tjek
Member
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2011
- Location
- lillytown, the netherlands
Now, this is a story all about how my life got flipped-turned upside down, and I'd like to take a minute just sit right there i'll tell you how I became the owner of this fine wagon.
had my car licence for about 6 months at the time and drove a 1980's mazda 323 estate but wanted something bigger. my employer at the time had an 850r that i really liked but i liked oldtimers more and i found this 245
so i bought the car in january 2011 as a fixer-upper. swiss papers, ran poor, brakes locked up, battery dead, loaded with parts, the usual. but no rust, nada. and thats kinda hard to find here.
this was the day i picked it up
got it running and braking and registered by march, did a few commutes with it and decided i needed a 5 speed. did the swap, drove better.
wood hauler.
then a mate bought a car at an auction but it was too rusted to get apk/mot and after a few beers he was like; well, lets put the engine in the volvo. so we did.
its an m50b25 engine out of a 1993 e36 325i. about 275k on the clock.
also used the donor bmw lowering springs, wasnt the best fit but it rode kinda low and comfy. rear suspension stock
did sidepipes, was way too loud, so i changed it back to original volvo with a motorcycle muffler in the back
got some autec deepdish 17x8 et42 with 20mm spacers for it
add paint and voila
then some art on the hood, roofrack, mudflaps, cut a coil or 2, seats from a spyker, other small stuff.
so what do you do if you have a perfectly good car that drives okayish and looks amazing? thats right, i sold it. the new owner drove it for a while, blew a diff, broke a starter motor and put it in a barn. a few years later he sold it to a collegue of his and he kept it in a barn for a few years aswell.
fast forward to january 2016.
so yeah, had a few beers with my mates, one checked the plates online and saw its apk/mot is expired for almost a year and says; dude, buy it back!
so i did. and to my surprise the car hadnt changed a bit. just the flashy seats were out.
and then it started, upgrading everything. brakes, making coilovers, trailing arms and panhard adjustable, boxing mounts on the axle, boxing rear arms, nice seats, steeringwheel, radio, cooling system, window tinting. everything.
this is my working space. no power or heating. i have a smal shed where i can do welding and such. (2,5x3,5 meters)
yes its a mess, but that keeps everything in reach
302mm brembo disc with sporty pads. (v70 stuff)
did double sways aswel
this also made it a lot easier to replace the bushing. every suspension bushing is replaced for stock parts, so no poly
got rid of the stock handbrake stuff in the rear drum.
all new brake lines, v70 master cilinder and booster. front/rear bias controlled by the little tilton brake bias regulator in the picture next to the handbrake.
got a chipped ecu 7040 rpm max and 212 crank hp. goes 225 km/h on the gps.
als installed the bmw dash so i can see rpm, speed, water temp and the rest. had to modify the speedo ring in the back from 12 to 9 teeth.
wanted the car done by march to get some kms on it for a trip to the uk in may. didnt happen so a week before we went to the uk it was done. did a little trip (50 km) and decided it was good to go. did the 1600km trip (1000mls) and everything was good
drove it about 5000km last year and this winter the makeover starts all over again. the car was too "racecar". loud, dirty, sloppy, always down for fun times, looks good. (thats how my mate came up with the name sasha orange)
the last few months i've been working on power steering, 6-speed gearbox, sound dampening, double front sways, lowering springs with GAZ adjustable dampers in stead of the coilovers, nice gauges and other small stuff. also wanted steelies so i bought a set of renault espace 17x7 et50-ish 5x108 wheels and started cutting and welding.
first i flipped the centers
made em straight on my homemade wheel-truing machine
this is where the edge of the rim rolls on and i could just gently massage the rim in place with a sledgehammer.
then i cut the rims in half to widen them to the inside to get a respectable et of 3
add paint
and this is kinda where i am now. did a new motormount to make room for the ps rack.
doing a lot of cussing lately getting the gearbox lined up and mounted. my workspace isnt really suited for this.
i thought it would be nice to finally make a thread of my own here, after lurking and learning from all of your threads.
feel free to ask questions or comment. i'll try to keep it a bit up to date aswel.
probably forgot some stuff, but i'll add it later
EDIT: little mistake, can this be moved to the "projects and restaurations"?
had my car licence for about 6 months at the time and drove a 1980's mazda 323 estate but wanted something bigger. my employer at the time had an 850r that i really liked but i liked oldtimers more and i found this 245
so i bought the car in january 2011 as a fixer-upper. swiss papers, ran poor, brakes locked up, battery dead, loaded with parts, the usual. but no rust, nada. and thats kinda hard to find here.
this was the day i picked it up
got it running and braking and registered by march, did a few commutes with it and decided i needed a 5 speed. did the swap, drove better.
wood hauler.
then a mate bought a car at an auction but it was too rusted to get apk/mot and after a few beers he was like; well, lets put the engine in the volvo. so we did.
its an m50b25 engine out of a 1993 e36 325i. about 275k on the clock.
also used the donor bmw lowering springs, wasnt the best fit but it rode kinda low and comfy. rear suspension stock
did sidepipes, was way too loud, so i changed it back to original volvo with a motorcycle muffler in the back
got some autec deepdish 17x8 et42 with 20mm spacers for it
add paint and voila
then some art on the hood, roofrack, mudflaps, cut a coil or 2, seats from a spyker, other small stuff.
so what do you do if you have a perfectly good car that drives okayish and looks amazing? thats right, i sold it. the new owner drove it for a while, blew a diff, broke a starter motor and put it in a barn. a few years later he sold it to a collegue of his and he kept it in a barn for a few years aswell.
fast forward to january 2016.
so yeah, had a few beers with my mates, one checked the plates online and saw its apk/mot is expired for almost a year and says; dude, buy it back!
so i did. and to my surprise the car hadnt changed a bit. just the flashy seats were out.
and then it started, upgrading everything. brakes, making coilovers, trailing arms and panhard adjustable, boxing mounts on the axle, boxing rear arms, nice seats, steeringwheel, radio, cooling system, window tinting. everything.
this is my working space. no power or heating. i have a smal shed where i can do welding and such. (2,5x3,5 meters)
yes its a mess, but that keeps everything in reach
302mm brembo disc with sporty pads. (v70 stuff)
did double sways aswel
this also made it a lot easier to replace the bushing. every suspension bushing is replaced for stock parts, so no poly
got rid of the stock handbrake stuff in the rear drum.
all new brake lines, v70 master cilinder and booster. front/rear bias controlled by the little tilton brake bias regulator in the picture next to the handbrake.
got a chipped ecu 7040 rpm max and 212 crank hp. goes 225 km/h on the gps.
als installed the bmw dash so i can see rpm, speed, water temp and the rest. had to modify the speedo ring in the back from 12 to 9 teeth.
wanted the car done by march to get some kms on it for a trip to the uk in may. didnt happen so a week before we went to the uk it was done. did a little trip (50 km) and decided it was good to go. did the 1600km trip (1000mls) and everything was good
drove it about 5000km last year and this winter the makeover starts all over again. the car was too "racecar". loud, dirty, sloppy, always down for fun times, looks good. (thats how my mate came up with the name sasha orange)
the last few months i've been working on power steering, 6-speed gearbox, sound dampening, double front sways, lowering springs with GAZ adjustable dampers in stead of the coilovers, nice gauges and other small stuff. also wanted steelies so i bought a set of renault espace 17x7 et50-ish 5x108 wheels and started cutting and welding.
first i flipped the centers
made em straight on my homemade wheel-truing machine
this is where the edge of the rim rolls on and i could just gently massage the rim in place with a sledgehammer.
then i cut the rims in half to widen them to the inside to get a respectable et of 3
add paint
and this is kinda where i am now. did a new motormount to make room for the ps rack.
doing a lot of cussing lately getting the gearbox lined up and mounted. my workspace isnt really suited for this.
i thought it would be nice to finally make a thread of my own here, after lurking and learning from all of your threads.
feel free to ask questions or comment. i'll try to keep it a bit up to date aswel.
probably forgot some stuff, but i'll add it later
EDIT: little mistake, can this be moved to the "projects and restaurations"?
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