I need the groups considered opinion on my rusty 240's roadworthiness. My brother left it for me with a broken valve spring. I love 240's. I brought it to my local indy Germanic mechanic and he said it was not worth fixing because of the rust. I am in North Carolina and I think he might have a (much) lower threshold for rust than you Northerners. I am a transplanted Northerner and I have seen cars driving around that look like they have more rust then metal. I have fixed the spring and am in the process of cleaning it up. It is running great. The main thing he commented on was the rusted out rotor covers which you can clearly see in my pictures on this website:

http://home.earthlink.net/~sasjzl/1987volvo240/

I don't care that much about the dust covers wasting away. What I do wonder about though is the lower control arms. Ignore what looks like oil leaks on them. That is from me cleaning up down there. Do those control arms look like they are unsafe? I know it is difficult to tell from pictures in a dark garage but the entire floor looks good to me with undercoating still on it and I do not see any holes or even beginning holes. I have heard that you can run Volvos until, and sometimes after, they become Fred Flinstone cars with invisible floorboards. What do you all think? Is it unsafe to drive at any speed?

I certainly could replace the control arms though I shudder to think of taking them off.

Thanks very much,
Jim Lee
1987 245 Grey Ghost