esta** » Tue Dec 16, 2008 7:37 pm

Van wrote:That's a nice power output! Is that 109bhp at the wheels, or corrected for internal loss?

I believe this is the total output at the flywheel

Still, just 1.1 horsies over 13 years! Go gal! She's a good 'un!