WOAH, Geoff's going to be a daddy!!! Did I already know that? Well, atta go dad!

I can hardly comment about being attached to volvos, after all, I'm a beemer owner now...I do really like your bertone though matt!

if you ever want to sell the yellow car let me know

and ps. the trailer is almost reg'd up to come out there lol

ciao

Holy crap, Geoff! Congratulations! When were you planning on dropping that bomb?

Yeah, I don't keep it a secret that I'm a "Car Guy", and I remember telling you that I'm anything but brand loyal. Volvos are definitely nothing to scream about, but they DO have some redeeming features (aside from them being cheap to own, of course). I'm in the mood for a luxo-boat, and though the Mk.VIII ain't one, it's close. It kind of defines "hot rod lincoln". There are so many cool cars to own, and ones that were previously unobtainable are now damn affordable. The Mk. VIII has one feature that other cars I'd be interested in lack, though: They've never been owned by a stupid kid. STi, Reagal GN, Supra, Mustang, whatever... all owned by someone who's bagged the crap out of them. Mark series: owned by gramps, and possibly by a CEO before that. And dripping in luxury...

The Bertone is nice, and it's unique-ish. There definitely aren't many in Calgary, that's for sure. With the right equipment, it could be a pretty fun car. We'll see what happens when I get home and start pulling that engine apart.

WOW, I am like the rest Geoff, Congrat's, that is awesome
I can see why the C70 would noy fit your current situation.

Great to see a boom in the next generation, CPP needs a little help

Okay, so what's happened in the last week? Not much of importance, but some things regardless. Also no pictures, yet.

I've swapped the rubber-bushed lower control arm setup from the 780 to the 740, and will be putting the 740's poly-bushed pieces into the 780 once I regrease them.

I will be putting the Wilwood front brakes on there once I do a couple touch-ups to the hats & get the rotors balanced. I won't be filling them with fluid just yet, 'cause I intend to do a couple things to the rest of the system after I determine if the ABS master cylinder is indeed built for front/rear split brake systems. Ian, can you confirm this? I will also be putting the Girling brakes from the 780 onto the 740, in an attempt at solving the terrible pedal in that car.

I did a leakdown test on the 780's B280F, and came up with decent numbers. Most of them were at around 20% leakdown (cold engine) on my tester ("calibrated to my brand new engine that has 10% on all cylinders), with one cylinder at 25% and one cylinder at 5%. I'm a bit confused by that one... Anyway, all cylinders (except for the anomoly) leaked past the rings but also past the intake valves.

Then I did a leakdown test on the Eagle Premier motor sitting on the stand, and got some horrible numbers: 30s and 40s, with severe leakage past the exhaust valves on a few cylinders and past the intake valves on others. This could be from stuck lifters (the EP has hydraulic lifters) and without removing the valvetrain I can't prove that this is the case. However, I also have a set of 112,000 km heads that will fit on this engine, so I'm not terribly worried about this. There was significant leakage past the rings on all cylinders, so I'm not sure what shape the internals are.

While I was testing the B280, I found a split vacuum hose and an electrical connection that may have come disconnected during me pulling the plug wires, and maybe not. This might have been the cause of the poor running earlier...

I could pull the heads on the B280 and fix them, but if I dislodge a cylinder and ruin the seal at the bottom (quite likely), the whole engine has to come apart to fix it. Even if I fix the heads on the B280, they're the terrible swirl type and would require tons of grinding to make any power. That might be fun, but probably not. The EP heads will not fit onto the B280 due to bore size and head gasket incompatability, or so I'm told.

So we'll see. Either I Megasquirt the B280 and live with the leakdown readings and the possibly leaky headgasket, or I tear down the EP engine in hopes of something to work with. I'm still leaning towards the latter for the time being. Failing all that, we're looking at an engine swap to something totally different in all likelyhood.

In reply to mine self, I think I'll compile a list of the more major things I intend to complete this winter. It won't be long, because I have a bunch of little things to deal with that won't go on the list and that will take up a bunch of my time and energy, but hopefully I'll get some of the big stuff done to make the car a bit more interesting:

For the suspension, I'm pretty happy with the spring/shock combination, though the butt rides a bit high and the shocks are definitely not optimized for the car. I'd love to send them down to Bilstein to have them revalved, but it's gonna cost me some money, so maybe next year. I might cut down the rear springs some so that it sits a bit flatter... The majority of the improvements this year will come with the poly bushed front end (minor improvement) and I intend to build a rear sway bar. There IS a factory bar offered on the '90+ 780 and '91 740SE, but it's mighty skinny and has a terrible leverage on the rear wheels, so I'm not going to bother with it considering how rare they are and how much $$$ people want for them. To go along with the sway bar, I hope to build heim jointed lower links and toe links for the rear wheels, and I'll weld an adjustable mounting tab to the lower link for the sway bar. In the summer, I'd LOVE to go through a proper tuning regime to determine optimal camber and tire pressures front and rear, and to set the rear sway bar so that it handles neutral. We'll see about that - it'll require a bit of organization and a good flat spot like a runway or something.

The brakes will be improved by adding the Wilwood fronts that were on my 740, and I will investigate the possibility of improving the stopping power in the rear. Considering the space available with the multi-link rear end, it might be tough. However, I'll try, and will hopefully have something to offer to others for sale. I'll also be removing the ABS and re-plumbing the hard lines up front, and adding a proportioning valve for the rear wheels to fine tune the brakes.

The engine will get some attention, as described in the earlier posts. It could be anything from the stock B280F on Megasquirt, right up to a Lincoln Mark VIII 4.6 litre 4 cam alloy V8, with a turbocharged Eagle Premier motor in between. If I stick with either of the V6 engines, I'll be installing my T5 transmission, but if I go with the V8 I'll likely keep the automatic that comes with the engine. Either V6 that I use, the T5 will need some major mods to get the shifter in the right place. There is the possibility that I could come up with a bellhousing for the V8, but since the Mustangs that used this engine also used the longer T45 transmission, my T5 will not work and going manual will also require a new transmission. I will be building a new exhaust no matter what I do, and if I go with the EP or the Lincoln engines, I will look into sliding the engine rearwards to improve weight distribution. Along those lines, the battery might go to the trunk. The V8 is a LOOOOONG shot for this winter, so if the EP is totally unsuitable I'll probably patch up the B280 and start looking for and stripping down a Lincoln over the summer.

Performance-wise, there's not much more to talk about this year. There will be quite a few cosmetic things to take care of, and a bunch of little squeaks and rattles to deal with, but this will mostly be stuff that nobody will notice but me. I need to paint the hood/roof/trunk at some point, 'cause they've been poorly repainted and the clear is coming off. There might be some custom fiberglass work done under the front bumper which will need painting too, so if I do one I'll probably do the other. The wood interior trim needs to be redone, but it doesn't really bug me as much as the other stuff, so if I don't get to it I won't be heartbroken. I've got some stereo stuff to do, and I'd like to build a carputer to handle all the music/video/Megasquirt duties.

That's about it. Some big things to deal with, but for the most part I would be okay with about half of them getting done. I thought I'd let you all know what's going on with the car 'cause my plans have been pretty vague for the most part. As you all probably know by now, I have been wrestling with the theme of this car and therefor the direction that the mods will take. Is it a luxo-tourer? Is it a sporty coupe? Is it a businessman's sports car? Is it a G machine? I think I'm going for the businessman's sports car theme, with a good engine/brakes/suspension, but nothing that will beat a person up too much, and I'd like to get working air conditioning in it again.

nice volvo
until i saw your thread pics, i didnt know they made a later model bertone edition
the only one i've seen before was the earlier 260s with chopped roof versions

Well as many of you probably expect by now, my plans have changed. This is a common occurrance, so if you're not familiar with me, sit tight, hold on, and enjoy the rollercoaster ride that is my automotive wish list.

In order to simplify my life, I've bought a newer pickup truck to drive around and become one of "them". I'll be getting rid of not one, not two, but THREE vehicles in the meantime: The 242 that nobody wants and I don't have time for, the 745 that just pisses me off, and the old Dodge pickup. All three will get crushed because I can't be bothered to part out, sell, or do anything else with them.

That leaves the 780. It remains as my toy, my summer car, my project car. Will it become a rally car? Will it become another Volvord (shiny show car, that is)? Will it get turned into an amphibious vehicle? Only time will tell. For now, it'll get the turbo B23 that's in the 745, and behind it will probably go my long-threatened T5 transmission. Engine management will be Megasquirt, which frees me up to do a bunch of other things like bigger turbos and higher RPMs. I don't plan on really pushing any envelopes because ultimately I want something reliable and somewhat comfortable, but I'm not settling for slow and silent, either. I've got a few parts laying around the house that I've collected over the years, waiting to be used on SOMETHING. I've got other parts coming for parts waiting to be built. I have other parts that I want to build that I haven't bought parts for. I may need tools and training to build the parts I want to build. It could be fun.

It will need paint at some point though. The roof is pretty crusty and the hood/trunk are kind of gross. Craig might take one look at it and say that I should scuff the clear off the roof and reapply another clear, wet sand and polish the hood/trunk, and be happy. This might happen in the meantime. It's got a few scuffs & dents & dings that will eventually need to get cleaned up, and I want to build a fancy front bumper for it, & a rear bumper will likely need to be built to match. Then again, the front end might just get a custom air dam. I want to experiment with fiberglass, metal work, paint, etc.

This might be a bit much or a bit ambitious, but as a thought exercise, I really like this car:





It's got a really cool '80s vibe. I have always liked this look on 700 series cars, and I've never seen a 780 done like it until now. Ironically this one was actually built in '89, and yes those are widened Gemini wheels. 9" wide front and 10" wide rear. Not the wheels for me, but I'm not certain how I feel about cutting my car up either.

Anyway, I hope you're all enjoying your laugh at me, especially those who I've told that "a 4 cylinder will never go in my 780".

Edit - how would these look under that body?

19x9.5 and 19x11, for $695 USD shipped.

YEAH!!! BERTONE UPDATE!!!

Stoked to hear more plans Matt. I did see those widebody pics on TB, and that car looks pretty cool. It is my humble opinion that if you're gonna do a widebody job, you'll need MASSIVE tall wheels to balance out the look of the car. 18's for sure. Those Gemini's certainly aren't doing it for me on that car probably because of that. I have more thoughts but I'm on my way out for breakfast.

I was talking to shaggy ricky the other day. I think he will gladly take that 242 shell off your hands.

Once you've pulled the motor from the 745, I'd be interested in the shell

- R

Greg - yep, it needs more wheel or less altitude than what it's got. I think 16s are enough, but it should be lower. I'm not a big fan of HUGE (tall) wheels, but I think it would look sexay with some 3 piece Kodiaks in the proper dimensions.

Andy - tell shaggy Ricky to give me a call. He can have it, but I'm not sure he'll want it. It'll be LOADS of work.

Raz - it's yours. It'll be missing... stuff. Ian's called the rear subframe and seats, and I've got people interested in the sways and rear springs/shocks and headlights. Ièll be keeping the exhaust and a few other bits. You'll be able to manage the transportation?

WTF is with the èèèÈÈÈèèè all of a suddenÉ Oh poop, there goes my question mark!

Haha...I've been dealing with that for a few months now with this new keyboard. I think you'll find the question mark at the shift+6 point now and the apostrophe at the shift+,

Have fun finding the @ though...

I'm not sure I like the flared rear - to my eye is spoils the line of the car and makes it look sort of ricey. If you need more room under the rear, build some tubs and change things around from the inside. Not trying to rain on your parade, but I figured I'd post my 2 bits cause the forum is free, and talk is cheap.

Control panel -> Keyboard/Langauge/International Etc , go fixy keyboard now.

No need for seats, my subframe is old and mangled, but I could make it better before re-installing it... Hmm. I've got new shocks for all 4 corners coming, and don't really need to see what's in front of me. Also, I run 4" exhaust

I can have it on a flat bed some how yes