Mattis' 960 future DD project

So, I bought a 960..

Plan is, to make it into an comfortable, practical, semi-pimp, daily driver.

So, believe it or not, 960's are actually somewhat rare over here(norway), they were heavily taxed cause of their big engines, so didn't sell in huge numbers, so prices have stayed pretty high (5-8k usd for an ok one) for an older volvo at least..

So when I stumbeled over this one february last year, for 800usd, I just had to buy it.

Pretty good condition over all


Ok equipped


And some may have spotted, M90!


Previous owner was an older man, he had had it since the year 2000, but had recently bought an smaller newer car, as you do when you get older I guess..

Naturally it had some faults that had to be fixed for it to pass the norwegian safety inspection, some broken tail light lenses, an oil leak, hand brake, tie rods, some bushings.

Pretty simple stuff i thought, but murphy's law have been kicking my ass on this one

So, ordered a bunch of parts from IPD, and FCP, and got to work.

Hammered out most of the faults in one weekend, saved the oil leak for last, was just going to drive the car out of the shop, to sweep up all the sand and stuff...

It was Idling right outside the gate, then, smoke out the tailpipe... And it was a lot, the whole parking was full of thick white fog, the smell of burnt oil.

It had been running totally normal, and smoke free up to that point.

I don't know what happened, but it seems like the head gasket whent when it was Idling, cause suddently it had coolant in the oil, the coolant was black, and smelled of gas, witch it didn't have the day before..

Instead of repairing the engine, I started the hunt for a new one.
After a couple months of searching, I stumbled over an ad, local-ish, he wanted 600usd for the engine, it was still in a car, so it was possible to try it, and had low mileage, so I figured I'd go check it out.

So when I get there, I see that there's not just one, but two 960's there, long story short, 1200usd later, I had two more cars

The low mileage engine donor, super low equipped, super rusted floor


And a twin for the project car, has the newer type seats, also M90


Since I didn't want to have so much junk standing around, the engine donor was stripped, and parted out pretty quickly, I also made back almost everything I have invested in the project so far.

Next stop china


Pulled the old engine out


"new" engine in, with the harness, box, etc. from the old engine, replaced all seals, timingbelt, waterpump, too


Fires right up on the first try.

Figured I'd drive it the car around a bit to brake the rust of the brake discs, check that it actually works etc.

On the test drive, the alternator dies, turn around, and when I come back to the garage, and see a oil puddle under the car, it had rusted a hole oil cooler, I replace both.. later that week, a guy that does safety inspections stops by the garage, he can tell me that my brake discs won't pass, witch is fair enough, as they are lightly pitted.. Sooooo, More money for FCP.

Most of the brake parts get lost by the norwegian postal service, just to make things even better.

But:


Now, it natually fails on the calippers, and some new and exciting water leaks

So this is what have happened so far...

Naturally, I'm after some parts too.
So If anyone have a set of wrinkle free grey door cards, give me a shout

I guess this will be pretty slow thread, starting to get tired of fighting with this car now

Beautiful wagon. It makes me eager to find a wagon to put my m90 into. Keep up the good work.

okoye said:

Beautiful wagon. It makes me eager to find a wagon to put my m90 into. Keep up the good work.

Click to expand...

It's starting to look like something, but still needs a lot of work

Dug a little in the part stash, found out that I had an 850R bumper in there, that I bought before I even had the car



Stumbled over some 17" Thor rims, that will be the new winter wheels.

Taking a little break from the car now, since I can't do anything before I have my new calipers, and coolant hoses