Another frikken Volvo ?

[Woodyboat]

WOW! I JUST NOW FOUND THIS THREAD.

When I get a little more time, I'll go back and read it all the way through.

I came to this forum because of my 1986 Big Dually that I will put back to factory condition. I need this truck to pull largish boats. But my daily driver is a 1988 Volvo 240DL. I bought the car in 1994 when it had 134,000 miles on it. It now has over 500,000 and still running very well. I painted it over the winter because it was looking sad. I'll post a few photos soon.

Anyway, my family has been driving Volvos since 1964 when mom and dad bought a 122 Amazon. In the years since, we've owned I think at least one of just about every model that Volvo has made. We have owned:

2 - 122 Amazons
1- P1800
2 - PV544s
1 - PV444
3 - 142s
2 - 164s
6 - 240s including a 1980 GT, (quite rare)
1 - 245 wagon
2 - 740s
2 - 940s
1 - 960

Sorry, no Bertone coupes although my mother has lusted after one ever since they came out in the late 70s. Yours is beautiful BTW.

I agree about your putting a V8 in at least one Volvo. Volvos have ALWAYS been underpowered IMO. They're such solid cars with very excellent road handling characteristics - So much so that they just cry for more power - something that the old guard at Volvo declared that we didn't need. That was one thing that always amazed me. What other car company would tell it's customers that they would not deliver this or that because:

"...You don't need that. If you think you DO need that then go buy a different brand of car."

That's why we saw quirky things like a 73 164 that had power windows in the front but crank windows in the back. And no completely leather seats - only leather FACED seats. LOL

I have a 240 right now that I intend to power with a V8. It is going to be a future project and I am very glad to find this thread. I think it's amazing that the Volvo forums don't have build threads like these. It's just crazy that I have to come to a Chevy Truck forum to find a Volvo build thread.

You Da man!!

[NONHOG]

Originally Posted by Woodyboat

WOW! I JUST NOW FOUND THIS THREAD.

When I get a little more time, I'll go back and read it all the way through.

I came to this forum because of my 1986 Big Dually.
We have owned:

2 - 122 Amazons
1- P1800
2 - PV544s
1 - PV444
3 - 142s
2 - 164s
6 - 240s including a 1980 GT, (quite rare)
1 - 245 wagon
2 - 740s
2 - 940s
1 - 960

It's just crazy that I have to come to a Chevy Truck forum to find a Volvo build thread.

You Da man!!

Funny I came to this forum when I owned a 1970 C-10 (long gone) has since owned a couple other Chevy/GMC's and will again but currently working on Volvo's, not my first choice but I have since grown to really appreciate them.
When I started dating my wife 10+ years ago she mentioned having a collector car. (this Bertone) on our first date she wore this shirt.

Not on her shirt is the 66 Amazon estate (also on alternate tinkerings) now owned by my son. Our 68 Amazon estate (gave its life for the 66) and a 74 164 E (sold victim of the economy)

I am not a Volvo guy or a Chevy truck guy. I like them all!

[Woodyboat]

Originally Posted by NONHOG

...not my first choice but I have since grown to really appreciate them.

EXACTLY! Growing up in the 60s, I never knew anything else because my folks drove Volvos - end of story. They had bought the first one because, as they told the Volvo salesman in Nashville, "We just need a car that will go over 100,000 miles." In 1964, there were almost no cars on the road that actually would go that many miles ... at least not in a price range my folks could afford.

As a kid, I thought Volvos were stodgy and embarrassing to be seen in. My best friend's dad had a 1966 396 Chevelle and our Volvo could, in no way, keep up with it. I thought, "Now THAT is a cool car." And of course, the Chevelle still is.

But Volvo's obsession with safety, at a time when the rest of the industry cared little about it, paid dividends for my family. My dad had been working for the telephone company. AT&T and Ma Bell stressed safety in all their drivers back then because they didn't want to have to buy insurance for all their trucks. Instead, they backed their trucks themselves but this had the result of most accidents being ruled as "avoidable" because an uninsured truck shouldn't have been on the road. Thus, the phone company really hammered safety through ketchup films and upgrading all trucks to these new-fangled three point seat belts. They required drivers to watch the films and to wear their belts. Employees faced serious disciplinary actions if they were caught NOT wearing their seat belts. And so, my dad just got into a habit and never thought much about it. This was at a time when the general public did not yet believe in seat belts and it was considered very unfashionable to wear them. Most cars didn't have them at all - not even lap belts. One of the selling points of the Amazons was that they came from the factory with three-point belts standard. Since my dad was already in the habit of wearing them, he simply required the rest of us to wear them too.

I personally went through something of a metamorphosis in my impressionable adolescent years when i was learning to drive because of some very life changing events. My dad had a job that required a long commute. He was driving our first Amazon back and forth. We lived way out in the country and Dad consistently drove way too fast because there were no cops around to slow him down. (Even now, I describe my father as one of the most intelligent morons on the planet.) One night he was driving about 80 on a gravel road and simply lost control. The car slid into a ditch nose first and then cartwheeled at least three times end over end and landed on its roof. If you're familiar with the Amazons, you know that they have this MASSIVE roll bar hoop that you can feel through the headliner. Yes, Dad was wearing his seat belt. He climbed out of the mess and walked to a farmer's house to call for help. When mom got the phone call, dad told her he was ok but that the car was a complete loss. It got towed to a junk yard and I got to see it before they scrapped it. It was unrecognizable but it had saved my Dad's stupid life. I say "stupid" because my Dad was both smart and stupid. He was smart to drive a Volvo and wear his seat belt. He was stupid to drive 80 mph on a gravel road at night.

With the loss of our first Amazon, we were now down to one car - our second Amazon. Yes, my parents really were dorks. Can you imagine any family owning TWO Volvos during the muscle car wars? Anyway, one night my brother and I were riding with my mother. It was dark, it was raining cats and dogs and we were on a country two-lane road. A car coming our direction crossed the center line and Mom swerved to avoid a head-on. But the resulting oscillation caused the car to spin and we wiped out a power pole that hit the Amazon right on the B pillar - yup, that big strong roll bar. All three of us climbed out into the rain to look. The impact deflected the
B pillar about two inches but it completely sheared off the power pole! I have never seen any car accident before or since, where the pole received so much damage and the car so little damage. The guys at the body shop told us that they really didn't know if the hydraulics on the frame machine were going to be strong enough to pull the B pillar back into alignment but, in the end, they got it done and we drove that Amazon for many years after that.

For a little kid like me, I completely lost any sense of youthful invulnerability as a result of those two accidents in quick succession. The two crashes absolutely scared the dickens out of me. And I became a believer. We've crashed a number of Volvos over the years and, without exception, we've always been glad to have been in a Volvo.

However, there is one other aspect to Volvo ownership that virtually no one ever stops to think about. Volvos typically go thousands and thousands of miles between repairs. Volvo is a car that is noted for going hundreds upon hundreds of thousands of miles but that doesn't really mean much unless the car can do it trouble free. ANY car can be kept on the road if the owner is willing to keep it repaired. Over the years, we've often had to make repairs that we were convinced that we had just done. For example, my mother's 95 940 recently got a new water pump and cam belt. We didn't know if the old cam belt was bad but hey, we're doing the water pump anyway. You know how it is. Mom kept saying: "We just replaced that cam belt not too long ago. Why do we have to do it again so soon?" Dad and I agreed. It just hadn't been all that long.

WRONG!! We got out the records and looked. We replaced the previous cam belt in 2004. OMG, where did the time go? The fact is that, when Volvos break down, they do it very rarely. Then, when they get repaired, the repairs last for years. (This, of course, depends upon using genuine Volvo parts. They cost more but are well worth it.)

There is sad news though. All the new front wheel drive Volvos starting in 1997, are not REAL Volvos. They are basically Fords with Volvo emblems on them. I suppose they are good enough cars but they are nothing stellar in the auto industry. You see... Volvo's old guard died off in the mid 90s and the kids that inherited the company went public. Volvo was first bought out by Ford and so, Ford brought in the bean counters, switched to front wheel drive and screwed up a good thing - typical for Ford. Now, as I understand it, the Chinese own Volvo and that can't be a good thing for Volvo's reputation. I just can't see the Chinese ever having the dedication to quality and safety that the Swedish have always had. This is one of the biggest reasons that I keep my 240 running. I can't replace it with a newer Volvo because I feel that there really is no such thing as a newer Volvo. Very sad.

Originally Posted by NONHOG

When I started dating my wife 10+ years ago she mentioned having a collector car. (this Bertone) on our first date she wore this shirt.

Wow, having a shirt specifically made up to show her love for Volvos shows serious dedication. Sounds like she's a keeper.

There is one Volvo that we have never owned and I lament this. We have never owned a Duett. I am not a rich man but if I can get myself into a position to sock away money specifically for a collector car purchase, I will save for a Duett.