I hate rust. It is like a cancer that will not stop spreading, it just eats the car away silently and sometimes unoticed. My lovely 87 240 started to exibit some rust on the inside corners of the doors and on the top of the rocker. Ironcicly the paint on the body is great, no surface rust. Took it in today to have it fixed so it wouldn't get any worse through the winter. I live in PA and they use an exuberant amount of salt on the roads, it is terrible for your car. So loving my car only the way a true Volvo enthusiast could love an 15 year old car with 178,xxx miles on it I wanted to get it fixed so it will last. Well it turns out that under the rockers it is rusty all over as well. So the inside of the doors, the top of the rockers, and the bottom of the rockers are rusty. The total $768 to fix all this rust. I understand that is a lot of rust to fix but ouch. To top it off the car has some light surface rust under the drivers head light and a tiny amount under the rear wheel wells. That price wont get those fixed as well. And more so the paint above the rear window seal on the top is starting to bubble up a sign of.... you got it more rust! So that will need repaired, from what I understand the rear window will need to be removed to correctly fix that problem and get all of the rust. All that money to fix something I can't see.

So all of this for a car that is not financially worth all the cost to have just the rust fixed on it. (Not mentioning all the other little things needing attention.) But I love this car and honestly I don't have the money for a new car and even if I did I would keep this car and restore it. Sometimes I think it would be easier to sell it and get a 91-93 240 (5 speed of cousre) better AC, quiter ride, probably less rust because it is newer. But she is my first Volvo and I can't. How do you explain to people that you are putting money into a 15 year old car that isn't worth the repairs? I had no idea what this car would do to me, now I have a 164 and plan on restoring a 122 with my younger brother. Volvo, gets in your blood.

Oh well sorry for the long post, just thought I would share some thoughts. To top this all off, it needs new motor mounts right now. :) It never ends. I love that car, someday I'll have the money to restore her back to glory.
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87 240 DL & 74 164E