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P1800 restoration - early Jensen car

Started on the body panel replacements. Thanks to a friend of mine who is a great welder, we made significant progress in just a few hours today. I guess welding for the AF for 10+ years doesn't hurt.

Driver's side rear floor. I will finish welding it in, and will cut a small strip to finish the rear portion of it where the existing metal is still a little too thin. The rear floors are the only significant rust, everything else will be just simple patches.

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I'm not very good at updating threads.

Been putting in roughly 4-5 hours a day on this thing, as my schedule allows. Friend who's more comfortable with a welder puts in a good 20 hours/week. It's coming along.

Did the floors and found rust on an area of the frame I would have found in 2-3 weeks... Glad we caught it.

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Had a spare frame section from VP already here so cut it out where it connects to the frame in the rear and connected it underneath the passenger feet.

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Not the prettiest welds on the inside but it's rock solid and smooth on the underside.

Addressed the battery box which was rusty and had issues in the front, where it connects to the wheel well.

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I will go over the welds and seam-seal the entire thing. I have no desire in seeing this car rust again, ever.
 
Pulled the quarter panel on the driver's side. The car had been hit hard in the driver's rear corner.

Early indication of a Bondo sculpture:
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/exim-cars/48383749247/in/album-72157705263258735/" title="FC7A3CBD-88C9-44D1-AC41-5CE9AA83C25F"><img src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48383749247_a5d67719d7_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="FC7A3CBD-88C9-44D1-AC41-5CE9AA83C25F"></a><script async src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Oh yeah, that's how you fix it!
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Except it's not fixed....
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So we cut out the booty and the side, knowing that VP-Autoparts' panels were made on the original tooling. They're OE, many, many years later.

Just draped on, but you can see how the left side droops a little from the impact.

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2 hours of grinding welds later, we have this.

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Look Ma, more surprises....
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20 mins later, we have this:
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Quick run with the MIG welder and a sanding disc. We'll TIG it over the weekend to give it a little more meat.

Threw the panel on to test fit it:
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That took us to Wednesday evening....
 
Nice work. I would go over that entire inner panel with some POR15 before welding on the 1/4 panel.
 
All panels are getting prepped, primed and painted. I am considering POR-15 for the underside and even the floors inside the car. I really want this thing 100% rust free and rust proof.
 
Agree with Matt; impressive how much progress you are making in such a short period of time. We're so lucky that VP is there for the vintage Volvo models; such good quality especially on the body panels!
 
didenpx said:
Agree with Matt; impressive how much progress you are making in such a short period of time. We're so lucky that VP is there for the vintage Volvo models; such good quality especially on the body panels!
Click to expand...

Seriously. For those going to the VCOA meet in SLO next week, they will be there. Lennart and Marie-Louise are as nice as they are knowledgeable.

I'll throw up more pictures on this car soon, not much was done this weekend but this week should see some good progress.
 
Looking great - impressive work so far. Seeing your progress is making me regret selling my wife's '66 1800S a few years ago. We called it the Duckling because it was so ugly. It needed roughly the same amount of bodywork and panel replacement but had a super thick paint job and some nasty lap welds underneath from prior repairs. It ran and drove wonderfully though, which would have been a great head start on a body restoration. Ah well! I will live vicariously through yours and didenpx's!
 
didenpx said:
Want me to hunt it down? I think someone in New England bought it, right? :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, it was an interesting fellow in the Boston area. Car was #91 light green originally but had been repainted black. I have no capacity for another project right now but it would be cool to see if he made progress with it.
 
It would be cool to see what happened to it. The light green is a neat color too, you don't see many of those around.

This is where we stopped last Wednesday. Good progress but still tons of prep needed on just about everything in the picture.

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Entire right side still has tape from being blasted (some of the trim was seized on, etc....), many spot welds were left on and there is surface rust in all of the rails and hidden areas.

Another quick test fit:

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The red on the tail panel is a reflection of a massive stain of red engine paint on the garage floor.

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Rocker is just sitting on there, it's not welded on.

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Pulled the wiring out of the rocker and started prepping that area for SEM Rust-Mort and primer

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A neat connector I had never seen on a Volvo before. VW's had them, as did French cars:

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Still need to finish off a patch panel for the front of the inner rock. It's too thin for comfort and even if it's not a structural area (all A pillar panels tie together above the weak area), I don't want to leave it as-is.
 
Last edited:
Tons of prep left:

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Patch panel 1/2 made:

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Working on 2/2

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Got a fun little surprise....
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I had prepped the axle off of 6501 and planned on using it in 1311. It would save me time and give me a little more in the garage. Well 1311 is an M40 car and has a 4:10 axle, and 6501 is an M41 car and has a 4:56 axle.....
Not swapping anything, I'll do the axle for each car individually.
 
I wanted to get the inner panels in paint ASAP. It would help me determine whether we scanned a good panel for the paint mix and also get these areas sealed and ready for install.

Monday was paint day, mixed with heading to a friend's parents' house to repair the power steering on their 2004 BMW

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I forgot to get a picture after the etch primer, but it's a yellow-green color and must be covered with filler primer within 8 hours.

Laid a little color, soooooo satisfying:

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Got pretty close to the correct shade of red, may try to tweak it a little more

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Rocker done on the driver's side. Fitment is dead-on. I'll need to trim the fender patch to get the correct line on the rocker but that shouldn't be too complex.

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Passenger rear corner needed some love. There was rust on the bottom of the wheel well.

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Rear corner 2 months ago as a reference:

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It will be finished off with the TIG welder, it's just tacked into place for now.

Ass end is coming together at last:

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Rear set pan on passenger side was rusty. Thankfully the frame rails are rock solid, as is the trailing arm mounting bracket. Eric at Hi Performance Auto sent a patch panel which took me the better part of 6 hours to get down to the correct size, and free of the frame rail and brackets

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Some thick metal underneath that portion of floor:

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Next up: passenger outer rocker panel. It had been hit and was rusty.

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I'll be pulling back some of the rear quarter and some of the fender to get the new rocker in place.

Still hoping to send it to paint next week, I'm cleaning the underside to find any rust or damage that needs to be cut out and replaced. So far, so good.
 
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