Volvo 480 Club Europe

I can see Paris had a visit to the Pamper Parlour



Far more illumination than any other of our 480s - Blackpool cry your eyes out

In the short time David had her, the dash came off to sort out various switches that weren't working, which turned out to be greenery growing inside. Obviously been wet behind there at some point in the past but there's no evidence of it on the carpets. Have to keep an eye on that. Anyway, thanks to David there's a lot working now that wasn't before and the inside had a good clean as well, so a big well done for cramming so much into a short visit.

I had a bit of a panic when I went through the pile of bills that came with her - no cambelt since 2005 ! However, the bills were all from the same garage, and nearly all for an annual MoT and service. No bill for 2011 or 2017, so a quick check on the online MoT history which showed a pass every year and the evidence was pointing to missing bills. A phone call to the garage resolved it all - cambelt changes done in 2011 and 2017, and they very kindly emailed me a pdf of their work history records. Perhaps the previous owner kept records of cambelts separately as reminders of when to get it done again ?

With Snazzy in for servicing and Lily on sorn, I've been using Paris and even with me getting in and out of the passenger door, the driver's hinge has got noticably worse. The door now won't even stay locked shut. All I do is close it gently whilst pushing in and up with my knee to hold it in position whilst I lock it. I've tried opening the driver's window before I close the passenger door but as soon as I pull away the drivers door unlocks and shows daylight over my shoulder. She's booked into the bodyshop for mid July, so she'll be off the road until then.

No way could she leave here with dashboard lights out!

So pleased to read that generally speaking Paris is shaping up very nicely, Sylvia. Shame about the door, but a common problem easily fixed, albeit annoying it stops you driving her for the foreseeable future...

David

I arranged to 'borrow' Paris from the bodyshop so she could go to the French club's annual meet. The door is much better now - the split by the lower hinge has been welded up, it's about 95% there now but could do with some less worn hinges. I'm guessing her previous owner had a habit of leaning on it. Al and I got the interior back in - I'd been working on the leather and we'd taken the plastics out to save a bit on the bodyshop bill. The back end got welded here and there and the intact rear bumper bar got treated, then a respray of the rear quarters. I got cold feet on the cambelt so a quick plee to Jeff and she got belts, water pump and dizzy replaced ready for her 1100 mile round trip, first to Germany to see my daughter and grandson, then across to Poitiers for the meet. Probably didn't need the belts but it was just peace of mind and the dizzy turned out to be pretty much shot.

Safely parked up on my daughter's drive



Whilst working on her Jeff spotted a small leak which seemed to be coming from the gearbox, so as soon as we got to Germany we took her in to have it checked and it took a litre of oil to top it up. Presumable it's been leaking for some time but gone unnoticed.



Then it was France, where we received a warm welcome from our many friends, particularly a lovely Belgian couple we meet up with the night before. Here's Paris parked behind their 480 on a visit to a dam to look for clues for the roadbook.



We were staying in a chalet on a campsite next to a lake, so we all lined up for photographs with a lovely background.



Next year the meeting will be in Compiegne, north of Paris, so a much easier journey. If anyone else fancies coming along, they will be very welcome. When we first started going, there were around 35 cars but this year it was down to 19.

Paris has now gone into our Pedantic garage man for her mot and check of the leaky gearbox. From there she will be 'test driven' back to the bodyshop. She will have the luxury of a heated and dehumidified store whilst awaiting the rest of the work - doors, front wings and front bumper to be sprayed. Whilst the bumper is off the bar will get rust treatment. Thanks to dc, she has two sets of spare door hinges to see if they are any better than hers.

The French meet does look epic, being a French speaker (after some acclimatisation) I have always wanted to go.

How did you find getting about without the dreaded UK sticker on the back? Not much trouble? I refuse to put one on, and I have a lot of reproduction late 80s/early 90s Seacat Hovercraft ones (if anyone wants any)

We just have the small UK stickers intended for motor bikes. Been using them for years and never been stopped.

MisterH wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 24, 2022 8:36 pm

The French meet does look epic, being a French speaker (after some acclimatisation) I have always wanted to go.

How did you find getting about without the dreaded UK sticker on the back? Not much trouble? I refuse to put one on, and I have a lot of reproduction late 80s/early 90s Seacat Hovercraft ones (if anyone wants any)

I was in France for a couple of weeks this year and drove most the length of it with no issues. I don't think anyone cares, rightly so. I can't remember many putting the GB stickers on 'back in the day'?

dragonflyjewels wrote: ↑

Tue Sep 27, 2022 6:52 pm

Very cool photo. Original font plates. Nice and shiny. Good rear lights.

Plus, fleck on the rear seat backs. Those who know, know

If you've read the horror story of Lily the white turbo getting flooded by storm Babet, you probably realised that Paris ended up in the garage that flooded. With storm Ciaran due just 6 days later, the worry was that the garage would flood again.

We had a chat to several people in the neighbouring houses, who explained that there is a stream which runs along behind us all into a tunnel under the old A11 and out the other side onto a much lower field which acted as a flood plain. Now they are turning it into yet another housing development, they were supposed to maintain the watercourse, either open or piped underground and create a flood basin behind the new houses. The suspicion is that they have simply blocked it off to dry the land enough to get the foundations in. There's no sign of any water behind them. Needless to say everyone is up in arms about it, and all the authorities are blaming each other. Meanwhile, nothing has been done and the media were saying that any areas flooded by Babet would likely flood again as there hadn't been time for the land to drain.

So, with 24 hours to go before Ciaran was due to hit Norfolk, we collected Paris from the garage. I didn't want to bring her home as she would have had to stand outside, and we are very low lying so there was always the possibility of us getting flooded. We live in the middle of nowhere, in a maze of narrow country lanes so there's no streets to park on. A newish NCP multi storey carpark at the hospital in Norwich is usually pretty much empty due to being more expensive and further to walk than the hospital's own carparks so I checked the rate for 24 hours - £13.30. I'm more than happy to spend £26.60 for her to sit in there for 48 hours and it's peace of mind for me. I couldn't bear the thought of dirty flood water staining her lovely leather seats and two cars to dry would have been a nightmare. She's up on the second floor, mainly to get away from the other cars, so she'll be bone dry. As it happens Ciaran was further out to sea than anticipated so it was only the coast that got hit here. We just have normal rain.

Now I'm thinking of fitting a flood barrier to the garage so we don't have to worry about it if we get a storm while we are away. Al wants to use ramps for one end and axle stands for the other. It which would be much cheaper but too much faffing around every time we change the cars over. I can't imagine our garage man wanting his blokes to go to all that trouble when they get a car out to work on either.

We were 'spotted' on facebook, on our way to the multi storey carpark.