• Hello Guest, welcome to the initial stages of our new platform!
    You can find some additional information about where we are in the process of migrating the board and setting up our new software here

    Thank you for being a part of our community!

Where to get parts for 1957 Duett?

C

Classic Gary

New member
Joined
Jun 8, 2021
Just bought it. Came in boxes, did a quick inventory, gonna need parts.
Plan is a nice comfortable, dependable, work truck for my wife’s gardening business.
So.......
283 Chevy, 2004r, Ford 8”.
Has stock front suspension with disc brakes.
Don’t try to talk me out of the drive train. Already have all the rebuilt pieces.
Besides, I’m old and if I gotta work on it I want to work on something I know about. :)
Gonna be a frame off clean-up. The only thing we don’t know is, what color to paint it.
Anyway, parts!! Where to find them....suggestions....
Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Active and helpful posters here run this place: http://hiperformanceautoservice.com/index.php

Other classic Volvo parts sources (many of them probably pulling from the same sources)
https://www.gcp.se/en/
https://classic-volvo.com/
https://classicvolvorestoration.com/
https://vp-autoparts.com/
https://www.irollmotors.com/oscom/
https://www.vintagepartsource.com/volvo.htm

I'd assume you don't need sources for the drivetrain stuff.

I know a lot of people reflexively change the front ends on PV's for some reason, I guess the thought of a kingpin hanging out up front sounds bad? But really, it's a very precise and slop free suspension, almost all greased metal on metal bushings instead of wiggly rubber bushings (the lower inner a-arm pivots have little thread spool rubber bushings). And it's easy to bolt disc brakes to them. But if rubber and ball joints makes you happy, knock yourself out.
 
2 old for this said:
Budget?
Click to expand...

Time budget/ a year or so.
Money budget/ 10,000$ or so.
Travel budget/ I?m in Albuquerque, so picking up used parts isn?t too much trouble.

She?s tired of crawling in and out of her Tacoma. The barn doors on the Duett will be much easier. And it will be a rolling sign for her business.
 
JohnMc said:
Active and helpful posters here run this place: http://hiperformanceautoservice.com/index.php

Other classic Volvo parts sources (many of them probably pulling from the same sources)
https://www.gcp.se/en/
https://classic-volvo.com/
https://classicvolvorestoration.com/
https://vp-autoparts.com/
https://www.irollmotors.com/oscom/
https://www.vintagepartsource.com/volvo.htm

I'd assume you don't need sources for the drivetrain stuff.

I know a lot of people reflexively change the front ends on PV's for some reason, I guess the thought of a kingpin hanging out up front sounds bad? But really, it's a very precise and slop free suspension, almost all greased metal on metal bushings instead of wiggly rubber bushings (the lower inner a-arm pivots have little thread spool rubber bushings). And it's easy to bolt disc brakes to them. But if rubber and ball joints makes you happy, knock yourself out.
Click to expand...

Yes the changing of the front suspension is a knee jerk reaction. And after looking for something that might work, I haven?t found anything narrow enough to fit.
Any idea where to get a repop firewall with braces down to the frame? PO was going to put a SB Ford in this car. And cut the firewall all to hell......:omg:
 
JohnMc said:
Active and helpful posters here run this place: http://hiperformanceautoservice.com/index.php

Other classic Volvo parts sources (many of them probably pulling from the same sources)
https://www.gcp.se/en/
https://classic-volvo.com/
https://classicvolvorestoration.com/
https://vp-autoparts.com/
https://www.irollmotors.com/oscom/
https://www.vintagepartsource.com/volvo.htm

I'd assume you don't need sources for the drivetrain stuff.

I know a lot of people reflexively change the front ends on PV's for some reason, I guess the thought of a kingpin hanging out up front sounds bad? But really, it's a very precise and slop free suspension, almost all greased metal on metal bushings instead of wiggly rubber bushings (the lower inner a-arm pivots have little thread spool rubber bushings). And it's easy to bolt disc brakes to them. But if rubber and ball joints makes you happy, knock yourself out.
Click to expand...

Yes the changing of the front suspension is a knee jerk reaction. And after looking for something that might work, I haven?t found anything narrow enough to fit.
Any idea where to get a repop firewall with braces down to the frame? PO was going to put a SB Ford in this car. And cut the firewall all to hell......:omg:
 
I don't think you're going to find repop parts like that for Duetts. They're just pretty damn rare. Unless you get a 'parts Duett', and they're rare enough that it might not make sense to chop one up to save another vs. keeping both of them as complete cars.

444/544s are a lot more common, but as you've probably discovered, they have a surprisingly small amount of commonality between them, body on frame vs. unibody, doors are different, firewall is different, etc.
 
A 140/164 front suspension needs a little massaging to fit the Duett frame. That gets you ball joints and disc brakes. Some of the suspension parts are getting hard to find or expensive.164 upper A arm bushings are one example. They're stronger than the 140 rubber bushings but NLA from the dealer and repops are pricey.

164E rotors are vented and bolt on to 140 spindles but the 164E hubs have longer studs to accommodate the thicker rotor. Wilwood calipers have been adapted but I've found the stock ATE calipers work just fine as long as they're rebuilt.

Steering components are going to be a problem as the 140 box will need an adapter and the idler arm has no place to mount since it was originally on the cross member on B16 cars. You could modify the frame for an idler arm but the steering components intrude on the already small engine compartment so a rack & pinion conversion is probably in your future.

As John said, the stock suspension is fairly strong and 122/1800 as well as Wilwood disc brakes can be adapted without too much difficulty. Most of the the suspension and steering parts are still available.

I don't know of anyone making the firewall braces. You'll have to get the dimensions and make them yourself.
 
Another question.

How hard to remove the existing firewall?
As said above the one in the car now is butchered.
 
Post up a few pics? Curious to see how bad it is.

How hard is it to remove? Dunno, grab an ingle grinder and have at it.

I've never chopped a firewall out of a Duett, much less a PV, closest I got was chopping out the tunnel (replaced with a 122 tunnel to make room for the M41 trans).
 
And I looked harder, it already has disc brakes up front. Oops….
Is the wheel bolt pattern the same as Ford? Like 4 1/2” ?
 
JohnMc said:
Post up a few pics? Curious to see how bad it is.

How hard is it to remove? Dunno, grab an ingle grinder and have at it.

I've never chopped a firewall out of a Duett, much less a PV).
Click to expand...

It was cut all to crap before I bought it. Figured I cut it all out and build something from scratch.
 
I think you will find that budget to do something wife-quality to be rather small, specially with such a rare vehicle.

frame off clean-up: Consider getting a small dead truck -- Nissan or Toyota should be on the table -- and then modify its frame to bolt into the duet's body; you probably should be able to find a shop that can weld it to your specs without breaking a sweat or the bank. Suspension, brakes, and steering addressed. Then go from there. Chances are you can find kits to slap V8s in those frames already.
 
Last edited:
Post up some pics of the disc brakes. It is pretty easy to bolt discs onto a PV front suspension, but it's possible it's already sitting on some other frame.
 
dalek said:
I think you will find that budget to do something wife-quality to be rather small, specially with such a rare vehicle.

frame off clean-up: Consider getting a small dead truck -- Nissan or Toyota should be on the table -- and then modify its frame to bolt into the duet's body.
Click to expand...

I thought about doing that. Wife nixed the idea. She wants to keep as much Volvo as she/I can. I?m thinking about taking the 8? Ford rear out and inputting a rear from a 240/260.
She does want to drive as we fix it up. I?ve got 95% of the drivetrain and cooling and A/C parts. Glass is mostly good, doors/hood opens and closes. The UPS gold metallic/brown truck paint ain?t all that bad. So, plan is to make it run and make it dependable and comfortable.
Need dashboard/gauges, windshield wiper motor and drive, and a stock gas tank and filler neck and door. And a REALLY GOOD BATH !!!:)
I?ll post pictures as soon as this site will let me.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top