1981 Volvo 242 - Slow project

To start this story off right, we'll have to have a flashback.

I bought a 1980 245, primarily as a manual transmission donor. It was awesome, so I sold off the car that it was going to be a donor for. Then the engine died due to a failed timing belt, which led to terminal rod knock.

So I decided to turbo it with a junkyard B21FT and Megasquirt.



We had some good times with the usual teething issues.

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But both of my old cars were happy.



Then, an unlicensed driver decided to have some bad decisions.



The frame was bent and it was totaled.

With some insurance money in my pocket and some questionable inspiration;



I began to search for a replacement. Which led up to this;



A 1981 Volvo 242 that had been parked for 20 years (last registration was 1999).

Then the oily bits were swapped from the crumpled body to the new (to me) body.





A rusty gas tank and leaky heater core were swapped out since neither was doing a great job of of holding fluids.







I also took some time to fix the wiring harness.

Keep it coming! Sorry to see the sad fate of the wagon, but I am a sucker for an early '80s 242 revival story, and have done a few of them myself. Your blue car looks solid from here, nice score.

I was finally able to get this back on the road. There's a lot more to be done, but it moved under its own power.

The new harness looks great, wish I had spent some more time bundling mine like that

Finally got a chance to put some miles on the car. Its pretty consistent @ 10 PSI from the Garret T3 with unknown mileage. It ran hot on the highway with a slow climb towards 220 degrees - I'm thinking that its the radiator as I used the "Made in Thailand" no-name that came with the car. But I'll check the timing again just to make sure that I'm not running too advanced. It calmed down as soon as I got off of the highway - so there's that.

The alignment appears to have been visually set by Marty Feldman and is slightly terrifying, so that needs to be addressed as well. I may throw some money at BNE for their strut kit for stock-ish springs just to be done with the suspension for a while and get it aligned. This thing is intended to be a track-day toy, so that's a little important.

Also, I have no clue where the oil pressure (green) wire is on the harness inside the car - so I'll be digging for that to get the triple gauges squared away.

Fun with the wiper motor, or thankfully butyl is still pliable after 40 years. Waiting on the cabin seal to keep rain out of the inside of the car.

Very cool, love that color.

I've been attempting to drive this thing whenever possible, mostly to see what is going to fail next.

So far both of the power steering hoses have failed and the speedo cable rusted from the inside and made some impressive noises before I could pull over.





To celebrate ordering more parts from the internet, I accessorized. Its stylish and functional.



More engine tuning and parts replacement to ensue with a distant hope of actually getting this thing on track soonish.