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Hey guys.
Some of you may remember my back and forth and debating on whether to buy this car... It was a thread titled 'What would YOU pay'
Played with it last night. My friend/partner in crime fiddled with the carbs, and it barely started. Fiddle fiddle, got it into the shop. Up in the air it went, and the verdict?
New exhaust. No rust. Bushings are great. No majour oil leaks... My mechanic saw it had a cable actuated clutch and said it would be a good one to do a V8 swap to, hahaha. He practically begged me to let him do it. Be lieing if I said I was not tempted...
So that was good. Feeling good about the car now, we dropped it. We pressure test the cooling system with a hand next to the heater core and it lost no pressure, did not leak... YES! One HORRID job avoided! The blower motor is still noisy though so that will have to be attended to. Windshield wipers are still dead, hope that's a fuse. We topped of the carb oil since it was bone dry.
No idea why it overheats, but honestly I'm wondering if the temp. compensation board is dead...
Oh, and my eagle eye mechanic friend found a leak in the vaccum. replaced a two inch line of hose, and she was actually running pretty nice! When it has burned through the 3/4 tank of iffy gas... Well, it'll flippin' purrrrrrrrrrr when the gas in it has an octane of more than oh, say, ~60, haha.
Made a 20km trip home with heat on full blast and up a hill, and it did okay.
Right now it's tentative nickname is 'SchwarzWald' - Since it's a Dark Green-Blue colour and from Germany. It lived it's life primarily in an area called North Rhine-Westphalia in and around Munster.
From what little I could extract from the son of the owner, the car was a one owner TDS car, sold in late 1987 or early 1988 - But the car is a 1986 model with a 'G' prefix in the vin. It also has the motor last used in 1986 when they dumped the single carb B230A and went to the more finicky electric choke B230K, with twin Carbs. But the owners manual is from 1988, and the first service is 2000km, and was performed in Germany in Feb. 1988. It was delivered by Volvo Cars in Goteborg, Sweden... So it was a factory delivery. Almost makes me think it could have been some kind of showroom model, or it could have been some sort of company car of some sort, or some kind of press car... All unlikely, but just as unlikely as a 1986 car hanging around the factory until early 1988 when it went through the TDS program! The owner's manual is also from 1988... It's just strange, it's very confusing.
I have the history book, it's last stamp is the 190,000km service, and this was done in Sept. 1997 at 178,000, and finally a full service in Cork, of all places, at 184,000. In Canada it's been driven only 10,000 km! Why it sat in Germany for six years, and why it then was imported and driven in Canada for one before sitting for a further 6 years, I cannot tell you, but luckily, the mice never got into it, it was always stored indoors, and it was still driven back and forth and around so the bushings never dry rotted, the hoses and lines never got old, etc... Even the rear tires are from 1989! It's an odd car and has a weird back story. I wish I could get in contact with the father and ask how he got a 1986 model in 1988, or why he imported it along with two Mercedes in 2003... Or why he parked it for so long! Unfortunately I never had a chance to speak to him, and he doesn't live with his kids. I'm not sure he's even in Canada anymore to be honest! I know that the wife doesn't get along with him anymore, since I accidentally said "You must be Leslie" and extended my hand with a warm smile, to which I got "No, I'm [B][U]Mom.[/u][/B]" :slap:
Anyway. So I may not ever know just how it ended up here, but it's a weird little car with a single Pierberg 175cd carb, a catalytic converter, an M47 transmission, and character up the wazoo (that's german for tailpipe, right? :D)
Now I need to find time to head to a victim... errr, autoplan agent - to get the title transferred to my name (tried but the call centre closes at 8pm and because it's GERMAN it's missing the check digit and has in general just a strange strange serial number - and no dash plaque either)
Without further ado, on to the photos:
Wonder if it will pass emissions testing easily...
Engine compartment
Intake
Pierberg 175CD
ooooh, euro! REAL 240 euro lamps, not knockoffs, and the super rare headlamp wipers (never seen another set on a 240 in North America!)
Factory side markers with unique non-us spec side badging
New Exhaust!
Not particularly clean underneath, per-se, but it's not leaking, the bushings and struts/shocks are all great, and it's not rusting!
Zero rust, no problems
interior is dirty as you would expect after sitting for as long as it has, but it has the M47 5-speed and the driver's seat foam is perfect and hasn't collapsed!
Driver's side mirror has a built in parabolic side. Have only ever seen this on my sister's 2000 Saab 9,5 - And the passenger side glass is totally flat!
Pressure testing the cooling system. Good news! NO LEAKS! Blower motor fan is still noisy sounding though.
It's a GL - With no a/c, no alloy wheels, no power windows, and a carb'd motor. Hmmm. I'm told that in Europe it meant it has the more high end heater control systems, cloth instead of vinyl, heated seats, and other various small options. All I know is that there's almost nothing to go wrong...
Leaving the Shop... Fire extinguisher on the passenger seat. My friend was my guinea pig.
Driving home...
OOF! she has some pep!
And finally, a video of me when my friend went to park it:
[url]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECw9ApAcGwQ[/url]
lol, you can hear the shock and awe that it was running as well as it was.
All in all it's a cool little car. It made it home approx. ~20km, my friend Stuart (who has driven LOTS of these old Volvos) said it was a real winner, and once we clean it up a little bit we will see how she looks. But for now, only dirty night time photos, sorry. :shrug:
Frankly, it'll likely go up for sale as soon as it's 'completed' and I still haven't decided how long I'll keep it. I'll just drive it until it sells I guess. Maybe if it's still kicking around in 2011 and it's nice enough I'll stick Collector plates on it and toy with it as a second car. Maybe not. Time will tell. But the problem is I buy really nice old Volvos as my 'beaters' - Soon I decide they're TOO nice to see road salt and abuse, and I put them up for sale, lol. The white car I clay-barred and polished and then I practically tucked it under a cover until it sold. :-P On the other hand the Saab got driven ALL the time because it was sorta' tatty, and I wasn't constantly anxious about where to park, etc etc... So we will see. The thing is, this car isn't a 'keeper' - My keeper cars never get referred to by name... If I'm keeping a car for awhile, it's 'My 940' - Sure, it's official name is the radio flyer - But I'll never refer to it as such. The white car was 'Peter-Milan' after it's er... 'Flamboyant' first owner's names... And this car is already nicknamed Schwarzwald, or 'Waldo the Volvo' for short.
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