Volvo 480 Club Europe

One of these is cracked too; it’s just the standard procedure of wet’n’dry to get them flat. You have to remember that flat surfaces reflect light, thus look shiney. These however, even after flatting had a lot of deep surface scratching; if I’d have carried on flatting the risk would be thinning the plastic too much.

The lacquer simply acts as a thick flat surface over the top, filling in the tiny imperfections and making the upper surface flat and level.

Ultimately, new lenses are the ideal long term solution

jifflemon wrote: ↑

Sun Sep 06, 2020 6:17 am

One of these is cracked too; it’s just the standard procedure of wet’n’dry to get them flat. You have to remember that flat surfaces reflect light, thus look shiney. These however, even after flatting had a lot of deep surface scratching; if I’d have carried on flatting the risk would be thinning the plastic too much.

The lacquer simply acts as a thick flat surface over the top, filling in the tiny imperfections and making the upper surface flat and level.

Ultimately, new lenses are the ideal long term solution

Yes I think I see now. I would like to keep my rear lenses as original as possible, the issue is my cracked one is warped outwards and so is very difficult to work around

Well in the absence of updates from Jeff (who has been far too busy) I just wanted to thank the latest donors who have provided £150 which has promptly been spent ! As I type, one of our lovely members is on the way from a scrappie in Lincolnshire to the Sanctuary with a decent set of early seats with blue piping - exactly what R1 is missing ! The seats we were promised as part of the purchase have not yet materialised, and were from a late model so not right for R1 anyway. It was £150 we didn't envisage spending, but at least now Jeff wont be
pirating the seats from R3 and just moving the problem on down the line. Happy days !

That is great news. Blue piped seats are probably the rarest ones now. Maybe excluding GT and Paris Blue green seats of course!

Shall post a bigger picture update tomorrow once seat cleaning has begun, but yes, can confirm that our very our Edie Fox very kindly spent the day collecting, then driving 3 hours each way to safely deliver the seats.

It never ceases to amaze me meeting people who share the same passion for these cars!

So, seat update....

Here's what they looked like upon arrival, typical 20 year old seats.











Yes, we're missing a seat retractor, but that's being sorted.

So, lots of boiling hot water and upholstery cleaner mixed into a sprayer



And sprayed on liberally, then we breakout the power scrubber!





Before sucking out with a bissel carpet cleaner



and repeating numerous times until clean...





They'll probably all get another pass or two after they've had a few weeks to dry out, depending on how they're looking.

And the filth shot? well, here's what came out of the drivers seat.

Ewwww, the head rest grease.

The car will feel more like an actual car when it comes to putting them back in.

Good job though. Look great now.

Delighted to say that Jeff is now freed up to work on R1, bad weather and dark evenings permitting of course.

dragonflyjewels wrote: ↑

Tue Nov 03, 2020 8:35 pm

Delighted to say that Jeff is now freed up to work on R1, bad weather and dark evenings permitting of course.

Yes - we left around 1pm Jeff so I hope you got a few hours in on R1 before it got dark. Don't want you slacking now!

David

So with R2 now at the pamper parlour, it was back to R1....

As I'd discovered a lack of vapour barriers on R2, I thought I'd better check R1. Sure enough... Missing! Thankfully the speaker shields were there (and of better quality than the later ones!)



Next it was time to finally get those rear lights back in, so clean off the old seal/butyl gasket


And add nice new seals



and pop them back in



It was also time to do something about this:



Our very own James had unpicked a rear loom from the last 480's in Lakes, and so slowly and very carefully, it was grafted in, now looking like this:



I did a bit of raid on the personal stock pile too:





got to love working seat belt arms!

then there was this....















Some nice quick(ish) wins to get myself slowly back into the project....

Now, the begging bowl is coming out again: In need of:

The light prism from the dashboard.
Rear plastic headlining seal
Upper Quarter panels and clips (although I may have these!)
The rear seat retaining plastic - The thing that sits around the peg.

I picked up a replacement CEM which seems to have resolved the Driving lamp problem, however, I've caught it a few times with the driving lamps randomly on, along with the ignition surround LED; There's still some youtube stars wiring to resolve though!

Hmm, did you do those wheels yourself? Thinking of doing mine, where can I get the right colour?

Light prism as in headlight switch/fog etc switch pack?

David

dcwalker wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 08, 2020 5:36 pm

Light prism as in headlight switch/fog etc switch pack?

David

Yes!

MisterH wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 08, 2020 5:29 pm

Hmm, did you do those wheels yourself? Thinking of doing mine, where can I get the right colour?

There's no such thing! Pick a silver you like and use it! These (and my other wheels) are done in VW Aluminum Silver Metallic (paint code: Ly7m)

jifflemon wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 08, 2020 5:51 pm

dcwalker wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 08, 2020 5:36 pm

Light prism as in headlight switch/fog etc switch pack?

David

Yes!

MisterH wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 08, 2020 5:29 pm

Hmm, did you do those wheels yourself? Thinking of doing mine, where can I get the right colour?

There's no such thing! Pick a silver you like and use it! These (and my other wheels) are done in VW Aluminum Silver Metallic (paint code: Ly7m)

What is the closest thing to the one that was used at the factory? I would do it with the centre cap on obviously and use a model enamel paint to do the Volvo logo

Little R1 update for you.

Sadly, as the dark winter nights roll in, by the time I finish work it's pitch black which isn't conducisive to working on cars, so progress may slow a litle.

However, what we did manage get done, were some trivial, but important bits....

Anyone for a game of spot the difference?





Some of it came as a big donation from our very good man James;

In no particular order, we got some scuttle seals,



the idle air control valve mountings,



some bulkhead drains



And some of the bits you can't see, are a new cap, rotor arm, plugs and plug leads (pressed neatly into plug lead holder provided by James)



This has cured the misfire it had, but I've still a cold start idle problem to resolve. Once hot though....



As the seals and tailgate wiring have cured the leaking rear, it was time to get some of the interior back in.



Still need some rear seat mounting plastics to get the seat backs in, so if everyone could scan their spares....

Oh and the rear carpet is scheduled for a a scrub too!

Looking good Jeff and coming on well!

Regarding the cold idle, I remember that my 1988 480 back in the day frequently suffered from a poor idle. The main (but not only) culprit turned out to be that, for some reason, that particular car ate distributor caps for dinner - fortunately in those days they were common and easy to get and I just knuckled down to keeping a couple of spares in stock and changing them every few months...

However, you've replaced all that in R1, so that leaves the other culprit, which was the intake air temperature sensor - I went through a couple of those as well...

That car, in those long-gone days, was serviced and maintained by Volvo, and as with many early 480 faults although they managed to diagnose them they were never able to either explain them or permanently fix them.

On the rear seats, I'm not sure exactly which bit you mean. I have spare knob for the little release arm, but they both seem to be present. Is it the black plastic clips that are on the outside sides as part of the hinge set-up?

David

dcwalker wrote: ↑

Mon Nov 16, 2020 9:36 am

Looking good Jeff and coming on well!

Regarding the cold idle, I remember that my 1988 480 back in the day frequently suffered from a poor idle. The main (but not only) culprit turned out to be that, for some reason, that particular car ate distributor caps for dinner - fortunately in those days they were common and easy to get and I just knuckled down to keeping a couple of spares in stock and changing them every few months...

However, you've replaced all that in R1, so that leaves the other culprit, which was the intake air temperature sensor - I went through a couple of those as well...

That car, in those long-gone days, was serviced and maintained by Volvo, and as with many early 480 faults although they managed to diagnose them they were never able to either explain them or permanently fix them.

On the rear seats, I'm not sure exactly which bit you mean. I have spare knob for the little release arm, but they both seem to be present. Is it the black plastic clips that are on the outside sides as part of the hinge set-up?

David

Intake air sensor as well as the idle air control valve are the next things to be tested - Just ran out of time (and light!)

The plastic clips needed are indeed the black outer hinge type ones.

If needs be - and assuming the ICV is the same one as on the later 1.7 & 2.0 engines - I have a good working spare that you can have.

Sorry, don't have the hinge pieces though

David

Sooo a weekend with no snow can mean only one thing - Project car updates!

So, this weekend saw the following

this was always in need of replacement



So, following the usual dismantling and we discover a vary rare, in-tact dust shield!



So we splurge it in some lovely vactan



whilst the disc and carrier have a soak in some science....



We then launch into seized up crusty nuts with my new favourite tool



Which has them off in no time, and the wishbone cast aside....

Subframe was solid (but got a dousing of vactan to be safe)





But the wishbone was certainly passed it's best



Science nearly done



Disc shield looking presentable



so it's clean up the carrier bolts - Top tip: grip them lightly in a drill, spin and polish with the fine wet and dry. The boots are cleaned with hot soapy water, and the caliper carriers blasting clean with brake cleaner. Fill with red rubber grease and the assembled components should have a nice springy feel to them.



et voila!





(ok, so the carrier and caliper may have also been the recipient of some vactan action)

one side down, the other to go!

So Vactan does work...


I have been using it to quell the arches bubbling on mine (it has begun) and have not been convinced of its effectiveness (largely down to me not having the wheel off to apply it )