I guess I’m going to call him “Leo”

[DonnVa]

Well it’s together and shifts. Whew… Putting it together is a very tedious job. I’m going to take a take a dinner break and see how motivated I am to put it in tonight.

[foggydogg]

Leo was known to do mix-and-mash, parts of that gearbox may have come from one of his earlier cars. At least one of his 1800s was a daily driver and came with him when he moved from NY, and I know he put way lots of miles on it.
He also had, ahem, several Amazons...

[abscate]

Donn...thanks for keeping the resurrection alive, it’s good for the soul. I know foggy appreciates it , too.

[DonnVa]

I put in the transmission and driveshaft last night and finished everything up this morning. I took it out for a test drive and man the difference is like night and day. No more hopping and banging trying to take off in 1st. It’s smooth as butter. New rear main seal, clutch, trans refresh, driveshaft center support bearing.. Done. I also installed a 10” electric fan for the radiator and hooked it up to the toggle switch that was still live for the dead electric fuel pump I removed. No more biting my nails at a stop light w/ the temp about to peg. Just flip a switch.

[DonnVa]

Well, I bit the bullet and bought a new gas tank last Friday. I installed it tonight. While I was working on the car last week running it in the garage, it ran out of gas at a half a tank. I took a look in the old tank after I got it off and it indeed did not have a pickup tube running from the outlet mid way up to the bottom of the tank….

[xHeart]

Well, I bit the bullet and bought a new gas tank last Friday. I installed it tonight. While I was working on the car last week running it in the garage, it ran out of gas at a half a tank. I took a look in the old tank after I got it off and it indeed did not have a pickup tube running from the outlet mid way up to the bottom of the tank….

[scot850]

Would putting a tiger in your tank not block the fuel pick-up and likely only allow about half a tank??

Even 40 years ago the fuel tanks would get porous around the filler neck at the tanks, and also the seam.

Neil.

[DonnVa]

I’m been doing a lot of little things the last week or so. When I had the car up on jack stands for a few weeks working on the driveline the brake master cylinder leaked out. It leaked through the boot behind the firewall. Foggy sent me home with a brand new one when I bought the car. I bought a new cap and used the old one to create a power bleeder cap for it. It worked great. I actually completely flushed out all the brake lines with new fluid. I mentioned that my speedo was about 20 mph fast. There was nothing out of the norm in the trans when I serviced it. Standard speedo worm gear and standard yellow speedo gear. Foggy also sent me home with a spare instrument panel. I bought another speedo cable with one of my VP orders, hooked it up and ran it through the engine compartment and up to the hood. I secured the other speedo on the hood by the windshield to see what that one read. It’s accurate, so when I get around to replacing the cracked dash I’m going to swap the speedometer from the old unit to the one that’s in there now. The instrument panel innards are modular. I also got donor horn ring to cut up. I didn’t like the top portion and the way it interferes with the gauges, so my plan was to cut off the top portion of the ring. However, when I did it, it was late and I was tired. I cut off the bottom portion by mistake. I didn’t notice until I got into the car and put it up against the steering wheel. That’s when the cussing started… I had no other choice but cut the top off and I’m liking it. Last thing, Froggy wanted to see what the old clutch looked like. I snapped a pic before I took it to the dump.

[foggydogg]

Clutch had some miles left in it; of course I drove it like the vintage survivor it is. Leo, on the other hand...
His daily driver when I met him was a Honda Civic Si, and he mentioned - more than once - that he loved shifting at redline, which I think on those cars is north of 8k, so the hotspots on the plate surface are no surprise.

[DonnVa]

New polished stainless steel bumpers installed. I gave up on trying to get the rear Volvo trunk emblem re-chromed. Too many variables on getting pot metal refinished.. long wait times, unpredictable results, etc. I sanded it, used self etching primer, then a filling primer, sanded and painted it with a cast aluminum paint. Then I baked it. I did save the only chrome left on it. That will have to do for now.
Edit- This funky paint job that Leo did is growing on me. It’s going to be hard to redo it to all black or black with a white top. Another thing I finding is the base color under the door cards is that Volvo greenish blue.