A previous owner was obviously an opium addict. It was crazy. He'd stripped the paint off with a grinder, used leaves as Bondo filler, and painted the whole thing (originally red) with a thick, wrinkly coat of "army man green" enamel. Drove it around a little like that,fixed a few things (including removing the 4th gear synchro spring, which was broken, then the ring, which was brass and came out easily), then one winter while waiting to get parts for it I started fixing it up a little. Wire-brushed and stripped all the paint off- every speck. If it weren't for the rot I'd have clear-coated the bare metal, despite the gouges from the other owner's grinder. It was beautiful that way. Opted instead for about 10 coats of cheap grey primer.
Sadly, I have no full-body shots for some reason... but trust me, for a few months, she looked and ran great. I spent a lot of time and money on her- she was my harsh mistress.
A patch here, some undercoat there, checked the whole underside for problems and found few, except for the rotten sills. The nose was a mess, but I managed to make some improvement.
The delightful, spiteful 1800cc straight 4 aluminum-block; single barrel carb; DOHC with a belt drive...rated at 90hp, I think.Mine had around 70k on it, so... this was the engine that taught me about engines. Did a lot of work on it.
The aluminum belt cover was touching one of the camshaft pulleys initially- it would shriek horribly above 3000 rpm. Took me a while to figure that out, and after I fixed that, I still of course had to go from 3rd to 5th as usual, but it would sing lustily at 5000 and ask for more gas (redline was 6500)... got it up to 95 mph once, but I didn't trust my tires and suspension very much, so that was the last time. The distributor was geared to the engine, and the shaft seal leaked, hence the bandanna. Usually took a few hours of steady driving to get the leak to start, like on my trip to Vermont- farthest I ever drove it. It would overheat in a heartbeat, though- if the temp gauge even got close to redline, the needle would flop over to the peg, and that was it: time to pull over and talk nice to it for awhile.Not a good car for urban commuting in the summer, yet I attempted it a few times.
Here's the interior (with right seat and console removed) as it was when I got it: the guy before me had painted the carpets black!!??! He'd also spattered lacquer everywhere when he ruined the woodwork. What a klutz. Took some work to fix, but it was a labor of love, and very educational.
Nice feature of this model is the fact that you can easily reach back with one hand and pull the top up. I only drove with the top up in the steady rain or snow, or when it was below freezing. It is a convertible, right?
After a sort of once-over resto: new carpet, a little vinyl, sanded and refinished the woodwork,cleaned and lubed everything, and solved myriad weird little Italian electrical problems.
This is the best pic I have of the "final" finish... not seen is the rust spot from Peg's drool on the right rear quarter... she used to love to hang her head over the side when sitting in the (purely decorative) back seat.
Can anyone ID Stevie Z's car alongside mine?
The sad result of getting rear-ended by some moronic Quebecer semi driver...we were stopped at a NJ Tpke toll; I was paying; he tried to inch forward and tripped over the clutch, hitting my baby 3 times (!!) with his Peterbilt and shoving her right out of the toll plaza... still quite roadable, but... ugh.
The insurance claim became a ridiculous runaround, it wasn't worth that much, and I was left with it as is. It was my daily 100-mile driver for about a solid year, until the engine blew up. Very slow out of the gate, but always seemed to have power in reserve on the highway. But really it was all about taking 25-mph-rated curves at 60, wind in your hair... what a fun little beast. Miss her a lot. Someday I'd love to do a ground-up restoration on one of these...
Next: 1987 Volvo 242
