Volvo 480 tail lights
Moderators: jifflemon, coyote1980, Rachel
Volvo 480 tail lights
Hello,
A few weeks ago I bought a 480 as my first car. Only the glass of the right tail light is broken.
Does anyone have a tail light for sale? If you want to sell a complete pair, I'm also willing to buy that.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards
A few weeks ago I bought a 480 as my first car. Only the glass of the right tail light is broken.
Does anyone have a tail light for sale? If you want to sell a complete pair, I'm also willing to buy that.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards
- dragonflyjewels
- 480 Is my middle name
- Posts: 1589
- Joined: Sat Dec 18, 2010 10:38 am
- Location: Norfolk
Re: Volvo 480 tail lights
Welcome to the club !!
Rear lights are not easily come by and usually quite expensive in good condition. Apart from the frustrations of unobtainable parts and other things that go wrong, the 480s are great fun cars and you will find lots of help and advice on the forum. We are a friendly bunch with loads of knowledge between us and always ready to help. I hope you enjoy driving your 480 as much as we love ours.
Rear lights are not easily come by and usually quite expensive in good condition. Apart from the frustrations of unobtainable parts and other things that go wrong, the 480s are great fun cars and you will find lots of help and advice on the forum. We are a friendly bunch with loads of knowledge between us and always ready to help. I hope you enjoy driving your 480 as much as we love ours.
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
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
-
- Advanced 480 rookie
- Posts: 561
- Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 8:11 pm
Re: Volvo 480 tail lights
So that you know, a few months back I paid £300 For a brand new one still in the box in France. Needless to say that it was after looking at a few EU EBay sites and trolling French version of Gumtree etc......RensV wrote:Hello,
A few weeks ago I bought a 480 as my first car. Only the glass of the right tail light is broken.
Does anyone have a tail light for sale? If you want to sell a complete pair, I'm also willing to buy that.
Thank you in advance.
Kind regards
Light clusters don't appear often and if you see a car being sold for parts the lights are either beyond repair or long gone.
Last week somebody in this Forum was selling a good pair for €375 on EBay (Spain?) but they are gone.
Light clusters are the physical representation of a term I learnt here: unobtainium
1993 Turbo auto called Skip for the important stuff
2011 Juke 190 for everything else
2011 Juke 190 for everything else
Re: Volvo 480 tail lights
The rearlights I had for sale on Ebay didn't sell finally. They had a 200 euro starting price and a 375 "buy it now" option.
I have them now for sale on the Gumtree-like Spanish site.
https://www.milanuncios.com/otros-recam ... 897318.htm
As I explained in the Ebay ad, this pair was damaged during transportation from it's previous owner. Bits of both upper borders plus the lower border of the left one broke. I have glued the bits with this special hard plastics glue. Then water-sandpapered with decreasing grane sandpaper (1000-2000-3000). And finally thoroughly polished.
Trying to be honest about this. You can see in the pictures where the lights broke and have been repaired, but I think this set is still in usable condition and would be a decent replacement for a broken beyond repair or deeply sunburnt ones. The shine is there. The fixed borders are also there.
The previous owner added a 4th fixation point in the middle, I guess for watertightness. Doesn't affect function of cosmetics. You can use it or just let it be.
I recently got my hands on a set of NEW ones. Don't ask how much I paid for theese..... So the other ones have to go.
I have them now for sale on the Gumtree-like Spanish site.
https://www.milanuncios.com/otros-recam ... 897318.htm
As I explained in the Ebay ad, this pair was damaged during transportation from it's previous owner. Bits of both upper borders plus the lower border of the left one broke. I have glued the bits with this special hard plastics glue. Then water-sandpapered with decreasing grane sandpaper (1000-2000-3000). And finally thoroughly polished.
Trying to be honest about this. You can see in the pictures where the lights broke and have been repaired, but I think this set is still in usable condition and would be a decent replacement for a broken beyond repair or deeply sunburnt ones. The shine is there. The fixed borders are also there.
The previous owner added a 4th fixation point in the middle, I guess for watertightness. Doesn't affect function of cosmetics. You can use it or just let it be.
I recently got my hands on a set of NEW ones. Don't ask how much I paid for theese..... So the other ones have to go.
1991 480 Black Turbo
2012 Seat Exeo ST
2013 VW Polo TSI DSG
2012 Seat Exeo ST
2013 VW Polo TSI DSG
Re: Volvo 480 tail lights
Thank youdragonflyjewels wrote:Welcome to the club !!
Rear lights are not easily come by and usually quite expensive in good condition. Apart from the frustrations of unobtainable parts and other things that go wrong, the 480s are great fun cars and you will find lots of help and advice on the forum. We are a friendly bunch with loads of knowledge between us and always ready to help. I hope you enjoy driving your 480 as much as we love ours.
- jamescarruthers
- 480 Is my middle name
- Posts: 2507
- Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2003 3:19 pm
- Location: Cambridge
Re: Volvo 480 tail lights
I have never attempted it myself but theoretically you can polish them back to life.
I have replaced mine and one day will attempt this on my old ones.
I'd recommend taking them out (so you don't polish the surrounding paint off), machine Polish with plenty of water and cutting compound and then having sprayed somewhere with a two-part clear lacquer, then a light polish.
The main site (you will need a different log-in) has an FAQ on how to do this, and over the years on the forum there have been a few good attempts documented about rear cluster restoration.
If you have the money though and a pair does come up, don't dither, just buy 'em!
I have replaced mine and one day will attempt this on my old ones.
I'd recommend taking them out (so you don't polish the surrounding paint off), machine Polish with plenty of water and cutting compound and then having sprayed somewhere with a two-part clear lacquer, then a light polish.
The main site (you will need a different log-in) has an FAQ on how to do this, and over the years on the forum there have been a few good attempts documented about rear cluster restoration.
If you have the money though and a pair does come up, don't dither, just buy 'em!
1987 Volvo 480 ES, 507274, 217 - Red (Ness)
2006 Citroen C6 Exclusive 3.0 petrol/LPG
2008 Mini Cooper convertible (Mau)
Previous 480's:
J123 CFU -- ES
J449 MNL -- ES auto
D864 CPV -- ES
L691 JFC -- Turbo
F70 MNR -- ES
H858 FGV -- Turbo auto
E981 KHM -- ES (509849)
2006 Citroen C6 Exclusive 3.0 petrol/LPG
2008 Mini Cooper convertible (Mau)
Previous 480's:
J123 CFU -- ES
J449 MNL -- ES auto
D864 CPV -- ES
L691 JFC -- Turbo
F70 MNR -- ES
H858 FGV -- Turbo auto
E981 KHM -- ES (509849)
Re: Volvo 480 tail lights
Yeah, unfortunately the right one is beyond repairjamescarruthers wrote:I have never attempted it myself but theoretically you can polish them back to life.
I have replaced mine and one day will attempt this on my old ones.
I'd recommend taking them out (so you don't polish the surrounding paint off), machine Polish with plenty of water and cutting compound and then having sprayed somewhere with a two-part clear lacquer, then a light polish.
The main site (you will need a different log-in) has an FAQ on how to do this, and over the years on the forum there have been a few good attempts documented about rear cluster restoration.
If you have the money though and a pair does come up, don't dither, just buy 'em!
If I find a good pair, I will definitely buy them
-
- Advanced 480 rookie
- Posts: 561
- Joined: Thu Apr 06, 2017 8:11 pm
Re: Volvo 480 tail lights
Balto will post to the UK. James is right, buy whatever you can.
1993 Turbo auto called Skip for the important stuff
2011 Juke 190 for everything else
2011 Juke 190 for everything else
Re: Volvo 480 tail lights
To anyone else interested here's a full report I've uploaded to my Google Drive.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
Since everyone here has always been polite, helpful, lavish I feel compeled to share this pictures. I've uploaded a comparison between the ones for sale (upper ones) and new ones (lower side). What you see is what you get.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
Since everyone here has always been polite, helpful, lavish I feel compeled to share this pictures. I've uploaded a comparison between the ones for sale (upper ones) and new ones (lower side). What you see is what you get.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing
1991 480 Black Turbo
2012 Seat Exeo ST
2013 VW Polo TSI DSG
2012 Seat Exeo ST
2013 VW Polo TSI DSG
Re: Volvo 480 tail lights
They look good even compared to the new ones.
Would it be worth protecting the new lamps with some kind of UV lacquer to prevent them going the way of the originals?
Would it be worth protecting the new lamps with some kind of UV lacquer to prevent them going the way of the originals?
- dragonflyjewels
- 480 Is my middle name
- Posts: 1589
- Joined: Sat Dec 18, 2010 10:38 am
- Location: Norfolk
Re: Volvo 480 tail lights
We had ours professionally laquered 4 or 5 years ago, now it's starting to peel around the edges. I'm going to try stripping it all off and just keeping a good layer of wax on them.
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
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