Stephen's 744 project

[Stephen]

whats up ya'll? so i've got two threads in showroom about my 1990 744 and rather than making more or adding to them, i figured i'd make a project thread.

Let me start with the story on how I acquired this car. My first car ever was a 1985 740 GLE. i loved it so much....except it was a complete pos haha. i drove that for a while, bought a 245, got rid of them, drove an S70 for a little bit, then was out of the volvo game for about a year driving only my mustang. one day, about a year ago, my sister came home and told me her boss (he's a long time friend of my parents) had a car that he wanted to get rid of, and thought of me first. i was excited, but when i found it was a volvo 740, i was ecstatic.

I went over to his house to check it out and it was love at first sight...even though it was an n/a automatic regina car. i was just happy to be back in a car similar to my first one. Jeff (the P.O.) said they had stopped driving it about 3-4 years earlier, as they got an 855 to drive instead. he told me i could have it for free as long as i made sure it got clean again and most of all, got driven regularly. about a week later , i had it towed to my house and started cleaning it up. The next pics are from when its completely dirty and nasty to when i got it cleaned and waxed.










^^clean on left, dirty on right....it was nasty. i had to get new sponges after washing it the first time




yes, i got rid of the nasty steering wheel cover. haha

after i put a couple coats of wax on it, i painted the steelies and added the trans am spoiler on the trunk.







after all that cleaning up, i decided that it needed to be lowered some. so (stupidly) i pulled out the sawzall. 4 blades later, i got what i wanted...although now i think it needs one more coil cut from front.








got my stickers from dana the same day

After i lowered it, i grabbed some flat black paint for the bumpers...painting them made the car look sooo much better.













so now the stance is good, the outside is looking pretty good, i started to mess with everything else. i got new plugs, wires, rotor, dist. cap, all that ****. now it runs perfectly, except for the battery dieing every week. gotta get a good trickle charger on it, and it'll be good to go. anyway, being the broke person i am, all my mods are cheap/free...hell, i got the car for free, so why spend a lot of money on it? the next thing was just for fun..i think it is hilarious.





all this stuff was done with the car in the exact same spot where the tow truck dropped it. i got new brakes and had to bed them, so i figured that was a good reason to take the car for a test drive down the road. surprisingly, there weren't any huge major problems. only ones i found were the tail lights dont work, and the car doesn't want to go past 3000 RPM at all. it rides amazing though...not bouncy at all like everyone was saying.

it felt good to take pics of it out from under the car port. haha











Today, i got one part of the final steps to get it driving...new tires.


185/65/15 kumho tires.

so that means, all i have to do to get it driving is registration/inspection, insurance, get tires mounted, and thats it, i think. oh, and the stumbling problem, but it drives fine regardless

it is going to be my DD, but i've got a short (growing) list of things i want to do to make it better/unique/awesome/and such.

-tint.. going for 5% on back windows and 20% on front two
-i'm in the process of polishing my tail lights out..debating on keeping them red/orange/white or tinting them
-do something about the exhaust. i want a growlier sound, but not too loud.
-get a decent cd player in it. i still have the stock cassette deck (and it works).
-cut another coil from front
-i cleaned the interior pretty well, although, i still have to go back through it. i took out the pass. seat and it was pretty freaking nasty underneath. i just have to find time to do it all.
-i'm trying to find some mudflaps for it...not volvo ones though.

down the road, i may pick up a motor to build and turbo and all that..just not now. this is going to be the car i take to college (going back next fall ), so it needs to be ultra reliable and cheap.


well thanks for lookin ya'll. sorry this aint a uberbuild with BBS LM's and HUGE tardblows and mad tyte camber y0 and all that. not yet at least

[Turbosteen]

Nice!

Steelies FTW

[cuaz64]

Is good to see a well mantained 744, Mine is crap....

[VolvoNinja]

Hey Manbeard, I'm in Raleigh and my dad has me have a 1990 740 GL that has been sitting for about 3 years. We actually tried to crank it a few weeks ago but we think it's just out of gas because the engine would crank when jumped.

I've been messaging some with Sir Psycho about getting us Triangle Bricks together over some weekends and work on our cars.

[Volvo Thief]

Is that Bob Saget?

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by VolvoNinja

Hey Manbeard, I'm in Raleigh and my dad has me have a 1990 740 GL that has been sitting for about 3 years. We actually tried to crank it a few weeks ago but we think it's just out of gas because the engine would crank when jumped.

I've been messaging some with Sir Psycho about getting us Triangle Bricks together over some weekends and work on our cars.

definitely man. once i get this car running, i would love to have meets and such. i would feel kind of out of place driving a mustang to a meet now. haha.

Originally Posted by Volvo Thief

Is that Bob Saget?

[Matt]

Steve, what in the **** is up with your steelie on the left rear? Every fourth hole is filled in.

[Stephen]

idk man. it came like that. its the same size as the other ones. i'd love to find three more...i think they look better than regular steelies. either find more, or just weld sheet metal to fill up holes on the other ones.

[Breadbox]

Cheap way to get a growlier exhaust: remove the rear muffler. You can get an 18" straight pipe from the auto parts store and it fits perfectly. I hooked the dogleg pipe onto the back of it and you can't even tell I did anything. Handy for emissions tests. You'll also have to get a hanger. Mine goes around the pipe and runs to the outboard hook for the old muffler hanger and holds everything fine. Total price: about $12. The only problem is that the muffler is a b**** to get off the pipe that goes over the axle.

[Stephen]

thats what i was gonna do. they've got like 24 inch long chromed slash cut tip things at autozone i can use. that, or i was gonna make the exhaust exit right after the right rear tire, with a chrome slash cut tip peeking out from the 1/4 panel. idk, i'm gonna have to get creative with the sawzall

[Matt]

Originally Posted by manbeard

thats what i was gonna do. they've got like 24 inch long chromed slash cut tip things at autozone i can use. that, or i was gonna make the exhaust exit right after the right rear tire, with a chrome slash cut tip peeking out from the 1/4 panel. idk, i'm gonna have to get creative with the sawzall

I was gonna do that.

[Stephen]

Originally Posted by Sir Psycho

850 bumper?

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/1490810808.html

i wish i could pick that up... i'd love to put 850 seats in the car as well. if only we had more room for cars...

Originally Posted by Matt

I was gonna do that.

now i'm thinking...since i'm getting those mufflers for the mustang, i'm gonna put one bassani muffler on the volvo. i'm gonna weld or bolt it to the pipe right after the cat. then i'll get some straight pipe and a 45 and make it exit right before the right rear tire with a nice chrome tip.

[Sir Psycho]

850 bumper?

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/1490810808.html

[VolvoNinja]

Originally Posted by Sir Psycho

850 bumper?

http://raleigh.craigslist.org/cto/1490810808.html

This is unreal. Probably right around the corner from my house. Would make good practice to try get it going again or just taking it apart.

[Stephen]

got bored a bit ago..

[Sir Psycho]

Nice how'd you do it?

[morganpartee]

Originally Posted by Sir Psycho

Nice how'd you do it?

+1

Doesn't look like VHT...

[Stephen]

just gloss black spray paint. going to polish them tomorrow and see how they look.

[morganpartee]

I want a poop sticker damnit.

Have you tried the lights with that?

[Stephen]

battery is dead and my dad has the jumper cables. i'm gonna steal them from him tomorrow..gotta get to working on the 740 before it starts snowing/icing

[Stephen]

so my dad left this morning before i was up, so no jumper cables. i spent the day cleaning the inside of the volvo. i gotta organize the trunk...its the storage area since the car is not moveable right now..

i got better pics of the tail lights, too

[morganpartee]

Whats light output like?

And get me a poop sticker Damnit!

[Stephen]

pm dana for the stickers...thats where i got mine from. still haven't had the chance to even look at the car in the past week. i promise, some time this week i'll get out put pictures.

i do have pics from my old 744 from when i tinted them (too dark, too...) here you go: dont mind the S70 badges...i was young and dumb.

I used spray tint on these and put 3 too many coats on.




i had the 1157 LED replacement bulbs from autozone in the bottom outside corners. with those, they lit up perfect...almost better than stock.

daytime:

[morganpartee]

Not too bad at all. That poop sticker is epic, I want one.

[norcal505]

LOL S70
this car is stickar fest.