Picked her up in Brisbane sight unseen for.... not much.
Both the front guards were stuffed, and the interior was okay, but the dash was quite ratty.
The Chariot had a stint at GLT for a new head gasket and some other odds and sods.
Drove her home on a UVP.
She didn't miss a beat. Only problem was the cruise control stopped working after Holbrook, which was somewhat annoying because of the revenue device saturation throughout Victoria. She averaged about 28.5 MPG over the trip to that point.
Once home, a whole lot of silly little jobs needed to be done. Like the driver's side power seat had a stuffed fore-aft cable on one side. And no power, because the connector had corroded due to the pool of water under the driver's carpet - a legacy of a broken windscreen and the Brisbane cyclone. GLT replaced the screen for me before I drove home, and it doesn't leak now, but it's amazing how much water a 960-type carpet can soak up.
She needed a good clean. Geez, the amount of crap one can find inside a used car.... After in intense vacuuming, the carpets and interior came up pretty well. Scored some snow mats to put in there too.
A pair of spare headlights with wiper motors came with the car. I needed to swap out the LH headlight because the headlight rear cover had broken its tabs. But the spare light had a damaged lens.... So did a lens swap from the one in the car to the spare body, then replaced the light. Now there's no risk of the headlight filling with water.
The plastic spark plug cover that fits on top of the head was AWOL. They're bloody hard to find. But one was found and makes the engine look nicer.
The brake light switch with the cruise control vacuum hose is often a failure point in these gadgets, so I got a new one and replaced it. Have to see if it's sorted the problem once I can take her for a test drive. Easy enough to change... if you're a contortionist. Removing the clip and swapping out the switch is easy; getting yourself into a position to do this? That's the hard part.
Several of the little instrument globes within some of the switches had popped. $18 each to replace? Nah. Got some grain-of-wheat globes from RS Components and replaced the dead globes in the Volvo OE holders. About $1 each and 20 minutes, and fixed!
The fake woodgrain panelling around the dash had cracked and flaked off in a lot of places, but that was sorted. A Turkish bloke on eBay sorted me out with a self-adhesive trim set, and it worked out quite well.
Before -
After -
Then I fitted the guards I picked up from Goulburn earlier on. Not quite a perfect colour match, but the car looks 100% better than it did. To pull the guards on these things, you must remove the front bumper, air guides, headlights, indicators, and the bumper brackets on both sides. Then it's just seven bolts, and you're done. Time consuming, but not difficult.
Before -
After -
You can see the bent guard leaning against the garage door - the LHF guard went nearly banana shaped after it was removed from the car. That guard had copped a heavy hit from the PO.
Future plans? Nothing really fancy. Just to get her registered and to do duty running around the places where I wouldn't dare parking the 1800ES. She's comfortable, RWD, quiet, has a decent amount of go, and offers pretty good value for the dollars spent.
Next is rego inspection and she should pass first go. Then I can try and sort out the cruise control.
