New Member, Old Volvo

Hi all,

So I've been looking for something RWD, manual, interesting, easy to work on, and fun for a little while now, mainly interested in Fox Bodies, Miatas, 240SX's, E30s, etc, and was browsing Craigslist one day and came across this:

I hadn't really looked into Volvos, but some quick Googling led me to like them quite a lot. The price was right, the time was right, and a few days after looking at it I was driving home in my new-to-me old Volvo.
I'll start with some specs then put in some pictures:

-1988 245
-B230F big rod/squirter +T'd out of a 740
-LH 2.2 w/Turbo ECM
-Garrett GT15 (I think, I can't tell what it says on the housing, please tell me if otherwise)
-740 Turbo header
-"Custom" side exit exhaust, uses a Cherry Bomb Glasspack and some OEM muffler, pretty quiet actually
-Orange Injectors
-eBay BOV
-740 Turbo Intercooler
-740 Turbo Piping
-eBay POD Filter
-Original M47, unknown clutch
-1031 Rear end with Powertrax Lock Right locking diff (!)
-Bilsteins out back
-Stock struts in front (I think)
-Aftermarket steering wheel
-298k on chassis, not sure about engine (Previous owner guessed ~200k)

It runs and drives great- on the drive home I did some 2nd-3rd gear pulls and it is decently quick. With that said, it does have its fair share of problems:

-RUST- the rocker panels are pretty done, the rear hatch is toast, the whole area around the gas tank behind the rear bumper is bad, the undersides and edges of the doors are starting to go, there are some ugly spots at the bottom corners of the windshield, a rear floorpan is rotted out, and a couple other spots throughout the car
-There is a dent under the roof rack, sun damage, and scratched paint on the hood
-Brakes need a total overhaul
-Shot rear suspension bushing, previous owner thought it was a shock bushing, clunks badly
-Power steering leaks and is heavy
-Turbo oil return line leaks
-Previous owner said the diff seal leaks, haven't seen it dripping anything yet
-Something next to driveshaft leaks a lot (insight into this would be much appreciated)
-Gas tank leaks if filled over 2/3 full
-M47 shifter feels super vague and sloppy
-Radio doesn't work
-Some interior trim pieces broken
-Foggy headlight and marker light broken
-Needs a rear bumper (Previous owner had a log on there)
-Corner of hood nearest to driver lifts up

Of course there is some other stuff I'm forgetting right now in terms of what is has and what it needs, but this covers most of it. The Previous owner also gave me some parts to go with it. Time for pics:

























Excuse the snow in the engine bay, here in CT we just got about a foot dumped on us and my parent's cars got to stay in the garage. Let me know what you guys think, what I should do to it, and any tips and tricks you have. I think I want to address the body and suspension first, then diagnose and fix all the leaks. I think I also want to start a build/resto thread with this. If there are any of you in Southwest CT/Greater NYC area I'd love to meet sometime. I can't wait to hear back and see what you all have to say, let me know what you think!

Crap, how can I get the pictures to show on there?

Upload to a photo hosting websites like Flickr or photo bucket! Etc.

Wth that list of rust and all sounds like you are very courageous, not even most veteran 240 owners or enthusiasts would take on a a project like that! Good luck!

Ouch, thats not very encouraging, anyway- got pics there, it's not terrible, and it was $850 so worse comes to worst I part it out and learn from taking it apart- I have a friend who is into fabrication so I want to try to tackle some of the rust repair to teach myself welding. This is the first car I've gotten that I'm not driving every day so I'm not afraid to pull it apart and hack it up a bit.

To me you paid top dollar for the motor and steering wheel. Before you go any further remove interior and remove carpets, check the floor boards. Any more rust and look for another wagon. There was a decent one in Mahopac , NY for less money last week, auto but not rusty.. Check you local CL. Save a door or two to practice welding, sell the rest asap.

P.O. Is a member here, this car was in the F.S. Section for a long time. The log really cracked me up

Enjoy driving it, and let the issues be learning experiences for you. 240's are awesome cars to learn with. It's a very ambitious project to fix everything all at once, so don't think of it like that, think little picture, improve the car piece by piece.

Thanks amerbritcan, you're looking at it the same way I do- I understand how everything works, I just want to learn how to fix it and mod it if so inclined. I'm definitely not going at it all at once- this is going to be a process. It's really just for fun.

Looks like the air filter is rusted shut. I think I'd change that pronto, you'll definitely notice a difference.

I wouldn't invest any money into that chassis though, it's not a rare car, and when you start cutting away the rust you'll have a hard time deciding when to stop with the madness. But for learning how to weld and turn a wrench, appears you found your playground.

Long term your best bet would be keeping your eyes open for another car with a good body and a blown engine/tranny to swap in the fun parts.

Have at it and good luck!

eww. dats a crusty one

I saw this on CL and thought about checking it out. That thing is crusty, even for a New England car. Good luck with everything man. There's a bunch of CT guys on here, we even have our own thread in off topic and a Facebook group. Stop by sometime if you need parts or advice.

See that's not rust guys, it's called Swedish air conditioning.

Don't be discouraged by us, if learning is your key objective then this is perfect car for you! I am sure it will run perfectly for another 20 years with the right maintenance and up keep. Will be fun to watch you fix it. Like amerbritcan said, fix it one piece at a time! Drive it, fix it, drive it, fix, fix.........


I tried to get too ambitious with a 242 once and the results were not good.................but, I did learn, a lot!

Buy this and transplant your 5 speed
http://hudsonvalley.craigslist.org/cto/5390591756.html
Sell what is left to recover some money

It is definitely worth saving, and it definitely is a rare car nowadays. Not saying there aren't easier ways of going about it, but these are impossible to come by up here these days.

First Update

Thanks guys! nel621, I like your advice, I just don't have the space or funds for another car after just buying this one. I mostly gutted the interior today looking for more rust, and I found some, not quite as bad as I was expecting. I think I have an idea of where I want to go with this car- like I said, this is my first real wrenching experience so I'm not afraid to hack it, and with the body on its way out I don't think it's worth going to great lengths to save. I think the best way to go would be to make it a drift missile kinda thing, I'll preserve the body as best I can in case someone wants it after me, but I want to to be a fun driver I can beat on, which it almost is save for the brakes and bushings. I'll try to post updates on what I do semi-regularly, and I think I'm gonna keep things in this thread- I don't think this is worthy of a spot in projects and restorations. With all that said, here's what I did today:

Pulled out mats and carpets, seats

Here is some of the worst rot, there's a hole going to the wheel well and a big crack along the inner seam between the wheel well and the body- it's bad, I know, but this is some of the worst

Here is the passenger side trunk well, there is also a hole to the wheel well and the dirt on the inside is spray from the road through that hole.

This part I'm very worried about. It's a crack right at the seam between the wheel well and the rear deck right above the upper shock mount- I really don't like the fact that it is so close to the shock mount, and I took off the tire and looked around the frame there, I didn't see any frame rust but the from the interior it's a different story. Could someone tell me- if the metal on the interior is rotting is that just the body above the frame or is that section part of the frame? It seems solid despite the rot, but this is definitely something I'm going to cut out.

Looking back from the back seats is ugly- there are holes through the body on either side next to the bumper shocks.

In order to gain access to a lot of the bad stuff out back, I'm going to remove the tow bar and the bumper shocks- Is that big nut a 22mm? I can get those 2 smaller ones out easily but that big one looks tough.

Here is the top of it from the trunk- I think the head of the bolt is 22mm too.

So most of the interior is out, and in the passenger area there is largely no rust which I'm happy about...

...Except for the driver side rear floorpan- it's basically gone haha. I'm just gonna cut it out and weld in a sheet then throw some rust inhibitor and underbody coating on it.

Save for a tear on the driver's, the seats are in really good shape!

As is the rear cushion.

Finally, one more thing- I broke a bolt and got it stuck in my 10mm, anyone got tips for getting it out? I tried punching it out with an awl but to no avail.

Anyway, thanks for reading if you read the whole thing, Let me know what you think about this- I know it is ambitious but I have a little time on my hands and like I've said I am willing to try things mess it up a bit. Apart from the areas in the pictures, the rest of the car is really solid, and it runs well and has neat parts. My goal for this is to be a fine driver that can be far from perfect- It's just a platform for me to experiment on. I'll try to post weekly, and tackle some rust repair soon.

Hi. Lay the socket down sideways on something hard and hit the side of it with a hammer, broken bolt will work it's way out. Good luck on your 245

I love this thing! Hack it up until you get to a point where you think it might be best to swap over to another shell. I would guess it would be best to do this before any expensive/timely things are done permanently on this shell. Aside from the rust anyways...

Cheers from the US,
Max.

Update

Hi guys, so I'm going ahead with the project, and things are moving along well. This post is going to be picture heavy with some brief descriptions, so I'm going to jump right in.

Walmart light does work.

Cleaned up the valve cover and charge pipes- One thing I've found is that if you ever get discouraged on a project, clean something. It is soooo motivating to see something look nice with not much work.

Ebay BOV- it makes epic noises even at 6-7 psi or whatever this is at (reminds me, I need a boost gauge too).

Took off the side trim- no rust under here which is a step in the right direction.


I picked up a Milwaukee grinder from home depot to help me with the rust, and wow is it effective. Here is a little part behind the driver's side rear which had surface rust on the flare and a hole at the bottom- I used an flappy disk for the surface rust and a grinding wheel to cut out the whole section with the hole. The next few pictures are of tow bar and bumper shock removal.


The little bolts (2 on each side) holding in the tow bar in the foreground of the second picture came out easily enough, IIRC I think they were 19mm. To get the big bolts which hold the back of the bumper shocks in place, I had to use the setup in the first picture inside the car, bracing the wrench against other parts with a tire iron, while I attacked the bottom with a breaker bar and a 22mm deep socket. The drivers side one was super easy to get out, but the passenger side required a bit of persuasion from a torch.


The roof is a great place to put stuff

So I'm trying to break this car down into a number of little projects and one thing that needs attention is the driver's side headlight. The glue on the bottom holding the lens had dried up and come apart, allowing all sorts of little things to get inside of it and sully it up. Breaking the lens off of the housing proved to be somewhat difficult as the screws were seized but I got it and I can clean the inside and outside of the lens now.

You can see the difference between the good lens and bad lens.

The power steering was on the fritz, first I tried flushing the system and adding some of Walmart's finest to solve the problem, but that didn't help. When the steering wheel is turned, the pump seizes and the belt rotates on the stationary pump pulley and it sounds ugly. The next thing I tried was to tighten up the pump pulley, but this is what happened:

The adjustment screw snapped as I was trying to adjust the pump up. Oh well. Manual steering is more racecar-like anyway, isn't it?

So this is what it looks like now.

And the pump. It still turns well, I'll probably want to solve this problem after I've addressed the more pressing issues.

Cleaned up the interior a bit.

I'll definitely want to address the shifter. It goes into gears no problem but it's super floppy.

Pulled off the rear brakes, I'm gonna need new rotors at some point so why not now. Oh yea, and that's what 27 salty winters will do to your brake backing plates.

I was surprised- there actually seemed to be a fair amount of material left on the pads. I'll probably replace them anyway as the surface is pretty scored and take a closer look at the calipers too.

Yup, I need new ones of these. That rusty belt is about 1mm deeper into the disk than the cleaner part on the edge. Yuck.

Chopped out that rusted out floorpan, I still need to cut out a few other areas but I should be getting close to patching soon.

Cut out these gaping holes on the passenger side. Everyone should try hacking up a car at some point, it's strangely satisfying.

Beauty shot of the valve cover.

The garage as of now. What's that on the left you say?

The Volvo is in good company

Like I said, cleaning is therapeutic. I cleaned and painted one of the wheels with spray cans from Home Depot, and it almost makes up for the rust because of how good it looks. I can't wait to do the others and see how the car turns out.

This thing is absolutely cavernous.

Can't wait to rip it.

I also did some seat repair- I found the spring under the seat which had come off and using some rope and channel locks managed to pull it back on. Like I said, little projects.

Parts on parts on parts.

The extra shoes. The winter tires are actually in good condition, not super worn. The spare is so cool- the center of the tread says "SPECIALSPARE" haha!

That does it for now. I'll try to post updates as often as I can. The next things on the list are rust patching and rear end work.

Welcome and good on ya for keeping an old brick alive!

Seeing the rust reminds me of growing up in Rapid City SD. EVERY car looked like that after a few years...... One of many reasons I ran screaming as soon as I turned 18.

VulvaDipper said:

Cheers from the US,
Max.

Click to expand...

Where the heck do you think Connecticut is?

The underside of your car looks much cleaner/ less rusty than mine, but your shifter looks like it's spent more years in a salt water solution than actually installed on the car. Yikes. Brass bushings can be purchased for it btw. I've not experienced the difference they make though.