Volvo 960 Project Pt. 6 - Still Alive

As usually, my writings tend to drop off during the spring into the early summer. The weather is nicer, things are happening and with the full removal of any travel and event restrictions, my time on weekends isnt spent sitting at a desk all day. Actually, that’s a lie but I am still busy! God knows how much Volvo stuff has been going on since my last post back in March, but it has been a lot. Progress on the 780 has been slow / stalled out. I have lost a lot of motivation in working on it, and just have been waiting for a few small pieces to tie it all together and get it ready for sale. In the mean time, I have started a project on the 960 that I never thought I would have the ability to do… fully deleting the sunroof.

This topic has been, shall we say sensitive, to many of my European friends across the internet as they believe that a sunroof is the peak of luxury. “How could you do this, and why?!” they say. I said, with an angle grinder.

But all joking aside this was a project a long time coming, as the sunroof in my 960 had been leaking for some time. Even after resealing the glass and the drains, I was still getting significant water intrusion into the car. The roof and headliner were a few things I never really showed off in the car, or always tried to hide in photos. Much of the panels were either damaged, peeling, ripped, etc. I wanted to redo the interior, but it would have been a moot point if it was just going to get damaged by water again.

The headliner was severely damaged from water, and had warped entirely.

Like anything, the best way to start was jumping right in. I started by removing almost all the interior panels from the door panels up. Much of the tan fabric interior had signs of water damage as it was peeling away from the brittle plastic backing. The headliner, which had been sagging for some time, was in a state when removed. The cardboard like material was falling apart, and signs of mold were beginning to show.

I also collected all the pieces I was going to need for the interior. Thankfully, a 940 wagon interior was just what I needed. The panels are identical to the 960, but lack the fabric covering, make them very easy to work with and paint. I was also able to get the new headliner from said 940, which did not have the hole from the sunroof. Lets just say, driving with a spare headliner inside a car of the same size, isnt very fun.

The panels laid out in the sun for drying.

For this project I grabbed the A, B, and C pillar panels, all of which were painted with a coat of Duplicolor Vinyl and Fabric Coating, gloss black. This was also used on the headliner as well. it adhered very well to the panels after they were quickly wiped down and cleaned before paint. Using the sun, they dried almost instantly. All of the small interior pieces also received a quick spray like the mirror cover trim, grab handles, and screw covers.

After removing the interior assembly of the sunroof, it was time to sink the teeth in. This was easily the hardest part of the process, not because of the very slow grinding, but also because I wasnt quite sure how I should be doing it. The sunroof is supported inside the roof by an extra cage that is welded into the roof structure and has the roof skin folded down into it. The metal would need to be removed to make room for the new headliner, so cutting was a must. The first corner was rough, however I slowly started to get a feel for how the metal was shaped and where to cut to make pulling the supports out easy.

DONT BE LIKE ME, COVER YOUR WINDOWS AND PANELS BEFORE GRINDING OR WELDING!

With the supports out, I had reached the first ‘checkpoint’ of the project. However, seeing the big hole in the roof was certainly not very fun. It looked awful, all jagged and bent up. I wondered to myself if it was ever going to turn out the way I wanted.

With the roof out it was time to start devising the plan on how it would all go back together. The sunroof support cage also functioned as the cross member support for the roof skin. Without it the roof is very flexible and tends to bend and distort with any sort of pressure or high winds. A new cross support was needed.

Reusing the old metal seemed to be the best method as the bracket had already been designed to follow the curve of the roof, and sit exactly on the inner roof rails.

With the cross rigidity solved, next was getting a roof panel and designing that to work. However, with how long this post has already become. I will be saving the rest of the write up for part 2. There is a lot more done over what has been pictured, and 90% of what will be in part 2 I already have done. But for my sake, lets keep this one under 2 pages.

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.

960 Project Pt. 4 - End of Spring Almost Summer Updates

Since my last update back in February, I have had a lot of changes happen in my life. I went from an office job, to working full time for a local Volvo shop. I now do the marketing and classic car & car parts sales for Hailey Import Service. Due to this, I have been busy but lots of mods have been happening to my 960. My last update I had done a few comfort modifications, but I have upgraded the car even further. The car got a new dash carpet, full steam clean (again), and some much better air fresheners to remove the old musty smell. Using the ozone generator followed by an order remover disk I was able to neutralize the mold smell caused by the water leaks in the car. A re-sealed sunroof has also helped reduce water entry into the car.

Over the past few months, I have been driving the car on an almost daily basis, slowly building up a trust in its reliability. I have been able to do 2 round trips to visit my family in Charleston, SC and the car had no hiccups from the 4 hour drive each way.

Safety has also been improved with new lighting and taillights. I used LED upgrades in the lights and the difference was significant. Fahren LEDs were used for the headlights, and SNGL LEDs were used for the fog lights. Both kits were ordered with a 6600k color tone to give the car a clean white look up front.

One of the major issues I have had with this car have been the abused cosmetics. The paint is in rough shape in a lot of locations around the car, and does show signs of a respray at some point. During a washing session, the power washer took the paint on the rear drivers door clean off revealing a white door underneath. Since then I have begun the process of using vinyl wrap to cover the worst affected panels on the car. Avery gloss black has been used due to its cheap price, as well as its very close color match to Volvo 019 black color code.

Side shot showing the painted drivers door vs. the wrapped rear door.

The hood before. Note the clear coat spots and “crows feet” marks.

After, not 100% color accurate but much better.

Other additions to the car have mostly been cosmetic. A set of used corner lights from the UK were imported. I have always liked the clean look of clear lights up front. The set cost me about $80 when all said and done. Expensive, but around the going rate for a set in the US. A bonus was that they came with the sockets for a single filament bulb instead of dual like ours require.