1987 480 ES Project -- D-reg, 2nd oldest in UK

[dragonflyjewels]

ooooo if it's still there, put a note on the windscreen about the meet tomorrow !!

[jamescarruthers]

So UK Mail are completely useless and can't get the mount to me until Monday. 

Took the mount off to see how bad it is and it is completely sheared.‎

Borrowed the engine mount from the blue car and red car now works perfectly without noise and vibration.

Phew!

P.S. Note placed on blue car's windscreen!‎

[jamescarruthers]

[jamescarruthers]

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[jamescarruthers]

[jamescarruthers]

[jifflemon]

So the durham trip happened?

[jamescarruthers]

So the durham trip happened?

Nope, plan B or C or something ended up being Silver Shield windscreens who got one in the next day and came and fitted it. Hat off to them. For speed, they beat the two big ones I'd heard of: Autoglass and National Windscreens‎.

The only thing I ran out of time for was replacing speakers which are nasty and rattly

[jifflemon]

All set for tomorrow then? ready for the goodies handover?

[jamescarruthers]

All set for tomorrow then? ready for the goodies handover?

All set, see you tomorrow. I'm joining Sylvia and Al‎ and other early birds at Northampton for breakfast

[jamescarruthers]

So the maiden voyage was a 400 mile shake down. After starting out carefully, full throttle was found and also a bit more confidence in the handling‎. This car goes really really well!

The only big failure is the heater matrix which sprung a leak causing me to be quite blind on the way home from injecting steam into the cabin but not consume that much coolant. Had to wipe the window every two minutes for the return leg. ‎It was a bit of a poor decision to drive home that day. I got home at 3.30AM and slept until lunchtime.
‎
Heater matrix is out and compared to its replacement. It seems early cars ‎have a different design (big weighty copper thing as opposed to aluminium and plastic) and pipe layout (sort of staggered on the bulkhead rather than straight up and down). It isn't massively different and I'm sure a newer one can be retrofitted if needs be. 

However in Cambridge we are lucky enough to have a radiator repair place. They are taking a look at it now for me. That's the car off the road for at least a week I'd think. In the mean time I can do a few other little jobs like some dashboard bulbs, Rev counter, Info Centre, speakers.

The Info Centre fault is a new one to me. I can only select the right hand side of it! Hopefully some contact cleaner on the rotary switch and its connections will solve that.‎

There is a little rattle at the back end which will need further investigation. It could be something in the boot but I'm not convinced.‎ I can't recreate it by bouncing the car around when stopped.

For a car that hasn't been anywhere for 20 years I am very impressed with the old girl!‎

[frenchfries]

My drive was bad enough, me who does not like Skip to be in the rain ended up driving though a few VERY significant puddles, one in particular I only saw at the last second only because of a car coming in the opposite direction, I just had time to slow down

Yours must have been excruciating, was it spewing steam even on Cold?

Are "launch cars" also pre-production models? Could this explain the many differences in yours?

[jamescarruthers]

They had a whole year of production ahead of us in Holland so my car isn't pre-production or anything like that, it is just one of the first sent over after they worked out how to make it RHD. I thought I had an early car until I visited Orlando last month!

My chassis number is 507274, so you can see from the list below that in the grand scheme of things it isn't that early. 
‎
500000 - 501200= 1986
501200 - 517501= 1987
517501 - 536101= 1988
536101 - 549001= 1989
549001 - 563101= 1990
563101 - 573100= 1991
573100 - 581000= 1992
581000 - 586300= 1993
586300 - 590001= 1994
590001 -= 1995‎
(data from our own website)‎

‎
Regarding the heater matrix, technology probably changed and got cheaper around then so we moved to the newer aluminium/plastic design from the soldered copper old design when the 480 was in its early days.‎

Yes, pretty steamy on all settings. Cold was unpleasant but bearable and hot was just insane--- fogged up so quick I had to stop. ‎

[Alan 480]

rattle might be ARB drop link , easy fix

no heater no problem, it's summer with you guys . . . . .. .

good to see it on road

[brinkie]

The Info Centre fault is a new one to me. I can only select the right hand side of it! Hopefully some contact cleaner on the rotary switch and its connections will solve that.‎

Improper setting can also be caused by broken pins, or just a poor contact, on the instrument cluster side. Remember that the electronics of the first model years had a lot of teething problems.

The first cars (up to model year 1987 if memory serves me right) have the info centre flat cable connector the other way around. Later models have a grey flat cable that plugs into the switch, and have the flat cable soldered directly to the info centre computer, while the first model years have the cable (in happy colours ) soldered to the switch, and the other side of the cable plugs into the info centre computer. The pins are very much prone to breakage and I do not like the way they plug into the computer either. If contact cleaner doesn't work, you should try and get the cluster out and check if the flat cable has been plugged in properly (there should be one pin missing)

[jamescarruthers]

Finally!!! I am back on the road!

The heater matrix had to be remanufactured using ‎my original side tanks and pipes, soldered to a new core.

My friend organised a car show in Abbots Ripton, Cambs. so another friend and I went up in convoy ‎today with his MR2 which he's recently bought.

Didn't stay too long‎ but did get a few pictures.

[jamescarruthers]

[jamescarruthers]

[jamescarruthers]

[jamescarruthers]

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