So you POR-15'd black and topcoated blue? They sure do look nice, but you missed the opportunity to protect the rest of the rotor from rust: everywhere the brake pad doesn't touch. Of course, you'd have to paint the whole thing, mount them, scribe a line around the rotor where the pad limits are, and then machine the paint off in that area. Maybe too much pucker factor, but I presume you're up for the job, Craig!

I take it you mounted the diff & new arms to prove the pinion angle worked out?

If those rotors are the same brand as the ones on my car (they look to be) they've got a REALLY aggressive surface finish on them out of the box. My brake pedal was REALLY low and the brakes worked very poorly for the first ... month? It's only starting to come around now, and now I've got a nasty squeal. I haven't bedded them in yet because I've been waiting for the rotors & pads to wear each other down a bit first. I'm just giving you a heads-up, 'cause your brakes are going to feel like kaka for the first while.

Everything looks nice!

You can paint whatever you like over POR once it is cured. This way if the blue gets chipped, it will still have th POR. I like the scribe idea, but it's too late now. As for the rotor surface finish, I've still got the stock brakes up front, so having the backs a little less effective for the first little while is fine by me. They sure do look like the prototype that you had in the basement - they were about $37 at Auto Value and are made in China! Hope they don't wear out in a week!

As for the diff, I had that damn thing in and out of the car at least 6 times. At first my homemade arms were a touch too long because of the way the bushings work (easier to see than explain). So that was the first round of trouble (in out repeat). Then I had to find some way to mount the arms using a bushing so I was sure they were in the right place. On and off more times. I finally made a set of test bushings out of wood (much better than rubber!!) and fit it all with them. Then it was out a couple more times for the panhard rod and spring placement. This is one of those jobs I'm more proficient at than I'd like to be.

Greg and figure that by the time I'm done and driving again, 60 hours will have lapsed! Never thought it would take that kind of time. Can't wait to go for a drive and see what rear brakes are like, or park and not have my car end up down hill from where I left it (it will pop out of gear). Should be a nice change...if I can figure out how to rig up that parking brake.

Hey Guys.

I've finished most of the painting that I'm doing for this year. I still have the under side of the hood to do, but that will wait for a week or two while I take a little break.

Here's the shots.







White is hard to photograph.

Oh man....that is sweeeeeet!!

It's early, but for the life of me I can't figure out what this piece is.

Whatever it is, it's lookin' good, Craig!

Saw most of these bits when we visited Craig last weekend.
I have to say they are awesome, his engine bay shines more than the outside of most of the cars that were in the show.

Great work Craig

I'm blaming YOU for me giving up on my 242. If you're going to do, do it RIGHT, and I sure as hell ain't gonna spend the kind of time you are on my car, nor do I have the talent required!
Hmmm, there is that 242 shell of Matt and Dales kicking around still...hmmm....

Looks like the door window sill piece. The one at the bottom of the window opening...

Ah yes, I knew I'd seen it before. The connection with the engine compartment is what threw me.

Dale's got it, it's the door cap. In fact, my door panels are in Dale's truck right now and the new ones will go in soon. The door caps got squirted as I was looking for all of the stuff that had to go white when I did the hinges.

I got the carbon fiber firewall blanket installed...what a pain. It may have been sewn off of an original 122 firewall matt, but the little rubber buttons that hold it in place were a royal pain in the butt to install. One more piece of the puzzle falls.

Athal, buddy you're marshing my mellow...I don't LET people send good cars to the JY - I encourage everyone to embrace their inner rusty side and free themselves from redox reactions. A much wiser man than me once commented that talent is mostly determination and stupendous amounts of time (mostly to make mistakes and correct them). I occasionally possess one or the other of these attributes, but often not both at the same time.

I would feel terrible if people were giving up on their cars because of me. I don't think anyone really would. This hobby is more of an illness than we all would like to admit. At this point in my adventure, I steal the time and given my day job - working on the car is cheaper than therapy (I think).

Doing things right comes down to knowing a few things from doing them wrong. Let's see, here's what I know...JB weld is not for sheet metal, bondo is evil, reading how is part of the puzzle - doing it is the other, fear of failure prevents most projects from starting - fear of completion prevents started project from getting done, taking it apart is easy - figuring out how it goes back together is hard, measure once - cut tomorrow, bigger hammers work 1% of the time - reading the manual works the rest of the time, duct tape is not sheet metal, aluminum flashing is not structural, rivets (of the pop variety) are not for bodywork, it will all make sense later - usually after someone explains it to you, the easiest place to start is anywhere, giving up is letting go of the fear of not finishing, and paint smells great (real paint, not rattle can stuff).

Wise words Craig, spoken from someone who has made his fair share of mistakes! I'll endevour to learn from them;-)

Not to worry, I'm not giving up because of you. You're an inspiration, but I have not the space, the tools, the time or the talent to take on a project of that magnitude. So I'll let the old girl go gracefully. She passes the 10ft test (bumped into Doug J at Deerfoot Meadows on Sunday and he seemed impressed) but I barey have enough time and patience to maintain a non-rusty car, let alone deal with car-cancer.

Plus matt and dale put all that work into their frame...

Cool, you had me worried for a minute. Unless you've got some structural damage, then fixing up your butt cheeks (I'm I ever glad you guys know what this means...someone casually reading this forum would begin to wonder), takes a week or so. The underhood on a 240 car (and every Volvo since the 122 as far as I can see) usually just requires a cleaning. They painted them up very nicely compared to the work on the 122.

So it may be less work to patch the silver car up and make it prettier than it would be to start with a stripped shell - no matter how good it is (and I've seen the Ugly Duck 242 and it is a very nice start point - in fact if I wasn't set on the 122 wagon next...)

So, guess what I'm doing on my summer vacation. I was suppose to be out fishing, but due to stupidity on my part, I am in the garage putting my car together. I didn't plan it that way honest .

So in the past week the following have happened:

Interior installed and recovered - new door panels and rear trim panels and painted door caps.

Car paint polished and buffed to a show-shine (yes, I did buff the engine compartment as well - there must be a 12 step program)





I used the Norton Liquid Ice system (single polish, three pads) by far the best polishing system I've ever used. Started with 1500 grit wet and dry then polished it all up - looks silly good.

Back to the list, all new steering components painted and installed, painted steering box and installed. Check out the size of the damn front sway...that thing is NUTS.



All of the fasteners are stainless, and they are all polished - kills hours of holiday time if nothing else.

Coil, brake MC, Clutch MC etc installed. Check out the peddle Frankenbolt, polished as well.



So, I still have to pull the wiring harness back into the engine compartment and clean it all up, but the rest is done. Time to get the engine assembled.

Final piece of the puzzle...the lightened flywheel, home at last.





And in preparation for the engine install, I fabricated a track (barn door track) for the chain hoist to work on so Greg and I don't have to run the car out of the garage and push it under the new engine. Kudo's to Ian for the idea (at least I think this is what he was telling me...my memory is crap). It holds the engine and transmission just fine, but I wouldn't want to put much more weight on it.

Drool. I can hardly wait until Saturday.

For the record, those photos hardly do justice to the paint job, nor to the suspension. Having every bolt hand polished makes me want to cry. And then there's that gray paint on the boosters and crossmember....and...and....sob...sob....

Edit: oh yeah, nice work on that barn door track. That should work slick!