I bought Ingrid in April 13 after seeing an ad on gumtree. I inquired and was told if I didn't buy her, it would be off to the wreckers. So the next day I rounded up a tow vehicle, trailer, and the $500 to do the deal. The main problem with the car was a lack of reverse. Other than that she was a good tidy car, with no serious rust, a bunch of spares, and only a few things to fix up. I was told when I picked her up that her name was Ingrid, so that's what she stayed.
When I bought her the auto would only work in the forward gears, but as I had a spare auto 144 from a previous Volvo owning period of my life, I figured that should be an easy fix. I ventured down to Hobart to collect the spare 144 from where it had been sitting at a friends farm for the last 7 years, brought it home, and stripped it down to a bare shell. The shell went off to the metal recyclers, but the rest is stashed under the house in case I need something.
The almost stripped shell.
Once I swapped over the transmissions I was able to go backwards again. This left a couple of smaller interior issues to be resolved. I used parts from the spare car to replace most of the broken parts, but had to order in a new heater fan. I did the usual remove car from heater fan and then reassembled around the new fan. In this process I learned a lot about the interior fittings, so it was a useful experience.
From then on I have been driving Ingrid regularly. I upgraded the sound system to make normal driving more enjoyable. I picked up a good deal on a head unit, 4 splits, sub, and sub amp, so now the tunes are good. The spare diff may have had an unfortunate accident one day when it was sitting near the welder, and I got a set of old rally tyres to put on the spare rims. With this combo she will go almost anywhere.
I've done around 5,000 km since I bought her and have struck up a great friendship with the local service station. My best mileage comes in at 14.7 L/100km, but averages 18-20. All while being slow. I did a trip up a mountain pass and couldn't get over 50kmh.
The future plans for the car include a manual transmission, EFI, and a turbo. I've started collecting parts for all the conversions, but the transmission will be the first step, followed by EFI, then later turbo. I'm going with the Mustang T5 option. I'll source the main box locally from either a commodore or falcon and then swap the mustang input shaft, tail housing, and shifter parts in. I've bought a Mustang trans cross member as I read these bolt up (1 bolt does). I'm still researching tail shafts, so not sure what I'll use there. A proper lsd is on the list too once I decide what rear end to use, but that is later in the plans.
I'm also collecting parts for an EFI conversion. I'm planning to use a Megasquirt to run the show. The plan is to do both injection and ignition. The main bit to be worked out is how to mount the trigger wheel and sensor. The engine plans also include fitting the chinabay GT2871 I bought for it. A friend found me a free intercooler that fits nicely in front of the radiator. I'm planning to make a custom intake manifold and a steam pipe exhaust manifold.
