Yeah, what he said......Close fit, good point.
I've had to take emmery cloth and sand off all the paint and remove weld roughness from a Bilstein front cartrige before to get it to fit the last time I put one in two yrs ago. May not be able to get it out, either.
Make sure that when you sink the strut cartrige into the strut housing that there's enough threads for the gland nut to catch the threads in the tube without binding. I've had the fit so tight that the cartrige wouldn't go down all the way. If this happens, don't try to get the nut started and use torque to force the cartrige down, because you'll strip the aluminum tube threads. Take the cartrige out and either clean out any oil or hardened grease in the bottom of the tube (which is quite possible, since Volvo installs the OEM struts with grease) and try again, or grind some material off the Bil's bottom/sides until it drops in easilly.
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'89 245 sportwagon, destroyed by hit & run driver, RIP. '04 V70 2.5 T Sportwagon, 12k mi and '91 245 5-speed, 209k mi, replaced the '89

Dave-
remember when Bilstein threw in the nut wrench for teh struts nut? Not so long ago.

You will also need the metric Allen socket (6 mm I think) for the strut tube top to hold while torquing the nut.
The rear Bil's can be difficult to compress when putting on the car. Before trying to install either the front or back, pre-compress each shock/strut cartrige from top to bottom. This will allow the fluid to flow and get any sticky behavior out of the shock. You will need to lean on them with some body weight. For the back, some bailing wire to hold each shock in the partially compressed position can help to get it in. Snip the wire after installation. All Volvo R-Sport shocks come with this wire from the factory, and it makes it much easier to install.
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'89 245 sportwagon, destroyed by hit & run driver, RIP. '04 V70 2.5 T Sportwagon, 12k mi and '91 245 5-speed, 209k mi, replaced the '89