Hi again gentlemen,

Not much happening the last few days. I have sawed out almost all of the rear suspension, and have my lower control arm bolt soaking. I noted the other day (looking at the other side) that the inner diameter of the sleeve the bolt is stuck into is larger after the first inch, so I imagine that is where it is stuck - in that first inch - hopeful. Also, I cleaned-up my shop, which was nice. Maybe I will start soaking the bolts that will need to come out for the cross-member to go. I have no way to lift the motor and then set it back down on the engine-mounts; that is a problem, right?

Oh, I took some pictures of the car. Downloading software for my new computer now.... taking forever. I'll post later.

James

Hi - I thought I posted on here yesterday. Nothing much new to report - still hoping penetrating oil will do the trick, but in the meantime, maybe I should start soaking whatever bolts need to come out to get the cross-member out.

As requested however, here are some pictures of the volvo as she sits right now.

Ok, only one.

James

Looks great...you don't see that blue very often. Sort of lacking a front end at the moment eh?

I like the colour, looks like a big work in progress haha

That's a stock colour? Nice!

Good Morning,

Ah, the colour. I had a (122) wagon which was stock dark-blue many years ago, and it looked great all clean and in the sun. Not a common colour. I also painted a two-door the same blue (will try to scan the photo I have...).

What you see is a Volvo blue alright, but not stock for the 122's. I picked it at Janett's from a sheaf of colours, and was actually intending to have a flat blue, for the "period" look. Much to my surprise, the blue had a lot of pearl in it - a very fine metallic (expensive). When the engine bay was painted, I told him it must be the wrong colour.
I did actually say paint it again (just the engine bay at that point), but the car was already at the mechanics', I had gone out of town, and it would have had to be towed back to Janett's from the mechanic (and back again). Paul said it was the right colour, so the mechanic did the engine work and put the motor in with the colour as-is. The sample was worn; it is what I picked, but not what I thought I picked. All that fussing about the colour, and I got the wrong one!!! I've seen one Volvo in town (700 series, I think) that colour.

For this, and many other reasons, I would not recommend Jannet's autobody, or Rainer Stork (the mechanic). I was actually planning on going two-tone blue and silver (had a two-tone wagon once too). Of-course everyone thought it was a great colour, now the motor was in, and so I gave-in. The interior is painted too. It IS a great colour, and I'm hoping all will be well. I think the two-tone (in blue and silver) might have looked pretty-good, but not in a metallic/pearl, so it just went all-blue.

No colour is the perfect colour - some look better in bright sunshine, some in low-light (etc...). I have mixed feelings about the metallic/pearl. I have re-chromed the bumpers, bought wirewheels, and will put on a chrome roof-rack; we will see how it all adds-up.


Jimbo

Hmmm where have I heard this before ? Looks good - it's really hard to find a good body shop that will spend the time to get it right. Paint work is so expensive. I went through 3 different blues on the 242 until I was happy. I went through 6 different colours until we mixed up the right cream for the 122.

Hahahahah, that makes me feel better, but I still feel I was ripped-off, and gave-in to people whom I was paying who put their own interests before mine. I did have someone-else finish the painting because Janett's still hadn't finished the car after two years, but he wasn't much better.

Talking to other body shops a real restoration with all the rust removed usually starts at $40,000. I had both fender sills right back to the firewall, some small patches in one fender, both rockers, and one rear corner done. Oh, and at least one frame member and one floor patch. And one patch on a door. Now when I go under the car, I cringe: peeling undercoating, bare rusty metal, and I wonder what will be of my car in another 10 years. I feel anything short of sandblasting the whole undercarriage will be essentially doomed to failure. Before I put the suspension back in, I will do what I can.

James

Sweet Jesus, $40K...I didn't think it would be that much. I can't imaging what my 122 or my 240 would have cost to have someone else do the work. At least my way, I've only got the one person to be pissed at if it isn't up to my standard. Peeling undercoating is a pain to deal with, a month of weekends worth of work and that would be fixed. I was going to comment that someone didn't mask the wheel wells or undercoat after the paint was done.


I've seen so much crappy paint work by pro shops that it makes me scared.
Craig

Just as well, and I mean it. As I mentioned earlier, although I haven't driven it more than 100 yards, the undercoating on the inner fenders at the front is already peeling off.

"A month of weekends...." I was out there tonight without much to do, and couldn't face it. I'll have to - before I put all of the suspension back in - and all I can imagine is a scaper and a wire brush. I'm told the best product is blah, blah, blah, blah by people I can't trust. I have POR 15 for bare, rusty metal, but what to put on top of that?? Or????

Jimbo

Take a ROUGH guess at how many hours you have into your 242 Craig. Divide that by half (you'd be lucky if a shop put in half the time/effort you do) and multiply by what, $75/hour?

I bet that's over $10k easy, for less quality. IF you could find a shop to do as good a job as you (i'm sure they exist- i know one in ontario that restores antiques) double the price!

Hi - inspired by some of the other threads I have seen, I took a bunch of pictures tonight. They tell the story, but my software (Kodak) seems to have lost them, so I'll give you the Cole's notes version - oh, hardly seems worth it. The abridged cole's notes version is that I DID take my cross-member out tonight. The cool part is I did it by holding up the motor with some boards and a floor jack, then dropping the cross-member out from underneath it.

Now, Dale, I can pick the colour!! Hmmmmmmm.... Not as easy as I thought.... Ah - dark purple. Dark and strong. Hahahah. Who-knows, we will see. I'll undercoat the bottom to protect it from rocks.

I dropped and replaced the tranny yesterday just using the floor-jack, so I thought "Why-not?" Just-in-case, I braced two 4x4's across the fender sills, and hooked on to the motor with some chain just in case ummmm, it fell.

Too close not to try, and YES, I can now get that bolt out!!! I'll try not to forget the shims, Craig.

James

I did that the other day when Dale and Greg were over putting the car together and figure I've got $1000 worth in the paint polishing alone! Way too much money.

Materials don't even come close to the labor costs on something like this. We put in close to 40 man-hours on the weekend just putting it back together... There's $3000 in labor alone...

Hi, its me again. After a second attempt with a hydraulic press, my control-arm bolt remains married to the control-arm, and I'm thinking I need another cross-member. If I even slightly bend that cross-member where the bolt goes through, I mis-align the control-arm, and I'm hooped anyways, right?

(can I get one of those bolt-on ones at Canadian Tire? Hahahahah)

Crap.

Depressed sometimes-creative genius engineer.