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Bringing Her Back To New 900

I picked up a 94 945 with 160k miles on her... Perfect body no rusts or dents However, when you open up the door the car is filthy... I would like to restore her to her original glory. The carpets are nasty the plastics are nasty and the leather is gross.... All a result of someone letting their slimy kids destroy their car... I took two hours to clean stickers off the dash and doors and windows... The carpet in the hatch area is gross, and the hydraulic lifts on the hatch are shot Since they are shot, and I didnt notice, I let the rear hatch slam and the third brake light snapped off...

I need help selecting products that are going to get this car clean, I am willing to spend a fair amount of time on this car, I also need to know how to replace those shocks on the hatch and the third brake light..








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Bringing Her Back To New 900

Hello Lee, The first step is to take everything out of the car, seats, front and rear, center console, the brakets for the rear seats, leave the back of the rear seats in. The carpet comes out in three sections, front right, front left, and the rear carpet piece. I use a comercial grease cutter and cleaner, but Advance and other stores have a cleaner called super purple. Mix it 1:1 with hot water, wet down the carpet and start scrubbing. Use a pressure washer to hose down the carpet, hang the carpets in the sun and let them dry. You won't believe the results. I then take a Fabreeze cleaner with a cloth and wet the cloth and run over the carpet to fluff the pile. Install. For extra dirty seats I use 409, it is strong enough to remove grime, but won't mess with the color of the leather or cloth. Scrub away, use a wet vac and get as much dirt and water out and then let dry in the sun. Use a leather conditioner or a fabric guard to finish off the seats. Door panels, hot water and spray 409 and wipe down with the hot water towel. Do the door jams at the same time. For the headliner a use a foam carpet cleaner, spray on when it is dry vac off the dirt. It is hard work, but you won't believe the results. Pauli








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Bringing Her Back To New 900

On the third brake light, are you sure its not just the cover that came off?

Sometimes the covers lose one side of the retention mechanism and they tend to fly off if the door slams. Replacement part is ~$29. If you don't slam the door, you can get by with just one of the retention fingers.

I could recommend only the Volvo tailgate struts; ~$78/pair. The gas charge is significantly higher than the cheapies and will last for years.

Zymol also makes some excellent car care products. They're not cheap, but they are top notch. You can get free shipping on these from autosupermart.com, but I would suggest bowsing www.zymol.com first to learn about the stuff so that you know what you want. The leather "Treat" product is very good and their wax products are the best.








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Bringing Her Back To New 900

Here's a good source for car care and cleaning. They give pretty good descriptions of what they sell:

http://www.carcareonline.com/

I have a '93 945 and it is arguably the best Volvo wagon I've owned yet. Your's is worth the effort to clean it up.

I replaced the tailgate struts on mine but I don't recall the steps. It was fairly obvious how to do it when I looked closely. I bought a cheap pair of struts and now regret it. The struts have lost some of their pressure and need help raising the tailgate in cold weather.

IPD sells a kit to repair a broken tailgate plastic liner.

http://www.ipdusa.com/

What color? Mine is white.







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