A lot has been happening in the past few weeks... Car is officially mod plated for all modifications and registered! I couldn't believe my eyes when the lady at the transport department handed me these plates! They fit the car pretty well!
On another note, the gent that came around to inspect the car and provide me with the modification plate messaged me a couple of days later saying that someone on the local Facebook community board was looking for a "Red 70s/80s Volvo with a roof rack". I was able to get in contact with the guy advertising and found that he's creating a short film for a local film festival in the next few months, and urgently needed a Volvo within 2 weekends.
After a lot of rushing to tie up loose ends, I was able to hand him the keys last Sunday evening for filming on Monday - Thursday. Keep in mind that this vehicle had only been on the road for one weekend prior so I was stressed but excited to see what the car was going to be used for. On the day of pickup I took the orange beast for a drive and after getting home I noticed a massive pool of ATF under the car - a trans cooler line had split and blew out what must've been the whole pan worth of ATF. Of course it was a Sunday and nothing was open so I got to work fixing the line with some replacement agrihose and leaned on a neighbor for some fittings.
Managed to get the car tidied up and running again; handed the keys over and went back to Brisbane to start work on Monday. Didn't hear from the guy until Thursday which was the agreed return day... As he was driving the car down the highway a massive amount of stream burst out from the bonnet - thanks to his quick ignition skills he turned off the car and managed to get it to the side of the highway about 5 minutes from home.
Turns out it was just a hose clamp that I hadn't tightened enough and the coolant directly hit the exhaust header causing the steam. The old man fixed and filled the car back up and drove it home, thankfully the driver turned the car off quick enough so it didn't cook the engine.
After all that ordeal I've got the car back in better condition then when it left, and I've been informed that the footage taken is absolutely amazing and fits perfect with this short film. If this film is available on YouTube or similar when it's released then I'll post here or I'll post the snippets of the car I get sent before the Jan 2022 deadline for the film. Also, one of the producers on set was none other than Jon Coghill from Powderfinger, which I asked to sign my dash and he did! See pic below.
I've now been for a few drives in the car and there's a couple of things that need additional work - fuel pump doesn't seem to be providing the engine enough pressure when the car gets hot, and one of the thermo fans is blowing a fuse whenever it kicks on. All in all, I'd say the project has been a massive success and even better that I'll have some professional footage taken a week after getting it on the road for the memory. I have to admit, I got quite emotional the first time I drove the car on the road as I was overjoyed I finally pulled it off!
As with most projects, there's always things left to do:
Fix fuel pump setupWheel alignmentShifter is sloppy and needs attentionPut on the standard hubcapsGet wheels widenedetc etc, the list will continue on.
Figured it would be a good time for an updates it feels like a huge milestone to finally get the car on the road!
Cheers
