The car is at a body shop right now to get the floor pans, chassis box sections, and that dang trans mount fixed up. Hope I get the car back soon.

I replaced the starter over a lunch hour since I am working from home during the pandemic. I used that Bosch remanufactured starter, the smaller more powerful one. I cant think of the exact part number right now. Starts a lot faster and easier now.

Once the car comes back I can work on the upgraded exhaust install.

In the meantime I have been enjoying the car,... I get lots of waves and even one guy blocked me at the gas station to compliment me on the car. Car is running great too, no issues at all.

That's fantastic! Glad to hear that it was running and driving.

Glad you’ve even able to enjoy your car! Hopefully you have back on the road quick after the bodywork.

Winter is here and the car is back in the garage. The metalwork took longer than anticipated, but it's all solid and ready for many more years. Both front floor pans were replaced, chassis outriggers replaced, trans mount moved (my biggest peeve about the car, see previous pictures as to what the PO did). A corner of the driver side rear pan was replaced, all rust treated and sound deadening was applied on the repaired areas. All bare metal was epoxy coated as well to help prevent any rust.i got to drive the car for a week or two before it got cold and I wanted to park it anyways. He also fixed my OD so the drive back was a lot smoother. Never used the OD on the highway before, what a difference that made!

With any luck I can work on the exhaust over the winter which includes a powder coated Injected-b20 exhaust manifold and and Simons resonator.

Other small projects may include installing a Smith's tach on the dash, wiring up an AFR gauge and fitting a 140 airbox. I am soaking the front bumper bolts to remove them, to see what the car looks like without the overriders. Need to get a VP order in for some small parts too. There are plans... but will they get done? Time will tell.

Have a safe holiday season, everyone. Times are a little crazy nowadays.

Great to hear, David - congrats!

I saw that VP was doing a 15% discount for December in launching their new web site. So, I thought I would take advantage and get a few things. I had a devil of a time getting the order completed online; my credit card information kept getting rejected. But, their customer service was excellent and we got it all sorted out in the end.

I got 2 headrest mounting kits, my 140 headrests didn't sell, so I thought I would use them, and increase the safety of the car at the same time.

I got 30mm lowering springs, the Lesjöfors ones. I also have the ClassicSwede gravel rally springs that are supposedly stock height; I am torn between what to use. I like the stiffer ride with the rally springs, but the car looks so good lowered. That being said, our roads are not the best here. I had a '68 Dart back in the day, and I had to plan out my route so the headers wouldn't get bashed on big bumps. I am going to get some pictures showing the difference in spring height and post them up for interests sake.

I got a hood seal, and another for a friend in Saskatoon.

And lastly, I got a window guide kit for the doors.

I forgot to get a front spotlight driving kit; I really like that look, but forgot to add them to the cart.

I got the headrests mounted in a couple days, it took me about 2-3 hours on each seat to get it done. I took pictures and notes, I'll post a technical thread as well when I get more time. I think they look pretty good!

I do have a question about the window guide kit... do I need adhesive to mount them in? If so, does anyone have a recommendation as to what to use? Thanks!

Headrests are installed, and look pretty good actually. Colors are different but that's ok for now. I am writing up a tech article and I got pics as well. I hope to get that done soon.

Here's a quick rundown of how I did the headrests. Please let me know if anything needs to be clarified.

Please note: This was the way that I did the seat. There is a post on the web that details this out in another way which is just as good.
http://volvoamazonpictures.se/guides/Headrests%20in%20Volvo%20Amazon.pdf

I have heard that most seats from 67 on, will have the metal framing on the backrest to facilitate this process. You can quickly check by pressing into the back of the seat and feeling for the horizontal bar across the upper third of the seat. If you can feel this, you should be good to go.
Please have your headrests available at the time of assembly. They will help you line up the mounting kit to the seat.

Remove the backrest (vertical seat back) from the seat frame. 4 Philips head bolts on the seat mounts
Remove hog rings from the sides of the backrest. I used a couple of needlenose pliers to twist them out. It is easy to damage the seat cover, so be careful.
Remove the lower upholstery from the seatback.
Remove the entire vinyl seat cover from frame.
You should be able to see the horizontal bar across the back of the seat frame.



Note the metal holes at the top of the seat frame - this is where the large plastic piece from the kit gets mounted, and the metal pipe goes through. If you don't have these, then some fabrication needs to take place.



I have found that the order of assembly is important. There are some modifications that need to take place that might impact the assembly later on.

Work on this once piece at a time.
There is a large threaded plastic piece in the kit. The metal pipe and this piece fit together. There are notches in the pipe, and the plastic. Sleeve the two together so the notches line up at the top.

Once these 2 pieces are together, make a notch in the foam above the mounting hole in the top of the seat frame. This will allow the pipe to go through the foam.

Test fit the plastic nut onto the plastic piece. Make sure it can screw on without binding. If you don't get the plastic piece and the pipe correctly aligned, it will distort the circumference of the threads and it will be near impossible to thread that nut on to clamp the upholstery between the nut and piece afterwards.

Once both plastic pieces are fitted, test fit your headrest to them outside of the seatback. Do they slide through without binding? Adjust as needed.

Once that is done, slide the whole works down through the top of the seat through the mounting holes in the top of the frame, sending the steel notches down to the cross piece of the seat frame. Before the plastic piece clicks into place at the top of the seat, you may have to widen the pipe notches a bit where they contact the crossbar. At least, I had to do it for mine. There was no way that the pipe notches were going to easily fit around the lower crossbar. And I wasn't going to smash (too much, anyways) the top of the pipe to force it down onto the crossbar. That would affect the fit of the plastic nut mentioned above. Use your headrest to line up both pipes onto the crossbar and ensure that they go in straight and don't bind up. Mark where they will contact, pull the headrest out, and widen the pipes if required.



Slide the pipes down through the mounting holes and have them click in at the top. Insert the headrest to make sure it doesn't bind, and bend those widened tabs around the crossbar. The pipes are now mounted. The upholstery is next. Remove the headrest.

Refit the vinyl back around the seat. Make sure it is as close as possible to the screw holes, hog ring holes, etc as before. You will then see the plastic pieces pushing against the upholstery.

I took a blade and carefully cut across the top of each piece, then trimmed around it. Go slowly and with intent to make sure the knife doesn't slip. I used a star pattern cut from the outside to the inside in case the knife slipped. This was easily the most nerve wracking part of the process. Trim the excess off.



Once both holes are trimmed out, place the large washer, rough face down, onto the plastic piece. Secure it with the small nut that you tested with earlier. Hopefully the nut goes on smooth. Once both nuts are on, the upholstery is secured to the seat once more. It should look like a clean install at this point.


Here is a pic of how the whole upper plastic pieces go together.



Now the other fun part... securing the vinyl seatback cover. Install the hog rings as best as you can to secure the vinyl back to the seat.

Once that is done, the headrest can be actually mounted. You will have a few pieces left over... a conical small round part, and a large nut. The large nut goes onto each headrest spike first, then conical washer goes small-side up over the headrest spike. The conical washer may have to be "split" a bit to get it around the spike. There was a mold part in mine, so it easily fit over top. Insert the headrest into the seat to the desired height, and using the large nut, screw it down onto the plastic threaded piece that resides in the seat. That will tighten it up. Your headrests are now installed.

Reinstall the seatback into the car and enjoy what should be a safer drive.

Springs!

Here are a couple pics of the Classic Swede Gravel Rally springs versus the Lesjofors 30mm lowering springs.

Pictures are Rear springs (Lesjofors and CS), then Front (Lesjofors and CS).

I haven't done any coil measurements yet, i was on a roll uploading pictures so I thought I would pop these here for now.

I used trim adhesive tape when installing my window guides, and that might not have been enough. The adhesive part isn't the problem, the conformity is. They're fine and aren't going anywhere, but they did sag a couple of times on me before they took a set.

Good write-up on the headrests. I grabbed a set from Chapman for one of my cars back before they closed and tossed everything into a dumpster, but they're still in the box.

How tall were the rally springs? How did they ride? Did you get any information on spring rates, or did you do any measurements and/or calculations to that end?

Edit - and yes, VP online ordering doesn't work with Canadian credit cards, but phoning them is easy-peasey. I shot myself in the foot a little bit with that regard though: they had to order a bunch of stuff I asked for from Sweden, and it took a couple weeks for them to get the order together. When they did I got an email telling me it was ready to go, but what I glossed over was that they also asked if I wanted to add anything to the order or if they were ready to ship it. 3 weeks later I was wondering where my box was and only then did I read the email properly.

Edit 2 - I went back a whole page and re-read what we talked about with these springs. I guess they were too tall after all? I got myself some ... 475 lb-in? ... for the front to see how they feel. Haven't installed them yet, but I anticipate them to sit a little lower than the ones I currently have since they're the same free length. I can always space them up. 550/145 give ride frequencies that are way too close together to ride nicely.