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OK, I called and drove out to see the car today. I was hoping I'd find some serious issues that would make this decision an easy no. However, the car turned out to be very nice.
No rust at all. Let me repeat; zero rust, not even a surface bubble. That alone was amazing. I crawled all up under the car and in the wheel wells and in the back spare tire area, nothing.
All exterior trim pieces were there. The car had been repainted about a year ago by the current owner. He did pretty good prep work, all trim was removed, etc. Paint quality is pretty good, not amazing, but not flaking or chipping off.
Engine recently had a new head gasket put on. He showed me the old one, which lost its seal between cylinders 2 and 3. No coolant ended up in the oil, he claimed. Oil was pretty dark but not watery, and didn't stink. Coolant looked good, no signs of oil. Didn't appear to smoke at all, even under heavy load. He said his compression check at the time of the work yielded 120 psi across all 4 cylinders. Not sure if that's normal for these or not.
Only running issue I experienced was a stumbling and occasional stalling when the car was in low RPM's, like below 1000. Even when moving, if I shifted too early, it would stumble and fumble until my speed increased. I could keep the choke half way out after warm which would keep the speed up enough not to stall, or feather the gas lightly at stops. I'm thinking a fuel delivery issue?
All the seats were original, a little repair work was done on the passenger. Dash is original with no cracks. Carpet in the rear cargo was original and gorgeous. Rear gate must have been replaced with a later model at some point, it had defroster strips but no button for it on the dash.
Over all it drove really nice. Pulled as much as a B18 can I think. Shifted like new, clutch was put in a couple of years ago according to him. Transmission did have a noticable whine at speed, but he said that was normal for these. It wasn't crazy loud, but you could hear it as the dominate sound.
Engine had 41 years of nasty oil residue like you'd suspect, but nothing fresh, it all looked pretty dry. No wet along the oil pan, and no apparent dripage. He said it never dripped.
Manual steering was a little squirlly at speed, but not bad. I'm guessing some bushings could be replaced. No clunking in the suspension that I could hear.
I got some good vibes from the car in general. Everything appears to work, including the odometer, which shows 93K. After seeing all the originality of it, I'd almost believe that was real, but it can't be verified.
I'm really really tempted. Always a little scary diving into a car I don't know a ton about, but it just had that vintage timeless Volvo feel to it when I drove it, I fell in love almost instantly.
Opinions? Other things to look at? Here are some pictures.
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