DanDCowans 480 Celebration 167/480

[DanDCowan]

Hello, i'm Dan and this is my Volvo 480 Celebration No.167

I bought the car for £200 from a dealer in Bristol, who took her in part ex, got it trailered here (Parkstone, Poole) and have been working to get her back on the road for a couple of months, sold my s40 for some money to buy parts and have got to nearing MOT, just a few bits to see to

So far ive
taken the interior out and dried it out/cleaned it to remove the water (about 2 inches of!) from the leaking rear light clusters...
replaced a cracked rear light cluster which i got from someone breaking on ebay for £30 (not the best condition but...)
sealed round the both of them and waiting for it to dry so i can pour water on and see how i did
changed the oil and filter
changed spark plugs
replaced the front discs and pads and have the rear discs and pads ready to be fitted
have a new cat to fit (waiting on getting the new front pipe)
replaced the fuel filter
replaced the drivers door rubber and boot rubber (and the 2 bonnet rubbers at the front with the left over)
replaced the plastic hinge on the pop up lights for metal ones i made (only to have the other plastic side snap!)
and got the pop up lights popping up again (just closed the bonnet and clicked them on after 3 days of testing circuits, fuses and relays and taking the whole of the lights out!!!)

so to do is:

the cat
the front pipe
the rear brakes
put the interior in, seats and all
and get her tax and MOTed!

tomorrows jobs: (04/02/2013)

Seeing if the rear clusters leak water in to the car
Replacing the carpet, seats and plastics
Ordering the front pipe
Watch this space!

I cant post pictures yet, but have a look here for some

flickr(dot)com/photos/dandcowan/

[DanDCowan]

Ok so went for the MOT (5/2/2013) and failed on the following:
Offside front position lamp not working (loose bulb)

Nearside front wiper not clearing windscreen effectively (replaced blades)

Offside rear fog lamp not working (Fuse)

Rear fog lamp tell tale not working (The same fuse as above)

Hazard lamps inoperative

Reg plate lamps not working (Replaced both)

Parking brake lever has no reserve travel

Offside rear parking brake recording little or no effort
(Because of...)
Offside rear brake pad less then 1.5mm thick (Replaced pads and discs)

Nearside headlight aim too high (Lowered)

and emissions of the Lambda too high (This is hopefully because of the massive gap between the new cat and the old rusted front pipe, I am getting the garage to fit the new front pipe i have, because it looks like a pig to fit and hopefully that will solve the emission problem)

and thats it! a few advisories but nothing serious, I have sorted everything except the front pipe (the garage is doing before MOT) and the Hazard switch... I am in conversation with GlasgowJim about a speedy delivery of a hazard switch, fingers crossed ill be on the road by tomorrow evening!!!

[jamesy12345]

Hello Dan, welcome to the forum!! 200 quid I like your style

[DanDCowan]

thank you Jamesy just waiting on a hazard switch, should be here monday... or today but more than likely monday...

[DanDCowan]

Got the paint out today and painted the indicators
This is with just the paint:



And this is with the lacquer



I decided i liked the look of Sticker Bombing and covered the dash with stickers...



also did the frame of the fog light and window heater switches



and the control box for the A/C along with the cigarette lighter and also painted the switches and the slider





More pictures when its in with the hazard switch

[DanDCowan]

More pictures

This is the pictures that made me buy her (yes I bought the car just by looking at 3 pictures)







These are the pictures before I did anything















This is after I removed the headlining...




The river that lay in the drivers foot well seemed to have travelled around abit!




And this is how I find out where the fuses go!

[AcidicDavey]

I remember seeing the advert on ebay

Crikey! How damp is that, I know these leak but bloody hell!

[DanDCowan]

I know Davey, it must have been sat for a while to get that amount of water in, its all cleaned up now and dried off, took a while but, it was the rear light clusters that were letting in the water, all sealed up and no leaks so far! and its hammering down, has been for 3 days now!

[DanDCowan]

Painted the speaker grills and surrounds yesterday



And managed to crack the speedo plastic while trying to get it out! Stuck with glue, going to try and make it look less noticeable by polishing... I dont think its going to work :/



Just waiting for the post today, hopefully they come through with the hazard switch, then im booking the MOT for today if I can, will let you know what happens!

Also after i put the speedo back I noticed one of the bulbs wasnt working to illuminate the dash and also if i pressed the brake the speedo would spin right round and the miles would start going up till i let off the brake pedal?! whats that about?

[jamesy12345]

love the sticker bombing btw

[DanDCowan]

thanks Jamesy heres what it looks like with everything in:





Also did around the dials while I had it out



And put in some LED bulbs for the brake lights



Will post pictures of them in the dark soon and waiting for the LED reverse bulbs and LED indicator bulbs too, also fitted the 2 side indicator bulbs that came free with a pair of these:



the side indicators look a bit brighter but at the same time cause the bulb out light on the dash to light up?

[DanDCowan]

As promised heres what the lights look like in the dark



Cant say im overly impressed with them, they were £5.89 for a pair so not too bad, i guess at least im gaining hours and apparent low power consumption because of the LEDs, but not as much extra light as i wanted

[doingitsideways]

Ha ha ha, that sticker bombing is epic!!

Love it!

The bulb failure light won't go out with LEDs, as they don't draw enough power, so it throws the light.

Oh, you have tried pressing the brake I take it? It never goes out until you have anyway, just a thought

Steve

[DanDCowan]

yeh thats what i thought, yeh i did press the brake i remember from my s40 it wouldnt go out till you pressed the brake, i used to see how far i could go without it going off By pressing the brake, thats how i noticed the speedo dial would spin round... and the miles went up... that was after removing and reinstalling the instrument cluster, it seems better now but still jumps a tiny bit when i press it first, also the info centre has gone off... might be a fuse but havent checked, i need to leave things alone till its moted really but i cant help it :/

[doingitsideways]

Tbh, i'd stick the old bulbs back in and see what happens.

480s are unbelievably sensitive to things like that, the pop-ups won't work properly without the right bulbs in the sidelights!!

Crazy, crazy cars!!

Steve

[AcidicDavey]

^^^ And we love love them for it ^^^

That sticker bombing's different, probably upsetting for the purists lol

[DanDCowan]

yeh i think i will try the old bulbs, i couldnt find them till it got dark today, will try in the morning.

Someone on ebay said (different seller to who i got them from) "if you have the bulb warning indicator, we will include the resistors..." surely resisting a current to an LED bulb should be done anyway? but i dont see how sticking a resistor in would have an effect on the bulb fail light. If its making a circuit and like Steve said before, doesnt draw as much power, resisting the already reduced current would have little to no effect? i dunno im not an electrician lol

As for the sticker bombing, thanks everyone for the kind reviews, like you said Davey, not for everyone, but ive had a few classic cars where i felt held back because of what others felt towards it, i stuck some rover 45 alloys on a 1975 morris marina and painted the bonnet black and got mixed reviews, i loved it though and i regret selling it as it was used as a donor for another morris marina i sold, i think the engine went in a Morris minor in the end

This is of the both of my cars either end
on the right was my '75 4 door Marina and on the left was my '74 Coupe Marina



And this is "Howard" the 4 door



Both bought for under £500 and sold for £400

[DanDCowan]

FAILED MOT... again
I thought the hand brake was ok, it was holding the car on a hill, turns out one side isnt working, the passenger side getting a reading of 101 and the drivers side a reading of 17... I hope its just a sticky cable and not the calliper, I cant afford it and only have a week left because of waiting for the hazard switch, which he said he turned a blind eye to because it was a bit sticky... ill be back tomorrow with an update of what ive done to try and fix it

[DanDCowan]

She is on the road again! still leaking oil a little but not as bad as it was, going to wash her today and maybe paint the wheels... might go for a nice matt white with a clear lacquer, see how things go

[jamesy12345]

Congratulations! Always a good feeling. Not bad at all mate considering purchase price

Nice pics btw. Cars need names I agree, so you can shout at them when things are not going right...like plants I think it helps