Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Here you can start a thread about your 480 days. Only the starter of the thread is allowed to fill his thread, and only one thread per person. Threads are simply a personal diary.

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glasgowjim
480 Is my middle name
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Tue Oct 13, 2015 11:18 am

Forgot to add found the spring had snapped as well so the front suspension strut was changed over too. :D

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Wed Nov 11, 2015 10:37 pm

Winter tyres now fitted :D

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Sat Dec 26, 2015 7:26 pm

Found another linitation to the 480 :D

The length of the rear seat belts are a bit short ;) gave a lift to a friend of the wife the other night and she tried to fasten the rear seat belt Oh dear it was like a scene from Mr bean :rofl: not amount of twisting and turning could make this seat belt fit :D so wife and her had to swop places . Tried to not HIDE THE FACT THAT THE SEAT BELT WAS NOT TOO SHORT.... :rofl:

managed to get away with it cos its an old car".

Think I should have joined the diplomatic corps. :lol:

Alan 480
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by Alan 480 » Sun Dec 27, 2015 12:16 pm

glasgowjim wrote:Found another linitation to the 480 :D

The length of the rear seat belts are a bit short ;) gave a lift to a friend of the wife the other night and she tried to fasten the rear seat belt Oh dear it was like a scene from Mr bean :rofl: not amount of twisting and turning could make this seat belt fit :D so wife and her had to swop places . Tried to not HIDE THE FACT THAT THE SEAT BELT WAS NOT TOO SHORT.... :rofl:

managed to get away with it cos its an old car".

Think I should have joined the diplomatic corps. :lol:
AFAIK they fitted a UK belt and a USA belt to the front seats, guess which one was 8" longer :D
Alan

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

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Baxter
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by Baxter » Sun Jan 03, 2016 6:45 pm

:D :D :D
Hector.

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Mon Jan 04, 2016 12:06 am

Unbelieveably I had moted the car twice once in january and once in August ????

Havent a clue how that happened ? :tomato:
Still last year at work Sept 14 to June 15 was totally insane. So I suppose things went pear shaped a little but still dont know how it could have happened! :nuts:

Even have a printout from the MOT site as well :crazy:

double checked dates with this blog/diary as well still cant work it out ? :shock:

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Sun Jan 17, 2016 12:18 pm

Figured out how I managed to mot after only 6 months. I was having problems trying to figure out the problem with the front steering brakes , plus the rumble so the cheapest and easet way was to take it to my regular mot place and get it tested for less than £20 so I knew what was ok and what needed to be changed . And this radical solution worked.

The car now steers and brakes perfectly. Plus I changed over a snapped spring a bit later . Car runs 100% perfect now. :D

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Thu Jan 28, 2016 10:08 pm

At the weekend I changed out a broken inner door handle and fitted an uprated front speaker in the drivers door surprised how easy it wa. Needless to say the HBOL was absolutely useless :kill:

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Fri Apr 29, 2016 7:53 pm

Got the windscreen changed as it had developed a crack in the cold weather and it got gradually worse and worse so the insurance (+excess) paid for the fitting of a new screen :D

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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by Martin Mc » Fri Apr 29, 2016 9:15 pm

Hello Jim,

Who did you use for the windscreen change? Am probably going to have to get mine done to get back on the road... :nuts:
1991 ES White / 1995 ES Red / 1995 ES Red / 1994 S Black / 1995 Celebration Red / 1994 S Paris Blue / 1995 Celebration (again!) Red - Currently free of all extramarital cars, wrench-loose and fancy free :)

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Tue Jul 12, 2016 10:44 pm

Martin mac auto windscreens.

Did 2 runs to the dump at the weekend and got rid of 2/3rds of the contents of the shed of max density. Wiring loom a myriad of connectors etc...

now running down the remaining stash either as free or to sell. Need to work on Biffo when the weather improves a bit to get him looking spruce for his impending mot :?

Shortly after that I will be putting him up for sale and giving up 480's . There will be no replacement 480 he will be my last in line.

I will still drive a volvo but it will be a newer version/model that hopefully wont be high maintenance. Probably go for the V50 as its a small estate and thats more versatile for me now. What has changed is the fact that I have now retired and am looking to reduce the overheads and expenses and I just know that if I kept on the 480 then I would get a second one to play with :lol: and start seriously messing around around with it and maybe put a more modern engine in or a diesel and tool up for the you just see the £££££ signs . So be bold and bow out of 480 ownership. I will still keep on the moderating for a while just in case I cant go cold turkey. So stuff Brexit for me its going to be 480exit :lol:

tomorrow a third run to the dump to get rid of even more stuff and thats before I go to the 3 sets of alloys at the side of the house :D

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dcwalker
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by dcwalker » Wed Jul 13, 2016 8:53 am

Fully understand your reasoning Jim and very sensible it is too.

Have to say, though, it's the end of an era in the 480 world and I am sure the shockwaves will spread far and wide...like you say, stuff Brexit - this is serious! :wink:

David
Current: 1994 480 GT, 1996 460 CD & 1997 440 LE with lots of optional extras & 2007 V50 SE Sport
Previous: Celebration 331 (re-homed with Richard S), Celebration 467 (returned to Martin Mc); Celebration 346 (re-homed with Alan480); Celebration 269 (scrapped abandoned project), Celebration 73 (sold on after 6 years), 1992 ES, 1988 ES - and numerous other non-480 Volvos!

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Van
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by Van » Wed Jul 13, 2016 7:10 pm

dcwalker wrote:Fully understand your reasoning Jim and very sensible it is too.

Have to say, though, it's the end of an era in the 480 world and I am sure the shockwaves will spread far and wide...like you say, stuff Brexit - this is serious! :wink:

David
What he says.

Jim, it has been an experience to have met you through the internet. You have done so much for the 480 community you deserve an honor.
after over 10 years parted with the 1995 Volvo 480 ES 2.0

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Wed Jul 13, 2016 10:35 pm

thanks guys

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jamesy12345
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by jamesy12345 » Tue Jul 19, 2016 3:02 pm

Sorry to hear that Jim but sounds like you have good reasons for going that way. Glad to know you will be taking it easy now away from a stressful job. Unless the wife starts to give you work to do of course....!!
Current:
Volvo S60 '04
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Previous:
440 2 litre, 440 Turbo, 460 Turbo, 480 Turbo x2, 854 T-5R, S40 T4, V40 T4, S70 T5 & R, V70 R x2, S60 R

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Thu Jul 28, 2016 2:30 pm

Spent a pleasant hour taking a spare ignition lock apart and reseting the latches so that it works with my key as the ignition lock on biffo is getting very difficult to turn at times and this is increasingly the case.
These little cars are so easy to take apart and rebuild its wonderful. :D

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Fri Jul 29, 2016 10:14 pm

Typical of 480s just when I have stripped down the locks etc well now the lock is working 100% of the time it really is infuriating. Spent today removing and replacing the roof liner. ( in brilliant sunshine and heat :hopping:

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Sun Jul 31, 2016 3:49 pm

Roof liner in place and what a difference it makes. Went to change the rear brake pads in preparation for the MOT and snapped a bleed nipple :angry:

Went to change the rear OS flexi pipe and damn me its gone and seized on the brake pipe .

Totally teed off now :wall: :badmood: :angry:

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glasgowjim
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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Tue Aug 09, 2016 11:14 am

Well tomorrow was another day and an MOT one at that. :crazy:

So off I went fully expecting it to fail and damn me so it did but not on the ones I thought it would they passed it was on other things :cryhard:

Well the hard decision has to be made whether to spent a lot of time and effort and some money on a car I may well sell in a few weeks time or just to scrap it after taking the valuable bits off.

Just to add to the mix when I changed the roof lining I discovered that the inside of the old one was damp. So I suspect that the top right hand corner of the windscreen (as you sit in driver seat) has either not sealed proper;y or it has rusted some more and broken the seal a little. it can only get worse. Despite the use of Joeps seals the rear still leaks but it leaks in different places . The metal lip has partially corroded away in 2 places adding the the swimming pool. On top of that I prodded a rust spot with a screwdriver :tomato: and lo and behold flow thru ventilation :lol: :crazy: :nuts: :bla:

It really is not worth doing up when I can take off the best bits scrap and make a few hundred from the parts. Which is at best what I would make after selling and working solidly for a week . The car has been good to me but the work required to keep it on the road is too great.

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Re: Quick decline into the life of a 480 owner

Post by glasgowjim » Tue Aug 09, 2016 11:45 am

Decision made car will be stripped of the best bits and scrapped next week so the virtually new rear clusters and the very very good condition front clusters (euro version) plus the cem and auxiliary pump will be removed and put up for sale.

Then the extra spares will be sold off / given away or dumped.

:wave: :wave: :wave: :wave: :wave: :wave:

or

:cryhard: :cryhard: :cryhard:

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