I decided to post a few picts before the new shiny stuff I put on my car got all disgusting. With a lot of RSI help (and Pat D., Jonathan M, and Mitch L moral support/heckling of course), the suspension was transformed into a reinforced, poly bushing, undercoating free powder coated menagerie of 240 suspension stuff. Some hours later, it was bolted to my snow/slush undercoated grimy pile. If only I could shout really loud and have the stuff install itself.
I will say that being patient, having previously dishwashed everything, checked it for straight, making sure to use the correct a-arm cups for the lower GT braces, polishing all the bushing races and adding some grease fittings etc paid off hugely with painless ease of bolting it to the car and having instant gratification in one night. It should also pay off hugely for future longevity and service to have invested the time in all that suspension junk over the last year every now and again...one can only hope this is the case anyway.

One PITA thing that I had to invest more time in toward the end was the inner sleeves on many of the bushings. The volvo OE bushings have a sharp, deep (~100 thou) radial stamp knurl on the ends of the sleeves to help them bite into their brackets on either side to prevent them from sliding laterally, clacking or causing undue wear. I had to hand file a radial knurl into mine to ensure mine worked like they should, and did have problems on one car with the torque rods sliding back and forth with the IPD adjustable torque rods with smooth ended sleeves. Those modifications are not pictured up close enough to see, and I only have an SLR film camera and lens to capture those decently with and wanted to get the parts on the car.







Below are some shots of the car and neighborhood as the snow was falling in a thin coating and was still very dry and powdery (whatever day that was).




A couple shots of my parent's house where I am holed up:




Woodstock:


I admit it...I took this crap picture because I like the snow on the sign on the hardware store. I apologize for wasting bandwidth in advance.

Sort of where the (always cool counter culture) reedies can be found in sellwood, to the extent that you see a lot of them.



More snow on the 242 as I drove it around and beat on it:



Ready to rock. Scraping is too much effort. Just let the snow fly off onto other people bwahahaha.


The car drives a ton tighter and nicer. When I left for b-ham the car was decently tight. The B23 and my beating on it was starting to make for a bit of a clack in the rear trailing arm big bushings where the anemic B21F didn't, but the front end was completely fine and tight. After 4 or 5 months of driving on horrible county and gravel roads fast with rally tires in b-ham, just about every critical bushing on the car was trashed. The big bushings on the front a-arms were cracked all the way through so bad you could kick the front wheels and watch them rattle back and forth.. Sway bar bushings were done, rear trailing arms were cracked all over, but not hugely sloppy, etc. Torque rods were fine, but showing signs of cracking (early torque rods are a lot stiffer and stronger if they don't break at the weld). The front end is so much nicer, and definitely a much more dramatic change unless your big trailing arm bushings or late model torque rods are shot, which didn't apply in my case for either. The front is nice and tight, and with the lower GT braces it doesn't shuffle its feet under braking when you really hammer on the brakes and stays going were you had it pointed.

In the back, poly bushings in rewelded early torque rods definitely adds a decent chunk of driveline noise, but I wouldn't trade it for the world, since the transition from accel-decel is much tighter than most 240s I'm used to and driveline noise is no big deal to me (within reason). If the existing rubber on a car is tight in the back, which mine more or less was except for one trailing arm bushing was starting to go, the change is much more subtle in the back. Its only when you weld the diff and really start to have fun that the back end being real tight and good throttle control becomes really awesome with all that maintenance and a big of trailing arm reinforcement is really noticed.

Perhaps RSI will piece together an "economy" poly bushing kit in the future, or one that mixes nice OE volvo rubber and poly. I don't think every location really wears that much in a 240 and there are definitely places where rubber is a lot quieter when new and not loose when old. The big rear trailing arm bushings, everything on the front, late model torque rods (and early too with more power and a welded diff) are what I think should basically be poly (or stiffer) on every car and adds minimal noise. Front trailing arm bushings, the panhard bar (also called track link or rod), early torque rods (also called upper 4-link arms) in many applications etc I would be fine with leaving rubber on most cars having done a few cars with various variations in poly by now.

Stay tuned for the new exhaust and k-cam on the LH2.2 B23E clone in it. Then who knows...B23FT on LH-jet may be where I'm headed. Have to change the brake junction and eliminate the rear restriction valves as maintenance and install the volvo LSD in the coming days first.

Good work, James. I agree with you on the poly choices, but the difference between full poly and "economy" poly would be minimal in both cost and in effect. Different inner sleeves would be better - stainless would be nice, knurled would be nice, and a serrated edge treatment would be nice. You installed grease nipples in there, didn't you? That poly stuff gets STIFF when it squeezes the grease out, which happens in about 2 weeks.

Dang, you make me want an early 242 even more.

I only put grease fittings on the big rear trailing arm ones and the big bushings on the back of the front a-arms. I just ran out of time for detail fuss on some stuff. We shall see. I greased the ever loving crap out of everything, but I do worry a bit. It didn't take my sway bar long to go dry and those bushings make a hell of a squeak. The torque rods don't really rotate on the outer race with the hour glass torque rods much that I can tell, so them lacking grease fittings I didn't give a lot of thought to.

It is sort of like prepping to paint a house or car. You could prep to paint a house or car until you die. A monkey can paint or powder coat or install suspension. A thinker or insane masochist who loves repeated detail work is the person you need for the prep. At some point (which usually comes early for impatient people like me), you just finally have to draw the line and paint the house already and move the furniture back in.

I love the way my early 242 handles. For such a large ugly car it is very nimble. With faster steering and an LSD, it should be hysterical. There already isn't much weight on the front, being N/A with the battery and washer tank in the trunk. Now that the front end stuff is all new it is also worth getting it aligned on an alignment rack, which it could really use. Doing it on a flat straight road with ice on the side and a tape measure is fun, but I'd also like to see where it is actually at for camber and toe on the machine.

I also love what a simple machine an early stripper 242 is...volvo does basic really well. I honestly have probably added more than I've taken off...sort of depressing in a way...EFI, M46, braces, GT plates, GT interior, black non-sunroof headliner, heavier 1993 dashboard, 240T front brakes, likely power steering if it gets turbo power, PS balljoints, late model struts/spindles, freaking heavy GT fogs,turbo airdam/air guide, headrest pads yadda yadda. I can't wait to kick the iron M46 off a cliff.

I've taken a lot out too I guess...K-jet, big bumpers, B21F, external voltage regulator, stereo, lots of little useless stuff in the engine bay, washer tank in summer, heavy all metal rad (late model alum/plastic OE blackstone in it), big brake booster, rear brake restriction thingies, cat converter, gigantic DL steering wheel (swapped out 1 hour after owning the car with a GT wheel), brake dust shields, solid front rotors etc.

A few more pictures:
Not long after buying the car:


After getting the new shiny stuff I painstakingly installed dirty for 6 months of not even touching the car short of changing oil.




Every car looks better wet. Mine is especially that way.

Purdy, looking very nice James

What's with the tape on the lenses?

Those are my HID anti-scatter devices lol That, and I'm not sure if you saw the blog on VW vortex of the guys who sort of made a journey of a trip by adding bits of blue masking tape to a car.

I love and hate my HIDs that dale so kindly gave me. Love that they are silly bright and not a big deal for electricity consumption. Hate that they have extra wiring, a less than perfect beam pattern, and are too blue for me. I gather that there are other "bulb" inserts that are compatible with the ballasts. Perhaps I can snag some that are better designed and emit light much like a halogen in color. I like my headlights pretty yellow. Not foglight yellow or anything, but definitely yellow. Yellow is a hell of a lot nicer on a foggy or rainy night, where my bluey HIDs in the weather in b-ham really constrict visibility. Much worse than just decent normal color 80 or 100W good brand H4s in the cibie 7" rounds the car has.

Nope. Link?

well there is nothing really close to what a halogen lamp puts out tempeture wise. i think you can only get 4300k (its the closest to pure daylight), the other option being 3000k temp bulbs, which is fog light yellow (imo looks badass).
stock halogens are in the (correct me if im wrong) 3400k range. head over to http://www.hidplanet.com/ , register and go into the hid university thread, there is a load of info on hids there. including oem projector retrofits, which is the only real way to go about putting hids in a non hid car. it will cost you a chunk of change, but looks worth it in both light patterning and output. the cheap hid rebased bulb way is very tempting (150 vs 500), but with the glare, unreliability and not to mention being very illegal. id either get a really good set of halogens , or look into the retrofit. (cibie also makes 7" rounds with a compound lens for standard D2S type bulbs) http://cibie.valeoservice.com/html/uk/n ... .xenon.php

also http://www.danielsternlighting.com/

Looking good James! Nice to see this car coming together. What kind of paint did you use on all the bits? Also, besides dishwashing, what else did you do to clean things? I'm going to be doing this to my yellow car in the next few months, so this is of particular interest.

Engine bay looks great as well. I hope to see a turbo bolted in there sometime!

More updates:
The car got new nicely painted red brake calipers, new brake line junction, and no rear limiting valves. Everything but the booster and chassis lines is now new. Pat (an experienced 240 nut) and I bled the brakes cold and then hot with super blue by hand. This 240 now has the absolute best brakes I've ever felt in any street legal car ever pedal feel and balance wise. It'll still lock the fronts with 225/50-15 falken azenis in the dry. If you ham fist it and panic stop mid corner, the car will definitely spin. I'm not sure if the lack of limiting valves makes that worse than it would otherwise be. I mean, what do you expect if you lift off the gas in a car with an LSD and slam on the brakes when the rear end starts to slide?

I LOVE the way this thing handles. Its toed in a bit, cambered -1 degree per side (this 240 is seemingly pretty straight or something..I dunno...no camber plates), and pretty twitchy. It needs a lot more power now so I can properly kill myself. Pity the turbo engine is going to weigh it down and likely make me want power steering a lot more. I just need it to snow deep again so it will feel overpowered again.

I also finished cleaning up the cabin wiring, fixing the stereo, tidying up the interior, vacuuming it, polishing it, put a 1992 wiper linkage and motor in it, longer wiper arms, finished the late model dash sorting (fixed dash lights, center console, rattles etc), fresh speedo cable (mine broke for some strange reason) and a bunch of random crap. I actually feel like I'm driving an almost respectable car again.

Ian:
Thanks. Your black clean original paint thing definitely inspires me to get mine looking good again. I have a long way to go. The car is 30 years old with 345K miles and it still really shows in a lot of spots. The PO took pretty good care of it (I'm owner #2), but it was just a driver for him as it is for me so far.

Matt:
Sorry, that post was linked to me some months ago. I tried my best to search and came up with nothing. I don't know what else to say.

paperjam:
hm...that merits more research. Interesting stuff. I still don't know where I want to go, but for now I just removed my HIDs and put in decent 80/100W bulbs and called it good. Nice beam pattern and no hotspots makes me happy, as does having them be a nice perfect normal halogen stealthy yellow.

Anyone know if bosch or anyone makes a good driving light that is the same as the GT fogs size wise? My aimed conservatively rather yellowy H4 lowbeams are ok in fog (I don't really try to hurry driving in thick fog anyway), but lacking quad rectangle nasty bright H1 highbeams or quad rounds *barf* I don't really get the kind of silly bright high beams I'd like with just 100W H4s. On a clear night, 100mph is pushing it a bit. I'd like to be able to take the car up to 120 more often.

Greg:
No paint. They were sand blasted at a farm machine shop that does all kinds of heavy duty disgusting ish. You can bring them the filthiest most disgusting undercoated nastyness and they tank it, blast it in a huge outdoor cabinet and can zinc treat it and powder coat it in a basic color. They can do a hunter orange, but I chickened out. I love orange ('74-'76 sunrise orange is my favorite volvo color), but I like understated more. All told it was $60 to hand them literally every piece of a 240 suspension strut housings and everything and just have them make it pretty without me having to scrub or touch that ish. I chose to bead blast and wire wheel areas I wanted to weld of course, but that was a lot less painful than completely stripping everything.

As far as rust proofing, the por-15 stuff probably works better if you prep it right and let it cure for a long time in a nice dry place. I just hate undercoating and dealing with undercoating, so for $60 I couldn't say no.

I can't believe I took that pic of the engine bay. It needs a good cleaning and sorting still. Mostly little stuff and more dust on everything than oil. And slowly turning all the steel brackets powder coated black or nickel plated silver.

ummm whats the dimensions on them? canadian tire here sells a decent (looking) set of bosch lights for about $100, ive been eyeing them ever since i smashed my other ones going up a slope on a gravel road , ill probably pick them up soon before i put my wagon back on the road.

they are called the pilot 150 i believe, or in the same such shape. in yellow and clear lenses. dont know if they would fit a gt grill or not, mine would go on the bumper.

I just got a pair of Pilot 700s for $85 CAD - they definitly WON'T fit in the grille, but would light up the night if mounted on your bumper (or the roof, like Pat's creation. Damn I love that thing...)

I'd like to keep bright lights in the grill if I can and keep it stock and sleeper...just another 240. 240s are kinda that anyway, but state troopers in WA are huge douche bags for the most part and being under 25, not terribly wealthy, male, driving an old red car, and bearded, I need all the help I can get to stay out of the way of the fuzz.

Mad Max is even more fun in person. Going out and beating on it in deep snow is just about the most hysterical fun you can have in a 240, as is blasting over plow banks sideways. The exhaust is also at kind of the perfect height for setting off car alarms, even though it isn't really that loud. Pat doesn't post here, but I already know what my donation to Mad Max will be...train horns and some spray with a purge somewhere on the front I think. It is already pretty fast without spray. It will run 19-20psi with a K-cam and edge out most mustangs GTs pretty well. You can't have all the lights on in Max for very long...even with an 80A alt, it's at about 9V at idle and creeps to 10 by 3K. I wish I had a Mad Max for Seattle traffic...NOBODY pulls out in front of that thing when they don't have room. That and the interior in Max is almost mint blue turbo velour with an arm rest and good stereo, and being on big mud tires it rides super smooth. Though, being of the above description, I'd get pulled over everywhere with a Max outside of Seattle. At least they couldn't hit me for no cat...it's right on the roof in plain sight!

Holy crap! $60 for all that? Man, that's a steal. I'd love to have everything cleaned and powder coated like that, but I fear the cost of doing it would be much higher here. I'll likely do the POR on some of the suspension bits (or something like it...I believe Craig has something on order) and try to make do that way. Most of the stuff I got from Matt recently is pretty clean, so I think I'll be alright.