Page 5 of 6

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 9:36 am
by dcwalker
Sylvia, Snazzy looks amazing :D :D

The blue & silver two-tone really suits the car, and since John de Vries obviously thought so as well who's to argue?

Without wishing to be rude, ! am not totally sure about the interior - from the photos there is just something niggling me as not quite right, I think maybe the grey is a tad lighter than I would have gone for? Not sure...and I fully I expect that when I get to see it for real I will find it works really well!

One really minor question, though, just out of interest: why didn't you continue the silver lower half round into the inner edges of the door-frame? I like the sill-tread but noticed it still sat against blue, when I would have assumed it would be silver...

Amazing though, you should be really pleased with that!

David

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 12:01 pm
by dragonflyjewels
Without wishing to be rude, ! am not totally sure about the interior - from the photos there is just something niggling me as not quite right, I think maybe the grey is a tad lighter than I would have gone for? Not sure...and I fully I expect that when I get to see it for real I will find it works really well!
Not rude at all - actually, I quite agree with you ! My thinking at the time was that the silver paintwork would be very pale so pale grey leather but when I saw it back in the interior I did regret not going with a mid-grey closer to the colour of the old fabric. It's slowly growing on me tho.
One really minor question, though, just out of interest: why didn't you continue the silver lower half round into the inner edges of the door-frame? I like the sill-tread but noticed it still sat against blue, when I would have assumed it would be silver...
sings 'money money money, it's a rich man's world' The bodyshop bill was extortionately expensive, just about 3 times as much as my old bodyshop quoted, so I cut a corner there. Also had a few thoughts - a. I don't know if the Volvo two tone has silver in the door frame and b. if Snazzy outlives my driving days, it makes it slightly less expensive if her next owner wants to return her to original livery

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:24 pm
by Jay-Kay-Em
Hi Sylvia

Many congratulations on getting SNA22Y back!

If you have survived a paintshop bill not having to re-mortgage your house you have done well :lol:

In time I will feel the same pain.

That front-on photo looks a treat!

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Oct 26, 2020 2:25 pm
by dcwalker
All as logically thought through as I would have expected of you :lol:

David

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 9:55 am
by dragonflyjewels
Snazzy wasn't on the road for long back in the autumn and was due to come out of hibernation on 1st March. HOWEVER, her re-furbed wheels still haven't been fitted. The blasting company we used for the refurbs was absolutely swamped with work during lockdown last year. It seems all their regular customers descended on them with every project they could lay their hands on to make sure they didn't go bust. There was so much metalwork in their yard we couldn't even drive in, never mind access the car ramp, so I declined to book Snazzy in until the madness passed. It turns out the n/s front is losing pressure big time - flat as the proverbial when we went to get her out of store. Worse was to come - under the front bumper, just in front of the offending wheel Al spotted this on the garage floor:

Image

Very neatly sheared off at the top ! Sent a photo to Jeff who luckily had R3's front end exposed so he was able to identify it as a subframe bolt. I think the flat tyre must have been a problem while she was off the road and she has spent quite some time cocked over at enough of an angle to make the bolt give up on life. Due to where it sits in Jeff's garden, the breaker Celebration 312 is awkward to get at. Our hero had a very uncomfortable time with his arm twisted up and into 312's innards to retrieve a replacement which arrived in the post next day. I was warned to need to go shopping whilst Al fitted it as his temper is not the best when jobs turn tricky. His first verdict was that there was no way he could do it, he'd taken the wheel off and found access virtually impossible (I suspect that was Jeff's only option). However, the following day he decided to to put Snazzy's front end on ramps and have a look from under the bumper, and lo and behold, he managed to first retrieve the broken top which was still sitting in situ and then get the replacement in. A quick conversation with Jeff on how far to torque it up, then all four bolts checked and job done.

Meanwhile, I kept Lily on the road for March so Al has been pumping Snazzy's tyre weekly. We have the Saab on the road all the time, and there's no point taxing more than one 480 at a time whilst we are in lockdown. Now Snazzy is taxed for April and has an appointment to have her wheels swapped over next week - at long last ! Then she's off to get a much needed service and with a bit of luck I'll be able to drive her more than just once a week to pick up my click and collect grocery order.

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 5:34 pm
by Alan 480
IMHO I'm surprised if a flat tyre would cause the subframe bolt to shear!!
more likely that the front spring would fail (been there) :(

maybe better sweet talk Jeff to get a another few looked out (and butter up Al) to check the other one at front?
do you still have the bolt, worth looking at the end that is sheared off to see if a'long standing' / 'sudden' failure?

mind you normal bolts could be used if push came to shove?

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:42 pm
by dragonflyjewels
IMHO I'm surprised if a flat tyre would cause the subframe bolt to shear!!
Possibly flat for the last 2-3 years ?
maybe better sweet talk Jeff to get a another few looked out (and butter up Al) to check the other one at front?
do you still have the bolt, worth looking at the end that is sheared off to see if a'long standing' / 'sudden' failure?
The thought had occurred to me that replacement bolts all round might be a good idea, but I won't ask Jeff until he has better access to 312. The sheared end does have a bit of rust, could be that it started a while ago and was hanging on by a thread for a while.
mind you normal bolts could be used if push came to shove?


Always an option if there is enough access to grip the head. These have a square plate welded just below the head so once it's inside the square casing that makes access so goddam difficult, it's held firmly in place while the nut goes on. I've kept the broken one with the thought that my engineer brother might make some up for me if necessary.

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Apr 05, 2021 8:56 pm
by dragonflyjewels
Whilst browsing through flickr photos of 480s looking for Celebrations for the register, I found a couple of photos of Snazzy take in 2015, apparently at Snetterton Race Track - she's famous !

https://www.flickr.com/photos/7430965@N ... c-2aoUnvp/

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:39 pm
by dragonflyjewels
Snazzy went in to finally have her re-furbed wheels fitted today, we left her sitting between a Range Rover and a new Porsche. She still held her head up high with her wonderful new livery despite the competition. She positively sparkled in the sun. Now, over the last 2 or 3 years we've had all our wheels re-furbed, starting off with the set that came off Eva when her Pictors went on, so each time it's been a ready refurbed set swapped on and another set taken off to do for the next car in. Somewhere along the way, a set of Vesa centre caps has gone missing :cryhard: Snazzy has come home looking like this, and I really rather like the look without caps Comments welcome !

Image

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2021 7:24 pm
by Norm57
dragonflyjewels wrote:
Mon Apr 12, 2021 3:39 pm
Snazzy went in to finally have her re-furbed wheels fitted today, we left her sitting between a Range Rover and a new Porsche. She still held her head up high with her wonderful new livery despite the competition. She positively sparkled in the sun. Now, over the last 2 or 3 years we've had all our wheels re-furbed, starting off with the set that came off Eva when her Pictors went on, so each time it's been a ready refurbed set swapped on and another set taken off to do for the next car in. Somewhere along the way, a set of Vesa centre caps has gone missing :cryhard: Snazzy has come home looking like this, and I really rather like the look without caps Comments welcome !

Image
Are they the caps I have Sylvia? If so will bring them to next meet. Cheers Norman

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2021 7:58 pm
by dragonflyjewels
Thanks Norman - that's very kind. The part no is 3416507

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2021 9:49 pm
by arthuy
They do look good with or without caps.

Very much like SD1 vitesse or jaguar lattice wheels.

Perhaps a centre cap to cover the hubnut would work well.

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Tue Apr 13, 2021 5:36 pm
by dragonflyjewels
Perhaps a centre cap to cover the hubnut would work well.
Ah, yet another option ! I like the sound of that.

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 9:27 am
by dragonflyjewels
Snazzy and Sven were spotted at the Haynes Breakfast Club by an Instagram user - now do I post on Snazzy and Sven's threads or on the Breakfast Club thread or maybe even in spotted ??!! So, photo's here and on Sven's and complimentary text on the Breakfast Club

Thank you Jeff for sending it to me, Instagram is a total mystery to me as Jeff found out when I couldn't even sign in as a guest never mind set an account up !

Image


here is one of the comments:

joe_m
These are cool.. never see them out in the wild. Last one I saw was at the Powderham car show two summers ago. Love the blue ones 'snazzy' plate 👌

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 4:36 pm
by MisterH
They got picked up by the Classic.Retro.Modern. Instagram account too, fitting given the content of their launch title...

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Fri May 12, 2023 7:03 pm
by dragonflyjewels
Flicking through last year's photos on my phone, I suddenly dawned on me that that Al's efforts last year were unrecorded on here.
Next upgrades on Snazzy:

Image

Early pile carpet replaced the original late felt-type one. DC kindly gave me a matching boot carpet, which looks quite acceptable with the late carpet on the backs of the rear seats as the colour is very close.

Image

Electrics exposed and roof lining out

Image

Roof handles from 440/460 wired and sort-of fitted, plus rear dash cam hard wired

Image

and while it was bare, I smothered the roof in sound deadening

The roof lining is now back in, but the final fitting of the handles got put on hold - there isn't a flat surface to screw them to so Al's a bit worried about them.

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Fri May 12, 2023 8:32 pm
by WillC9303
Love the progress, sound deadening is something I want to fit to mine in the summer.

As for the grab handles, they won't fit well as you don't have the support brackets for them.
As you probably know, only the very, very, very early 480's (basically pre-production) had rear grab handles - so those brackets will probably be non-existent (unless the 440/460 have them?). I'm sure something can be fabricated fairly easily to fit in its place though.

Image
Above picture taken from here: http://volvo480.myds.me/v480eu/downloads/section8.pdf (Page 13)

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Fri Sep 29, 2023 9:21 pm
by dragonflyjewels
It was Snazzy's turn to go to the French 480 club meet this year. The ferry prices had gone up a lot, so we decided to just take one car even though the meeting was in Compiegne, north of Paris rather than deep in the south.

Image
Image
Image
Image

Even though the temperature was in the 90s, all went well Friday and Saturday, until late afternoon when we returned to the gite where we were based. We'd spent the afternoon doing a roadbook (or treasure hunt). I'd last checked the oil and water temperatures about 2 or 3 miles before we got back and they were both normal. I pulled up to reverse into a space at the end of a row of 480s and suddenly warning lights lit up the dash like a Christmas tree and a great cloud of steam billowed out from under the bonnet. Engine off straight away so Al had to push me back revealing a large puddle of water with coolant. A quick look under the bonnet revealed all the wet was around the header tank and none anywhere else, so it looked as though she hadn't burst a pipe. Sunday morning we had about a dozen excitable Frenchmen around the nice cold engine bay all babbling away, surrounded by toolboxes they kept dipping into. Out came the fan or at least out came the fanblades, with the centre melted and no sign of a motor. That came out seperately. They topped up the coolant and started the engine with the cap off the header tank to watch the pattern of bubbles. The head honcho decided it was normal so the head gasket was unlikely to be blown. She had a slight misfire so he laid his hands on the block and pronounced the camshaft seals will need changing before much longer but predicted that the misfire would go once the engine settled down, and it did.
Meanwhile, we rang our breakdown insurers and were told that the procedure was to take the car to a local garage to see if it could be repaired. If not, she would have to go into secure storage for about 3 weeks before being repatriated, but only if the total cost was less than the car's value. They had a backlog due to the very hot weather, and we were warned that the storage charges were very expensive. With 220,000 miles on the clock I was having nightmares about leaving her there and then being told she wasn't deemed worth enough to come home so she was being scrapped. Then there was the question of luggage - we were told not to leave anything in the car but we couldn't possibly have carried it all for a return journey on public transport.
We were taken to the mid-day meal by one of our English-speaking friends and there was a lot of debate over the meal, again all in French. The upshot was that one local member shot off home to check his parts stash but sadly found he didn't have a fan. Plan b went into operation on Monday - another member did a 4 hour return trip to a 3rd member's house to collect a fan which his brother then fitted for us having taken a half day from work. He'd been given a list of instructions for refilling the coolant and double checking everything was ok. Much to my relief, Snazzy drove all the way home with no further issues.
One of the options Al and I had debated was to leave the car somewhere secure whilst we came home by train, hired a trailer and went back to pick her up. The only doubt was whether the hire company would allow us to take it out of the country. We checked when we got home, and they were fine with it as long as we told them in advance, so we'll know that's an option in future. We'd just need to check the Saab's insurers were ok to cover it and maybe pay an extra premium.
I'm very thankful she blew her top when she did, and the French all rallied round to sort it out for us. If it had happened after we'd left it would have been so much worse.

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2023 11:47 am
by WillC9303
Glad Snazzy is all sorted now. Done very well considering the mileage!

Re: Snazzy's story

Posted: Sun Oct 01, 2023 7:29 pm
by jamescarruthers
Wow, quite a heart in mouth moment there Sylvia. As you can imagine, I sympathise. Glad you got some great help from our French cousins-- it restores your faith in humanity when things like this happen to you.