AE-71-64

Volvo 145, dutch registration AE-71-64
Former registration California WDM329

Note: Most of this text was written as things happened. I thought it suitable to keep it, even though it's been given the general site look&feel

WDM329 was given to me by David Kenward. David had advertised the car on the mailing list of the Volvo Club of America mailinglist. This car, which had been in his family from new, had been sitting in his driveway for 7 years, and he wanted to get rid of it. Although it had been standing for a while, the bodyshell was described as rust free. He was either going to part it out and crush the body or give it to someone interested in restoring it. Since rust-free 145 are difficult to find here in the Netherlands (damp climate and winter salt), I expressed interest in it. A lot of emails were exchanged. David kindly emailed me some pictures of the car.

• View from the front (same as above)
• View from the rear
• Another view from the rear
• The interior
• The propane system
• The engine bay
• Faithfully guarding the car. Please check Doberman Rescue of Sacramento for a website dedicated to these kind and beautiful dogs, and a group of people trying to save abandoned Dobermans. Also lots of links to other dog sites.

I decided to take the car. I arranged for it to be transported to the Netherlands, where it arrived in the middle of November.

Although the paintjob looks a bit shabby, as does the interior, the bodyshell was indeed solid and rust-free. She's currently in a barn I've rented, as it would be illegal for me to drive a car without a Dutch registration. In the coming time, I'll be restoring her. I haven't set myself much of a timeframe for this, after all, it's still a hobby. I'll try to update this file occasionally. Here are some pictures of the current condition. These pictures were taken mainly for insurance purposes (stated value insurance !), so don't expect too much in the way of artistic quality. I've also tried to make them somewhat compact, to save you a lot of time downloading. When the car's restored to its full glory I'll try to make some better pictures and put them up in higher quality, too.

• View from the left
• View from the right
• View from the front
• View from the rear (What a difference with the nice weather on the Sacramento, Ca, pictures...)
• Interior
• The odometer, showing 206501 miles

Things to do:

• Clear all the loose parts out of the car (it's currently full of spare parts)
• Done. Quite a lot of useful stuff.

• Service engine, transmission, rear diff and propane system (see if it works, otherwise kludge it to the LPG system in the 144 for test)
• Done. Engine got all new hoses, oil change, new electrical consumables (plugs, wires, points, condensors), waterpump, and miscellaneous small stuff. Turned her over by hand several times to get at least some oil moving, and turned her over on the starter some more.
• Fluids were changed on the tranny and rear diff. I opened up the rear diff to fix weeping gasket, and was surprised at how well everything was. Not a trace of rust.
• Took a long hard look at the propane system and associated stuff, and decided to scrap it. Didn't test it. Put on a B20A manifold, rebuild an SU HS6 carb from 3 old ones, put on a fuel pump, and started her up. As is to be expected from these sturdy Volvo units, it started right up. Hooked up the old exhaust system (custom thingy ending in 2 tips) to the manifold to reduce the levels of noise it was making, and ran a temporary fuel hose to a few small containers in the spare wheel well. Yeah, the nice people at RDW would throw a rod if they were to see that.

• See if she starts, if not fix the problem
• See above.

• Service brakes and steering
• Steering was quite all right apart from a top-up of oil in the housing.
• I decided not to trust in 30-year old rubber parts that had been standing for nearly a decade, so I replaced basically everything: Master cylinder, all calipers, rubber hoses, and the rear brake disks as they were below minimum thickness. Ouch, that took a big bite out of my budget.

• Put in Dutch spec LPG system instead of US propane setup.
• As all of the available under-vehicle LPG systems replace the existing gas (UK: petrol) tank, I decided to pull the propane tank myself and restore the metalwork that had been cut for the propane tank. After pulling it I was appalled how much metal was cut away, and how crudely it had been done. Here's a picture from behind the vehicle looking in. Also visible are part of the custom exhaust system, and the temporary fuel containers on the right. Another picture is taken sitting in the cargo area looking towards the back. Here it shows that part of the rear valance was also cut away (this I knew before I bought the car, no surprise here), and the mounting of the exhaust.
  Obviously, for what I want the only option is to cut out nearly everything below the "seam", and replace it with material cut from a donor vehicle. As this will restore the normal tank mounting flange, I decided to put in a regular gas tank, use that to pass inspection and drive around for a while, ironing out any possible problems (like the valves that seem to be at the very end of their adjustment, so I expect a rebuilt head will have to be put on in the near future) before putting in a new LPG system. At the moment (19990515) I'm waiting for a call from my favorite parts guy that he's got the needed metalwork cut out of a donor vehicle.
• The metalwork was available from a 164 he was parting out, so I drove down there to pick it up. Some work grinding the new metal and old metal into matching shapes, and doing some hammering to line them up in all 3 dimensions later I was ready to have it welded in. Moved the vehicle to a friend who has welding equipment, and he had it welded in in no time at all. After grinding the welds flat, spraying it with Noverox (rust preventer/convertor - nasty stuff but pretty effective), putting in generous quantities of seam sealer and painting it all it came out looking quite well. Drop in the tank, a new fuel line, check it all over once more, and filling it up with gas the car was almost finished.

• Turn car into Dutch spec car and get Dutch registration, and do some driving in it
• Apart from the above-mentioned work, I've replaced the headlights (Euro vs. DOT), and taken out the amber marker lights in the grille. I think that should pretty well cover it for a car this age.
• After I've got the fuel tank sorted out (see above) I'm ready to call the RDW and book the inspection to get Dutch registration. Hopefully soon.

• Polish her up and see how she comes out. If not satisfactory, remove all interior and trim parts and send her to bodyshop to have A-pillar straightened and car repainted. Include new hood or repair current one.
• A day of work with a power buffer and some rather heavy duty cutting compound made the paintwork come up quite well. It's been resprayed some time in the past, so it had a nice thick layer of paint.

• Replace all trim, reupholster (rear bench upholstery is gone, and I dislike vinyl -- too sticky in summer, too cold in winter) interior (includes new dashboard surround as current one is cracked badly)
• Replaced the dashboard surround, and put in a 240 interior. Tan cloth upholstery, and seats that are even better than 140-series seats. Presence and a minimum level of intactness of all seats is required for the Dutch inspection, so I couldn't put this off.

• Test her out for a while, then perform upgrades as necessary (soundproofing, stereo, power locks, cruise control, perhaps a manual tranny+OD, and whatever else strikes my fancy)
• To follow.

I went to inspection last friday (25-JUN-1999), and apart from various boots on the steering joints and suspension ball joints it passed. I've already ordered new boots from my favorite parts place, and expect them to arrive shortly. Then it's only a matter of putting them on and booking in a "follow-up inspection", and it should be allright. Stay tuned...

Now this all may sound like a lot of work and expense to go through for a 140-series. Maybe it is, but I happen to like the 140-series, and since it gained me a rust-free body I think it's worth it. Some things were a bit worse than I expected, some things were better (not in the least that it really IS rust-free), so all in all I'm pretty happy with it.

Oh, on retest it passed inspection just fine.

Update 25 April 2000: Over the past months, this car has proven a reliable workhorse, and has seen a lot more use when I had sold off the 144 and there was still work to do on the 164. At the moment, the 164 has a very unreliable transmission, so this is my daily driver. That has finally prodded me into action to fix a very annoying rattle from the brake booster vacuum valve (see here for more details) and to start hunting down various rattles, squeaks, and put on new door and rear door seals. Oh, and let's not forget the new windscreen I had fitted a few weeks ago. The old one proved impossible to rid of an extremely hard pollution, and was dangerous to drive as it impared visibility, especially at night. All in all, it's slowly becoming a very nice car, and the column transmission selector makes a nice conversation piece around here. Fixing the brake booster and associated vacuum leaks, and some tuning, also made a great improvement to running, and solved the problem of running on after shutting off the ignition.

Update May 2000: Bloody tranny's packed up. Having a tranny lock up while driving is serious fun. Fortunately this happened close to home and at low speed, so I was able to drive the 1/2 mile back home in reverse, which didn't lock up. Since I'ld already priced a tranny rebuild for the 164, I knew I wasn't going to drop that kind of money on this tranny. Fortunately a friend had recently parted out a 142 and had all the stuff I needed to convert the 145 to manual (4speed, overdrive to be fitted at a later date). The story about that conversion can be found here. Now if only I can figure out what's causing that annoying rattling sound under load and fix it... Oh, and with the lighter load a manual puts on it, it's running on again. I'm also still contemplating where to put speakers for a stereo. The driver doors are the logical place, but as these door panels are still uncut, I'm a bit reluctant to cut into them. Uncut door panels are also quite rare, as everybody has put speakers there. Oh well, maybe I'll source a couple of already cut door panels at the september fair, use those instead, and keep the original ones intact. Fancy me becoming concerned about such things...