Rico's '89 manual 240 wagon

lasercowboy · 2015-07-18T07:52:07+00:00

Restore it! That looks like an awesome Project. Most 240s have the same problems anyway!

lasercowboy

Haha well I'm pretty sure that's what had happened here... i guess it's worth keeping a decent tarp in the back for such eventualities!

lasercowboy

So an update:

The car has been to Berry (those guys are friggin amazing), mechanically fettled, roadworthied and registered! Still loads to do to it, but it has officially been upgraded to rolling restoration.

Picking up gauges today, and really need to get to work on the interior bits and pieces along with the paintwork now.

Proper update soon!

Ex850R

Ye need to go with mark into the parts area and see what GOOD plastic bits he has.....

lasercowboy

Massively overdue update time:

So, on the first drive after getting home from Berry, the following issues came to light:
> The odometer wasn't working
> There were no working bulbs in the instrument cluster
> No handbrake (turns out cable just needed tightening)
> The driver's door stopped locking (thankfully after I got home!)

Jobs recently completed:
> Driver's door lock fixed (turns out the plastic sleeve around the up/down lock bit had slipped and jammed the mechanism). With the door card off, it seemed like a good time to clean it up
> Temporary bulbs in the instrument cluster white I wait for the LED versions to arrive
> Odometer cog replaced (actually a really simple job all considered)
> Courtesy light units fixed and bulbs replaced with LED units
> Leaking tailgate rubber fixed
> Removed the hideously cracked door-top vinyl. This was the worst job I've ever done on a car (and I've replaced a 240 blower motor at -5 deg C!)
> Temporary repair to hole in paint on roof
> Removed ant nest from passenger door handle interior

Upcoming jobs:
> Sand off and replace clearcoat on bonnet, and replace paint on bonnet lip
> Strip and paint roof (roofrack off)
> Clean and paint steel wheels
> Tidy up other dents and scratches in bodywork

And accompanying photos:

Odometer cog - left (old) and right (new, green). The old cog had softened to the consistency of cheese...

Old contacts in light units needed sanding and carbonising

This horribly cracked vinyl...

Got removed. But my god, the adhesive underneath...

Nice once it's gone though

Removed these little bastards from the door handle interior!

Door cards cleaned and reassembled. The pockets were so smashed I couldn't bring myself to put them back on. I don't think I miss them right now...

And finally, this curious divot in the roof now has a temporary repair to stop it rusting

BradC

Piccy no worky

lasercowboy

AAAARGH sorry! - looks like Google has changed the way links work for photos... hang on, might take a while to figure this one out..

EDIT: temporary linky fix while i figure out what's gone wrong!

EDIT_2: should hopefully be working now...

familyman

Too late now, but eycalyptus oil works with most things including adhesives - put your finger in a flannel cotton rag, tip the bottle to wet just that bit, and rub. The oil gets between the glue and the paint, and the rag 'catches' the glue in its weave. (Keep moving to a new bit of the rag as it clogs with glue.)

egads (she/her)

You can get it in spray can too which makes it easy to apply.

lasercowboy

Good thought - although i tried a couple of other oils to no avail. The things I tried (not necessarily in the order I tried them!)

- Acetone
- Toluene
- Ether
- Ethanol
- Petrol
- Degreaser
- Goo-Gone
- Detergents
- Turps
- White spirits
- Olive oil
- Citrus oil
- IPA (partial success)

The only thing I found that worked was rubbing alcohol (IPA), and even then it needed to be soaked, so my final strategy was to use 30cm strips of kitchen paper soaked in IPA and left on for a few minutes. This softened and swelled the adhesive sufficiently that it could be scraped off with a credit card. It's not a job i'm queuing up to do again, let's put it that way!

jamesinc

Caramel wheel is what I use for adhesive. Takes it right off

lasercowboy

I saw those and was really tempted, but couldn't find anywhere locally that sells them. Looks like it takes the vinyl off too in one go? I had seen someone using it on those door-hip decals on their 240 and they wrecked their paint too, so i think a careful/practiced hand is probably in order?

jamesinc

lasercowboy;59665 wroteI saw those and was really tempted, but couldn't find anywhere locally that sells them. Looks like it takes the vinyl off too in one go? I had seen someone using it on those door-hip decals on their 240 and they wrecked their paint too, so i think a careful/practiced hand is probably in order?

It's not too hard. People burn the paint for the same reasons I suspect - they use a lot of pressure, they stop on one spot on the surface, or they run the drill at high RPM. It takes only like 30% power for a corded drill to do it, and only a small amount of pressure will start taking it off easily.

lasercowboy

Good to know - where do you source your toffee wheels from? I see them on eBay buy can't find them anywhere local (and I was impatient, as usual!)

jamesinc

VG Auto in Girraween NSW. They should mail one out of you ask. There's also Jefferson, I think, in Melbourne.

jamesinc

Yep here you go: http://jeffersonpaintsupplies.quicksales.com.au/item.aspx?itemid=20750949

lasercowboy

Awesome - thanks James!

familyman

I've always wondered why Volvo put those stickers on the doors (and those little screwed-in metal 'wings' near the top corners of the rear windscreen too for that matter). The 240 was made for enough years for them to realise the stickers would crack. As for the wings, was it really that difficult for them to grind the welds smooth and give the cars a clean roof!?

The early 244s we had didn't have them, and I preferred that look. You guys have me considering to remove them now - before they crack.

Do the stickers actually perform any function?

jamesinc

familyman;59701 wrotethose little screwed-in metal 'wings' near the top corners of the rear windscreen too for that matter

The wings cover up a seam weld. You can see the seam here on my 244:

lasercowboy

So things have been fairly quite for a while - a combination of being really busy at work and mostly doing time-consuming but slow cosmetic work to the car. Finally reassembled the vacuum system and took the old dowager for a drive today. More good/bad:

Good things:
- Engine running sweet as, and petrol smell gone now the flame trap, oil separated and vac system sorted.
- Odometer and trip counter now working - she's back on the hook!
- Roof is painted and clear-coated. It's a pretty basic job and she won't be winning best in show, but at least she has paint and is weatherproof (or will be once the roof-rack is installed - well nuts arrived this week from USA).
- Volt gauge working.
- The bulb failure warning circuit/lamp works! (I know this because a side light just went...)

Bad things:
- Since replacing the sun gear and putting the instrument cluster back in, the tacho is now reading ~0.5x the real engine RPM. The connections are all good, so I'm guessing I messed the cluster somehow. Any ideas on how to proceed/test what I might have done to it?
- Despite tightening, the handbrake is still mostly decorative. I'm guessing it's time to replace the shoes?
- Vaccum ('fuel economy') gauge not registering anything, despite being connected to part of the manifold that's definitely pulling a vacuum. Any ideas?
- The fuel pumps are sounding like they're struggling. Pretty loud and sounding strained - should I replace them as preventative maintenance to avoid ending up stuck somewhere when it goes? Any experience with Bosch vs cheaper brand decision/comparison? Is the main pump probably the one I can hear?
- No aircon. This is not surprising given the age/provenance of the car. I might get around to having it done eventually, but not a priority for me.
- The blower fan sometimes (but not always) runs even when set to 0. Does this mean the resistor back or fan switch is dodgy? The fan itself doesn't sound super-healthy, so that may be a fun job for my week off in Nov.

Any advice on the above would be much appreciated, wise Volvonians.

Vee_Que

Always go Bosch, but they are noisy stock if using a turbo fuel pump.

« Previous Page Next Page »