Does anyone have experience in mounting late rear suspension in an early car? I have a '63 and a '67 to work with. The '63 is much less rusty.

Thanks,
dlg

Now I'm confused....

I was talking about revising the rear suspension mounts on a '63 body to those from a '67.

I would then install the un-altered '67 rear axle in the '63. Later I would convert to a disc brake rear axle from an "E" model.

Has anyone done this?

thanks,
dlg

I once put a 142E rear axle (along with almost everything else!) in my '63 122S sedan. This was 15+ years ago. As best as I can recall (YMMV!):

The bottom link from the 142 was used as is - the body mount on the 122 was of the proper style (spool bushing) and it hooked right in. The upper links from both the 142 and the 122 were cut and spliced together - so the upper link would mount to the 'stinger' style mount on the body. Unless my memory is getting wonky (def. a possiblity) I think I also had to move the Panhard rod mount on the axle to the other side - but you wouldn't have that problem with an 1800E axle (at least I dont think so...) All in all - (other than the panhard rod swap in my case) no mods to the axle, no mods to the car - just two cut and re welded suspension arms.

Then a relatively minor bit of engineering to make the 142 brake cables hook to the 122 hand brake lever and some rerouting of brakelines to eliminate the double curcuit on the rear (I left the car on the original single circuit system). I also used the complete 142E driveshaft - I trimmed the big rubber center support bearing bushing slightly for a snug fit in the smaller 122 tunnel, drilled a couple of holes and held it in with the 142 bracket.

You can then either ditch the spare and just carry a fix-a-flat around with you (with modern tires not *quite* as bad an idea as it might seem) or swap the front rotors for some 1800E ones and get a complete set of later rims. If you like the original style wheels (well, not OE for as early as '63) then find some early 140 rims - they are silver and have the oval holes just like the 122/1800 rims do. I'm not sure what year the 140 switched to rectangular holes - but those generally don't look as good on a round Volvo. Of course, a set of Turbo 240 wheels always looks neat on an older Volvo too.

(*YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary - gross disclaimer)
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I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.

If the rust is on the surface then just wire-brush it off and hit it with rustoleum. The iron is way too thick to rust through in all but the most extreme cases.

If you are talking about the innards, well, I suppose a cleaning may help but it may need a rebuild.

Ditto on the comments about swapping.

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Mike!

Why?

It would take a lot of work, and wouln't be worth it to still have drum brakes. And you'd have to change suspension mounts on the new rear. Lots of welding and making sure you get it just right.
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-Matt '70 145s, '65 1800s, '66 122s wagon, others inc. '53 XK120 FHC

See Jparker's reply to my post from earlier this month "Which chassis best for performance?"