mylittletony
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,429
Club RR Member Number: 84
|
|
Feb 16, 2014 21:03:22 GMT
|
Saturday morning saw a trip to TAB and my first go on a tyre machine! To remedy the wobbly wheel I'd sourced some 740 alloys with decent tyres locally for £25. for 4. WIN! Only problem being that they had slow punctures... Broke the bead on the first to find a few scabs of corrosion, almost certainly the cause. Got the tyre off and it looked pretty bad, so cleaned up the bead with a knot wheel on a grinder, quick squirt of paint and baked it by the woodburner. Then repeated all that with another which turned out to have more corrosion on the bead... This brings me onto the most important job, spring choppage  Having already dropped a 940, I had a pretty good idea for the front. Unbolt the bottom balljoint from the strut, remove the caliper, undo top mount, remove strut, chop springs, replace. This was basically how it went, except for some minor annoyance with twin brake hoses attached to either side of the strut. These are now re-attached on one side  Onto the rear, jack it up, undo bottom shock bolt, lower axle, spring pops out. Remove coils, replace using bottom clamp cup. Oh yeah, the bottom clamp cup that wasn't there.  Nothing to hold bottom of spring in. Cue lots of swearing. Managed to cut off the old studs from the rusted out cups and use the Colonelk patented-Audi-top-mount-cup and M10 bolt solution. He also did my other 2 alloys while I was stressing  Anyway, ramble over - here's pics.    The old tyres were old. So old they were bulgey, perished and one even had a tube in it. These have been removed and the steels will get reborn  |
| |
|
|
|
|
cicii
Part of things
Posts: 80 
|
|
Feb 16, 2014 22:56:16 GMT
|
cicii - That's got to be a photoshop, surely?? There's a lot of inspiration in this thread, but basically I'm going 'surfwagon' rather then turbobrick style... nah its a real car. love the surf wagon idea. here's a holden kingswood one i've seen but imo it looks too tidy to be a surf wagon. still cool nonetheless
 |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Feb 18, 2014 19:41:49 GMT
|
like that a lot , parents had a 78 245 estate years ago learnt years before i could legally drive to hook up to the twin axle caravan . thanks for the memory  |
| |
|
|
mylittletony
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,429
Club RR Member Number: 84
|
|
|
|
Hi all, long overdue update: Having just been using and enjoying this sporadically for a while now, I decided to do a little rust treatment on the rear end yesterday, the top trim was hanging off and I could see lots of crud/crust accumulating under it. Fearing the worst I took the bumper and top trim off. Mostly metal, I gave it a wire brush to end up with this  worst bit  Some more minor rust under the LH tail light  Fairly pleased with the state of it tbh, compared to others this is very good... The bumpers were pretty crusty so I took the rubber off, not so good:  Back on the car   This obviously needs some improvement/work, the lower side portions are very badly corroded. I'm considering trimming the shape down and bringing them closer to the body, maybe some "speed" holes (ha ha!!)  It's an opportunity to play around as it's basically scrap otherwise... I've also obtained a spares car which will donate a number of parts including a 5-speed box, electric windows... I now have a complete set of tan leather seats (or the means to make one at least) and another set of tasty period wheels, once I've adapted them to fit. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Or you could just get the bumpers from a 81-93 240, slimmer from the factory and a direct fit afaik.
|
| |
194? Willys Jeep MB 1965 Volvo 544 Special 1968 Opel Rekord 1975 Opel Kadett Estate 1985 Mercedes-Benz 230E 1985 Datsun 720 King Cab 4x4 diesel 1997 Volvo S70 2.5SE (ex. "Volvo544special65" - changed to more reader friendly username.  ) |
|
mylittletony
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,429
Club RR Member Number: 84
|
|
Jul 28, 2014 15:20:35 GMT
|
Or you could just get the bumpers from a 81-93 240, slimmer from the factory and a direct fit afaik. I have a recently acquired spares car which I could pinch the bumpers from, but I kinda like the chunky ally ones. My current thinking is to try newer bumper dampers/shocks (apparently shorter) with a trimmed ally bumper with black painted centre section instead of the rubber... |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Jul 28, 2014 15:39:50 GMT
|
|
This is so damn cool, all these Volvo's are!!!
I'd love one of these sturdy load carriers and there just happens to be one languishing round the corner from my house...
|
| |
***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
|
|
|
|
|
Jul 28, 2014 16:51:01 GMT
|
Or you could just get the bumpers from a 81-93 240, slimmer from the factory and a direct fit afaik. I have a recently acquired spares car which I could pinch the bumpers from, but I kinda like the chunky ally ones. My current thinking is to try newer bumper dampers/shocks (apparently shorter) with a trimmed ally bumper with black painted centre section instead of the rubber... Why not? That might look cool. Just try it! |
| |
194? Willys Jeep MB 1965 Volvo 544 Special 1968 Opel Rekord 1975 Opel Kadett Estate 1985 Mercedes-Benz 230E 1985 Datsun 720 King Cab 4x4 diesel 1997 Volvo S70 2.5SE (ex. "Volvo544special65" - changed to more reader friendly username. ) |
|
VIP
South East
Posts: 8,302
|
|
|
|
Would wood(esque!) side panelling work on one of these...?! Someone did a brown 240 wagon with wood panelling on here a few years ago. |
| |
Last Edit: Jul 29, 2014 7:39:54 GMT by VIP
|
|
|
|
|
Sept 5, 2014 10:18:59 GMT
|
updates?  |
| |
|
|
|
|
mylittletony
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,429
Club RR Member Number: 84
|
|
Sept 5, 2014 14:57:29 GMT
|
updates? yes... and no We had a baby a month ago and he's not home yet so time has escaped me! However, a number of things have been ticking along in the background (mainly before he was born to be honest) Some of this may be duplicating, but it's helpful for me to remember exactly where I'm at... I've purchased a stack of bits including: a pair of tan leather front seats to replace my collapsed driver's seat, one cleaned and fitted a replacement steering wheel, now fitted. The original will be cut down to make a Motolita boss a driver's door (Silver) as mine is too crusty to bother with a pair of front wings (2-tone green one and a gold one) because they are less rusty than mine and were the right price A replacement tailgate (Blue) Paint to tackle the patchwork effect of the above A b230f engine, because it was cheap an inlet manifold from a B200K which will accept a twin choke downdraft weber with some tweaking Some period alloys which need some work to fit, but will be AMAZING Nuts to suit A friendly local enthusiast donated a matching leather rear seat cover, arm rest and door grabs, but it wouldn't fit my original cushion/bench I’ve also come up with a plan to add some real wood dash trim to the interior for gen-u-wine surf woody tribute and compliment the steering wheel. As if that wasn’t enough to do, I keep discovering rust: the rear sill ends are holed, the inner arches are bad and while investigating a wet carpet I found some floor rust under the driver’s seat... So, I have also acquired a donor car for a song which will contribute the following: Engine (because carbed running 2.3) 5-speed Gearbox + prop Poss. rear axle Rear ARB for double ARB conversion Front struts for home brew coilover conversion Calipers Rear seat cushions (see above) Spare ancillaries temporary bumpers while I sort mine Electric front windows Central locking (if I can be ar$ed) Power steering (otherwise the missus would never drive it) Spare wheel with inflated tyre And a number of panel sections, including driver’s side lower windscreen corner, both rear arches and both spare wheel wells Unfortunately the car is languishing on the drive with the interior loosely flung in until I get even a spare 30mins to paint the floor and re-fit the seats, at which point it will fail the looming MOT on the rust mentioned above (at a minimum) So, in summary, nothing has happened for ages, but the vision is there and I have a massive list of relatively small jobs and 95% of the parts to accomplish them, once the little man is home and I have some time Oh and welding and paint Pictures next time, I promise. |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
Sept 5, 2014 16:44:12 GMT
|
Sounds good mate looking forward to see some pics of progress! congrats on the little one aswell |
| |
|
|
jpsmit
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,274
|
|
|
|
|
Congrats indeed and praying that all is well? Preemie?
|
| |
|
|
cicii
Part of things
Posts: 80
|
|
|
|
|
Congrats on the little man!
Sounds like you've been busy, looking forward to seeing the progress!
|
| |
|
|
mylittletony
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,429
Club RR Member Number: 84
|
|
Jan 14, 2015 16:54:02 GMT
|
Pictures next time, I promise. ok, so that bit was a small lie... BUT, progress is ongoing!! I had begged a favour keeping the donor car at TAB, this favour understandably wore out after 2 months. The MOT had expired on the brown car and I had also realised that I had no time to do any of the work, so something had to be done. mantaphil was drafted in to perform the transmission swap, which was completed before Christmas and we have just agreed the next package of work to start next week! Completed (fitted and running):Engine (because carbed running 2.3) 5-speed Gearbox + prop inlet manifold and twin choke weber Power steering  Work upcoming on brown car:Sill welding for MOT Floor welding for MOT Brake caliper swap to deal with horrendous imbalance Replace GASH sill plates Weld in arch repair panel Removed from donor and waiting:Instrument cluster - see below* Rear seat cushions Central locking Temporary bumpers Panel sections; driver’s side lower windscreen corner, OSR arch repair To be removed from donor in the next few weeks:Rear axle - see below* Rear ARB, panhard rod and track arms Front struts Pictures next time, I promise. *Dash fun times: The early cars (pre-85) have a speedo driven by a cable from the gearbox. Later cars have a tone ring on the rear diff and an electronic speedo is used. This also largely coincides with the introduction of the 5-speed box... My spares car therefore has an electronic speedo and tone ring in the rear axle, but the brown one has a cable driven speedo and small dash. No worky! Options are: 1. swap axle, cluster & entire dash 2. swap axle, make frankenstein cluster 3. buy rare 5-speed with cable output for £xxx 4. make a hotch potch front tone ring using uber rare ABS parts 5. buy cable-x adaptor for ~£300 I've chosen option 2 as I prefer the early shaped small dash and have purchased a spare pre-1980 dash cluster to dismantle. Early cluster (in the post):  Cable speedo on LH (shown from rear)  Post 80 shape cluster:  Elec Speedo in middle:  Remove casing:  Remove speedo unit:  Most of it is face:  Next step is dismantle early cluster and see how difficult it's going to be to swap faces and insert in the hole Other progress:Worked out a plan for re-drilling my tasty wheels Test flange cut for steering wheel adaptor Remembered I have a nice Alpine stereo in the garage to fit Daydream about supercharging the old 2.1 with factory forged internals... Might even have some bodywork & MOT updates next week!! |
| |
|
|
mylittletony
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,429
Club RR Member Number: 84
|
|
|
|
The spares car needed disposing of, so Sunday was final strip down: Front panels for a Volvo forum member building a 242 Group A replica (mmmmm):  Driver’s door window seal for a FB group member Front struts removed (for me) Rear axle/suspension will be removed (for me) While I was there I got to see/hear my car run for the first time with the new engine – chuffed to bits! No updates on the welding/MOT as yet… In the meantime, jobs I can do at home are far better appreciated by the rest of the family. I received this in the post on Friday so last night had a quick look-see at my Frankenspeedo™  Rear of old-type cluster:  Speedo removed:  Both speedos together:  This was starting to look promising, the mechanisms are not dissimilar sizes... There’s a very good tutorial on stripping these to replace worn out gears, absolutely vital for what I was doing. Next job was to remove the needles (already done above, got carried away!), very easy to damage them, but luckily I didn’t. Then the faces can then be removed  This is where I’m lucky to a certain extent, the faces are an almost perfect swap the needle and screw holes line up exactly! The only problem is the digits don’t quite line up in the Odometer, haven’t decided if you’d even notice or whether it would be a problem for me, or they’d rub/clash…  Screwed the old face on the new mech anyway to see if I had bigger problems. It doesn’t quite fit straight in unfortunately, the PCB clashes with the top of the housing making it sit low and the motor clashes with the old cluster PCB pushing it to the right.   I think I can trim the green PCB to clear the motor and make a slot in the housing to clear the speedo PCB so it should go in. I’m planning to chat to some electrical colleagues about the PCB trimming just to check. I’d also have to modify the steel mounting plate to take the new speedo, or make a new bracket from folded ally I suspect. Back to the face issues, overlaid below:  I can’t trim the round one down as it’s not got enough material. I equally can’t open the Odo holes in the square one without making them gaping voids… Ideal solution is to cut a new piece the size of the square one, with the odo cutouts of the round one, but how to paint/print the front…  Aftermarket ones are available, but I doubt in the combo I want as it appears no one else has bothered doing this… Another bonus is that the odo reset dooberry appears to swap between speedos I’ll also need to use the old faded needle or shorten the newer one…  Once I made it all fit, I’ll need to do it again on the cluster in the car as I think the trial one is missing parts/duff In other news, I have the bits needed to make my motolita boss, just need some time with a drill, saw and a welder. I’ve also got a final plan for making my new wheels fit, just need to action it. Both of the above I need a car for really, will be chomping at the bit soon! |
| |
|
|
EmDee
Club Retro Rides Member
Committer of Autrocities.
Posts: 5,936
Club RR Member Number: 108
|
|
Jan 27, 2015 10:13:16 GMT
|
Seen the car in the flesh many times and somehow missed this thread completely! I love this (as you may know) and didn't realise the work that had gone in behind the scenes. Can't wait to see the wheels on Keep up the mojo and keep juggling family stuff. Best to Little Man and Mrs Tony. |
| |
|
|
djefk
Part of things
Posts: 844
|
|
|
|
|
I heard a rumour there's been progress with this.....
|
| |
|
|
mylittletony
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,429
Club RR Member Number: 84
|
|
|
|
I heard a rumour there's been progress with this..... TRUFACT big update looming, but here's a teaser pic or 2: rust  engine  (images courtesy of mantaphil) |
| |
Last Edit: Feb 17, 2015 8:16:58 GMT by mylittletony: photo credit
|
|
|
|
|
Feb 17, 2015 19:33:53 GMT
|
Great thread, although i'd have kept the 'Gas Burner' wheels on your wagon, I reckon they look great...    See lol! Looking forward to the next instalment buddy |
| |
|
|
|
|
Nothing to hold bottom of spring in. Cue lots of swearing. Managed to cut off the old studs from the rusted out cups and use the Colonelk patented-Audi-top-mount-cup and M10 bolt solution. 
It's an opportunity to play around as it's basically scrap otherwise...
)
