I'm half-asleep over here, but I want to post this tonight so I can read the comments tomorrow at work and think my decision over while I'm working. Once again I'm seriously considering ditching my 1987 244 "Florida Car" as it just hit me in the aspect that this car might need a lot of work?
Mistake #1. Listening to my father and letting him persuade me to sell my '91 244: Baaaaaaaaadddd idea! If you click on my 1991 Volvo 240 pics, (Link is http://community.webshots.com/user/volvo240skunk37) you can see how gorgeous the car looks. (I guess I'm just really fond of white 240s. Besides fire engine red, white is my favorite color on a 240.) The car ran perfectly and it needed about $1000 worth of good body work to get the rust out from the windshield area and a good paint touch up. The steering was (is? I don't know if the kid who owns the car now fixed it or not.) really tight as the left upper strut mount was bad and needed new front struts badly and that was all this car needed. But I listened to my father and decided not to pay the extra $600 to have the car shipped down to FL. Stupid stupid idea! *Smacks head*
Mistake #2. I got desperate and bought a 244 that could technically be deemed a total loss by the insurance company judging by the body damage on the car. (even though the damage is not bad, you guys know how much these cars are worth in the
general public's eye.)
But yes I am very thankful that this car did make the 1400 mile journey from FL to RI, but now what? I guess I'll sort through the pros and cons of this car:
Cons:
-As I believe it was Jorell or Redwood Chair stated beforehand, it's going to cost a lot of dough to fix the paint on the car as the paint is oxidized and such. Gotta love the fact that the previous owner before this one, or maybe it was the last owner decided to put bumper stickers on the paint-Smaaaarrrrttt....
-The dents: Yes I work in a shop that does body work as well, but those dents look pretty serious and fixing these dents are totally negated if the paint's shot.
-Overdrive: As many of you guys helped me through diagnosing the problem with my overdive, (Thank you so much!) perhaps getting an OD bypass plate will fix the problem
-(God I can't believe I'm even putting these in here as "cons".) Suspension and other misc.: I'm going to be honest-The car needs a lot of suspension work. At the very least, it's going to need all new struts, strut mounts, front balljoints and a wad of Eric's cash to buy the parts. Also there's still this lovely power draining problem with this car as the alternator decided to randomly quit while driving down to my friend's house last Saturday. Thankfully a very friendly and helpful police officer let me borrow his metal ASP and give the alternator a good smack in which it works O.K. now. Yes struts/strut mounts, balljoints, and an alternator is easy to install, it costs money-Money that could be saved to buy a better 244. For example, I replace the alternator and the car still has this power problem? I don't have time to diagnose the car when I come home from work! I work 6am-8:30PM every day except Sunday that I have off and I REALLY don't feel like doing electrical work on my day off. Replace an alternator? Sure. V-Belt? Why not? Electrical schematics? Nah, I deal with enough aggrivation at work-I don't need to take it home with me haha...(You guys get what I'm saying anyways.)
The Pros:
-The engine runs great and strong! People still don't believe me that I went 1400 miles w/o OD, and the darned car didn't break down on me once!
-The undercarriage: Oh god it's GORGEOUS! NO RUST ANYWHERE! It seriously looks like it's 2 years old underneath!
Um that's all I can think of for pros? haha...This car would make a hell of a parts car as there's only three spots of very minor rust forming which could easily be sanded down and patched up. I'm seriously thinking of posting the car on ebay for $500 as a great parts car, (In which it is!) roll with my '88 for a while, (Can't restore that car, the undercarriage is really rusted.) and buy a good "Rust Belt" 244/245? Opinions would be greatly appreciated!
I have pictures of my '87 on webshots too if you want to check them out to really be the judge of the car:

http://community.webshots.com/user/volvo240skunk37

-Eric