Sweet car and nice biuld, but I have comment on that window tint. There is no way in H that is 20%. I've had two vehicle tinted with the 30 in front 20 in back, and even the 30 has been way darker than what you were given. Your tint looks a shade darker than 50%. Let me upload some pics for comparison. These are the best side view photos I have showing the glass at its lightest. I wonder if the brand of film makes a difference, but both of these cars I had tinted 30% on the front doors with everything behind them at 20%.

I'll have to check some bins in the garage, I used to have a ton of B230FT stuff, but I think I got rid of it all. If not, I'll let you know, I have no use for it anymore.

[This message has been edited by Rainman (edited 06-24-2011).]

See now that's more in tune with what I was expecting. I wonder if the rear windows not being tinted is skewing things a bit. Thanks Rainman!

quote Originally posted by OKflyboy: I wonder if the rear windows not being tinted is skewing things a bit.

I suppose that's possible, them appearing lighter due to the additional light making its way into the vehicle via the untinted windows.

As it turns out, getting the final three windows done really did make a difference:




Also, I added a pusher fan in front of the AC Condenser, the AC still struggles a bit at idle, but the pusher sure does help:


And here's the wiring for the new fan. Its wired through a relay, with the AC Compressor as the trigger:

I think that project is becoming too much of a burden on you....tell ya what--I'll be a pal and take it off your hands for free.

quote Originally posted by MidEngineManiac: I think that project is becoming too much of a burden on you....tell ya what--I'll be a pal and take it off your hands for free.

lol. Well that's mighty generous of you but I think I'll keep her for now.

Finally patched the floor:



Needs another coat of undercoating, I think.

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 08-22-2011).]

Oh, and I ditched the r134 retrofit since it sucked. I went with a r12 alternative and the AC now kicks some serious A$$! Best I ever got with r134 was 65-ish degrees at the vents, and that was at nighty with outside temps in the 80s.

This was taken on my drive home yesterday afternoon, approximately 105 degrees outside:

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 08-22-2011).]

Nice build so far man! I keep hearing so much good stuff about Volvos(mainly from Tuzzi on Facebook) that it's very tempting to look for a DD Volvo.

Thanks! I love this little car so far. Can't WAIT to turbo it! (but I'm going to have to I guess...)

Someone beat me to it....I was wondering why you didn't tint the cargo windows.

A guy near here has a black '98 V70 turbo wagon, all smoked windows and corner lights, dropped with aftermarket rims. It looks downright sinister going down the street!

The car's lookin' good!

quote Originally posted by OKflyboy: The boys help me repair some bad wiring at the tailgate hinges...

quote Originally posted by OKflyboy: After work I went parts hunting at the boneyard. I got a 740 "overheat fan" Unfortunately after getting the fan home I noticed some severely rotted wiring, so it'll have to go back.

Volvo wiring... ugh.

quote Originally posted by Patrick from Here: I can only comment on the 1986 Volvo 740 GLE Wagon that I bought for my girlfriend a couple of years ago. It had a LOT of problems to sort out, but once done it ran like a charm and rode very nice. However... The wiring in Volvos (the older ones anyway) is biodegradable. I'm not kidding.

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 08-22-2011).]

quote Originally posted by Patrick: Volvo wiring... ugh.

Yup. I'm now tracing a charging problem that I think is caused by a faulty main engine wiring harness, or more specifically crumbling insulation on the MEWH...

Still, despite all its problems, perhaps even because of them, I love this little car. It has character.

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 08-22-2011).]

quote Originally posted by OKflyboy: Still, despite all its problems, perhaps even because of them, I love this little car. It has character.

Sounds like you could be talking about a.... damn, what the heck are they called... a Fiero!.

There is a Volvo just like this for sale down the road from me. I bet they want around 500 bucks for it if you want another project lol.

Brad

quote Originally posted by Patrick: Sounds like you could be talking about a.... damn, what the heck are they called... a Fiero!.

Quite true, which is what attracted me to the beloved little two-seater, though I never owned one.

quote Originally posted by twofatguys: There is a Volvo just like this for sale down the road from me. I bet they want around 500 bucks for it if you want another project lol. Brad

If its still around at tax return time next year, I just may. We're looking for a car that my oldest son and I can fix up together.

May be a little hard to see but that's the Volvo "sittin' in the weeds". 2 coils off the front springs.



Looks kicka$$ but I'm sorry to say ride quality did suffer for it. Oh well...

I have a bit more work to do tomorrow, then I will be cleaning her up and taking some better pics.

No pics but I got yet another gauge cluster and now everything works again!

Also, replaced the window scrapers on the front windows, since my old ones were cracked and missing pieces:


Up next tonight is to wire in the side markers (finally!) and cover up these holes in the fenders:

------------------
Read my Earthship thread in Totally O/T
si vis pacem, para bellum

"The said constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samuel Adams

What part of "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED" is so hard to understand?!

Side markers!

Well, not too much has changed since my last post other then I've been working on cleaning 'er up a bit.

Bought some Prancing Moose stuff from DaveBarton.com. DaveBarton is the same guy I bought my white-faces for my gauges from. The Prancing Moose is basically a parody of the Ferrari Prancing Pony. (there's also a Charging Moose parody of the Lamborghini Charging Bull but I like the Prancing Moose better). Kind of a silly joke but I've liked it since the first time I saw it. They're high-quality vinyl stickers that fit over the Volvo badges. He makes them in Yellow background with Black moose or the other way around. The Yellow background would be a more accurate parody, but I like the black background better.

I got them for the wheel caps:


The Volvo grill badge:


And this guy will be installed as soon as my Grant install kit arrives from Jegs. (That's a Grant 773 with a custom Prancing Moose button. Yellow Background is the only way this button is available, BTW):


Also, I changed out the side markers to these pulled from a Saab 9000. I think they look a little better then the aftermarket ones I originally installed. More retro, matches the era of the car better, I think:

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 12-17-2011).]

A little more work done. Finally installed my sub. Originally intended to use this box with an old Jensen 10" I had left over from my Caprice. However I blew right through it and its twin as soon as I wired them up. In my search through my garage for something else to use I stumbled upon some old home-audio speakers I hadn't used since the 90's and they still had the Radio Shack drivers I had installed in them - popped one of them out and threw it in and Dang! I forgot how well those old Rad-shack speakers actually thumped.

So, I had $35 in the box and waffle grill, the driver and 75Wx2 (bridged to 150W) I already had. So for $35 I've got a thumpin' little sub. Old milk crates to the rescue to organize my stuff. School books and backpack on the left, oil, antifreeze etc on the right, the crates and sub happened to fit perfectly, though, admittedly I didn't plan it that way - was just a happy accident:



------------------
Read my Earthship thread in Totally O/T
si vis pacem, para bellum

"The said constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samuel Adams

What part of "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED" is so hard to understand?!

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 12-24-2011).]

quote Originally posted by OKflyboy: And this guy will be installed as soon as my Grant install kit arrives from Jegs. (That's a Grant 773 with a custom Prancing Moose button. Yellow Background is the only way this button is available, BTW):

Sheesh. Well Jegs gave me a shipping date of 12/21, but nothing showed up so I wrote them for an update. Now they're saying Grant themselves are out of the install kit I need, and the new shipping estimate (and they stressed that they ain't making any promises this time) is 1/19!

More done tonight after work.

Volvo 960 e-fan and shroud. Did not remember to get the relay (doh!) so there's a trip to LKQ in my immediate future (read - tomorrow):



Rearranged my switches so that I could shut off my sub at will (I listen to talk radio, and booming bass on voices is just plain annoying). Also I want room to add more switches as needed. For example, I'm pretty sure I'll want to add a an override for the high speed on the e-fan, and a switch for fog/driving lights later:

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 01-01-2012).]

Got a little more work done. I wired up the e-fan a few days ago, but it was a quick down-and-dirty job just to make sure everything was going to work right. So tonight I redid the wiring to make it look more professional. This is a Volvo 960 2-speed relay. The fan is also from an 960 and is a 2-speed fan. I originally had the relay just clipped to the shroud itself, mainly because the wires from the fan were too short to put the relay anywhere else. So the solution was to extend the fan wires. Here's the relay's new home (I had to exten the wires about 3 feet to reach that far):


You can kind of see how short the wires were originally in this pic (Look in the bottom left corner, it only extends about 6 inches away from the fan)


I installed an Autozone FS533 temp switch. Its got a cooler temp trigger then the 740 "overheat" fan switch that some guys use. Its connected to the low speed portion of the 2 speed relay. I also have a switch inside the cab (the red one) that will trigger high speed if needed but so far its running so cool that even low speed hardly needs to come on (However, I imagine that will change when the warmer weather comes around):




The e-fan in all its glory:



Got the last of my computers for the turbo. Next up will likely be converting over from the much-maligned "Chrysler" ignition to the better "EZK" ignition system. That should be the last mod necessary before we can add the turbo itself.

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 01-08-2012).]

quote Originally posted by OKflyboy:

Why not add rocker switches to match original?

quote Originally posted by OKflyboy:

Looking at the air filter it looks like you can add a cold air intake easily with the opening below the radiator. Just angle it so rocks and bugs and stuff don't go straight in.

[This message has been edited by Gokart Mozart (edited 01-08-2012).]

quote Originally posted by Gokart Mozart: Looking at the air filter it looks like you can add a cold air intake easily with the opening below the radiator. Just angle it so rocks and bugs and stuff don't go straight in.

That was the original plan but I scrapped it for a couple of reasons. First, I really wanted to find something at work that I could use my employee discount. The rocker switches I was able to find locally are the smaller size like this:

and while they are rocker switches, the are too small to match the originals.

The closest I've found are something like this guy:

which appears to be closer in size, but being mail order I didn't want to gamble and have to deal with returning them if the gamble didn't pay out. I even considered military-style covered switches but at $10 a piece, the would have added up quick.

quote Originally posted by Gokart Mozart: Looking at the air filter it looks like you can add a cold air intake easily with the opening below the radiator. Just angle it so rocks and bugs and stuff don't go straight in.

Its a good idea were the car staying naturally aspirated but the air filter will be moved to the exhaust side of the motor to feed the turbo, and the space between the motor and radiator will be much reduced once the intercooler is sandwiched between the A/C condenser and the radiator:

(The following pic is not mine, just examples to show what I'm talking about :)

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 01-08-2012).]

Been a while since I've been able to work on my wagon, attempting to return to school full-time while still working a full time job takes its toll. runaway Fortunately one of my classes is only 8 weeks long, and will be over next week.

Ahhhhh...

In the meantime my garage has been filling up with parts. I now have an IPD belly pan, a new custom heater-control valve, I bought the Grant 773 back but still haven't received the install kit, I have all the parts I need for the turbo swap except the turbo cooling lines, and I also have an IPD turbo cam and here's a taste of things to be done (hopefully) next weekend:


That's an adjustable cam-gear and a new valve cover, both body-color matched.

The 36 hours between Thursday morning and Friday night were some of the most productive in months.

Thursday morning I decided to go boneyard hunting. I didn't have a whole lot of luck with Volvo-specific parts, but I did manage to score a set of 52mm VDO gauges out of a 90 VW Cabriolet:


Then Thursday night removed the radiator in preparation of the intercooler install:


then gave a few parts some fresh paint:




Finally I installed the intercooler:


Friday morning, since the coolant was drained anyway, I went ahead and installed my new custom heater control valve (finally I have a heater I can shut off! if i want to):


Then it was time to install the new IPD Turbo cam and an adjustable cam gear. Removing old cam/gear:


Installing the new cam/gear:


And finally - All together again:



Adjustable Cam gear, with cam timing advanced 2 degrees:


Yes, for those of you who noticed, the blue valve cover (picture in post above) is missing. That's because I tried to get clever and polish the raised letters and effed it up pretty bad. So I tried to respray it and effed that up too! So its on its way home with my buddy Gabe to get bead blasted again, and we just reinstalled the original for now...

Anyway, took her out for a test drive now and there is a marked difference. I was hoping that advancing the cam-gear would help me pick up something low-end but I didn't get much, OTOH not knowing what to expect we only advanced it 2 degrees. The cam, however made a HUGH difference in the top end, it revs higher and practically takes off after 4200. Now this is still a NA car, mind you, so I was surprised at the power in gained in the upper end with just a cam change.

Not much left to do now before we can add the turbo. I need to swap the ignition system over from the crappy Chrysler style to the superior LH2.2 style. I have all the individual parts, I just need to build a wiring harness. Then we need to drill the block for the oil return and then its turbo time!

------------------
Read my Earthship thread in Totally O/T
si vis pacem, para bellum

"The said constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." - Samuel Adams

What part of "SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED" is so hard to understand?!

[This message has been edited by OKflyboy (edited 03-04-2012).]

Very cool! Can't wait to see some pics and videos of this bad boy kicking some ass with a turbo.

Thanks man! Shouldn't be too much longer.

Today I used "Restore Black" to redo the faded lower trim. All in all I think it came out great:


And here's a teaser of what's next:

(This is just a test fit for length, there's no ends on the distributor side yet)

needs moar turbo.

quote Originally posted by 87antuzzi: needs moar turbo.

+1

Soon, I hope... soon....

A bit more accomplished since my last update.

Work getting done on the gauges.

First they get white faces to match my speedo cluster:


Test fit. Looks much better then the O'Reilly's gauges (I actually really liked the O'Reilly's gauges but over time they've lost their luster with me):


And I found out that my Android fits nicely in the cubby under the gauges. Spent my lunch break watching Top Gear. I wish this tablet had navigation but its just a cheapy (still fun to have, though):