My 240 Story

That's obscene. Your resuscitation skills are amazing.

Awesome work.

Thumbs up, loving the detailing process! My clear coat was too far gone to do that on my car, so I'm in the painting stage right now. Can't wait till it warms up a little to finish up.

Awesome how that car cleaned up, i love your work!

Was it hard to find a car that only needed a really good cleanup?
Here the rust eats all the cars, and original paint after 20-25 years is uninterpretable on non garage queen cars. My poop brown 244 from '80 only have original paint on its roof...

Very nice! Can't wait to see where this goes.

Know what's funny? I don't even care if it runs, and I'd pay $1000 more for it than you paid for it, simply due to the cleaning and better cosmetics.
Your take on older BMWs is in keeping with my experience as well after nursing one along/making small improvements for a decade.
There's a lot to like in these 240s for a car person...

Beautiful!

I thought I had done some detailing on my car but I may as well have urinated on it! Keep up the amazing journey.

I'm a little late to this party. Nice work but why didn't you just remove the belt line trim and then polish the sides without any obstructions. Or did I miss something? Just skimming through.

brian smith said:

Know what's funny? I don't even care if it runs, and I'd pay $1000 more for it than you paid for it, simply due to the cleaning and better cosmetics.
Your take on older BMWs is in keeping with my experience as well after nursing one along/making small improvements for a decade.
There's a lot to like in these 240s for a car person...

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Thanks man. That's actually how I'm making some side money now. Im buying neglected BMW E36 M3's with my friend, thoroughly cleaning them up, and selling em. Presentation & cleanliness plays a massive part in selling used cars. Spending 10hrs, or $200ish with a detailer, will yield a much higher sale price. You'll get it sold faster too. Undeniable.

SLO240 said:

I thought I had done some detailing on my car but I may as well have urinated on it! Keep up the amazing journey.

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Hahaha

nel621 said:

I'm a little late to this party. Nice work but why didn't you just remove the belt line trim and then polish the sides without any obstructions. Or did I miss something? Just skimming through.

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I've still got BMW PTSD. I'm scared to pull any trim, especially since it's this cold. I'm bound to break or bend them. Definitely the clips. I should have pulled them though because they're a major pain to work around and there's still crud jammed in there. I'll detail this again in Spring and i'll tackle them then.




So today I mounted my IPD Sport Exhaust. I'm happy to gain the tiny amount of power, air flow, and sound. I'm going to run down the street and have this thing welded though. The clamps just don't seal well enough near the cat. My only serious aggravation came with fitting the exhaust tip. It's not even remotely sized properly. I had to hammer out the female end a bunch and grind off a few millimeters on the male end. It still doesn't fit right. Makes no sense to me why it came like this. I painted the end black with BBQ paint so the wiggly noodle tip doesn't stand out and rust as badly as they usually do.



There's also the small matter of this seemly stupid rear diffuser. Is it only there for looks? Or is it purposely scooping air and shooting it up? I'd think that on the highway, at 60+mph, that this thing creates unnecessary resistance and noise. It's solidly bolted at 6 points. I searched around and I've even seen some people drilling holes in it for the air to slide through. I don't see the point in halfassing it with holes, so I just cut it out. Easy. I know this isn't a formula ferrari, but anything small to make it more efficient and slippery is worth the effort for me.



All done. I may paint the muffler black too. If I end up liking the silver contrast though, I'll paint it with some silver BBQ paint so it doesn't rust and get nasty as quickly. The trunk was just compounded, not polished just yet, so excuse the blotchy paint. I gotta restart that paint reconditioning soon...

Somehow I still haven't driven this thing. Drove this thing from Arlington to Baltimore almost two months ago, parked it in the garage, and it hasn't seen the street yet. All in the name of delayed satisfaction, laziness, and incompetence. Truth be told, I'm a hazard to the whole neighborhood every time I even pick up a screwdriver. I can learn... but I'll definitely break something the first time around before I realize what's going on. Hopefully this seemingly basic sweedish tracker will help me change that. Till then, it's a good thing my boy Richard knows how to work a wrench.


Please, step into my ****ing freezing office....





New timing belt, tensioner, and OE Volvo water pump





New rubber mats, fuel filter, cap, rotor, oil filter, & magnetic drain plug




Scrubbed out the hoses and replaced the dirty green coolant with fancy pantsy expensive Volvo coolant





New Bosch spark plugs and wires. The old ones were dirty but not terrible.




**** yeaahhh

wow! amazing! those work processing are great. you done real great job on very details of cleaning! way to go. that make me feel like i gotta hire you to do my 245! haha

Tuff240 said:

Great write up and pictures. That's an excellent car to start with also.

I was into e30's for a while. Had several 325i's and a couple M3's. I do still really like them, but Volvo's are cheaper, more unique and the community is way better. Much safer in a accident than an e30 also. After seeing Randomtask37's car torn to nothing I sold my last e30 and haven't looked back.

I can tell by your e30, the phrases you use and the pictures of you cleaning the 240 that you are at least a fairly well educated detailer. Nice to have another person here that understands and enjoys cleaning stuff.

I'll shamelessly drop a couple pics here to help keep you motivated on cleaning your 245.

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I saw your wheels on your 245, oh i love it! I have to ask what kind and where can I get? Its kinda hard for me to find a good wheel that fit on my 245

They look like ESM's replicas of the BBS LM.

Even if they're not, check em out anyway.... http://esmwheels.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=59_64_74_81&product_id=90

Great write up! Really incredible at how therapeutic it is to detail a car! I am going to have to have you over to help me detail my black 245! Keep up the great work, this is one of those inspiring threads that show how well these things can pop back to life with some love!!!

Volvosaur said:

I saw your wheels on your 245, oh i love it! I have to ask what kind and where can I get? Its kinda hard for me to find a good wheel that fit on my 245

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Mine are 18" BBS LM replicas made by Miro. They are no longer available so you'll have to look into the ESM's or a handful of others that make BBS LM reps.

Dude nice work an awesome wagon! This make me want to clean my car now. I miss the snow. Some cardboard or old carpet on the garage floor helps a ton in the cold though.

I'm still not driving this car yet if you can believe it... nearing 5 months...but I'm close! Too many other project cars and priorities to handle.


Changed the oil and put in IPD's magnetic oil nut. I found a sticker on the windshield suggesting the oil be changed in 02/2013. Freaked the **** out. It was nasty. I'll run the new oil/filter/nut for about 500 miles, add Seafoam for 50miles, and flush it out again. Gross. Engine's running much smoother and happier now though. Less vibration at higher revs.


I installed Homer's short shifter and brass bushings, cleaned and lubricated everything as well. Amazing! I can't believe how much better the car feels for $60. Everyone out there with an M47 tranny needs to source one immediately. Improving one of your main contact points with the car so dramatically makes a world of difference. It feels better than a lot of BMWs and even BMW aftermarket SSKs I've felt before. Even better than the two M3s I have in the driveway right now by a longshot. I'd never in a bajillion years attempt a SSK job on a BMW, but I jumped right in on the Volvo. And that's one of the reasons I'm liking this car so much - it's giving me the confidence to turn wrenches myself. There's so much room and simplicity with these things, especially compared to Hans' arrogant design layout on my 325. I can't remember the last time I tackled a mechanical job like this and didn't break anything.






I've been noticing a lot of vibration throughout the cabin when compared to the automatic 1993 240 from earlier in the thread. Was it because of motor mounts? Nah, they're fine. The nature of a manual transmission? Kinda. Because it's older? Yeah the older 240's have less sound deadening.... Part of me didn't care, but with time on my hands I decided to rig up some soundproofing. I have a lot of 3.2mm recycled tire layering from my apartment renovation. It's great at reducing high-frequency noise such as voices and TV in my house. So I cut some up and threw it everywhere I could. The transmission tunnel, glovebox, and under the front carpet. I put it under the rear seats and hatch as well. I also bought QuickRoof adhesive tar (designed for roofing applications) and stuck it on the hollow sounding metal. It's great at absorbing vibration within the metal. I put it behind the door cards, fenders, and rear hatch. I also jammed insulation from my apartment into the shifter, rear fenders, and behind the dash haha

The results are awesome. I was disappointed by all the vibrations and cabin noise before... but now I'm quite happy. Between the updated shifter and sound quality, I feel like I'm driving a much more modern car. The shifter & bushings cost $80 and the sound insulation materials cost about $25.

Do it.









And a massive exterior and driving quality improvement happened as well... new headlights. They really make you stand out from literally every other 240 on the road. I don't think I've ever seen a 240 without yellowed lights before. Visually the car doesn't look like such a bucket. And the light quality has been greatly improved. These are the basic eBay lights too, not fancy pantsy e-codes. $135 with free shipping. Took 15mins to do and it let me do some more unnecessary cleaning while I was at it.




Side-by-side. Can you tell which side has new lights?




Soon to come... fixing the water pump leak and new audio!

Water pump leak fixed! Running great!!!


Tackled the roof. I never did a full job on the roof, since it was so big and it was so ****ing cold out. It's one massive slab of paint so I've held off till now. Definitely a dramatic before & after. God I love this single stage paint....







Lookin soooo much better






More layers of Forever Black dye





New window gaskets to replace the cracked mess from before






Kaplehenkenkeee or however-you-spell-it's 5.25" speaker adapters were a huge help. Got some awesome Alpines in the doors. Alpine headunit to go with it, and an amazing sub from crutchfield. The sub is an 8" at $119 with something like 350 five-star-reviews. I traded a full detail to a friend of mine to install everything for me. For about $400 and only two speakers, I'm very impressed with my audio system. I've never had a sub before and it makes such an enjoyable difference and makes up for the complete lack of balls that a 2 speaker system has.







The looks I get blasting this kinda music in Baltimore City from a smurf blue volvo wagon are hyyyysterical!!!





Welded the IPD Sport exhaust up. I literally can't tell a hint of difference in sound between this and a stock exhaust. I'm sure it flows better, but if you're looking to buy one for the performance sound, you're wasting your money.




Replaced a fuel line that was barely attached and disintegrating.




Real photoshoot coming up just in time for IPD's competition!!!!!!

First real photoshoot ....














A far cry from