The Adventures of the White Rabbit

[ladyforatey]

10 years ago, when I was a mere 21 year old, I fulfilled my then life's ambition and made my very first car a 480. Having grown up with 340s, a 440 and a V70 I got the cool Volvo my parents never bought. She was called Baby, and she was flippin' fantastic.



I loved my car, loved her. So when she went wrong (depressing frequently I seem to recall) I fixed her. Again and again. 'Til 2010, when I finally ran out of money, and patience, and I sold her - on this very forum. (To people who SORN-d her pretty quickly I'd like to add, grr.)

I regretted that decision ever since.

It was with that sentiment slowly boiling away in the intervening years that drove me to this - catching some trains up to Scotland to see and ultimately purchase, Captain Slow's prize possession Whitney. (Yes, that day I left home at 07:15 and got back at 00:10 - it was a long day)



I must admit that as soon as I stopped for petrol on the long slog home, I put that photo on my facebook with only the description, 'Is anyone surprised?' Hah, not that my friends necessarily understand my obsession with these cars but that they knew me well enough that my eventually finding another one was more an inevitability than an optional outcome. When I first saw pictures of Whitney I genuinely did the real life equivalent of this - Everything I was after! Baby was a 94 2.0 ES and I always fancied a Celebration, and to my mind white is the only improvement on Paris Blue. Boom.

So here I am! Back in fold! Back loving driving again and (I fully expect) back to scrimping and saving and digging out the haynes manual. But can you blame me? She's so beautiful!
Look out world, Bunny (as I've renamed her, she's a white rabbit ) and me are soon to be an unstoppable team

[jamescarruthers]

Welcome back!

[Captain Slow]

You'd best look after her

(only joking....though I do hope it all goes well!)

[jamesy12345]

Glad to see the car will remain on the forum & in good hands

[doingitsideways]

Congratulations, it's a lovely example that one

Can't help but think that itch will never quite go away for me either, now I'm 480-less

[dcwalker]

Good to see a nice 480 staying in good hands!

Having recently made the same return to 480 ownership, I hope you get masses of enjoyment from it!

David

[ladyforatey]

Thank you for the good wishes everyone

Let's see shall we if this time next week I'm in this good a mood - Bunny is going in for her MOT... Dum dum dummm..

I'll let y'all know how it goes. For the time being I'm just enjoying driving around. On my second day of owning her a guy came over to me at the petrol station and told me I had a nice car, that he used to own one years ago and thanked me for keeping it on the road!

Also, here's what she looked like when I came home the other day - the only car on the street in the sunshine

[jamesy12345]

do you pay more council tax or something...!

[doingitsideways]

do you pay more council tax or something...!

Damn.
No thanks button on here.

[Jay-Kay-Em]

Lookin' good.

Good luck with the Mot.

[ladyforatey]

Well the good news is that Bunny passed her MOT! After failing it of course.

I have also got a list of to do's from the garage - have a look and if anyone has any suggestions or thoughts about the work they think needs doing let me know!


The garage I go to is run by a mechanic who used to work for Volvo, and worked there when the 480s were being sold. As such, he hates them! He told me he was forever having fix them as they went wrong in so many little ways (good to know some things never change). Drinking oil was one, the electrics was another and apparently no one could get the overtaking windscreen wiper thing to work. Can't say I've ever tried it. I countered these arguments by spreading my hands wide and saying, 'But they're beautiful!' He wasn't convinced.

Stll, he said she was a good example of a dying breed But then I already knew that

Incidentally, this was also at the garage that day - and looking very tidy indeed!


Oh, and a friend of mine told me that she had the chance, way back when, to buy the 480 Celebration (that is the 480th one). It was very expensive and apparently gold. Can anyone else corroborate this? At the time she saw it it was at a dealer in West Bridgford.

[Alan 480]

2 is a pain and needs suspension taken apart, so keep an eye on it, but also maybe the clip is rotten , so worth replacing as only pennies, I bought a pack of ten for £3 ! NB motor factors don't do singles

3
front discs DO need caliper AND holder removed and trust me the bolts are awffy tight (that's scaff bar tight, and probably the heads of the bolts will be 'round' so leave well alone if only surface rust) I changed mine for allen headed variety and then put a dust cap over them for future removal.

4 to 7 are quite easy to do at home, not so at side of the road , BUT possible.

discs can be removed from the rears WITHOUT removing the caliper holders, just grind /file a tiny bit off the corner where they touch (after disc removal, so the new ones will go back on, the tiny bit thicker disc will stop them sliding in !)

8, depends on how much 'light rust' is 'light' the pipes are installed BEFORE the tank went in so you need to re-route the pipes, and they are BOTH one piece right from ABS to back!

9 save further rusting, as in MINI front subframes

10 , take inside and leave over night!

[glasgowjim]

When you do have to replace the cv boot get a kit which has the boot in 2 halves and you fit round glue together and the job is done have done a couple this way its is so easy just take your time when doing it.

oh and welcome to the forum

[ladyforatey]

Thank you for the advice Alan and Jim! Sorry that's been a while coming. I haven't got around to doing anything yet I must admit.

We made it down to Suffolk and back though! The only new problem that seems to have arisen are the blowers - that is they don't really. Coming back up from Saxmundham the a/c was blowing a gale at my sisters legs (in the passenger seat) and nothing much was coming out the vents. I've tried all the other settings as well with no luck so I assume there's a baffle stuck somewhere or something.

And a dash bulb has gone. And a running light. And the handbrake doesn't hold much on my hill. (I walked out the house the other day paranoid I had locked her and as I walked towards her she CREAKED and moved a little - eep!!)

Despite all this, she's still the best looking car on the street

[Ade]

Just my tuppence worth........

As regards CV boots....... I'm sure the glue together ones are ok if Jim reckons so but it is easy enough to remove the outer joint from the shaft on our cars. It's a circlip retained one, not a snap ring so you don't have to go mad with a copper drift to get them off, just release the clip and then a gentle tap should free it. I always do it this way as a proper OE type one has to be the best option. Gives you a chance to properly clean and service the joints as well.

[Ade]

Additionally, if you have the whole shaft out and do the work in a vice, you can make a much better job of it, and, as previously mentioned, you can properly clean and re grease both inner and outer joints. They are worth taking care of as new outers are not cheap and as far as I'm aware, inners are completely unavailable.