Tan Catamaran (85 244 DL)

[240keith]

I have got the various details to this posted in several different places, so i figured i might as well put it all in one place, with some details, and a somewhat coherent timeline...

This is the story of how...

I got drafted to the DARK side…

Volvos…

It starts with my two buddies… Alden and Scott… Alden had a project 744TI that I had the pleasure of not only helping him pick up, and helping him work on, but also helping him find and tear apart a parts car for… Scott had had several Volvo wagons in the past, and he always seemed to enjoy them for reasons that I never understood…

Anyways, in January 2009, I stumbled upon a listing on craigslist for an n/a 85 244 with a M46 in was in a small town about 15 miles away, and Alden and I went to look at it twice… and I ended up buying it, figuring I could at least part it and make my money back, or sell it as a lemons car

The car had new brakes within the last 10,000 miles, new clutch within the last 15,000
A new cat within the last two years, new cap and rotor, new spark plugs, and a new oxygen sensor and recent tires, and a newer transmission mount

The owner was asking $300, with the condition that it was only sold with a bill of sale, as he couldn’t get it to pass smog… he thought that it was an injection computer, we were pretty sure it was something else, something simple, as it had passed smog the previous year without any problems … I ended up paying $250 for it…

This is what it looked like, very close to the first week I got it…



So, we dragged it back to my place, and did a few things, we tried a new thermostat, we tried a new computer, we rebuilt the wiring harness, we swapped coolant sensors (both of them), we did an oil change and a seafoam torture regime, and a new timing belt and it was still running pig rich… you could smell the raw fuel… anyways, after screwing around with it for a while, we decided to look at the oxygen sensor…

When we pulled it out, the globe was completely gone… it was trying to pump enough fuel to overcome that…

Anyways, after swapping oxygen sensors, it passed smog with almost zero emissions…


At this point, I had found a guy in town parting out a 76 245… so I snagged a few things
Flat hood
Grill
Light assemblies
Mirrors
Cam (B)


I swapped on the flat hood and lights and did an autocross on a set of borrowed 10 spokes (thanks Alden!)… it wasn’t anything spectacular, just an average 25 year old car, with average worn out suspension…but it was lots of fun…



It did another auto x



Then the B cam went in…

Transmission fluid got swapped with some B&M Trickshift



Somewhere in here, I bought a set of 25/25 sways from Ken, and the front made its way onto the car, ive still got to shoehorn the rear in…

I also bought a set of Nova wheels from Ken, traded them to Alden for the set of 10 spokes that I had borrowed before, and then I cleaned them, and continued on to destroy the tires... I believe that we removed the wear bars completely…



I installed a pioneer cd player and some speakers (stocks up front mazda 6 x9s in the back)





I painted the turn signal bezels chrome, converted the lights to use both filaments





I converted the car to the all black turbo trim



Eventually, I swapped back to steelies, cause ive got good tires for them…



I installed a set of yellow driving lights in the front bumper





I waxed the crap out of it (clay bar, polishing compound stages 1, 2 and wax) and removed the pinstriping...

Part way done :


Switched to a set of flat faced h4s, with 90/100 bulbs (with a ricer blue tinge)





Installed an oil pressure, volt gauge and vacuum gauge



I put some red L.E.D.s in the gauge cluster



I painted and installed a set of stock G.T. braces:



I also threw on a set of NAPA lifetime spark plug wires… cheap, but they will work for now…




We also removed all the exhaust except the catalytic converter and the resonator… made it a bit noisier, but it works for the mean time…



Oh, and I love to take pictures, so here are a bunch from assorted photoshoots:





















new-ish alternator in the middle of February (somewhat recently rebuilt 70 amp)



Future Plans:

Suspension (HDs and an altitude drop)
Chassis and Strut Tower - Strut Tower Braces
New wiring harness (Engine at least)
Better seats (Im not sure what yet, but the stock buckets are starting to bother me…)
Short shift kit
Powdercoat the 10 spokes -- white
Sound deadening


Far Future Plans:
16 valve head
After market engine management
Relocate battery

[chirish1234]

awesome car dude!

[wisturbo]

I love it! Why no love for the coffin hood though? I bet it would look good on there with the suspension a tad lower.

[varg]

Beautiful car, I like the plug wires, I have the same set

[240keith]

Originally Posted by chirish1234

awesome car dude!

thanks! im enjoying it... its a fun little car...

Originally Posted by wisturbo

I love it! Why no love for the coffin hood though? I bet it would look good on there with the suspension a tad lower.

i enjoy the coffin hood, and i have all the stuff to swap back and forth, but for 60 bucks for all of it(lights, buckets,turn signals, perfect grille and hood), it was too good to pass up

Originally Posted by varg

Beautiful car, I like the plug wires, I have the same set

yea, they were on sale when i got them, and the last set separated when i tried to remove them, but it sounds like as long as i take them back in there they will keep exchanging them... lifetime warranty ftw

[SL8Brick]

Nice ride! I like everything, except for this....

Originally Posted by 240keith

I installed a set of yellow driving lights in the front bumper

IMO, your car is screaming for a set of Hella 500 rounds mounted on top of the bumper. They'll blend right in with the dual rounds/flathood grill and won't get smashed by some soccer mom trying to park her Ford Expedition in front of you.

[doucheNozzle]

Looks good Keith! I think I want to see if we can hit your hood a bit better. Flat black still, then wet sand, then some clear to make it fit a little bit better. We also need to get you a sub amp!

[240keith]

Originally Posted by SL8Brick

Nice ride! I like everything, except for this....



IMO, your car is screaming for a set of Hella 500 rounds mounted on top of the bumper. They'll blend right in with the dual rounds/flathood grill and won't get smashed by some soccer mom trying to park her Ford Expedition in front of you.

yea, them mounted on the bumper kind of worries me, as far as stupid drivers, as well as rock chips, but it would be hard to get the angles of big round lights to work with the sloped front of the grille... this set up will get modified at some point, but for now, they are really good at flashing people that cut me off...

Originally Posted by scottyd

Looks good Keith! I think I want to see if we can hit your hood a bit better. Flat black still, then wet sand, then some clear to make it fit a little bit better. We also need to get you a sub amp!

yea, the hood needs to be prepd and repainted again, but i need to do it somewhere when i have more people... its a bitch and a half to install / align it by yourself...

and yea, the sub needs an amp, but first the car needs to run again... i think its time to try and rebuild an alternator...

keith

[brickborg]

That car is screaming so loud for a B230ft that I can hear it here in Minnesota.

Nice work!

[Crazychopstick]

Needs low so badly.

[240keith]

Originally Posted by BrickBorg612

That car is screaming so loud for a B230ft that I can hear it here in Minnesota.

Nice work!

thanks, a turbo is in the plan at some point, just not sure when... im not really in any huge hurry to do it... i want to get it up and running reliability before i start throwing more potential problems at it..

Originally Posted by Crazychopstick

Needs low so badly.

yes, this thing is at full tilt 4x status, and its real bad... but hopefully getting suspension soon...

fender gap is over-rated, and there is a plan to eliminate a good portion of it...

[shellshock]

Looks good dude! With good paint like yours, why not go ahead and have the hood color matched with the rest of the car? That'll make it look super clean!

[doucheNozzle]

Originally Posted by shellshock

Looks good dude! With good paint like yours, why not go ahead and have the hood color matched with the rest of the car? That'll make it look super clean!

That costs $

[240keith]

Originally Posted by shellshock

Looks good dude! With good paint like yours, why not go ahead and have the hood color matched with the rest of the car? That'll make it look super clean!

Originally Posted by scottyd

That costs $

yea, more or less...

flat black is kind of a band-aid... it will get color matched at some point, but probably not for a while...

thanks for the complement about the paint...

keith

[Crazychopstick]

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=173081

What's that?

[240keith]

Originally Posted by Crazychopstick

http://forums.turbobricks.com/showthread.php?t=173081

What's that?

hah, i totally forgot that was there... i will see if we can have it deleted...

keith

[Prime240]

Nice clean car!
Me like!

[240keith]

well, somebody took some pictures of my pile at a few auto xs, so i thought i would toss them up here...



this one, was after enjoying a nice breakfast of cones... popped the airdamn off the passenger side corner...






all the above were courtesy of Mary Pozzi (if you ever read this, thanks Mary!)

[doucheNozzle]

Haha that's me driving it in the last 2.

[charnock]

Originally Posted by 240keith

haha love that air dam siting at the same level as the ground. looks like you have a lot of fun with the car, nice one

[240keith]

Originally Posted by scottyd

Haha that's me driving it in the last 2.

yep

Originally Posted by charnock

haha love that air dam siting at the same level as the ground. looks like you have a lot of fun with the car, nice one

it takes quite a bit to get it like that (i think i nailed 3 or 4 cones there... and when i crossed the finish, so guy comes running up, and was like, your bumper is falling off...

my only reaction was, " hah, its a volvo, ive got zip ties, it will be all good..."


yea, i have a lot of fun with the car... its cheap thrills, and a good way to learn / experiment with stuff

[242Bleek]

Awesome beige. I love it! Now slam it more

[doucheNozzle]

We're working on it. Hopefully at the western meet.

[240keith]

Originally Posted by scottyd

We're working on it. Hopefully at the western meet.

this... hoping to be lighter by approximately 2 coils

[240keith]

so we did another Autox... and i stole some more of Mary's photos...






in case anybody is looking for Mary's photo collection, it can be found here : http://marypozzi.zenfolio.com/

thanks for taking pictures Mary...

and for my sake...

newer knock sensor
installed a mismatched front arm-rest, like so :



repainted my drivers and passengers side black window trim, and bottom door moldings

and the buttcheeks too