Stanton27's 244 LS swap.

[Stanton27]

I was driving a gold 850 turbo on pegs lol. Not sure if fortbrick had the wagon yet, maybe the sedan? Heck that was like 7 years ago. I agree a future meet should be in the works. Maybe get some more people involved. Hopefully I have this thing finished by mid spring!

[Stanton27]

11/14
Buttcheeks are gone. Steel is welded in. Spent a little more time on the right side prepping the replacement panel to fit better. (peep my self motivating inscriptions) welded it all up and primed, gonna hit the edges with some seam sealer and hopefully weld in the trim holes on the left side later this evening.

[Vol242vo]

Looks great! What gauge steel are you welding in?

[Stanton27]

Originally Posted by Vol242vo

Looks great! What gauge steel are you welding in?

16 gauge. Kinda an afterthought. It works well though. The only issue is forcing myself to keep my bead more into the replacement panel and let it roll on its own into the factory steel. I keep blowing through lol. Also using the "nice" harbor freight flux welder. It does the job, but being flux it is hot for the thin metal, even turned all the way down. I've found that bumping my wire speed up helps quite a bit.

[JohnMc]

I need to get a better MIG. I have a 20 year old Campbell Hausfeld MIG - sort of Harbor Freight before Harbor Freight was a thing. I've become increasingly aware how crappy it is. I'm not a great welder, but it makes me worse.

[Stanton27]

Its really making filling these trim mounting holes a PITA. If I really take my time, and prep everything perfectly, I can lay down some decent welds with a good machine. Not amazing, but they look decent and most importantly hold well. I would love to learn to TIG. Fortunately, a buddy at work can, and he also knows how to setup and run cnc stuff. He is in the process of buying a mill, hopefully we can make some pretty cool custom pieces for the car.

[Stanton27]

11/16
Cut out floorboard rust, new metal. (This is getting old) Welded up some more trim holes, pulled all my door handles and locks. I spent a lot of time hammering out little dents around the car. Im trying to only use body filler if I absolutely have to. The worst part was the front left fender. I pulled it off and hammered on it for a solid 2 hours. That said, I'm happy I did. Got it 90% back to normal.

[volvowagoon]

Originally Posted by Stanton27

I was driving a gold 850 turbo on pegs lol. Not sure if fortbrick had the wagon yet, maybe the sedan? Heck that was like 7 years ago. I agree a future meet should be in the works. Maybe get some more people involved. Hopefully I have this thing finished by mid spring!

Ahhh yes, the only other white block to arrive IIRC. I showed up with a donut on my C30 since I had a blow out on the way. That car has over 180k on it now. Time flies.

Nice work. I'll be replacing a wheel arch on the wagon this winter. You're posts are motivational, but I'm not looking forward to cutting up another car!

[Stanton27]

Originally Posted by volvowagoon

Ahhh yes, the only other white block to arrive IIRC. I showed up with a donut on my C30 since I had a blow out on the way. That car has over 180k on it now. Time flies.

Nice work. I'll be replacing a wheel arch on the wagon this winter. You're posts are motivational, but I'm not looking forward to cutting up another car!

I think this is my 8th(?) Volvo since the gold 850. I had another green 5 speed, two clean m66 s60r's, a super clean 744 turbo 5speed that I basically gave away. Still regret that one. I'll attach a pic. A few 740s, a 940, an absolute dumpster fire 240. I have a problem lol.


Ordered some summit single stage paint that pretty well matches factory color. This is gonna be the real turning point for me. I've never painted a whole car. I have zero expectations. We will see what happens.

[Stanton27]

11/17: trim holes are finally all welded and ground flush. On to paint prep.

[Stanton27]

11/22
Finally.

[patrickstar]

Looks very nice, good job. I want to delete the trim on my 242 eventually

[Vol242vo]

Wow! Nice work, I love seeing this stuff done right out of the garage, very impressive.

[Stanton27]

Thanks guys. Its a huge pain, but now that its done, I'm glad I did it. Now I can start on the stuff I actually like to do. The paint was still curing in the pics, and not leveled out yet so looks kinda peely. Looked so much better this morning. Threw the tails in last night and snagged a pic. I really dig this color

[atomicdeathmonkey]

God I wish I had half your skillset !

Powerful work !

[Stanton27]

Originally Posted by atomicdeathmonkey

God I wish I had half your skillset !

Powerful work !

Thanks! I'm not an expert with this stuff, but just taking my time and using common sense seems to be mostly working for me.

12/1:

Finished the trunk mostly, working forward on the interior. Ordered more go fast parts, and started on the motor. Got my crank in, measured, and started setting ring gap. Ordered some massive wheels for this thing. (Deal on the geminis fell through) Fitment is going to be fun.

Does anyone have a lead on a supplier for 8.8 brackets for a 240? I found giffin performance but their website was hard for me to navigate. Maybe an issue on my end.

[2turbotoys]

Cut them off your old axle? I think someone sells them but I can't remember who. The brackets on my 9" rear were just cut off the Volvo and welded to the new axle.

[stevE85]

I bought the Giffen tabs for my 8.8, however I wish I would've made my own. They're not the prettiest pieces (I'm very picky), and I felt like they could have been heftier. All that aside, I just hit him up on FB if you want some. He replied quickly and got me the tabs in just a few days after the order.

[patrickstar]

Originally Posted by stevE85

I bought the Giffen tabs for my 8.8, however I wish I would've made my own. They're not the prettiest pieces (I'm very picky), and I felt like they could have been heftier. All that aside, I just hit him up on FB if you want some. He replied quickly and got me the tabs in just a few days after the order.

All of Giffins stuff is low quality. A buddy got his mounts and I laughed when I saw them, anyone with an angle grinder could build them for half the price

[2turbotoys]

Dam lol

[Stanton27]

I thought about cutting all the old tabs off but I think it might be easier to make some new. Our new cad plasma table is almost set up at work too...hehe

[Stanton27]

12/9:
Wheels showed up (finally). Not much else has happened. Life has been busy lately.. Excited about these though! More soon.

[2turbotoys]

They look great! Size, offset?

[Stanton27]

Originally Posted by 2turbotoys

They look great! Size, offset?

17x9 +22. Its gonna be snug haha

[volvowagoon]

That looks great!