240 General: New (to me) 1980 Volvo 244

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Wisbech is a very old port Alan and has a fairly large river flowing through it (Ouse or perhaps Great Ouse at that point, not sure) so it begs the question, is the house in Wisbech or one of the surrounding villages? If it's a surrounding village, depending on local conditions you may find yourself at sea level or below or possibly considerably higher.
If it's in the town, chances are you'll probably be ok as the houses tend to be built above the water table but obviously there's no guarantee.

I suspect having been a surveyor you could probably teach me a lot more about water tables than i could tell you.

St Johns Fen End, Dave, it is just about at sea level. I can see a dyke at the end of the next field on the imagery, perhaps 400m away. Not a good place to have a cellar!

:-)

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Othen

St Johns Fen End, Dave, it is just about at sea level. I can see a dyke at the end of the next field on the imagery, perhaps 400m away. Not a good place to have a cellar!

:-)

Been through it a few times but don't really know that part of the Fens, i do remember there are dykes on virtually every road, both sides and looking on Gaggle Mops, there's a pumping station not far from there. That sohuld keep the ground relatively dry.

Anyway, we've got your workshop more or less sorted and you've not even viewed it yet - cart and horse come to mind!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Othen

Those 16" steel wheels and winter tyres turned out to be perfect Dave - just exactly what I was looking for and a fair amount of life left in the winter rubber. As I'll be using them every winter I thought it would be worth investing a tiny amount (£21.99) is some hub caps, which arrived today:



... so for a total of £81.93 (for 4 x wheels, tyres and trims) I have a pretty good solution to safer winter driving.

I'm still quite pleased with myself about this little win.

:-)

Readers may recall me acquiring a set of steel 16" wheels with good winter tyres fitted a few weeks ago - and taking the opportunity to get the pretty scabby 7 year old rims on my Skoda Superb refurbished.

Well, I got the wheels back last eve and I must say they look - quite superb (excuse the pun):



The chap has done a first class job, the wheels look better than new in that he has powder coated the backs (and inside the rims) as well (they were unpainted behind from the factory - to save 50p/car I suppose):



The finish is really nice - slightly darker than the original (similar to the later cars):



... they look really nice on the car:



... which looks much better overall:



... and I've put my perfectly good steel wheels and winter tyres into storage until November:



As you may be able to tell, I'm pretty happy with this whole project for a total of £241.93 - and as an added bonus the irritating very slow puncture has disappeared :-)

Happy Alan.

PS. As another added bonus: I noticed (probably a year ago) that the solenoid that locks the fuel flap had stopped working. It didn't worry me much but was on my 'fix one day' list. I again noticed whilst filling up at Morrisons's gas station last week that it has fixed itself. Some things are better left alone :-)

[Laird Scooby]

Excellent result on the wheels Alan! I know you said the price for the wheels but can you remind me please?

A bit of silicone lube sprayed onto the fuel flap locking solenoid moving parts will help keep it working.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Clifford Pope

I used to assume that was true, until a few years ago I compared the weights of two bare Volvo wheels - alloy and steel. They were identical.

I had just been thinking "alloy is light". So it is, but the material is at least twice as thick.

While I was changing my steel winter tyres for the newly powder coated alloys ones I weighed one of each, and the very surprising result was:

Alloy wheel + 225/40R18 tyre: 23.0 kg
Steel wheel +205/55R16 tyres: 17.4 kg

... before someone tells me, I know the wheels are different sizes. However the point is they are both the correct wheel/tyre combination for my car, and so the unsprung weight with the trendy alloy wheel and fashionable low profile tyre is 5 kg more than the dowdy old steel wheel with a sensible aspect ratio tyre.

Whilst surprising, that did rather confirm my suspicion. nevertheless I'm going to be a slave to fashion until November and enjoy my flash refurbished wheels and with-it low profile tyres.

:-)

Alan

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Excellent result on the wheels Alan! I know you said the price for the wheels but can you remind me please?

A bit of silicone lube sprayed onto the fuel flap locking solenoid moving parts will help keep it working.

Good morn Dave,

Yes, I thought the wheels were a good result. They were just £160 all in - which I think was a bargain. As long as I'm careful with the kerbs they should last a long time as well.

The solenoid was an unexpected bonus - it would have been a fiddly job to fix. You are right, I'll give it a spray with some Screwfix silicone this morn and keep it working nicely :-)

Alan

[john.wigley]

Well done, Alan; I can tell that you're wheely pleased with the result!

Isn't it interesting how technology and fashions change? You (quite rightly) refer to a /55 as a 'sensible aspect ratio' tyre, yet I mind a time (not so long ago, either (!)) when that would have been regarded as a very low profile tyre indeed!

Another disadvantage of ultra low profile tyres is the need for a TPMS, thereby adding more cost and complication to vehicles. In the old days (puts away rose-tinted spectacles) there was no need for electronic wizardry to inform one of a slow puncture - but then, we all checked our tyres every week, didn't we?!

Regards, John.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

Well done, Alan; I can tell that you're wheely pleased with the result!

Isn't it interesting how technology and fashions change? You (quite rightly) refer to a /55 as a 'sensible aspect ratio' tyre, yet I mind a time (not so long ago, either (!)) when that would have been regarded as a very low profile tyre indeed!

Another disadvantage of ultra low profile tyres is the need for a TPMS, thereby adding more cost and complication to vehicles. In the old days (puts away rose-tinted spectacles) there was no need for electronic wizardry to inform one of a slow puncture - but then, we all checked our tyres every week, didn't we?!

Regards, John.

Hi John,
Yes, I'm wheely pleased with the outcomes (the smart alloys and the steel/winter tyres - all part of the same initiative).

You are so right about fashions changing, the current trend being for very low profile tyres, even though they seem to serve no purpose apart from looks. You are very much right about /55 tyres - they would have been seen as sporty only 20 years or so ago.

I'd forgotten about the TPMS bit - yes, even more unnecessary complexity to go wrong as a car gets older. I wonder how many otherwise perfectly good 15 year old cars will be scrapped because something like the TPMS (or the computer that controls the windscreen wipers...) breaks and makes the car beyond economic repair. I know I've said this previously, but I think 1980 cars (like the RB) are about the sweet spot for classics - just before all those electronic systems arrived.

I'm feeling quite pleased with myself today.

Alan

[Laird Scooby]

Interesting comparison on the weight of the wheel assemblies Alan! I haven't forgotten about weighing a steel and an alloy rim (similar sizes) to find out but i need new batteries fot my hand held scales.

I often wonder if there was an EMP blast that took out all computers just how long society would last. Most peoples cars would be rendered useless in an instant and nobody would be able to get online to find out how to fix their cars either!

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Interesting comparison on the weight of the wheel assemblies Alan! I haven't forgotten about weighing a steel and an alloy rim (similar sizes) to find out but i need new batteries fot my hand held scales.

I often wonder if there was an EMP blast that took out all computers just how long society would last. Most peoples cars would be rendered useless in an instant and nobody would be able to get online to find out how to fix their cars either!

That will be interesting Dave. My money is still on the alloy being heavier - I'm becoming convinced alloys are all smoke and mirrors.

:-)