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Kyle242GT's 1959 5.044

volt; they swapped headlights, alternator, and that's about it... found all manner of goofy shens in the wiring, including a dash bulb that was wired straight to the alternator. Probably to energize the alternator (in which case it should have a diode), but it's charging fine without it, who knows. I was just trying to get headlights and taillights so I can start driving it

If the bulb to alternator wiring is 12v switched power to pin 1 on the alternator (assuming a gm10si) then it is wired correctly. There should be 12v on pin 1 of the alternator unless the alternator has a failure - then pin 1 switches to ground and the waring light on your dash lights up. The alternator on 240's and 740's works the same way as the GM 10si.

That car was a great score, much nicer than my 59. I wish I was as close to driving mine.
 
Bought some wheels..... :drool: '80 date stamped Carroll Shelby Minilite knockoffs. 15x7", 3.75" backspacing.

I :love: LOVE :love: the design. I'd love it more if I didn't already have Panasports on my 240Z. But even if I AM copycatting myself, damn, these are beautiful.

Have some rubbing in front, will need a spacer. And of course about $60 of shank lug nuts. :lol: Hope to score tires tomorrow. Gonna go with 205/50, since they stick out far enough to not tuck too well. :e-shrug:

After that, suspension bushing replacement, exhaust, paint. :x:
 

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Excellent car. The next Volvo i buy will be a 544. Those wheels look sweet. That's cool you want to do the Vintage racing thing, there's a guy with a restored 544 that has a website dedicated to his racing days, I need to find a link and post it. Here's a photo from the website of him racing in Reading, Pa back in 1969, I grew up there and never heard of the Reading Road Races, but it must've been really cool. Looking forward to seeing more of this car of yours. Hope the photo provides some inspiration.

SafariDesktopPicture.jpg
 
Good stuff! :-D That paint scheme is exactly what I'm going for... being black and white, I can even imagine it in the colors I will actually use... :ninja: though I might be the "fraud" referred to in the story; I doubt I'll do much racing with it beyond an occasional AX in the name of hilarity.
 
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The car is grey in color, you can google the owner's name and see videos on youtube of it autocrossing and going around the track. For an exhaust they just extended the two primary pipes coming from the exhaust manifold all the way back and turn both pipes out the side in front of the rear tires. It sounds great! Glad you liked the info. Here's a link to a couple of videos, I can't resist.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8mR8XMBbfE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5_dNG2vWXg&feature=related

Okay, I'll leave you alone. I really like your car and I figured you'd like knowing about this car. Keep us posted.
 
205/55VR15 Falken 512's, 5/16" spacers in front, had to remove the driver's side zerk fitting.

Looks good to me!! Tiniest bit of rub on one corner or other on hard cornering, but otherwise okay. Clearance pretty tight all around, 215/60's definitely wouldn't have worked. 205/50's would have been okay, but front fender gap would have been excessive.
 

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I've been driving it to around town when the weather is decent (no wipers yet).

AX is a possibility, but I need to get the suspension bushings sorted out before then. Clutch is pretty lazy too, so that'd need fixing first, since I have a feeling it'd be back and forth between 2nd and 3rd a lot.

I'm probably going to do the cosmetics first; did that with my Tbird and it made maintenance/update/repair a lot more enjoyable.
 
Thanks for the kind words, gents!
Funny how the wheels transform it. I've been planning to paint it quicklike and do it up like a rally/race car, just for yucks:
volvo-pv544-0835631001297349856.jpg

But now... I just don't know. Looks pretty damn presentable as is.

Yankee bar? That's a new one to me. You mean the towel bar? I'm going to take the bumper off altogether (it's pretty rough), just needed a convenient way to mount the license plate.

While I'm at it, what do you all think of welding up the bumper and washer holes? Maybe better to use rubber plugs, so it's reversible?
 
Did the exhaust today - cut off rear section, retained original resonator, reused some of the pipe for a side exit and added $10 of chrome goodness to it. Video too! The little car seems to scoot along a little better, but that may just be the fun of the noise.



Downside: two 2.25" (?) tips on one 1.75" pipe is silly, the transitions are ugly if you look closely. I also really stink at notching pipe, so the Y is pretty ugly. But better an ugly weld job than a tip that's not hooked up to anything, right?

Worst part of the day? Broke an exhaust stud. !@#!$@!$ Now I have to pull the manifold. :-(
 

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Update time!
New lower control arm bushings, greased everything, made new seals for the metal-to-metal connections.
Had to weld one of the arms, as seems to be the norm.

Put in electronic ignition per Isaiah's writeup - thread on brickboard
Trick to getting that to work was to fiddle with the point gap to get the point-close rotor position to match up with the cap contacts... I think I made the point gap as large as I could. Timing needed some changing as well, but it was very easy to static time - just listen for the spark while rotating the distributor. Total cost was about $22.

Up at Last Mile Auto Dismantlers yesterday gathering parts for my 67 Skylark, I picked up stuff to do disk brakes. It was 100F, swarms of angry yellowjackets everywhere, and the donor was buried six cars deep and up to its axles in dirt. Ugh. Hopeful that I can clean things up.

Also happened across a cable-operated water valve on a diesel Rabbit in the yard, so I might be able to control the heater someday... currently just looped.
 

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