It started about 14 months ago; my neighbor is a car mechanic and has his own garage where he and his dad work. It used to be his dad's garage, but slowly my neighbor is expanding things and a full take over will eventually happen in the future.
They also buy and sell cars.
This is where it gets good.
I am a car painter at a collision repair center. For well over 15 years by now.
I was driving in a Daewoo Lanos 1.6 16V SXi at the time, and had been doing so for the last nine years.
My wife had just started with her driving lessons, so my neighbor asked me one day if I was interested in a Volvo 480 for my wife, for when she would have her license.
Well... 16 years ago, when I was still in technical school, we had a 480 in our garage which was donated to us by Volvo Nederland B.V. Of course I didn't have anywhere near the amount of money needed to buy me one, but that sweet red 480ES sure left a HUGE impression on me...
And whaddayano??? 16 years later, a Paris Blue 2.0 S Limited was mine to have!
My initial thought was, that if the wife didn't want it, I sure as hell did!!!
Mind you, I have been driving in "Woo" for 9 years, without it NEVER breaking down on me, except for a steering pump faillure.
Anyways,
I searched the internet for pics, and I found one of a British Paris Blue 480 with Taurus wheels on it.
And a few others, even a few with the headlights popped up...
When my wife came home from work, I told her about the car. She didn't know of the car, so I grabbed the laptop and showed her.
She was NOT impressed... So it seemed like happy days for me!
.............
................
Until I decided to show her the pics with the opened headlights.....
The best way to describe it?
Well, let me just say that she looked as if her heart melted, saying the car looked "cute"...
There went my 480 dreams out the window...
The next week, the car was delivered to me.
I was shocked...
It belonged to an elderly lady----> 89 years old!
She wasn't allowed to drive anymore, so after 18 years of ownership, she had to let her 480 go...
Just some info:
She bought the car when she was 71, after the death of her husband.
He drove an Alfa Romeo 6V America ( yes, 6V, not V6---> AR75 Tipo 1) and she drove a Rover 114...
During his life, she wasn't allowed to drive the Alfa, so after his death she didn't want to drive it either...
So she traded both cars for a brand new 480.
I saw the paperwork, and noticed that she lived only 10 minutes (walking) from me when I lived in Amsterdam... The car was even signed to her name at the post office where I used to go...
So I guess I have seen the car, but honestly, I cannot remember...
Well, why was I shocked when I first saw the car?
Let's just say it was... -=dirty=-
Of course, I cannot expect an 80 year old to wash the car daily, but it stood under a tree for a while I guess...
Luckily, the car was serviced by my neighbor's dad.
So technically, it was sound, cosmetically... eh... far from it
After a good cleaning, it was clear that the car was in a reasonably good condition, just bare stock...
It's a Limited, so AC and a nice interior were standard, as are the spoiler and sill covers.
Fortunately, someone on the Dutch forum has a set of Taurus wheels for sale.
So I bought them and painted them Smoke Silver, so they'd be nice for the car.
The plan was to repaint the car and get a few upgrades here and there.
The first was the addition of the info centre.
Then came the rear speakers, rear armrest with lock, bootcover-roll-thingy etc.
I also bought some new indicator clusters; unfortunately the white ones; orange wasn't available anymore...
To be sure to have them in a good condition, I also bought LED lights.
Why? The don't get warm, so the plastic cover would be affected by heat.
So the time came to get started on the 480.
But then I had a malfunction: a tennis arm kept me out of commission for a few months, so up to this day, the Limited has not yet been repainted
It's not all that necessary to repaint it, but to have it in a really good condition, it should be done.
As time passed by, I grew more and more attached to the car.
I used to drive around 9000-10000 kms per year, but that started to increase once we had the 480...
So, after a while I wanted to have a 480 of my own. I looked and looked, but every time I was close, something came in between to hog my money
Last December, Melvin ( also a member here) told me that he was about to buy a Paris Blue Turbo Automatic.
He has a red one, and he had bought a Two Tone for the time being, but having 3 480's seemed a bit too much for him.
So! That was settled!!! I'd be having my very own 480 soon
Yes, only a 1.7, but: a 480 never the less!
BUT...
In February or so, Gero (from the Dutch forum) told a funny story. In short, the funny thins was that someone traded his 480 for a 850 T5 and only received 250 euros for the car: a 1992 (MY1993) Turbo...
It didn't do me anything, until a week later, Gero brought the car up once again...
That did it!!!
I asked Gero to bring me in contact with the guy, because 250,- is cheap; in parts the value would easily surpass the 250,- mark
In short: March 4th (yes, a Sunday) the car was delivered to me
And, i have driven 10000 kms with the car since I bought it...
It was a wreck to see, with rusted wheelarches etc, but there was something special about it.
Since I own a 480, going to the salvage yard has become a routine for me. Not that I need to, but I just LOVE being there, I don't know why...
One day, I saw that there was a new 480 in the yard: a 95 GTT
Well; there is almost nothing useful left on the car
The GT interior, gauges, too much to name: I took it all... Result: 300 euros for making my Turbo complete
Then the time came to start the work on Steelina, as she is called.
Well...
The day I drove Steelina to work to get started, Woo broke down on me...
The heater radiator was busted. Not in a spectacular manner with lots of smoke etc, but it started to smell of coolant, fogged up windows and the floor was soaking wet...
We did start to get the dash etc out, but the radiator is sooooooo hidden away behind sooooo many components, that I started to wonder if the 45 euro costing radiator was worth all that work...
So, I couldn't get started on Steelina, because Woo was broken, so I decided to fix Woo first.
Usually, we can do our own cars on Saturdays, but for what ever reason, we weren't allowed to work on our own cars for 5 weeks...
So after a while I diceded that enough is enough and sold Woo to a co- worker who was interested.
In the meanwhile,
Melvin and I were discussing how, what and where about the Two Tone.
To make it short: since a week or 6 or so, ToTo has joined the Family
She's my daily driver and I have nothing to complain.
Sure, she's no 2.0 and she's helpless against Ms Turbo, but she goes
During the time I have been on the internet etc, searching for stuff to make the 480 fun to be in. All 3 have Momo steering wheels ( Daytona, Palm Beach and another non original Volvo wheel), all 3 have armrests with cupholders ( Steelina has one from an 850), all 3 have 15" alloys (2* Taurus, Steelina gets Speedline Maracana) etc.
But now the fun officially begins:
All 3 have BETTER THAN NEW taillights...
Better than new???
Yes, I refurbish them, and modify them to make them perfect.
And the really good part is that I have started today with the process of taking Steelina apart for the upcoming workload.
I know, it may all seem a bit blurry, but I'm trying to post a full year of 480 into one post
On the Ducth forum, I have several topics that have taken a while to form Don't worry:
As soon as I pass the 10 post mark, I will also be able to post pics; then it will be a bit more clear as to what I'm talking about
