Note status of V70R is changed! Car was a couple of weeks away from selling when the cracked sub-frame was discovered. Car is now ready to be repaired over the next few weeks (depends on what else I find while in there). Car may get a reprieve after that or it may still get sold as we need to get our son a car he would like (although he does like the 06 XC70, mum wants it back!!).
I do have a lot of 'stuff' but only stuff that works is kept. I also have a habit of finding rare or good stuff that is worth keeping. I also like to have some spare parts (read expensive) in my stash in case of failure of the endless list of stuff that has failed on my last 2 V70's. So if pnp has a half price sale and I can get a starter for $15 or an alternator for $20 then I'll buy one, check it out, clean and store. If I don't need it and a car is sold then I sell it on. Sold 4 sets of wheels, and recon'd prop-shaft and a bunch of other stuff as not needed. I don't buy stuff that has been recently replaced (like the alternator or A/C compressor). I do have a spare <98 Volvo alternator as I didn't get around to selling it yet. The radio I just got was given to me free as it has no code. If I can't find a code for it I will remove the front plate and cd cover door spring and transfer to another unit that could be improved. If I can fix it I will sell it on along with a couple of cd cassettes I have spare.
What I do buy is stuff that I can learn from or am curious about (once an Engineer......). On my list is taking a automatic transmission apart to see how it works. More importantly, how to diagnose and re-assemble. Haven't come across many 5 speed autos to salvage at the right time/price yet. A 4 speed would be no point as I don't own a car with one, but do have 2 5 speeds.
This is a (sometimes expensive) hobby, and I like to help where I can. My viewpoint is use used parts where it is non-critical (not a big fan of used brake hardware but will use it if needed), but where a job is involved or takes a lot of time, then using used parts over replacement new parts makes no sense. I am from the school of do it once and do it right on repairs. On AWD P80 cars the parking brake cables are a pain as they run them up over the rear jacking points which jave to be dropped to run the cables over the top (jacking points squeeze them in place with a plastic hoop that is riveted from the top. Volvo in their wisdom, run the hard lines for the rear brakes through a fixed bracket which cannot be dropped low enough to get a rivet gun in from above without removing the hard lines. I did this by dropping the mounts as far as I could not to strain the hard-lines, and then used an M8 (I think) washer held on the top side of the plastic bracket and passed the rivet up through the hole from below and used the crushing action of the rivet to pull the washer down to hold the plastic clamp and the cable in place. A whole lot less work, but still a pain compared to a FWD. Also factor in the time to pull a cable from pnp from a car that is probably no better (even in Texas they get snow!), it doesn't make any sense to use a used part.
Appreciate the leg pulling!
Neil.