Rescue Car: R3

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jifflemon
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by jifflemon » Tue Jan 19, 2021 8:42 am

Alan 480 wrote:
Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:40 pm
for cleaning the area around the plugs I made up an adaptor for the hoover with a section of 6mm air line, mahooosive sook so when scratch about with a 'pointy thing' it wheeches the debris out and away from the plugs, I could have used the air-line but then the cr@p is blown all over the place....
Have thought about doing similar - Spark sized tube adaptor to sit over the top. Crap being blown everywhere doesn't really bother me, cos the engine bay clean sorts that....

Alan 480
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by Alan 480 » Tue Jan 19, 2021 5:59 pm

jifflemon wrote:
Tue Jan 19, 2021 8:42 am
Alan 480 wrote:
Mon Jan 18, 2021 5:40 pm
for cleaning the area around the plugs I made up an adaptor for the hoover with a section of 6mm air line, mahooosive sook so when scratch about with a 'pointy thing' it wheeches the debris out and away from the plugs, I could have used the air-line but then the cr@p is blown all over the place....
Have thought about doing similar - Spark sized tube adaptor to sit over the top. Crap being blown everywhere doesn't really bother me, cos the engine bay clean sorts that....
yes if you are planning to steam clean it the cr@p won't matter :-)
I should have also said can be used with long thin screwdriver (and LOTS of care) with the plugs removed to clean up the seat of plugs against the cylinder head..
Alan

480 ES 2litre 'Celebration' ? , C30 1.8ES, SS1

jifflemon
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by jifflemon » Tue Jan 19, 2021 9:25 pm

So.... More cleaning. :D

First up, the boot carpet was removed, along with the rear plastics.

This revealed a few things:

A surprising solid rear floor

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and a rather large spider living in the rear wheel cover.

Screamed and threw it into next doors garden. Contemplated burning it to play it safe, as I've plenty of spare ones...... :rofl:

Then took the rear seats indoors; The lower parts had already been removed; Although perhaps "removed" is quite the right choice of word.

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Lower rear seats had a little get together with two of my friends

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and then the rather damp carpet was given the same treatment...

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There's two reasons for using Pet carpet cleaning solution; The first and most obvious is that I've got a dog and its what I use on my carpets! However, the second is that cleaners designed for dealing with pet odour have a active enzymes to kill bacteria and nutralise the odours.

The upper seat backs were removed and given the works - This is just from the two upper seat backs....

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The boot carpet wasn't vac extracted - It was that filthy that I just scrubbed then power showered, then repeated until only clean water coming out of it. It drip dried in there for several days which made showering fun! The things I do for these bloody cars.....

With the rear looking clear, it was time to clean some more....

the before

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and the after

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it may not look that different in the photos, but the cobwebs have gone and the floor has been vac'd and scrubbed with degreaser. All goes to getting rid of the musty smell!

Finally, see the picture with the blue stuff on the carpet? Well, imagine sticking your head (or camera phone) into the arch (where you can see the sound deadening and the release cable) and looking back towards the wheel arch....

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That's what you see....

and what you don't see, is any rust!

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MisterH
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by MisterH » Tue Jan 19, 2021 10:33 pm

Is it ok that I am finding this thorough clean really captivating? It's like watching a forensic investigation. I'd better get to bed before I think of anything dire, my car hasn't had this level of taking apart, while I know it is solid, I just want to believe...
Current Jobs to do (23/1/22):
Fix Central Locking
Fix drivers side speaker
Annoying Scratching Squeak
Water leaks
Complete Front O/S rebuild

jifflemon
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by jifflemon » Mon Feb 22, 2021 9:34 pm

Been getting tired of seeing stuff like this

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So, with winter hopefully gone, this weekend saw the weather get in the dizzying heights of "being able to work outside for more than 5 minutes without my fingers turning blue" :rofl:

First things first, fill the sink with boiling water.....

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The blue container screws onto the cavity wax injector, and the milk bottle contains a .9l of dynax-s50 and .1l of white spirit to help thin and make it flow easier, because its still not THAT warm out...

Half an hour of high pressure fun later and the rear arches, Sill and door cavities are looking like this

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Lets just say there's a good coating in there..... :roll:

So, next step was to get the front seats out, which of course meant dealing with the seat bolts..... :angry:

For anyone who has never dealt with seatbolts, three things you need to know.

1) They're a Torx 50 headed M10 bolt, lock-tighted in place at the factory
2) They've probably been sat in damp water soaked carpet at some point in their life.
3) Access to them, particularly at the front, is not the easiest.

Meet "the easy one"

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I however, was not worried. Because I have spent money on what is possibly, my absolute favourite tool. Say hello to my little friend..

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An inductor gun does all the work of a traditional "hot spanner" without any of the worries about setting the car, yourself or your surroundings on fire. Wrap that little coil around the exposed bit of bolt under the car, hit the button and 12 seconds later, the bolt is cherry red and comes undone with absolute ease. Never in my life have I been so happy.... :lol: The instructions warn that 2 minutes is the maximum amount of time the tool should be used on a single bolt; Honestly, I think after 1 minute any bolt would be liquid! :rofl:

And here's a bolt, cooled down, showing no damage at all

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And thus my living room gained a new pair of seats

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Of course, removing the front seats left us with some more challenges....

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But this is not our first rodeo.....

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Drying the carpets would be great if the heater worked.... which it didn't.

A quick bit of troubleshooting led me here, tucked up in the corner near the CEM, viewed through the removed glovebox.

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after re-making the three earths, we had a working fan, but no means of changing direction, which means....

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MisterH
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by MisterH » Mon Feb 22, 2021 10:18 pm

Wow I can feel the glee coming through the screen of my phone reading about that bolt heater!

That vent control panel is different to mine, either this is one of the last of that style or mine is one of the first of the simplified style (no buttons)
Current Jobs to do (23/1/22):
Fix Central Locking
Fix drivers side speaker
Annoying Scratching Squeak
Water leaks
Complete Front O/S rebuild

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Jay-Kay-Em
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by Jay-Kay-Em » Tue Feb 23, 2021 4:45 pm

Car seats in the house and fed up with the cold working conditions.... snap!

Just skimming the old photos and its good to see other cars with trim panels removed. In particular, the wiring harnesses secured with whatever tape the factory could find, and the mounting method of the red "bulb-monitoring" box at the nearside rear quarter. I looked at mine and laughed saying no way that's factory... .errrr yep it is!

One day, maybe one day, i'll have a 480 with stripy carpets. We can but dream :D
Jay-Kay-Em
-------------------------------------
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Alan 480
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by Alan 480 » Tue Feb 23, 2021 5:52 pm

an inductor gun does all the work of a traditional "hot spanner" without any of the worries about setting the car, yourself or your surroundings on fire. Wrap that little coil around the exposed bit of bolt under the car, hit the button and 12 seconds later, the bolt is cherry red and comes undone with absolute ease. Never in my life have I been so happy.... :lol: The instructions warn that 2 minutes is the maximum amount of time the tool should be used on a single bolt; Honestly, I think after 1 minute any bolt would be liquid! :rofl:

Jeff
and are these within the reach of your average penny pinching (adopted) Aberdonian?


JKM
I have stripes on the carpet too, but sadly of the orange/rust colour :wink:

serious amount of graft going into these 'rescue vehicles'
Alan

480 ES 2litre 'Celebration' ? , C30 1.8ES, SS1

jifflemon
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by jifflemon » Wed Feb 24, 2021 8:58 am

Jay-Kay-Em wrote:
Tue Feb 23, 2021 4:45 pm
Just skimming the old photos and its good to see other cars with trim panels removed. In particular, the wiring harnesses secured with whatever tape the factory could find, and the mounting method of the red "bulb-monitoring" box at the nearside rear quarter. I looked at mine and laughed saying no way that's factory... .errrr yep it is!
Am contemplating selling some Duct tape on eBay as "genuine Volvo 480 mounting tape" :rofl:

jifflemon
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by jifflemon » Sat Mar 06, 2021 9:53 pm

Another weekend, and some more tinker time on R3.

I'm sure we've all seen on of these before.

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Well, no more! Be gone!

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And remember that battery positive wiring?

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Well, also now gone! (and megafuse in place)

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and we had a failed pop up. Can you guess which side? The nice simple passenger side one? Noooooo, of course not!

So nose cone removal at least gave me a chance to do some cleaning...

like the "tidemark" on the front bumper

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Or the cobwebs in the bumper corners

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as well as swapping out the dead motor (gear failure I suspect, knob just about turns, spindle doesn't)

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MisterH
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by MisterH » Sat Mar 06, 2021 10:06 pm

Looking good Jeff, this is shaping up to be a real star!

I hope we will be able to meet it at a meetup foreseeably...
Current Jobs to do (23/1/22):
Fix Central Locking
Fix drivers side speaker
Annoying Scratching Squeak
Water leaks
Complete Front O/S rebuild

jifflemon
480 Is my middle name
Posts: 2464
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2016 11:03 am

Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by jifflemon » Sat Mar 06, 2021 10:39 pm

The most fascinating part of doing these rescues is discovering just how much stuff Volvo removed from the cars... it’s truly fascinating! I get economies of scale, but the early cars, for all their foibles, are somehow “more complete”.

I sense a a new post in the not so distant future....

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MisterH
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by MisterH » Sat Mar 06, 2021 10:53 pm

jifflemon wrote:
Sat Mar 06, 2021 10:39 pm
The most fascinating part of doing these rescues is discovering just how much stuff Volvo removed from the cars... it’s truly fascinating! I get economies of scale, but the early cars, for all their foibles, are somehow “more complete”.

I sense a a new post in the not so distant future....
It's odd, there can only be months separating my car and R3, and the latter has a different heater control. I have suggested PetrolBlog takes a look at the R cars
Current Jobs to do (23/1/22):
Fix Central Locking
Fix drivers side speaker
Annoying Scratching Squeak
Water leaks
Complete Front O/S rebuild

jifflemon
480 Is my middle name
Posts: 2464
Joined: Sat Dec 17, 2016 11:03 am

Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by jifflemon » Mon Mar 08, 2021 4:27 pm

And in case anyone was wondering how long I could keep staring at the filthy expansion tank, the answer is:

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I think a radiator flush out will be called for too....

jifflemon
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by jifflemon » Sun Mar 14, 2021 4:47 pm

So, another weekend of R3 work...

the rad flushing was started. I say started because one flush is not going to be enough to satisfy me; Not when this was the first dump...

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The rad has been off and flushed separately until clean, so there's still a lot in the pipework. I'll replace the water pump when I do the cambelt. Speaking of pipework, I replaced the heater hose. Save some weight too as I only needed two to fit the replacement...

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Next on the list was to free off the brakes. To give you some idea, the car sits on my sloped driveway, and without being in gear or having the handbrake on, doesn't move... even with a shove!

the rear was a little "photo light" as I was rushing but it went from this:

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to this

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And yes, that's the other side!

Trailing arms and disc shields were wirebrushed and Vactan'd. Brakes were pulled apart, pads unseized from the carriers, sliders lubed, de-rusted and all put back together, along with some new rear shocks. I'll get some more shots of true finished results when I flush the brake fluid and clean the wheels.

Then to the front.

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Lush eh?

That soon became

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now that doesn't look healthy......

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So break out the toys

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and inspect....

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Now it looks horrendous. But, that's just an advisory item. "subframe has surface corrosion". I'm sure like me, you've seen many a 480 with an just such an advisory. Well, let's do something about it!
But first, a brief advert....

Do you not have enough danger in your life?
Do you dream of being showered in rust and needle sharp metal spikes?
Would you love pulling those metal spikes from yourself and clothing for weeks to come?

If so, you should try all new evil spinning wheel of death!


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If you've never used a knot wheel on a grinder, I genuinely cannot stress the importance of safety gear. Glasses and thick gloves are a bare minimum; consider a full face mask, hat and several layers of clothing. Seriously. They're evil things! But oh do they do good....

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All cleaned metal was Vactan'd before getting a coating of stone chip.

then it was the same story as the rears; Clean everything, lube everything, reassemble with a new wishbone.

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And then to the other side....

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etc etc and boom:

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the subframe now looks much happier

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Although I've still got to do a full brake fluid flush, as well as torque down those wishbones bolts.

And you have NO IDEA how hard it was to leave these like this.... (for now)

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jifflemon
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by jifflemon » Sat Mar 27, 2021 9:53 pm

So....

Its been something of a voyage of discovery. Grab yourselves a beverage, some snacks and pull up a pew.....

R3 came without a clutch cable. Ok, technically not true, the clutch cable was one of the many parts stuffed in the boot, but it came without the clutch cable connected, and we kinda need it connected to settle the front suspension down before torqueing to final figures.

I dug the cable out - It'd been repaired with one of those RAC/AA emergency repair cables. Meh! Lets grab a new one.

:lol: :rofl: :lol:

Yes, clutch cables are unobtainium. Most of the ones listed are actually for LHD vehicles.

So, grab a second hand one from the bay, spend an evening upside down in the footwell and voila?

Not quite....

Because with the cable slackened all the way off (with just enough thread for the locknut)

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the pedal was like this:

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And thus, down the rabbit hole we went....

Now, R3 is an early car. 6 months earlier than R1, so I went and had a look at R1. The pedal box is completely different. Less than 6 months between the cars, but the differences are incredible!

Various people were text and begged to go upside in their footwells (and I'm indebted to each of you!)

So, the early cars look like this:

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Whilst the later cars, like this:

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It'll become a clearer in a moment....

Sadly, I couldn't just grab the later pedal box from 312, as it's an auto (yes, I did check it!), so instead I spent 6 glorious hours upside down in the footwell of a 440 in lakes, removing the complete pedal box assembly.

You see, on the early cars, the clutch cable sits against the bulkhead. On the later cars, it doesn't. It passes THROUGH the bulkhead and sits on this huge spacer, which sits on a reinforced pedal mount.

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So, the later assembly looks something like this:

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and the earlier one like this:

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So, as you can see - the amount of "throw" on the cable is significantly different.

Now.... Just to fit it all.

step 1: Lube up!
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I know the cables are lined, but a bit of extra lube is a god send.

What then followed, was 4 hours of cursing and swearing removing the old pedal box, followed by about the same to fit the new! It sounds simple enough. Remove the cross bar that holds the clutch and brake pedal in place, undo the 4 nuts on the servo, a couple of bolts and that's it. Except that the servo was probably fitted AFTER the pedal box, meaning you need to remove it (and the master cylinder/brake pipes) to make removal of the pedal box "easy".

I shall spare you the details, but it's done. I was ruined for the rest of the week, but we now have a working clutch - Which was actually a worry; imagine doing all that and discovering the actual clutch was knackered?

So this weekend, we did light duties - No, not actual rear light duties - just gentler things....

For example, this horrible thing has finally been removed.

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So we have a normal tailpipe now!

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Also popped the front seats back in
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then noticed the side plastic was cracked. Luckily I had one in stock, so whipped it off and discovered this!

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Yes, I googled the address - It's a key cutting shop that's still there! Anyway, replacement panel on!

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The list of jobs before MOT is getting shorter and shorter now..... :hopping:

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dragonflyjewels
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by dragonflyjewels » Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:21 pm

Another mammoth WELL DONE due !! Hot bath to start recovery ?

I wonder if that key was hidden there as a spare, or just lost down the side of the seat....
Sylvia

Snazzy - 1993 Paris Blue ES red dipstick 2.0i bought 2001
Lethal Lily - 1991 White Turbo
Paris the Unicorn - 1991 Paris Edition
hubby has
Sven - 1994 Racing Green GT
Evil Eva - 1992 Paris Blue Turbo

no previous 480s - can't bear to sell any

jifflemon
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by jifflemon » Sat Mar 27, 2021 10:30 pm

lost down the side I'd say - it'd hooked itself on the framework, so I bet they probably spent a good while looking for it!

I'd had the seat out, cleaned it and hadn't found it! :eek:

JohnO
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by JohnO » Sun Mar 28, 2021 12:37 am

What a saga, but love watching the car being resurrected.
What are the purpose of the rescue cars?
JohnO
Central Scotland
M ybw Celebration 51/480 just adopted from fellow member
F ggg Black 480 es 1989 - garaged for 20 years, rotten arches

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dragonflyjewels
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Re: Rescue Car: R3

Post by dragonflyjewels » Sun Mar 28, 2021 8:52 am

The original idea was was to have a pool car to lend out to members will without their own 480 on the road so they could use them for meets. We have moved on to rescuing as many sound 480s as possible - once back on the road they are looking for new homes in safe hands. The aim is to sell them for enough money to cover all costs plus put a bit extra in the fund.

Many thanks for your donation, we had just run out of cash so it was very welcome. R1 and R3 have both proved quite mammoth rescues - both with great bodywork but much more challenging mechanical issues than first thought. R2 has already been re-homed, with just enough work done by Jeff to get it road worthy and the rest left to the new owner who wanted the project.
R4 is waiting in my carport for transfer to Jeff when he has space. It's a precious turbo, although left hand drive, and needs a bit of bodywork so we are hoping to raise enough from R1 and R3 to cover that.

We have several members in Scotland, you may have seen on here that I organise meetings and in a normal year theres one north of the border. You will be very welcome to join us, it's great to have new wedgie fans on board - this has to be one if the friendliest car clubs ever!
Sylvia

Snazzy - 1993 Paris Blue ES red dipstick 2.0i bought 2001
Lethal Lily - 1991 White Turbo
Paris the Unicorn - 1991 Paris Edition
hubby has
Sven - 1994 Racing Green GT
Evil Eva - 1992 Paris Blue Turbo

no previous 480s - can't bear to sell any

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