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Rust. Rust. Rust.
Look at:
1) Rear section of the trunk, under the rubber mat
2) Look at the sills and floorboards
/\ /\ /\ Not so serious, really.
3) Lower section of the front frame spars - where they 'Y' at the firewall and go under the front floorboards. This rusts out and the spar (the only structural element forward of the firewall) sags.
4) The front end of the frame spars. They rust and the bumper mounts fall off. Then the sway bar mounts fall off. Eventually the steering box and idler arm fall off.
5) 4 of the 5 rear suspension arms (other than the lateral Panhard rod) all mount at the rear end of the trans tunnel in a highly stressed and rust prone area. Much rust there and the rear axle will fall off.
6) The rear spring perches on top of the rear axle - I've seen more than a couple of PV's here in the salt belt with spring popped through into the trunk area.
7) Rear bumper mounts rust off too.
Honorable mention (not really a serious issue) - the spring perches on the front lower A-arms - seems like almost all of them eventually crack.
PV's are both far better at hiding rust (since most of the external sheet metal is single layer stuff with no rust inducing cavity behind it) and less able to withstand it without suffering structural failure. Partly this is because a PV is missing several hundred pounds of extra redundant steel structure around. Later model Volvo's can withstand epic amounts of rust and still drive around, PV's have important things fall off fairly early on in the process.
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'63 PV544 rat rod, '93 Classic #1141 245 (now w/16V turbo)
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