1975 Volvo 244 Mustard Yellow crash rebuild thread.
You might also find this handy if you want to verify the crash didn't bend anything
2 months later
Ex850R Hey, just following up, you said your a boilermaker? Do you reckon i could get your advice?
I attached a photo of the right side fender in the chat, the lower part has been pushed in by the bumper in the crash. Was wondering if it would be even possible to pull out, doesnt have to be perfect, just good enough to match the overall condition of the rest of the car. I could give it a yank with my hands and bend it back, but i think that'll create another new bend ontop of the first bend already.
Any tips for what tools or processes i should try? or should i take it to a shop? Have absolutely no metalworking expirience, not even welded before, my uni has a pretty good metal working department i could probably use. Id also have to be pretty careful not to let the paint flake off or crack, defeats the whole point of repairing it, since i already have a spare i could get painted
Mate , thanks for the vote of confidence . Im not good with panels , I had a mate who's two sons were a painter and a mechanic and George was a master panel guy , could massage the bad panels to perfection!
GET a strong blow up thing behind it and see how that goes?
Others here can help better I feel.
Keep us informed and lots of pix please!?
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You can get that guard most of the way there on the car with just bare hands, but you'll need hammer and dollies to get it perfect.
Honestly for a dent like this, where it's not creased and the paint is unbroken, I would talk to a paintless dent removal person first. Once you take to it with the hammer and dolly you'll need to paint it and the new paint won't match perfectly, plus time and money.
Yeah definitely second the idea of getting a paintless dent repairer to look at it before you touch it. Easy for unskilled hands to make it quickly look somewhat straighter but actually make it harder to reach a perfect repair in the long run.
8 days later
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Yeah ok, will take it to a guy, dont really wanna take it off the car though, none of the body repairs wanna come to me either, but i will see what i can do.
Also not terribly worried about getting the car perfect, its a very good rust free example, but its got pleanty of patina, a slightly out of shape pannel would be not a problem.
I don't think they remove the panel for the paintless process fwiw
Yeah, not practical to get the car there otherwise, unless i trailer it
Awesome car, really looking forward to being able to drive it. The 4 hour drive i did in it (without radio) was an absolute blast. Yeh the lack of a radio is sad, but it came from factory without a radio, so im not gonna add one, i will just have to suffer.
If you want to add a radio but don't want to put speakers in the door cards, the vent in the centre of the dash hides a cutout for a 4x8 speaker. There is a similar oval cutout on the rear parcel shelf. I put a twin coil (accepts both left and right channel) speaker in my '77 a few years back, some pics here: https://ozvolvo.org/d/43-43/353
a year later
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Its been a while, but its all done!! Well aside from the bumper, turns out the replacement bumper i have is a rear bumper haha. My solution was bolting the metal structure of a later model 240 without the plastic cover and upside down to fit. Its also gas strut now, upgrade! Looks a bit silly, but itll work just fine till i can find a new bumper.
Also! On other topics, the car is a build date 01/1975. Does anyone know when production of the 244 started in Australia? Could this be the oldest aussie 244 thats still alive? Anyone seen anything earlier?
