After owning the old girl for more than a year I finally decided to get on here & post some pics.
I got the urge to buy a 940 back at Xmas 2014. As soon as the New year had kicked in I managed to find this decent example of a Brick.
It was bog standard and had been used as a load lugger by a young couple renovating a house. Luckily it was in good shape & really just needed a clean inside to get rid of the curse word they had carted about.
I ran it for a Month before I decided to mod it. My lad (13 at the time) was really into his cars & retro stuff, between us we decided that it would be great to lift the 940 rather than lower it like everybody else does.
Decision made, it was time to buy some spare front struts to modify. Struts found, I then sourced some longer rear shocks to allow for the lift at the rear end. Turns out that VW T25 rear shocks fitted the bill nicely & only required some washers to make up the extra width on the lower bush. Lifting the rear was a case of making up some suitable spacers to mound between the coils & chassis leg.
The front struts required extending which was a little more involved than the rear. Still no problem though as with the spare struts it was simply a case of (overcutting) the originals then using the top sections from the spares to provide 65mm of lift. Spacers had to be made to make up the gap between the bottom of the strut tube & the strut cartridge. I replaced all of the ball joints & most of the bushes while it was all apart just to freshen things up.
We did this over a weekend without to much effort. Trouble was, it now looked daft on the original wheels. I like the look of painted steels but the standard ones don't have much offset or dish so I needed to find some more suitable steels. After much searching I came up with nothing.
I was browsing eblag & spotted some really tidy S40 steels for not a lot of money. They were local too. The only downside was that they are for a front wheel drive so have totally the wrong offset. They looked good though. I went & bought them anyway. Looking at them it was apparent that the well of the rim was perfectly located to allow me to flip the centres to give the offset & deep dish look I needed. This was a pain in the A*@e to do. Cutting the centres out was ok, but setting them up to re-weld was tricky. Anyway, after much swearing & a day of my life gone I now had the rims I wanted. I dropped them at my powder coaters who did an amazing job of blasting & coating them in "Ratbox grey" (they manufacture Rat bait boxes). Wheels done, I ordered a set of 215/75/15 Falken all terrains to complete the look.
Having driven it for the first time I was amazed at how well it drives with the lift & bigger tyres. It actually drives better than standard. The bigger wheels did sap some power, but this was accounted for by turning up the boost to HPT spec or around 8psi.
This has been my daily driver for the past 15 months & I love it. I have done a fair bit to it including fitting a new clutch just recently. I like my cars to be reliable & ready to go anywhere if need be.
Just started another project so I may be selling the old girl soon as I can't justify having 2 daily drivers.
Hope you like it !
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I got the urge to buy a 940 back at Xmas 2014. As soon as the New year had kicked in I managed to find this decent example of a Brick.
It was bog standard and had been used as a load lugger by a young couple renovating a house. Luckily it was in good shape & really just needed a clean inside to get rid of the curse word they had carted about.
I ran it for a Month before I decided to mod it. My lad (13 at the time) was really into his cars & retro stuff, between us we decided that it would be great to lift the 940 rather than lower it like everybody else does.
Decision made, it was time to buy some spare front struts to modify. Struts found, I then sourced some longer rear shocks to allow for the lift at the rear end. Turns out that VW T25 rear shocks fitted the bill nicely & only required some washers to make up the extra width on the lower bush. Lifting the rear was a case of making up some suitable spacers to mound between the coils & chassis leg.
The front struts required extending which was a little more involved than the rear. Still no problem though as with the spare struts it was simply a case of (overcutting) the originals then using the top sections from the spares to provide 65mm of lift. Spacers had to be made to make up the gap between the bottom of the strut tube & the strut cartridge. I replaced all of the ball joints & most of the bushes while it was all apart just to freshen things up.
We did this over a weekend without to much effort. Trouble was, it now looked daft on the original wheels. I like the look of painted steels but the standard ones don't have much offset or dish so I needed to find some more suitable steels. After much searching I came up with nothing.
I was browsing eblag & spotted some really tidy S40 steels for not a lot of money. They were local too. The only downside was that they are for a front wheel drive so have totally the wrong offset. They looked good though. I went & bought them anyway. Looking at them it was apparent that the well of the rim was perfectly located to allow me to flip the centres to give the offset & deep dish look I needed. This was a pain in the A*@e to do. Cutting the centres out was ok, but setting them up to re-weld was tricky. Anyway, after much swearing & a day of my life gone I now had the rims I wanted. I dropped them at my powder coaters who did an amazing job of blasting & coating them in "Ratbox grey" (they manufacture Rat bait boxes). Wheels done, I ordered a set of 215/75/15 Falken all terrains to complete the look.
Having driven it for the first time I was amazed at how well it drives with the lift & bigger tyres. It actually drives better than standard. The bigger wheels did sap some power, but this was accounted for by turning up the boost to HPT spec or around 8psi.
This has been my daily driver for the past 15 months & I love it. I have done a fair bit to it including fitting a new clutch just recently. I like my cars to be reliable & ready to go anywhere if need be.
Just started another project so I may be selling the old girl soon as I can't justify having 2 daily drivers.
Hope you like it !
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