1980 Volvo 244 R-Sport turbo

Cant wait to see this bay in top coat!

Sneak preview of what i did last night More pics to follow later!

Haha, good to know people are enjoying my project! Thanks!

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Right, more photos as promised.

Overall, I'm damn pleased with how its painted, got a couple of runs that can be flatted and disguised, but nothing major and they are in inconspicuous places. Some dust particles but again, all will be flatted and polished. The only major area that I'm not quite happy with is the bulkhead, mainly because its so visible - its a difficult area to sand the filler and there are a couple of wobbles - it might flat and polish and look good, but if it doesnt, its a very easy area to have re-done once the car goes in for it final painting of the bodywork.

Anyway, enough from me, now onto the pics! (camera isnt very good with colour, so some with flash and some without, so hopefully you get the general idea)

I made a bit of a spray booth with some big sheets of plastic





All ready to paint....



1st coat







and final coat



















This pic sums up the majority of my life haha!



Might be a couple of weeks now before an update, but next is all the flatting and polishing, and I'm already on with my engine rebuild, currently balancing and polishing all the rods and soon will send the crank off for lightening and balancing, along with the flywheel.

Steve

Just read this from start to finish, nice job on the bay it'll look sweet with the turbo lump in there.

well, if you're lucky itll be old and flaky, in which case itll come off with a combination of wire brushing and on thick flat areas itll chisel off (use it gently so you don't dig into the metal)

if its been well rustproofed over the years, itll be hard to get off, like in my case. There are two options

a) heat gun, hand wire brush, panel wipe/WD40/petrol to get it off

b) (much more messy) a wire wheel on the grinder - but itll get everywhere, including your hair and face and everything else withing 5 metres - then itll just about panel wipe off afterwards.

Right, only a small update, but its progress and motivation seeing parts all ready to refit

dug out the inlet manifold and stripped it down carefully labelling up pipes and other parts. Various parts and brackets (in addition to others off the engine, such as the lifting brackets) will be sent off for nickel plating again for that factory fresh look.



cleaned it up and sand blasted the hard to get to corners, and painted in heat proof engine enamel spray



In the meantime i have also been proving to myself that I CAN paint properly - in refurbishing my 80's audi coupe GT wheels i bought for the polo. 2k clear over base and not a single run, even after 4 coats of lacquer!





More soon, Steve

Thanks Tony!

Ok, so i lied....update!!

err....now you see it....






























...now you don't! Ha!









The transportation system (you can see where this is going...)







...and back with Thor safe and sound.



Gonna make a start on the roof fairly soon, itll feel like a big step forward with the project with not much cost involved.

Also, i chopped a door skin off one of the original blue doors to keep as a repair section - this is the reason for replacement - that rust would have started to come through the new paint in less than a year after the repaint i reckon....



More soon, Steve

Right, update. Good progress today too.

Firstly though, this is a bit of unused (poured back into mixing pot) engine bay paint. Its basically a solid block - the benefits of 2k paint!



Then i moved back onto the roof, after rather a struggle of getting that donor roof off the top of the car!

I drew a line accurately 25mm in from the corner of the roof (where the strong point is) (joddler will make a crease 10mm in, so the welds will be 15mm in). I then cut the panel out.





This photo shows why I'm replacing the roof skin - you can see where the sunroof has been fitted right where the B pillar bracing bar/rollover bar sits.





Placed the old roof over the new roof, measured and located it carefully (25mm in) and drew round it for reference. Then set the caliper gauge to 10mm and used it to draw an accurate line all the way around but 10mm bigger.





Then i dismantled the roof lining and removed the existing roll over bar (lots of scope for this to be strengthened - its a lot weaker than you would expect - more later)

I cable tied it onto the original "cur-offs" that remained from the original bar so that when the roof skin was placed on top it would have a central support.



Cut the new roof skin out



and placed on the car...





Thats all for now, next step is to joddle the edge of the roof frame to let the new roof skin down to the correct level. Then weld in the roll bar and necessary stregtheners, and then slowly weld the roof skin in.

When i weld the roof skin in i will do it very slowly (4 or 5 spot welds at a time, at opposite sides, with a soaked rag covering the majority of the roof skin to absorb heat.

Then a bit of surface filler and shaping, and its done! (all being well - fingers crossed!)

Steve