Path to Restoration Glory for a 1999 V70 N/A

[MarinerMan]

Greetings all,

I have been a lurker on this site for the past three years. I purchased a 1999 V70 Base model. I have to say, I love it. I have driven hundreds of vehicles in my life, and so far this is the most comfortable vehicle. However, this car is now old enough to drink here in the USA, so it needs a little bit of care. I *think* I have decided to do a full, factory+ restoration on it. I figure, it I like this car, it has strong bones, and an engine that will run forever, why not spend the money on this? To buy a vehicle today with the storage capacity, ride height, comfort, and style of this boxy beauty would cost at least 60,000. So if I put 3-25k into this one over a few years, why not? This has lead me down rabbit holes, worm holes, and endless hours of scrolling through manuals, DIY guides, and parts websites. The end result, is that I think this site in particular is the right place for such an endeavor. Y'all have the wisdom, and less hoonigan spirit for the most part.

1. The Goal- To restore the vehicle to the point where it seems factory fresh, fits all my needs, and requires no outstanding maintenance, other than reoccurring fluids, tires etc. for five years.

2. The vehicle- This is a 1 owner (previous to me). It was purchased at Viti Volvo in Rhode Island. It was driven 120,127 miles by the time I purchased it in 2020 for $2,800. The owner was meticulous. Had the book where he wrote down every date he filled the tank, the filling station he used, the odometer reading, trip reading, and the average MPG. It was astounding. Detailed twice a year, all maintenance done by the dealership, and all the service records and history accompanied the sale. I figured this was a cream puff. I kinda feel bad that I am the new owner. The owner was an older gentleman who seemed to want a retirement vehicle and the luxury therein. While it was the N/A, it had nearly every upgrade available: Beige leather upholstery, sunroof, the mudflaps, Window Rain Louvers, Rear Window Interior screens, clear film protectors on the bumper and the door pillars, official Volvo Touch up paint kit, the D-pillar speakers, the aluminum door sills, heated seats, power drivers seat, 5-speed manual transmission with the wooden shift knob, Rear cargo tray, official Volvo trash container, Volvo parts kit (with the white cotton gloves), the official Volvo sewing kit, leather wrapped steering wheel.
The one thing I don't understand is that the badging says R V70. I knew of a V70R, with the turbo system, but not an R V70. I don't believe this was added by the owner, but I don't know. If anyone has info, if this was a package, I would be interested to hear about it.

3. The work so far- Anyways. I purchased the car. It was lovely, but had some age to it. So I have been fixing things. The list so far:
-New reman'd calipers
-Replaced the non existent dust shields
-Rear shocks with bilstein HDs, and the rear springs with the IPD HD springs, new bump stops, the works for the rear.
-Front struts with Bilstein Touring, IPD HD mounts, and all new hardware. I kept the front springs, as I couldn't find any replacement that wasn't lowering, just stock.
-IPD HD swaybar endlinks
-Brake hoses with the IPD stainless braided hoses,
-All the motor mounts: front, rear, side, torque mount, transmission mount.
-Front wheel hubs, as they were rusty, and the drivers side was starting to go.
-Driver side axle, got one from rock auto, kept the original, waiting to do a new boot and overhaul
-ABS control module. I was getting intermittent CEL and ABS and the ABS system would engage while driving.
-Drivers side ABS wheel speed sensor (between these two, I still get an occasional CEL and ABS light. It is aggravating)

4. The future- As I said, I really do love this car. I want it to last. 90-95% of the factory undercoating is in place. Surprised me for living in the New England area and near the coast. Very little rust on the underside. Some rust on the common places. The exhaust hangers, bumper supports, and the passenger side sopport for the floor pan where it meets the firewall and the exhaust channel.
The list of mechanicals that need to be addressed are as follows: exhaust (rusty, starting to lose life), subframe bushings, all rubber components, really, hoses and vacuum lines.
The plan is to restore this car. Get it to factory+. I am not really interested in a performance car. I want a touring vehicle. I frequently go on 15-25k mile road trips when I am not at work. I want something relatively economical, quiet, and reliable. I am willing to put money and time into this. I am a marine engineer, so I have done all the work myself. Saves quite a bit on the budget.

5. The questions- This is the first time I have tried to restore a car, or even thought of doing something like this. So the order has stalled me. The exterior is the Desert Tan (granny gold) color. It has some fading on it, where it looks silver from one angle and gold from another. Slight clear coat peeling on the B and C pillars, but nowhere else. I am not a fan of the color and the beige interior. I can live with the interior, and reskin and recarpet easily, and that is the end of the job. I have gone between repainting, vinyl wrapping, and using that dreadful plastidip. At this point I am thinking new paint due to the slight offroading, I don't think you can repair a torn vinyl piece. But do I do a full teardown, and get a factory style paint job or just paint over the existing paint? I want to remove any rust, so a factory repaint, with a full blast, maybe acid dip seems the most comprehensive, but requires resealing all the panels. Any ideas?
-The biggest question is the order of operations. Do I work on each piece and then paint? Paint first, and fix each thing as it goes back on? What do y'all suggest?
-What upgrades do you recommend to increase the life, comfort, or useability to the car?
-Is this project something you would like to see here?

6. Current end goal- Have a car that is factory fresh at 20+ years. Interior in gray, good sound system, and quiet. Exterior in Blue gray, like the Nautic gray of the older 240s.

I would enjoy imput, comment, criticisms, any feedback really. Thank you all for such a fun time reading the posts. I hope this doesn't get me banned for being long winded. Thanks y'all.

[abscate]

What a beautiful cream puff! I wouldn’t do anything but factory paint on that moving forward.

You might need to do the rear delta links in the suspension after so many years, but they could be ok too. You are probably 40-50k away from needing a new electronic throttle body, so watch eBay for the $150 late 2012 Volvo replacement part xxxyyyzzz to keep in stock, and a gasket too.

Link here to ETB stuff

viewtopic.php?t=73330

If being long winded were a crime here, we would all be in jail.

Here’s another Path to P80 Perfection in Providence…Sean did a beautiful job rehabbing a daily driver as his first car

viewtopic.php?t=96644

[MarinerMan]

Thanks for the reply. I have purchased the replacement delta links. I haven’t installed them yet, as I have heard it is a PITA. Waiting for warmer weather. I am a bit bummed the blue tool is out of service. It seemed the be a great idea. I think I will build my own. I did see a post somewhere where a person attached a cable to the link, and the other end to a sledgehammer and swung it like a golf club. Seems terrifying.

I appreciate what you have said about keeping the paint. One of my thoughts was to keep the paint, fix the clear coat and scratches and put a wrap on it as a protectant.

I will look for the ETB. Good to know about that.

[foggydogg]

I'm +1 with Dr. Abscate on leaving the exterior finish as is for the moment at least. Doing a full colo(u)r change on a car the right way will likely double the price of the job. Address reliability/driveability to Stage 0, then see where things stand.
In case you haven't noticed, nobody here puts anything URO on our cars. Ever.
Nice looking car and sounds like quite the score.

[scot850]

The paint work depends on how far you go. I have wanted to do that on my car, but everytime I had the funds to at least get some done, something else broke. So 12 years later it has still not been done.

Is is an optical illusion that the car from the rear door back is a different color (lighter). It is weird as I have seen several Volvos for sale up here claiming no accidents yet the cars are clearly showing a different color from the rear door back?

I am not usually a 'green' car person, but I really like the color!!

As the guys have suggested, tackle the mechanical stuff first and protect the underside and rocker panels, before tackling paint.

Best of luck!

Neil.

[Blacklab467]

Great car, great story, and welcome to the forum. I would agree with the previous comments about getting all the mechanicals to stage "0" before worrying about the paint and cosmetics. I would add a couple suggestions for going forward with this car if you want to keep it for a long time and keep it pristine;
1. Make a regular habit of scouring the auto wrecking yards for OEM spares and parts that are better than whats on your car. Soon these cars will be obsolete from these yards and it will be difficult to source for example a B-pillar piece of cracked plastic in any specific color.
2. Refrain from bolting aftermarket parts on your car, insist on blue box Volvo parts, period. This car is your keeper, not one that you're cleaning up to flip. If you want it to be reliable and factory + and are willing to spend the money on it as you say, you needn't be shopping for parts on RockAuto. I wish someone told me this early in my Volvo owning experience, I had to find out the hard way by doing everything twice........the good parts are worth the price!

[volvolugnut]

This car looks great. I would not do paint for a long time. Thanks for posting photos.
volvolugnut

[abscate]

Would love to hear marine tales if you don’t mind sharing. My only friend on here is a Sub -Mariner and I’m trying to move up from boats to ships

I’ll link to the ‘ Bastards ‘ thread later this am, the 99 and 00 models have some special things and changes from the rest of the cars in this forum, the 1992-1998, 1999-2000 or “P80 model” that can lead you astray.

I ended up running four 1999s in my estrogen-rich house of 8 ladies , two female dogs, three female cats, and one neutered mechanic.

[MarinerMan]

Thanks for the responses all. I have been well aware of the difference in quality between the parts for volvo versus the big box stores, rockauto, etcetera. I have been lucky to not have fallen into any traps so far. So far, FCP, IPD, Tasca (mostly for fasteners when I can't find them elsewhere), and Volvo sites (volvowebparts, volvoNA, etc) have been my go to for new parts. I use Row 52 to search for a lot of cars, and from Virginia to NH and Oregon and Washington are my hunting grounds for parts. I have pulled steering knuckles, brackets, hangars, and all sorts of parts that are NLA or never available, restored them, and have them waiting in case I need them later. I am not terribly worried about grabbing interior plastic trim pieces. I have a commercial laser scanner that I have been using to scan all the trim pieces to do custom replacements. I do have a few dashboards snagged and instrument clusters, just in case.

Thanks for the input on the paint. Given the consensus, I will just repair the clear coat, and buff everything. See if I can get it a bit more even. I have so many people ask me if my car is gold or silver or green or tan. It wears on me, so I will just buff and remove the scratches. Luckily I don't have any real problems with orange peel. They did a great job at the factory.

The next step for me is going to be exhaust. I have read *nearly* every single post on this forum, swedespeed, volvospeed, volvoforum, etcetera on the quality of aftermarket exhaust parts. I have already had to replace the aftermost hangar and the last 18" of tail pipe when the weld snapped on Mt. Rainer and a washboard road in the Badlands took out the weld at the aft end of my Cat. I have been working with a custom exhaust company, but they are used to hot rods and wanting to straight pipe, cherry bomb, cat delete, and that sort of thing. They do amazing welds and bending, but convincing them that I want a quiet and ecologically sound exhaust has been a bit daunting. I have been looking at the DEC OEM style high fill Cat for this vehicle. Does anyone have other recommendations? I don't really want to get into the Replace every 3-5 years cycle. Seems wasteful. I am willing to pay 1-2 grand to get a really good one if needs be. Advice appreciated.

[abscate]

Not quite sure how I mixed up RI with PA in your thread, but .....never mind!