u/save_the_sohc

Keep in mind. She’s been sitting since 04 and was put away wet with fuel still in her. What will I find when I pop open those fuel bowls? The suspense is killing me. Stay tuned!

Thought I’d relax after work by doing a little clean up on the front bumper. Nothing more that just tried and true Nevr-Dull wadding polish and good ol’ elbow grease. Sixty year old Swedish chrome cleans up really nice

Just some light random cleaning this Sunday afternoon. Nothing too exciting.

Emptied the trunk of all the random stuff in there. Decided to pull the crusty and grimy rubber trunk mat. (Fun fact - The original mat was make by Nokia, yes that Nokia) I wasn’t sure how pliable it was or if it was going to come out in one piece. I was afraid that it was going to be glued down in places. Luckily it was still soft and it came out in one piece.
I gave it a good scrub down with a stiff kitchen brush, some generic “purple” degreaser, and a lot of elbow grease. I think it turned out okay. It’s not perfect but definitely looks much better. I know new mats are available, but I like to reuse as much as I can. I also like imperfections.

I also decided to clean up the door jambs and corners. It was just layers of dust with solid painted metal underneath.

Let’s see what we find in her trunk. All kind of goodies! Two very old studded tires. Stock and possibly original spare mounted on factory Volvo steel wheel. Old tackle box filled with random ephemeral doo dads. Original vinyl Volvo tool pouch with some of the original wrenches and screw driver that came with the car. A couple of old mechanical fuel pumps that were replaced over the lifetime of the car. The best part though is that I found the parcel tray with speaker that mounts under the dash on the passenger side. These cars didn’t get a glove box. All you got for storage was the little tray plus the map pockets on the front doors.
As far as rust is concerned, I found very little so far. Mostly surface stuff under the spare tire well. In the pictures you can see that it still has the factory rubber mat which is really dirty and will get a thorough scrub down, but for the most part it’s all in one piece

Today was the day! Picked Envy(yes, she has a name now thanks to my daughter)up and brought her home. It’s nice to have a buddy who’s a truck owner. It’s also nice that U-Haul has a really decent car trailer to rent. But the most important thing is that the seller was nice enough to push her from where she was on the grass, to the road where we parked our trailer. With the help of a medium size tractor we helped it from where she was parked after being pulled from his shop, and out to the road where we had parked the truck and trailer. We could not have done it without his help. Especially pushing her up onto the trailer.
The drive home went smoothly. She now rests under Harbor Freight’s finest 10x20 car tent.
Random observation - her left rear tire is an East German made Pneumant with a date code of 1989. Wild!

Is the “early midlife crisis project car” a thing? If so, then here it is. Popped up on Marketplace. I lurked and watched it for about a week and a half. Hemmed and hawed because I’m Mr. Indecisive when it comes to these things. My wife had to give me the shove with a strong “At least drive out there to look at it and if it’s in decent shape and it’s something you want then make the guy an offer before someone else snags it up!”
Well, here we are today. This last Friday I drove out there with cash in hand. Will be going back next weekend with a buddy that has a truck so we can trailer it home.
It’s a one owner, true barn/dusty corner of the shop find. Parked since 2004 when guy’s grandpa stopped driving it due to health reasons.
It’s got the typical issues of a car that’s been sitting for a long time. The old gas left in the tank, dry clutch master that leaked its last drop of fluid many moons ago, a couple of flat tire, etc.
But the important thing is that this car is solid! Yes, I know we’re spoiled here in PNW that we don’t salt the roads and the weather here is gentle on old cars.
Cancer free in all the typical places (thank you Volvo for the galvanized steel where it’s needed most). I was able to run my fingers along the rain gutters and all I could find underneath the thick dust layer was clean paint! Any rust that is present is either light surface corrosion or where paint was eaten away by brake fluid leaks over the years.
I’m really excited to get started on this and to document the process along the way. I know there is a wealth of information out there when it comes to vintage Volvos(sw-em.com, VCoA, Turbobricks, ipd, etc.) but I’m also open to hearing from other vintage folks on here. Wish me luck!

For fans of The Cramps and old weird rockabilly