I was looking at various cars at a local Volvo show recently, and I noticed a definite similarity between the VERY RARE Volvo accessory overrider bars on the 1800s and the FRONT over-rider (AKA "Yankee bars")bar on my Volvo PV444 and 544s.
The bars for the PVs were only found on North American delivered cars, but I'm not sure when or where the 1800 bars were found. I've only seen around 3 or 4 cars with them. The only difference I could see (didn't have a chance to do an exact comparison, or measurements) was that the 1800 were missing the ca. 8inch strut which goes through the front fenders, next to the grill on the PV444 and 544s.
Has anyone else ever come across this observation? I'm NOT talking about the rubber faced push bars here!!
Just had a look in one of my original Volvo accessory booklets. It shows an overrider bar for a 140 series, which has a small vertical spacer bar at the center. Also, in Bill Webb's "Swedish Iron" , there is a photo on page 102 of Irv Gorden's car. Come to think of it, that may have been one of the cars I first noticed as having the aforementioned bars.