Rescue Car: R1

[dragonflyjewels]

Al and I had a very tiring few days, entirely our own fault due to forgetting stuff and having to go back and get it. Plus we took Snazzy with us for a bit of electrical tlc from Jeff only to discover that the bodyshop had done something untoward when they refitted the fuel tank. We simply could not get fuel in from the pump, so Al ended up dispensing fuel into a can first, then using the thinner nozzle on that to get it into the car. Made filling up quite tediously slow, but it was great to have her back on the road. A lot of heads turned, and a pair of eastern Europeans in a very expensive looking Merc stopped on a garage forecourt and asked if she was for sale. They claimed to be car dealers from the biggest outlet in Milton Keynes but who knows? Totally irrelevant anyway, I'm sure they would have promptly lost interest if I'd given them a price. Dropped Snazzy off with Jeff on Sunday, nice socially distant meal in his local pub's garden, lots of chat about cars and fun with the floof, then off to our Travelodge for a good night's sleep.

Up and out early Monday to collect the car trailer and off we set for our rescue mission. Lovely bright sunny day, perfect for the drive and luckily it was easy to find. The wheel arches felt as good as they looked on the pics and the body was generally nice condition which was reassuring but inside looked a rather sorry state - badly faded interior panels and no seats but the carpet was surprisingly clean with no rust stains round the seat runners and no big ole greasy stains from being used as a cupboard for bits of 480. Even the rear lights will look presentable once polished.

First things first, battery was flat, even the big one didn't have enough charge so Al's lorry jump leads came out and between them they started it. Engine sounded very smooth once it got over the shock.



and off she set for a new adventure, squeezing behind an 1800S ~(terrible bodywork after 30 years in a container on a farm)





being loaded with a big ole toolbox in use as a driver's seat





Once safely loaded, we had a 'quick' tour round to see the other cars there, I began to think I was never going to drag Al away. You would never have guessed we had a fairly tight time schedule to get the trailer back by 5.

On the way back to Jeff's we had this wretched Volvo tailgating us all the way.



what's that peering in the back for ? Tried driving faster but we just couldn't get away from it

We kept in touch with Jeff so he knew how tight time was going to be, and had everything ready for a quick unload. Sorry no photos that end, I was too busy laughing. Al looked hilarious reversing her off the trailer with no toolbox to sit on. Only his head was at window level, no sign of a body ! Off we rushed to return the trailer and got there with just 7 minutes to spare. After the long tiring day and last minute stress we managed to forget yet another item - left our rear numberplate on the trailer ! Fortunately Al realised when he was filling up near the hire place, so we werent far away. Trailer return deadline was 30mins before closing to give them time to tidy the trailer yard so we got our plate back OK, then off to Jeff's to collapse on a garden chair with our first coffees of the day along with some yummy cakes our neighbour had made. Once recovered we had a better look at R1 and Jeff talked us through all the nightmare wiring. He couldnt wait to get started and we needed to be on our way back to Norfolk. Finally got home at midnight, and very glad to fall into bed after a satisfyingly successful mission.

Over to Jeff for the next update on this thread.

[MisterH]

Sounds like quite an adventure, I will try and get involved if I can. Why the R1 designation?

[Norm57]

Well done to everyone concerned, let’s hope that the parts spend is not too big.It will be good to get her/him back on the road and maybe someone can make use of the pool wedge.

[dragonflyjewels]

Sounds like quite an adventure, I will try and get involved if I can. Why the R1 designation?

Just Rescue 1 for want of a better name. Hopefully there will be more in the future.

[MisterH]

Sounds like quite an adventure, I will try and get involved if I can. Why the R1 designation?

Just Rescue 1 for want of a better name. Hopefully there will be more in the future.

We have quite a way to go to rescue that 4K white one on eBay, tho it could be cheaper to...rescue...the vendor

But a 480 Re-education centre sounds a bit dodgy to me...

[jifflemon]

Sorry, been something of a chaotic day, shall do full update soon. However, one thing I had with the car, was that Deja-Vu feeling; I'd seen it before I was sure.

Yup, the car's already a YouTube star!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWd7kdGSbUA&t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-eE4lWiaDI&t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db9HBOUMz44&t
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v37suTHfrRs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZDnReRWZhGo

Its proven a handy bit of reference material already, and it's good to know the history!

[MisterH]

You can't really get better history than that, other than perhaps a Wheeler Dealers/Car S.O.S. Episode.


Someone ought to let her know it's been saved by the Cult of Born...

[jifflemon]

Someone ought to let her know it's been saved by the Cult of Born...

Already have done!

she replied "The only car I’ve sold where I cried was the Volvo!"

[MisterH]

Someone ought to let her know it's been saved by the Cult of Born...

Already have done!

she replied "The only car I’ve sold where I cried was the Volvo!"

That's the thing with the wedgie, you can sell up any time you like, but you can never leave!

[dragonflyjewels]

Well done Jeff on identifying the utube history ! The sale doc to Amber says possibly the starter solenoid.

Looking through the car's documents, I'd really like to contact the previous owner and let him know his wife's pride and joy is safe. Such a shame the seats have gone. We're getting a set of late seats from the scrappy we bought her from but if an early set with blue piping ever comes up it would be great to have a proper interior.

[brinkie]

You can't really get better history than that, other than perhaps a Wheeler Dealers/Car S.O.S. Episode.

That would be fun, a Car S.O.S. starring a Volvo 480. Everybody throwing parts and knowledge to the production team so they can get the car in perfect shape again.

[MisterH]

You can't really get better history than that, other than perhaps a Wheeler Dealers/Car S.O.S. Episode.

That would be fun, a Car S.O.S. starring a Volvo 480. Everybody throwing parts and knowledge to the production team so they can get the car in perfect shape again.

Don't suppose we know anyone to nominate?

[dragonflyjewels]

Here is the link to the money pool again (just because it isn't on this thread) :

Donate here

We are now just £100 short of the initial target, set at £750. (£500 to buy the car and £250 for parts and mot test) It's great to know there is so much enthusiasm in the club to preserve our cars, especially at such a worrying time as mid-pandemic.

[Norm57]

Hi Sylvia, where is R1 located at the moment? I am coming down to east Suffolk on Saturday for a few days and would love to see it in the flesh.

[dragonflyjewels]

R1 is with jifflemon in Milton Keynes.

[jifflemon]

R1 is with jifflemon in Milton Keynes.

And you're MORE than welcome to pop in for a cup of tea and a poke around with spanners!

[Norm57]

R1 is with jifflemon in Milton Keynes.

And you're MORE than welcome to pop in for a cup of tea and a poke around with spanners!

Don’t think I will have time to come across that far. For some reason I assumed you were near to Sylvia. I am going to Aldeburgh and the east coast to see family. Funnily enough though I am in North Yorks my celeb originates from a Volvo dealer about 5 miles from there.

[dragonflyjewels]

Delighted to say the fund has now hit the target ! Many thanks to all the donors - it's things like this that make this club so special.
There will be ongoing costs so any further donations will be gratefully received and put to good use.

I've spent a few hours sorting most of the car's documents and can see it was very well cared for. The first owner had it regularly serviced at the Volvo dealer he bought it from, as expected. The second owner was a local lady who bought the car from the same Volvo dealer in 2000 and had it regularly serviced and mot'd up to 2011. It was then sorned, presumably she wasnt well enough to drive as she died in 2013. After that it stood until the young lady on utube bought it in 2017 and it's been off the road ever since. 9 years standing won't have been kind especially as it lived on the south coast
but with wheel arches like those it must surely have been garaged. The document file is the most complete I have ever seen - just one mot certificate missing and Jeff has just found a stack of tax discs in the holder on the windscreen. Thank goodness the previous owner didnt have the damaged screen replaced or they would surely have been chucked.

[jifflemon]

and so, it's update time...

I shall warn you all in advance, that if you've not already worked out, I tend to work in a random, Chaos inspired method! This will probably mean things look a whole lot worse before they get better, because, rather than fix 1 thing, I tend to find a fault, then if I have to wait for parts, I'll go on and find something else. The chaos part also needs taming.... again, this is where your help is needed. I'm trying to remind myself that we're probably working towards a usable car, rather than a perfect car, which is why Sylvia is in charge of the purse strings. However, I'm also a tight northerner so stuff only gets replaced when it really needs replacing, and the replacement parts are sourced to be the cheapest, without sacrificing quality!

If you haven't already, I'd suggest going and watching the You-tube videos; It'll give you a good background of the car as well as potentially an insight into what I'm dealing with!

Once the car was off the trailer, I moved it onto the drive. Comedy gold driving a car with no seat, a dead battery and engine that won't idle. Thankfully I made it on the drive with no drama, so the battery went on charge and I started to make the very obvious list of parts we'd need.

Exterior walk around

Interior walk around

An interior - As you know, the car had already started to be broken, but we've been promised some seats from the seller.
The side panels from the dash
A handbrake Square (fairly sure I've got one)
Aux guages - bit annoyed about this one, as they were in the photos, but appear to have been sold off. We do still have the sender though!
Drivers side Window frame seal.
Correct Battery and Battery clamp.
Aux water pump - Previous owners look to have removed it because "it ran when the engine was off"
Boot struts - The ones that are in are rated at 410NM each (the proper ones are 200nm!)
A mirror Cap for the OS door mirror.
Missing some relays (including the headlamp relay)
Rear lights (but I reckon I make the ones we've got MOTable)

At this point, 2 things happened.

Firstly, I simply HAD to remove all the bodged up wiring. It was seriously upsetting me.








Then it got a wash; Not a full two bucket scrub, but enough of a clean that it didn't look like it'd be dragged out of scrap yard via a hedge.

[jifflemon]

So, what happened next?

Well, now its time to see what we've got....

Lets start with the battery - It's deader than a dead thing. I thought one of my many battery charges may be able to revive it, but unless I hit with the jump start setting, its won't spin over.
The engine itself does start and run! so that's a promising start - what it won't do, is idle - either hot or cold.
Electrically is where the car is a nightmare....

Even after the removal of billy bodger's wiring, we've several "interesting" features.
The OS headlamp goes full pop cycle if the motor is connected. The headlamp washer pump runs continously too.
Billy bodger had rewired the horns and windscreen washer pumps, so as I'd removed his "wiring" (and I'm using that term in the loosest sense), I reconnected the original. Low and behold we had a working horn and working Windscreen washer pumps....

Which is where this story takes it's first of many diversions.... I did warn you about the whole Chaos theory way of working!

I like things clean; Especially if I'm working on them. The washer bottle was NOT clean...

Removal is simply pull out the pumps, and remove 2 10mm bolts...



oh and the expansion bottle is attached to it too! So obviously....





So, vigorously left to soak in a variety of household chemicals, we went back to the car....

First thing to do, was clean up this mess, now the bottles were out of the way.



Yuck!



Much better!

I recalled from the video that the dynamic duo had changed the alternator, but that it still wasn't charging properly. "ah" I thought, "classic volt drop."
I couldn't have been more wrong. Having not had the megafuse recall performed, and having a decent earth from the alternator, Volt drop was non-existent.

What was apparent, was the squealing belt under load. Which lead to the following discoveries...

Exhibit A:



When fitting new alternator, always remember to leave off the rubber insulating/spacing washer, as it'll let the alternator pivot incorrectly on it's mount.

Exhibit B:



Tension using "the force" instead of the tensioner, because you've made the tensioner look like this.....



As you know, I just *love* to do an alternator on a 480.... this one was no different to the others with it's stupid inaccessible french bolts...



in the meantime, our bottles were looking nicer....



so the temporary fudge on the alternator (new tensioner bolt needed, I've a spare alternator I can donate) had us charging nicely, and the engine bay looking a little better....