Volvo 780 Bertone Project Pt. 2 - Why buying another persons project is the WORST.

Well already 2 months have passed of 2021, and here I am writing an update on my 1987 780 whilst sitting at my cold garage desk. To say this project has gone way deeper than I expected would be an understatement, but it has been a great learning experience along the way. As usual with these “catch up” posts, I will start from the oldest photos I have and work my way up to the present. This allows me to try and cover in-depth what I am doing and why, as well as structure the narrative a bit better. Without any further rambling, lets begin.

Lots of the work on the car so far has been in the engine bay. As expected with a PRV, nothing is quite perfect, and getting replacement parts is no easy task. Many of the parts are standard Volvo and Bosch units, however things like the Fuel Pressure Regulator is a Bosch part shared with a few air-cooled Porsches of the era, making them impossible to find at a reasonable price.

An engine bay detail was in order to really give the car some new life, as well as increase my quality of life while I spent long hours wrenching away.

Finally solving my rough running issues (which still somewhat persist now unfortunately), was a massive research undertaking. One piece I never checked originally was the cars air filter and MAF, a good place to start with any car suffering from performance issues. What I found was something I had never seen before.

Inside the filter housing.

The inside of the Bosch MAF

Let me explain these two photos. At some point Ether was used to try to start the car. Well the resulting backfire from this process caused the air filter to light on fire, which then melted the plastic. This molten plastic, then was sucked through the MAF from the engines vacuum, which coated the inside of the MAF in plastic, completely destroying it. Not once have I ever seen something like this. Thankfully, I was able to source a good used MAF, and trim the melted plastic out of the air filter housing. One problem for the books.

Next I replaced the “thermotimer”, which is Volvos name for the coolant temp. sensor. The unit on the car was original, and most likely as to blame for some of the rough running issues.

Last piece was the fuel pressure regulator, which was leaking significant amounts of fuel into the engine bay as well as past its rubber diaphragm. The old gas in the tank was sucked out as it had expired many years ago, and fresh premium gasoline was added to the tank. The filter was not replaced, however I may do that as well.

Moving on from the engine bay it was in order to clean up some pieces around the chassis that had been overlooked or improperly repaired by the previous owners. When the car was up on the lift it was easy to see that one of the sway bar end links had been damaged at some point, somehow resembling a “J” shape.

Vice grips were needed to prevent the rusted up end links from free spinning when removing the bolts.

The drivers side vs. passenger side end links.

As you can see from the photos, these were most likely original as well. The bent side was obviously trash and missing the lower bushings as well. Installation of these is actually very straight forward, and doesn’t even use a ball joint like many modern cars. These simply are a threaded rod with 2 bushings on each end to sandwich the chassis and sway bar.

Small details like the gas door cap were also fixed. This one really upset me because of the way it was repaired. These fuel doors were used on many different model Volvos, and a rebuild kit from online suppliers like IPD cost about $10 for a new clip and spring. The previous owner of this car was very liberal with their use of butyl “dumdum” tape.

Rivets and butyl tape…completely unneeded.

The rivets and tape were carefully removed to not exacerbate the damage they had done any more. The area was then wiped down and I was able to snap the new hinge into place. Its the small details that can really add value and show that the car was properly cared for, not just thrown together. Its these small details that I always strive to fix and improve, especially on a car as rare and collectible as this.

Part 3 should be following this write up soon. I wanted to split this into a few sections as I have a whole writeup on the power seats planned. Lets just say, its not a pretty sight…

Volvo 780 Bertone Project Pt. 1 - In Over My Head

So I had planned to make a write up on the 780 Bertone much before this month, but with work slowing down it was time to get in the holiday spirit of spending money and actually work on the 780. To make this simple for myself to follow (since it has been a slow couple of months tinkering with the car), I wanted to get a list made of everything I had marked down that the car needed when I got it. As follows:

• Passenger side hood latch not catching

• Radio mast bent / broken

• Radio not working

• Light fault warning

• Poor idle

• Broken drivers seat controls

• Oil Change

• Brakes going to floor

• Check coolant

• Electrical gremlins in dash / lighting system

• Suspension damage

• Exhaust rust

• Interior needs lots of TLC

Quite the extensive list I know. One of the first the first things I wanted to tackle was the mechanical bits and bobs so that I could actually drive the thing without it stalling or hitting a tree. First up was the brakes. I was told when I got the car that they were bad, and I was hoping for the best but expecting the worst. Got the car up on the rack and removed the wheels hoping that maybe it was just air in the lines.

After a full flush, it was becoming apparent that it was NOT a problem with air in the lines, but an issue with the master cylinder bleeding off pressure. Luckily brake master cylinders for these cars are shared with the 700 series as a whole, and as such I was able to get a good reman. one for the cheap.

The reservoir was cleaned thoroughly to ensure all the old crusty fluid was not going to contaminate the new master.

Thankfully installing one of these is just 2 bolts and 2 hardlines, and within an hour the new system was installed and bled. Now, the car could easily drive itself around the shop yard without being a complete risk of rolling away.

Next in the process was the hood / grille situation. I would like to mention that this car is repainted, and due to this many of the little trim pieces and parts have been removed and reinstalled. The grille was fixed in such a way that it was skewed at an angle, and this was quickly fixed by setting it correctly into its spot and using a new push tab to secure it.

The moisture in the headlight was easily remedied with a fan pointed into a funnel which was inserted into the bulb hole.

One of the larger issues was the hood not latching on one side, and I will preface this by saying that my “fix” still isnt 100% however it does work. These cars use a cable that pulls two releases (one on each side of the hood). One of these latches, due to the nature of the cable stretching over time, does not like to reset back into place once pulled, causing the hood to not properly relatch. Two adjustments were made for this, one in the car where the cable handle can be tightened to pull out slack, and greasing of the mechanism to help it return to its place. Unfortunately it still wants to stay in the open position, however it can be easily returned to place with a small flathead.

The silver bar slides over the hood bar to latch into place.

Moving into the engine bay, I wanted to start tackling the idle and rough running issues I was experiencing with the car. Thankfully, the previous owner had left a lot of new parts in the trunk for me to install like spark plugs, spark plug wires, distributor, distributor cap, and few other odds and ends. I figured I would throw all these parts into the car and see where it got me.

After the install of all these parts, unfortunately I was still getting a seeking idle as well as a slight misfire above 2500RPM. Time to hit the books, and really get my hands dirty with this motor.

A Very Volvo September

As usual, i have neglected to post on here for a long while. When this happens, it usually means that thing have been going on in the background and recording my endeavors gets sort of pushed to the wayside. Recently though I have acquired a new car, one that I think a lot of people will enjoy reading about. Before I show it off, lets recap what has happened over the summer since my last update!

2012 Volvo S60

Almost nothing happened with this car over the summer. In fact it spent most of its time in the garage. It was sold to its new owner in Montana in early September. I wish I had more of a final celebration for it given the fact that it was my first Volvo, and the one that helped launch this blog, but its departure is nothing note worthy. I think I had been mentally over the car for some time, and other cars and projects in my life have taken over.

The final shoot i did with the car. Photo by @itsmackeever

1997 Volvo 960

Its no shock to anyone that this car has taken the place of the S60 for me. I haven’t had to do a ton of work to it, however it has definitely changed in appearance. Early in May I recieved the set of Ocean Mk18 wheels I ordered back in the winter, and ignorant of the fitment for the 960 I attempted to mount them on the car. What I learned was that the track width of a 960 is actually different than the 940. The Mk1 960s, the ones that look more like a 740/760 use the same solid rear axle as a 940. However, the Mk2. 960s (which mine is) use a Independent Rear Suspension (IRS) giving the 960 a FWD type offset instead of RWD. As such, the room to fit a higher offset wheel is lowered.

Using 235/40/18 tires, these wheels still had over an inch of poke. Wasnt the look or functionality I wanted.

After spending the money I did to import these wheels from Sweden just to not be able to use them took the wind out of my sails for a few days. I started doing a lot of searching for 5x108 wheels I could run on the wagon, and finally came to a realization. I still had the set of Ocean Storm wheels from my S60 R Design. I had been planning on selling them, but I found that with some work I would be able to fit them up to the 960. The Ocean Storms have a fairly aggressive positive offset to clear the suspension on the S60 so a 1” (25mm) spacer was going to be needed. With that spacer I would have an 18x8 wheel with a ~30mm offset. With a 215 width tire, the fitment was good enough that it didnt poke and rub was minimal.

Having spent the past few months slowly refining the 960, it was finally time for its ultimate test. A round trip from Greensboro, NC all the way to Daytona Beach, FL and back. I only had 4 days to get there and back, so the 960 was going to be rolling at least 5-6 hours a day in the summer heat. As such, more preventative maintenance was needed. The last thing from my original list of items from back in Sept. of 2019 was to do the timing belt. I had no records of when it was last done, and with the motor in the 960 being an interference design, it was better to be safe than sorry. The engine recieved a whole front end refresh kit with new idler bearing, pulley, water pump, tensioner, and belt. This way I could feel confident the car wouldnt have any cooling issues on its trip.

The straight 6 configuration makes it very easy to access everything for the service.

The trip did go off without a hitch, with one tiny asterisk. On my return trip, only about 20 miles from the NC border, the car did through a Bank 1 Lean code. However, after I cleared the code twice it has yet to return after hundreds more miles of driving. This car does have some weird quirks when it has been running in hot temps for a while. I suspect that high pressure in the fuel rail combined with the heat and a leaky injector contribute to the stumble it sometimes suffers from after doing long highway drives in the southern summer heat. New injectors and possibly a purge valve on the schrader valve of the fuel rail may help alleviate this issue.

Raceday at Daytona!

1987 Volvo 780 Bertone

Well it finally happened, I finally bought a Volvo coupe. While I dont plan on giving too many details here (working on the first installment of this cars blog posts as I write this one!), I can say that this car is an absolute gem. I definitely have a lot of work cut out for me, the interior of this Bertone is in dire need of some TLC, and with the production numbers being so low, replacing panels isnt a cheap or easy option. This may be my first experience with recarpeting and reupholstering a car, as the tan interior has been badly sunburnt from its time in the south east. This car will be my winter project, and hopefully a good flip! No doubt working on this car will be a major learning experience for me, as information on repairs is much more scarce compared to your average 740. Stay tuned, this is going to get interesting.