Today I was driving out to a friend's junkyard, and got stuck in traffic going out of town. I saw a pickup pulling out of a gas station towing a 240 wagon, and then I realized it had been cut down into a 2 door. It looked a lot like all those cut down 55-57 Chevy wagons that were all over the place in the '70s, the proportions looked funny, but it seemed well finished. Unfortunately, somebody a few cars up gave him a break, so I didn't get close enough to have a better look. He got on the interstate, and I was going the other way.

Anyway, maybe it was somebody from the board. It was an 81-85 wagon, silver or light blue metallic, with what appeared to be an Arkansas National Guard license plate. I spotted it in Arkadelphiia, AR.
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1991 245, 61k miles, looking for a 5 speed 92-93 245 cheap.

Hey Cody, They sold that thing out at the Volvo junkyard in Valonia a while back.I got a good look at it, pretty nice work, they cut the midsection out of a wagon. I was told that it was put together by the body man there at the time.
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-------Robert, '93 940t, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel (she's sick) , '80 245 diesel

Do you have any idea how much the got for it?
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1991 245, 61k miles, looking for a 5 speed 92-93 245 cheap.

I can't remember. It was too rich for my blood. I think they were asking $5000 or so but that's just a guess.
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-------Robert, '93 940t, '90 240 wagon, '84 240 diesel (she's sick) , '80 245 diesel

Somewhere in the Kingston, NY area, a guy / group has been making 2 door 245's for several years. He usually stuffs a V8, of some sort, in there.
I have a pic...don't know how to get it on the board.......I'll be glad to e-mail it to you.

I really like the looks of them.....mine (if / when) will have a factory sun roof welded in .

Al

I've heard that the only way to put a sunroof in a car that didn't come with one from the factory is to get the top from another car and weld in on. Is this true? I'm dabbling with the idea of one day doing it to my car, but i'd like to know more about it first. Would this hurt the structural integrity of the car (in rollovers and such)?
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1988 240DL 157K(?)

As Ayeroll said, a good welder can do the job and not lose structural soundness...in fact may even improve it.

In talking with those who know a lot more than I do......the entire top should be cut off along the drip rail, then fashioned to match the extended 245 roof line.

The 245 to 2 door I metioned, started life as a 245. The donor was a 242. The 245 had the doors and center post removed...the door frame ( back half) from the 242 was welded intoplace and a small patch put into to fill the small void. The long rear side windows are streached a bit.

I don't know hjow to post the pic on this board...I'll be glad to e-mail to anyone .

Al

If you want to email me the pic, I'd be more then happy to post it on the board for you.

Email address can be found in my profile, or by clicking the little "mail letter" next to my screen name.
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If you listen to the radio in Portland, OR, you may know me as "Portland's Favorite Soul Brother!"

A real good friend of mine did this with an 89 244 he owned for several years.
The car came out just fine. I did not see it before the finished product was done, so I do not know exactly where he cut the roof- I just know that a factory roof was sectioned into the roof.
It's cool but a lot of work. An aftermarket roof is probably a whole lot easier (since it doesn't usually involve any welding, or painting). But if done by a competent welder, it shouldn't affect the integrity of the car.

There isn't any EASY way to do this. The sunroof cars and non-sunroof cars are quite different upstairs.

With a good donor car available, any body shop should be able to handle this work. My thought is that the best way would be to cut a big hole in the recipient car's roof, and use a "Bead roller" tool (www.eastwoodco.com) to make a neat edge all the way around, and trim the donor roof to match, then weld all the way around it. You'd need to use some kind of reference point or else you're not likely to ever get a factory headliner to fit in there. There are a lot of layers up in the windshield header and A-pillars. Cutting through that area is quite difficult (and a whole 'nother story!)

Note large hole in roof!
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Rob Bareiss, New London CT ::: '87 244DL/M47- 225K, 88 744GLE- 209K, 91 244 183K. Also responsible for the care and feeding of: 88 745GLE, 229K, 88 244GL, 146K, 87 244DL, 235K, 88 245DL, 236K

Yeah, but this wasn't dome Nomad style. When I lived in Texas in the '70s, a lot of guys would take standard 4 door 55-57 Checy station wagons and cut them down to 2-doors. Some of them were just bizarrely short, designed to yank the front wheels off the ground when you launched. I've seen sedans cut down the same way. I really wasn't prepared to see a Volvo done up in that style, and it took a second for it to click.
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1991 245, 61k miles, looking for a 5 speed 92-93 245 cheap.

Same deal was done with the Ford Falcon wagon and 2 door coupe.

Looked like a mini Ranchero, early Subaru BRAT.

Hey they should have called it the FLART...

Yeah, except the Falcon Rancheros were factory built. I owned one, a 63, 6 cylinder, 3 on the tree. Damn, I wish I still owned that car.
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1991 245, 61k miles, looking for a 5 speed 92-93 245 cheap.

Not these. They were done with a sawzall and bondo when the rust went thru the roof.