goldfish

[POE]

hi, well its been about 3 years since i started work on my 480, i,ve had the car about 6 years altogether which bought as a write off ,i bought 2 at the auctions one was engine fire with 220,000 miles on the clock and the other was front end damage, a bit of luck there was two goin at auction as front panel i think was about 300 at time from volvo , the one i repaired was antracite grey,and forgive me was a bit of a boring colour,so saffron pearl met it was and she was born 1989 volvo 480 full leather turbo and had 104,000 at time , i ran her for about 2 years until working out of town took its toll on petrol so bought myself a shitron ax ,oh and what fun ,floppy gearstick ,holes everywere,whinning gearbox ,overheating and cheap on petrol, any way few pics of how my 480 is now

[POE]

well after i'd took the 480 off the road i did miss the power,so eventually decided to put back on road after about 2 years and me thinking that i'd just take for mot and it would pass was stupid of me ,brakes were seized and all suspension was corroded to hell brake pipe corroded heavely,little garden growing around windows ,lights faded and cracked,rust appearing on various panels,exhaust blowing again, more pics of rebuild

[POE]

well i started stripping all the suspension and took it to get shot blast and powder coated ,what i could renew was renewed ,new shock ,lowering springs, link bars ,all bearings,bottom arm bushes
I tended to get a little p#ss#d off with so much work to do, so little time inbetween jobs made it bearable for me and my pocket. i had very little time left to work on car with looking after twins, a full time job and my other hobby of keeping spiders and me dog,oh and making sure the missus still knew i was still living in the house as many a time it hit 1 in the morning in the garage.

[POE]

i wasn't at first considering doing anything to the body but after ripping the suspension apart and closely inspecting the body i decided at first to color change yet again but using a photo shop program i wasn't happy with any color so saffron met again but this time decided to modify body ,didn't want to make any stupid mods just something a little different
i work in a bodyshop so the first idea i had was sideskirts which i found in the shape of an astra sill skirts obviously i had to modify them but really these are such a good fit and only that they are too long .

[POE]

just been scouring through a few images of the volvo prior to being painted,glad the repairs are all over and its about finished,i keep getting bugged about selling it but ,all the work ive put in id feel a bit cheated because of all the work ive put in, i was thinking of an engine rebuild but i am quite enjoying doing very little to it at the moment .A few more images to add to its life.

[POE]

some pics i took at the weekend ,had the kids washing the car all day,the other half was complaining about why havent i cleaned the honda,it has no competition really and really the kids were buggin me to clean it.

[POE]

well over the last few weeks i have be in two minds whether to sell and due to hardly any interest i have decided to do what needs doing and go from their ,next is engine out and to spray engine bay gold and to do the engine mounts which was one of the reasons i was getting annoyed with it ,the 480 only comes out in summer ,yes i know all that work and i hardly use itso when got it out for a few weeks the juddering from the engine was getting to me so i drove it in garage and cashed the road tax in to teach it a lesson but ive calmed down a bit and deserves to be finished properly ,engine mounts ,abs to fix ,wheel arch liners to but and a few other niggles to sort out over winter,but at the moment i have another project on my honda which i have to finish next month and then all hands on volvo again.

[POE]

well the good weather is approaching ,NOT, so ive decided its back to the grimestone and push things on a bit,the front suspension is all but out ' as is the engine ,then its paint engine bay,a job im not looking forward to 'even thinking about taking the wiring harness from engine bay into the car ,then the engine mounts need replacing ,crankshaft oilseal is leaking which contaminated my clutch,sump gasket and probably a load more seals will need replacing, i have aquired an abs unit from glasgowjim(top bloke) which will sort out at least one problem,i bring my tools home every weekend and leave them in the garage then it rains all weekend' and then i take them back to work and i think i have been doing that since december some pics to follow .

[POE]

well its been a good weekend so far ,managed to remove engine today which i thought would never happen given the amount of time i have had lately, but ive finished my garden earlier than expected so my mate brought the engine hoist over yesterday to my surprise as it was weeks ago that id asked and presumed he'd forgot ,so today it happened and it took about 20 mins to take out 'obviously everything was removed prior to today (im not that quick) .the next job is subframe out and shot and coated ,dash out and all harness pulled through so can paint engine bay same as car,oh and the many oil leaks,will try to add pics throughout, .a lad i work with has just had his dashboard electro coated and well it feels like velvet ,it really is nice its black nothing too fancy and cost him £110 to do ,am quite tempted ,as i think you would be if you saw it.

[POE]

well the weathers been kind this weekend so subframe out which took some doing' hell those bolts were tight,had to bring a piece of pipe from work over my powerbar just to get some leverage on them, cracking all vthe way round 'guess itsa 21 years of rust the subframe itself its in good nick for year due to ther oil that has soaked it for years ' the main reason why i decided to remove engine .

[POE]

hi all ,starting to get meself a bit busy again with the volvo ,engines out and starting to strip all the bits off it for cleaning ' all the pulleys which are quite corroded and spent my dinner cleanig with wire brush in a drill which worked quite well , would have been nice keep them the original colour but would be forever removing the rust from them so have decided to paint them silver.My crank oil seals came today and cost £32 for both seals which are in much need of replacing 'the last clutch i had in was soaked in oil and slipping so decided to take the engine out to get all the jobs done in one, now looking at car it may be next year now before i get the engine back in
I have replaced the rear trailing arm bushes also and what a nightmare these were to get in ,even one of the service lads were i work was a bit dubious whether theyll go in and well the arm i had to put in the spray booth on bake and the bush in ice cold water which worked a treat but still very tight. the heat resistant paint is also on its way' matt black for the block and i think the head will clean up quite well, the engine mounts are my main concern the main reason for taking off road and engine out , i was getting a lot rocking from engine on acceleration but was hard to tell whether it was front or rear or to be quite honest the mounts at all ,they was no visible evidence of wear?? hope to get some pics on here soon ,bye for now