If so, I'm very curious as to what the color of your guages are. The '99s are blue and I thought the '98s were as well?
Color of upper engine cover plastic, black or blue? '99s are blue.

I ask because I know of a 2 '98s that both have black (dark grey) guage faces and there's a guage related problem with one. I've been told that "all V70 Rs have blue guages" from Volvo parts people but I know of two '98 AWD V70 R cars (both from Canada too btw and converted to US specs) that have black (dark grey) guages like a stock V70.

I'm just trying to get answers as to "what's normal" here for '98s.
One of these '98 cars has a stock looking back plastic upper engine cover while the other one's is blue like the '99s. The VIN says that's it's an R too so it's not like someone just added the decal to the T-gate.