Very nice!

Thanks everyone, appreciate all the comments. So what's the feeling on keeping the car an all original GT or going the mod route for more fun? I know it's not like the car is likely to ever be a valuable collectible, but I also feel like we like to see these cars go to an enthusiast to keep these cars alive as opposed to someone who sees it as just A-B transportation. Having said that I look at Craig's 122 or Ian's Volvord and think wow that is so cool, but seeing John Major's all original ES at Street Wheelers is fun too. I guess there's nothing that says an engine swap can't be reversed one day to make the car original if you're careful doing the swap in the first place?

So off the top of my head my modded GT would look like this: Paint it orange and reverse the stripes to black and silver, do the b230ft swap for decent day to day power with stock boost etc., I just want something that's fun to drive not a track monster. I agree with Darren, silver is booooring. The orange wouldn't stand out much.

Oh well enough dreaming, it's still dirty and non-running so a bit of work to do before any of the other stuff is going to happen.

I forgot to ask about the stripes actually. I've seen 3 Canadian GTs 'stripe-less'; is this a Canadian market thing or have they just been removed at some point? I love your idea of orange paint - or at least, match the color of the orange/red (burnt orange?) interior stripe... especially with a color-coded air dam and black light surrounds and grille. Black vinyl roof to, maybe? Yum! Reverse colored decals would look sweet, although I'd still ditch silver in favor of a light/mid solid grey color.

For what it's worth, go for the modded GT route, but keeping it 'GT-like'.

Looking at the back-end of the early sedans again reminds me of the curve-oriented back end of the new XC70. I've never seen it done but I'm sure it has; painting the 'in-dent' black (?).

This car has been repainted...so as far as I know the Canadian market did get the stripes as standard on the GT's. Dave Major has an orange 144 that is striking and very pretty - but I couldn't see it with the stripes. My recent thinking on this has changed in my quest to find the right colour for my 242. I was going to paint on a gunmetal stripe (a la GT) over steel blue paint. I then decided that this would be completely wrong as only Volvo people would "get it". The rest of the world would assume I was a 20 year old kid trying to look cool in a tarted up old Volvo.

So I'm staying with a solid colour - so my vote would be for the original silver with the stripe or silver without. If you wanted to go hog wild I would stay away from the orange and go with the pea green that Volvo had in the early 70's...that is one cool colour on a 242.

Hmm, Craig I still think you should do the stripe. Lets face it most everyone else in the world doesn't get these cars in the first place, who cares what they think about how it looks, if the Volvophiles get it that's all that matters and in the end that's who we do these cars for anyway.

I sort of like the idea of the pea green and Lisa would sign the cheque for the body shop to start painting as she has always liked that color. I was thinking of the orange to pull in the stripe from the seats and keeping the stripes as a) paying homage to the original GT look, b) break up the bright color a little so it's not so flashy. Having said all that I don't know if I really want a loud color car and even though I despise silver cars will probably keep it all original including stripes b/c it feels like the right thing to do.

Darren, like Craig mentioned the car has been repainted at some time as the silver paint on the GT's was notoriously bad and most required re-sprays early on. The only Canadian market exception for the GT's was a black model in 79/80 or just 80, I can't remember. I like your ideas on the orange car ala black trim would look sharp with the contrast. However I would vote a big Nyet on the vinyl roof a style feature that never should have made it out of the horse and buggy era. I know I'll get flamed for this but it's what makes the Bertone look so bad, along with it's completely disproportional attempt at styling, the Italians must have been pissed (both kinds) when they designed that car.

Do you have any more details on this? I invited a lady to our meet last Monday as she had a (virtually, well, 6 weeks old) one owner '80 GT, which was booked for the scrapper. The body is shot, floors, rear arches, rockers, but everything else is original and good (I figured someone will offer her more than scrap value just as a parts car). Basically, it was a black GT, no stripes from new, Virgos, and it didn't have the little Halifax sticker in the engine bay. Everything else was 'GT' and correct for that year. We thought it was a little weird, but very nice!

I've seen a few nicely finished 244s with vinyl roofs and a few other noticeable genuine accessories and really like them. I think it gives them a nice 'luxury' feel. I just think people have a really hard time imagining the 240 as any kind of 'luxury' vehicle.

Like-wise with the color silver, I love the look of the 262C Bertone in Gold and Black, but in silver, it just seems soo depreciated. I wasn't around in that era but I've been told the color silver was the bees-knees back then.

Does anybody have any pre '85 color charts for the 240? I have a couple for the UK market but I know the North American market got a much better selection.

There isn't a bunch of information available on the black GT. It was a Canadian market only car and beyond paint it was a GT. Word is they were all produced in Halifax but who knows how accurate that was. I think they were an '80 only model as they came with Virgos. Actually, I don't know that for a fact but I've seen a few black GTs and they all had Virgos.

And...I'm a big fan of white stripes on an orange car...

that is a very nice look

Hmmm, orange.... I like that car!!! Although to pick up on Craig's earlier thought, the average person would look at it and say "why did they paint that old Volvo Hemi Orange"? meh, it looks very nice and the average person is just that...

Either way that is a cool look - that is the original Volvo orange as far as I know (it's a straight paint, Hemi Orange is a metallic). Your original idea is good - I was just no sold on it for my car (which isn't a GT). That being said, until I've got paint in the cup I usually change my mind fairly often on paint colour. I'm just looking for inspiration for my car and didn't want it to look odd. I don't want the 242 to look dated, and I think the version of the stripe I was thinking about could do that pretty quickly.

If I was going crazy, I'd two tone your car. Maybe with a bronze top and dark grey bottom then separate them with an orange stripe.

Old Volvos in orange, yellow and green look awesome!

I think Volvo UK used a yellow or orange Volvo in an advert (70s obviously!) to emphasize it being the safest color on the safest car on the road. As for colors standing out in the wrong manner; that'll only happen if you tart it up. Keeping it original with period mods will only attract the attention of the right people, Volvo owners / classic car enthusiasts. All comes down to personal taste/styling I guess.

The colour is called Vitamin C (Chrysler never called it Hemi Orange), and it's not metallic. I don't know if Pat's car is this orange or not, but I've always liked it.

My vote on the GT is to leave it stock. Put the proper stripes on it (all 3 years are different) and enjoy it "restored".

Craig, I would stick with the strip as you'd originally planned. Who cares if nobody "gets" it.

Matt, actually they did use Hemi Orange as well as Go Mango, TorRed, and Vitamin "C" and all 4 were slightly metallic although most people don't see it.

http://www.aarta.com/pictures/aarta.html

Thanks for the original vote, when you say "restored" you mean in clean driver status not a high point show car right? Not sure if I was reading something in to the quotes. Interesting comment on the stripes, I thought they were all the same. I found the guy on ebay that does the replica stripe kits, I'll have to double check what year he is selling as he makes no reference to the years being different.

Lastly, just tried jumpering the fuel pumps and got nothing. Going from 3 to 5, 4 to 6 and 5 to 7 had the same result as I could hear what I think is the fuel pump whirring. The only difference was that on 4 to 6 and 5 to 7 the dash was powered up before turning the key which leads me to believe that one of these is the correct combo as I was already powered up ie: bypassed?? Also reading the fuse key #5 lists the FI Relay and #7 lists Fuel Injection so this should be the right combo to get the pumps going? I don't have a manual, I think I will order a Bentley ASAP, will start downloading some GreenBooks from k-jet.org for a start. Any other quick thoughts on where to go next??

I only knew the orange was a metallic as I shot it once and was there when it was mixed (I've never shot sublime or pink panther - but have done all the rest from plum crazy to top banana...it was the 80's). It was a long time ago, but I still recall thinking "what the heck were they thinking putting metal flakes into an orange." It is so slight (just a few grams in a gallon kind of slight), that it just lightens the highs etc a little. Chrysler was sort of nuts like that.

No matter - What was the difference in the stripe? I've only ever seen the black with orange. Were there variants? I've only ever seen the one guy selling them on e-bay.

I've ordered some 7/16" stick on moulding (same width as the early cars) as my accent. I should go shoot some shots of my test fender and add to my 242 build thread so we can kick it around and not get Jim off topic.

I've done a bit of searching on stripe variance without success. Matt, if you have an information source can you post a reference? Everything I have found so far appears to indicate the striping was the same throughout the GT run with the only exception being the black Canadian only GT that had no stripes.