Hi Gang!

Tarona and I just this minute returned from spending an evening with the Dutch V44 club at their motel(s)in Barstow.

I figured that the best way to meeet as many of these folks as possible would be to go to the motel(s) where they had reservations. I figured they had to sleep sometime, right??

Anyway, Tarona and I left Ridgecrest about 3:30 PM for the 95 mile drive to Barstow. It took us 2 hours, including time stuck in traffic. Little 'Hot Stuff' didn't like the standing still thing, so he threatened to overheat any time we weren't moving, but all-in-all we had no problems with the drive down.

One good thing to note: the odometer read just at the 100-mile mark when we topped off the tank to come home. The car took 2.8 gallons - that's 35.7 mpg on highway-only driving!!! Not bad! New Denso Iridium plugs and new silicon wire-cored plug wires seemed to have helpd quite a lot!

We went to the Quality Inn first, and discovered about 50+ old Volvos scattered through the parking lot. The cars ranged from 444's through 445's, Duettes, P1800s's and 1800 ES's. There were also a lot of 121 sedans and a few 200-series cars in the mix. Plus one tired old rusty Ford Explorer with Dutch tags and a tour placque!

The moment we pulled in, the adventurers realized that our car certainly wasn't one of their group, and from a few people outdoors when we arrived, we were suddenly surrounded.

Everyone wanted to look under the hood (true Volvo fanatics - who cares what it looks like? Lemme see the engine!) and we got a lot of questions about the paint color, the engine mods, and especially the headlights and bumper overriders, which they didn't have.

We spent about an hour talking to folks, then went into the motel's Mexican restaurant to eat. When we started to leave, we drove around to the other side of the motel to take pictures of any car we might have missed our first time through the lot, only to be flagged down by a completely new set of adventurers with the same set of questions.

We spent another 45 minutes working our way through that crowd, then took our leave and moved down to the Econolodge, where we did a replay of the whole thing. Again, from a deserted parking lot to a crowd of people before I could even cut off the engine. More pictures (they took more of our car than we did of theirs!) and talk, route questions, etc.

When our new friends finally got through visiting and decided they were very hungry (having missed lunch for some reason I couldn't understand), we let them go and drove around to the other side of this parking lot where - you guessed it! We did it all again.

They had a lot of questions about our car (kind of like they had never seen a Volvo set up like ours!) They were extremely interested in the B20 swap with the automatic transmission. They sure took a lot of pictures of that! In addition, they seemed to have never seen a fuel-injected engine that had changed over to SU carbs. Virtually everyone who had fuel injection had lfew good things to say about that setup, so having seen that they could be converted to carbs fairly easily, they seemed intrigued by the idea and shot a LOT of pictures of the conversion.

They also talked a lot about liking the bumper overriders, and how they were impossible to get in Europe. I promised to look up what sources I could find and send e-mail to those who indicated they'd like to install them.

The modifications I had made to the engine cooling system so as to be able to cope with our desert heat brought out a lot of complaints about how HOT it was here in California. The general consensus was that they thought All of California was desert and hot! I got them feeling better by telling them that today, with a high of only 97 degrees is acually quite cool. Normally the daytime temps in August are about 120 degrees!

Also we let them know that as soon as they dropped out of the desert in the the LA basin tomorrow morning, the temperature would drop to the 80's.

They reported that they ALL had significant problems with overheating. Even those people who had air conditioning installed couldn't use it, and some actually had to turn on the car's heater to help dissipate engine heat.

One 544 owner had removed his car's grill and pulled the heater core out and mounted it in front of the radiator to help. It looked wierd, but apparently it worked fine. Anyway, he made it as far as Barstow!

I shot a lot of pictures, which I'll be processing and posting on my website tomorrow. As soon as I'm done with that I'll start a new thread here with the link you can follow.

I'll have had time to gather my scattered thought and write a coherent report by then!

All in all, a great bunch of very friendly people!

BTW: Regarding the green 444 - it didn't make it, They had to ship it home from wherever it was that it broke down. Apparently whater was wrong couldn't be fixed in a timely manner so as to continue the tour.

I wish it had broken down here...then I could have another toy to fix before I shipped it back to its owner! ;-)

Over all, they said that they had few real problems with the cars overall; mostly just things that you would expect to fail on a car 40 or 50 years old that is asked to run half way across the U.S. in hot weather and very long distances. One man said his 'dynamo' had failed today, so he would have to replace it before continuing on to Los Angeles to ship his car home.

Anyway, let me get out of here...or I'll never shut up. Gee, can I really be pumped up like this after just visiting with car people???

Until tomorrow...Steve - Baron of Greymatter

You are really fortunate to be able to connect with this group and the pictures are great. I haven't seen a tan PV in a long time and there are two of them in the pics. It seems that many of the PV's have front seats with head rests. Could you tell if they were from later model Volvos? I guess the question is, will any later model volvo seats with headrests will just slide on the PV seat rails or is that just too much to wish for.

Anyway, thanks for the write up and posting all the pictures. Maybe we will get some new folks on the forum too.

Dennis

I forgot about the daily data quota. I have another website with nothing on it and no restrictions. WHen I return home I'll move the photos ans new narrative over to it.

ALSO: I plan to park in Kern Canyon on CA-178 next Saturday when the B and C groups tour Death Valley. I should have lots of better photos, taken in DAYLIGHT, along with better information of their cars, and some names adn e-mail addresses if they care togive them.

I made up 74 business cards with our contact info on the front and a big picture of "Hot Stuff" on the back. I left Barstow with only three cards remaining. I'll make up a new set and add the Brickboard and my website URL's to the information.

I have a lot to say about the people and cars, but I'm away from home to make a doctor's appointment this afternoon. My internet access is very limited here, so I'll get back to work on it once I get home tonight.

I've reduced our our 80+ photographs to 30% of their original size to allow me to upload them If anyone is interested in getting a high resolution copy of any of these pictures, drop me an e-mail and I'll send the file to you.

I'll be building a new web page over the next couple of hours, but you can come and see what I've posted so far; I will save the page often so you can see it as it grows. The URL will be: http://www.geocities.com/steve_sms/v44

Thanks for looking!

Steve

Thanks so much for posting them pictures. Neat stuff for sure! Seems so odd things you mention such as a injected engine being converted to carbs.. and so easily. I guess that's probably because most of the cars they got never had injection... well into the 240 series...

I sure wish I coulda caught up with them folks. Really looks like a neat trip they had. I like the map painted on the side of the 210...

Very cool

--
-Matt '70 145s, '65 1800s, '66 122s wagon, others inc. '53 XK120 FHC

Somebody is very busy selling headlight eyebrows, gangster window shades, and widening old Volvo wheels. Look at those pictures, I see at least three sets of wheels that are obviously over 6" wide but have the Volvo centers.

I can't get over how cool this is. I think it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance to look at this many old Volvos in one place. Anyone in California better go check this out because these cars are more numerous and better than anything you will ever see at a VCOA meet. I'm really bummed I did not drive to the motel to see this now.

Thanks for the pictures! It made my day.

--
Volvo Farmer:

21 Volvos '58-'91

445-544-122-144-1800-240-740

sorry, no FWD

Someone needs to explain that you do NOT build a web service by denying access!
Some gobbledygook about exceeding the transfer limit.
Fact: I have not tried to access a geocities site in 3 months or more!
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!

Did you see that PV pickup? That's the coolest thing I've ever seen!

Oh crap! I accidentaly closed the window and now the transfer limit has been exceeded. I was really enjoying those pictures too!

What did you think of the cars you saw? They sure appear to be in nice condition from the photos.




--
Volvo Farmer:

21 Volvos '58-'91

445-544-122-144-1800-240-740

sorry, no FWD

OK, the preliminary photographs have been posted. I have to leave to get ready for a doctor's appointment over in Bakersfield tomorrow, but I'll finish publishing the pictures so they are all in the same format/size, and I' mm write some captions tonight.

I plan on setting up the car in Kern Canyon (CA 178) on the 27th to catch the B & C groups as they leave Death Valley and head for Bakersfield.

More later!

Steve

Thanks, Steve, for the report and the pictures -- a great job, and much appreciated. I hope the results your doctor's visit will be encouraging. I'm now going over to the Dutch sites to get their impressions. I described the V-44 tour to some folks at a Volvo meet I went to this past weekend, and the predominant, somewhat envious, reaction was, "Wow, that's fantastic, but how can so many Old-Volvo owners afford a trip like that?!".
Bob S.

Hey Steve!
I forgot to mention it to them and to you, and in their cool climate they
may have never discovered it, but having the ignition advanced further may
help them with cooling problems. You don't have to retard a red engine much
to really put more load on both the cooling and exhaust system.

If some of them are still complaining about cooling system problems you might
suggest that they check their ignition timing. I would not have it advanced
less than about 18° BTDC with everything hooked up (with or without vac).
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!

They were unused to the heat by the time they got to Joplin, MO, where it was
also in the upper 90s. They asked if it was always this hot and I told them
that they could expect it to be hotter in the desert.

Naturally being on the new end of their scale (1973) the Yellow Peril was not
as interesting to them. There was a white 73 145 in their group too, with
a raised roof, very nice original car.

Itcertainly was interesting to meet with them and talk to them.
LOTS of really nice-looking cars. Great folks, too. Glad you were
able to get up with them.
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!

Yeah, I was sorry I had to be working when they went through St. Louis. I'd have gone over and pestered them if they had over-nighted here.
--
I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.

I guess I should know, but where's "here"?
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!

St. Louis.
--
I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.

Will I see your shining face at the VCOA meet in KC 16-18 September?
Lord willing I'll be in the Yellow Peril.
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!

I dunno. A trip across the state in the PV would probably leave me with permanent hearing damage! And my mountain bike and kids would complain about a whole missing weekend in my time.
--
I'm JohnMc, and I approved this message.

Just remember that KC is a LOT more realistic than Killington, Vermont,
Seattle, etc. We've been hollering about the meets being out of reach
for many years. Now that they are putting one WITHIN reach, we need to
encourage them to continue by supporting this one.

I had 3 different PVs and they were a LOT more noisy from the outside
than the inside. (One had no sign of a muffler, a nice straight pipe to
the rear bumper. Complied with Texas law at the time: NO LEAKS.)

Give me your address and I'll send you some ear protectors. And if the
kids are big enough to ride the mountain bikes, they are big enough to
ride them. I would think that tagging along to the meet might be pretty
attractive to them also. They'll get to see some other neat machinery
besides yours.

EAGERLY looking forward to seeing you!
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!