Project Volvrat II - Ratted 940 V8 Mad Max

July 19th:

Well Volvrat I has passed away and I am now breaking her for parts

For those of you who don't know my original Volvrat, affectionately known as the OVLOV, this was her:



She died of a busted head gasket, that went with such style that the cam cover is welded to the head!!!!!



So bring on Volvrat II!! The spirit of the rat shall live on!!! Volvrat II has already gained the name of Zippy Lea too


Went to auction yesterday, and picked up a 1997 Volvo 940 SE wagon, for ?325!!!!!!!! 1 previous owner, 145k on the clock, really happy with it. Got a few issues with her though, like the tail gate handle doesn't work on the outside, and some of the lights on the dash don't work, but otherwise, it's all pretty sweet.


Redblock turbo lump, not too bad condition. Bit tatty on the exhaust system, so that'll get ripped off and a straight through pipe will be installed, and the paintwork is pretty scratched and tatty too, so it'll all be going matt black again, but no rust this time.

Interior isn't too bad at all so will keep that as it is pretty much.

Gonna stick the 15G turbo off the 850 T5 on it as well as the manual boost controller and increase the boost a bit.


Got my sounds to stick in there too, and the roof rack to chuck up top again too



Best bit is, I have the whole car to get to a suitable ratty standard, by the 8th of August for Retro Rides show!! So with my days off, that works out as 5 full days for:

- Respray
- ICE install
- Fitting of roof rack, air horns, steelies and other bits

And hopefully time for a straight through exhaust to be sorted out too

July 22nd:




Before:


After some matt black paint:




And a nice pic I rather like

July 24th:

Couple of pics for y'all of my audio install





And done a little bit more matt blacking too, now done from the top of the bump strips down, done the fuel filler flap too, and put another of my warning labels on, a flammable liquid one again

July 25th:

Well I've been busy today and here is the result:



Not been flatted back yet so you'll have to forgive the patchiness, just it was getting too hot!


July 26th:

Some play pics

July 27th:

Lotta photos, but nice photos of work in progress on the new side exit exhaust.

100% custom fabricated by the guys down at Incarsolutions in Crayford, Kent (01322 274 462) and it sounds IMMENSE!!!!














And of course, the all important video!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb60gv3lABo

August 6th:

Pair of tights on the headlamps, actually wrapped around the glass itself on the main unit too, and not just stretched all over the back.

Also the roof rack is on there, and the painted grill too




Oh, first touch of hawaiian theme for the Retro Rides show with Rat-Look.com

August 12th:

So after 8 1/2 hours of hard work, and I mean VERY hard work, I have a new turbo on the wagon

Again, much thanks to the guys in Crayford at In Car Solutions

The original (and somewhat buggered) 13C turbo is gone and the 15G turbo off my old Volvo 850 T5 is on! Wooop wooooop!!!

Sounds soooo much better, much beefier now, no smoke, quieter too, and it really pulls well, even though I've set the boost lower cos I still need to sort out the intercooler pipework as it's all jiggled about now, and the air intake was on the top, and is now on the bottom of the snail. Helluva lot of work, but my god was it worth it!

There is a circlip that holds the core into the housing, and it took my mate and I half an hour just to get it back on!!! 4" circlip made of 3mm metal



So here she is, in her shiny(ish) snailish glory!!

August 15th:

New door cards Well, not exactly new door cards, but rather modified ones




Done the steering wheel too, and ripped out the airbag too (I hate airbags, and it adds to the rat look plus I now have an ashtray that I can reach easily no matter what )





Well after much arguing with, well, everything, I managed to get the new speakers in

Unfortunately after all the work, found that the bloody amp has packed up!! Ah well, guess I'll get a new JBL one, been needing to replace my Vibe amps with JBL ones anyways, so now I have a good reason to!


I also started tinting my windows but the bloody neighbourhood chavs decided to f**k it up for me and I ended up slicing my arm right open as they jumped on the car as I was sitting in the back trimming it a bit. They're just lucky I didn't manage to get out the trunk in time before they rode off on their bikes :evil: I've decided I can't be arsed to pay out for more tint film, so I'm just gonna paint the inside of the windows. 100% tint, and damn sight easier to do too


But here's the result of today's work:





Yes, they are shelving brackets holding the speaker pods up. There's another bracket on the other side too Hey, it works eh?


I know you guys are used to nice tidy installs which cost a fair bit and take a while to do, but y'all gotta remember, I'm all about the rat look. This works, very nicely, and the set up in the old Volvo was tested just under 130dB out of two 10" subs

September 3rd:



Good news and bad news folks.



Good news - the whole car is now matt black and looks awesome


Bad news - the turbo seal has blown Need to replace the turbo but luckily I should hopefully be getting one on Sunday off a mate of mine.




But enjoy the photos

September 9th:


Well some sad news, the engine is dead Checked everything and everything seems fine, but there is oil getting into the combustion chamber for some unknown reason.



Good news though - I've bought a Rover 3.5 litre V8 to drop into her!! Gonna be running on carbs and straight through pipes, so with a few little mods should see me to about 180 - 200hp


This is my new engine Not in yet, but will be sweet when it's in there!! Sooooo can't wait!!





Also ghetto tinted my windows. To those of you not completely familiar with the rat look scene, that means I painted my windows on the inside so they look tinted, but a fraction of the cost





Got a couple new stickers too. The top one is in anticipation of the new heart Don't go anywhere at the moment






I got bored today, so thought I'd play around with the car a bit.

Took the door cards off the rear doors, taped up and tidied the wiring, and painted it all matt black. Might do the same on the front doors too, but with speakers on there too

September 28th:



Had some trouble with the bell housing Went to fit it to the engine and found it didn't fit Then looking around spotted in small writing "300TDI" so it's from the diesel Landie, not the V8 like it was sold to me as, so that was a pain in the ass, but a couple of phone calls to the place and they're sending me the right one free of charge and unless they can arrange a courier to come n get the wrong one, I've now got a bell housing to put on the landie gearbox I have and sell it so hopefully get more money from it that way


Been cleaning today. Getting all the paint and crap off the rocker covers and the starter motor, and given it a bit of a polish, but it's still a 34 year old engine so gonna keep a bit of the older look on it, think it'll look nicer like that.

October 30th:



Here's one of my favorite stickers






Well I got bored last night and today so this happened!!!




Total pain in the ass to do!!!!





And I've been busy tonight, this has all been made in the last hour A lot of cutting with a hand saw keeping the volume down but I'm very happy with how it's looking so far







Just bought some new gauges and dials for the car, seeing as how I'm gonna be running larger tyres on the rear and the V8 engine too, that means the speedo and tacho will be out, so I thought "stuff it" and I've bought this for a real sweet price!





The physical construction of the dash is now complete

All that's left to do now for it is cut outs for the 4x 6.5" coaxial speakers that are going in there and the digital dashboard and then carpet it








It's also going into the shop tomorrow for the V8 transplant to commence

November 9th:


YAY!!! Engine is out!! And gearboxes are getting swapped over tomorrow, hopefully, weather providing!


Now this is a very nice, wet hole







November 11th:


Before I started work today I managed to get the old gearbox disconnected and out, and my mates got the new gearbox in so it's now looking like this




And earlier it was all just a big gaping hole!






Unfortunately found that the propshaft isn't quite long enough, so looks like some machining will have to be done to get that to fit!

December 23rd:



Well a bit of an update for you guys. The prop was too short to meet the gearbox by 55mm, so that has been holding up progress for the last month, but that spacer is now made up And now things can all start progressing again too


As for the dashboard, it's now looking a bit different too. The dials are now in, and you can see now why I decided to strip the old dash out and make the new one out of MDF



I've got the dials in and the headlamp switch in too. I just need to get the fuel gauge, hazard, and fog light switches in there too, and then I can carpet the dash

Although the dials are there, they're not actually connected to anything yet, but they light up and look pretty

January 12th:


Well now I've had some free time and the weather has been ok-ish (still been tipping it down though so getting soaked ) I've managed to get a fair bit done so now, the next step is getting the engine in now Woop!!!

I've got the prop spacer in place, which was a pain in the ass to do underneath the car on oil and rain soaked ground with loads of leafs around the place!! A lot of effort lying on your back under a car doing 4 bolts up with spanners. It doesn't sound like it, but the blood was gone from my hands after each bolt!!! Plus sneezing whilst under there and head butting the undercarriage really doesn't help! :lol

But here it is, in place, all bolted up





Also been working on the wiring too, so I now have switches for the front and rear fog lights. The rear fog switch lights up when the lights are on, but the front one doesn't for some reason, but it works. I'll just sort out the wiring for it to light up when it comes to MOT time. No photos of them sorry.



Got my fuel gauge in too now, and here's a photo of it - it's the yellow thing :lol



It's a multimeter set to show resistance, so it works as follows:
2 = full
68 = 1/5 tank remaining
113 = fuel warning light would come on (if I had one)
131 = empty tank

January 26th:


I've fitted a triple pod into the car this morning, and found that the pod fits perfectly on the pillar. Bearing in mind, I have no pillar trim, I was really impressed by the fitment of it Total cost for the pod + gauges = ?35






Next step is to do the lights wiring loom tomorrow. Wish me luck!

January 28th:


I now have my switch panel in place for my lights. Though after doing this, I thought I'll remake the panel, and have it so that the switches are in a smiley face





A video of the light switches in action

February 2nd:



After a lot of moving things about, hammering bits of metal, shoving and swearing, the engine is now 75% in Can't quite get the angle right for mating the gearbox and engine together, so going to either have to bash more of the cross member for the sump to drop down more or bash the bulk head to get the gearbox up more. It will fit, I just imagine with more swearing and shoving

9th February:


Oooh, look, no ropes holding it up!! Woop!!!!!




Got to channel a little bit more out of the cross member to get a bit of clearance on the trans-tunnel and to have it so the sump doesn't rest on the cross member, but after that, it's a case of getting some engine mounts made up, and then rebuilding the engine

February 23rd:



Well the sump has been chopped, and the oil pick up is now made of 4 sections welded together to change the angle and length of it so it now fits too




I now have the clearance that I needed, so can now get my mate to see about making up the engine mounts, and then I can rebuild the engine Yay!!!