Stiggy Pop
In the cool kids club
- Joined
- Feb 27, 2011
- Location
- Granville, MA
You should build a canopy (or "topper") out of the back half of a wagons roof. Throw it on. You know, just to mess with people.
it has to be a different color though, right?
Ya ya, we've been working. Actually need to spend some time doing maintenance work so it's more viable as an actual car. A lot of work lately has been focused on getting it to a point where I can play with it for the summer.
I am still playing though. I bought a bunch of 945 accessories mostly so I could get this
I also got the big FOHA rear hatch spoiler. I really wanted it, but when I did a taste test with the V90 spoiler I easily preferred the smaller one.
The tailgate got a couple of finishing pieces made, and the cheap and cheerful treatment for grab handles and latches.
side note: I spent weeks chasing my tail to complete a set of 960 tail lights with the notched side... and now I think I might want stock amber? maybe it'll depend on what color it ends up
Fitting the bike: using the full hatch and making it open posed a challenge when thinking about putting a ~220lb motorcycle in the back. Since the hatch is mostly glass and partially aluminum I can't shove the front wheel into it, and can't just build a fence. Kicked around a few ideas and ended up with a two-piece removable cross bar/wheel chock setup.
We have a lot of 1" square tube, and a little bit of 1.5" square tube left over from the hitch brace. The 1" got bent into the cross bar, and the 1.5" was used as the receivers. Cut a hole in the inside of the bed, and made a recessed pocket for the cross bar.
So, the cross bar passes into the pocket so it clears the other side of the bed, then sets into another piece of 1.5" that is blind to the inside of the bed wall. Both sides of drilled and pinned with push button locking pins.
Next needed to make something to catch the front wheel. One thing that became clear right away was that the rear wiper meant the wheel needed to be offset 4" to the right! I also wanted to make sure that the front wheel couldn't ride up over the support and run into the glass. This turned into a wheel chock/pocket made to catch the front wheel and provide good support. This had another piece of 1.5" square tube welded to the back. The cross bar had a piece of 1" added vertically, so the wheel chock drops on and secured with another locking pin.
As soon as it was cooled off I grabbed the bike and gave it a try. This really was a lot of fun, a great feeling to see the car serve its purpose. I started the whole thing off saying it'd be cool to have a Volvo I could move my dirt bike with, and as goofy a vision as that is, here it is realized.
the wheel chock. I'm going to add tie-down points to the cross bar.
A perfect fit
A few more things to check off the list and I can take this thing riding. I really need a respectable set of wheels and tires for it. I also really wish it could be on airbags. Even if it was just in the back..