Enter the Amazon.

[Sven7]

I love horizontal speedos.

[palmer]

lol, wow.

[momo]

thanks guys. I already really miss driving this thing around.

nothing crazy with it is going to happen anytime soon, since (A) my wallet already hates me, and (B) I just really love this thing in it's original form. I really want to hold on to it for awhile though, so as long as I have a place to store it, I think I'll be keeping it.

after replacing the clutch slave cylinder, I still was losing clutch fluid, so looks like I'll be replacing or rebuilding the master cylinder next spring. The *allegedly* recently rebuilt generator wasn't charging either, so I think I'll just swap to an alternator setup for better reliability. I might swap a new set of brushes in though, just to see, because if I can keep the originality factor of the generator, that would be rad.

another thing I really would like to do soon, is get some carpet in this thing. the previous owner took out the carpet and threw it away, so I have no pattern to cut from. :/ anyone have suggestions for reasonably priced carpeting? I want something that looks somewhat original and not tacky, but doesn't make my wallet go up in flames. I might do a little bit of sound deadening too, but we'll see. I suppose this is more a question for a volvo specific forum, but does anyone know whether or not they used jute or some kind of carpet padding underneath the carpet in OEM applications?

I've got a long list of other things to do to this thing, so here's the full list:

- new valve cover gasket (previous one split when I took the valve cover off to do the valve adjustment)
- drop fuel tank, fill with water, and weld up hairline crack in fuel filler (gas fumes are horrible right now, and probably very bad for my health. haha.)
- flush/fill cooling system (has an *allegedly* professionally hot-tanked radiator with some other things done to it, but it still runs warm in traffic. I'm hoping the problem is just too high a ratio of antifreeze to water.)
- temporarily install LC-1 wideband and sync/retune carbs/rebuild if needed.
- install a resonator/second muffler in the exhaust? (I love the sound of this thing, but it's really loud. any suggestions on something that will retain the exhaust note but make it a little quieter?)
- install my uncracked right rear taillight
- flush/fill cooling system (has an *allegedly* professionally hot-tanked radiator with some other things done to it, but it still runs warm in traffic. I'm hoping the problem is just too high a ratio of antifreeze to water.)
- fix janky radio-to-speaker wiring and possibly add a small amp inline to the speakers
- start working on surface rust repair. not really sure how I want to go about this one. I love the color and original paint of the car, but I feel that everything I respray is going to stick out like a sore thumb, since the paint is obviously faded. I might just have to respray it, which is kind of daunting.
- new rear brake shoes and check over entire brake system
- fix brake servo (has manual brakes right now for some reason, I'm not sure why it's not working)
- fix driver's side seat support (these cars have seat bottoms that are supported by elastic straps, which were super comfortable when new, but completely lose their elasticity after 45 years. People generally replace them with metal supports, not unlike a bed spring.) like so:

stock 40 year old seat supports:

what people replace them with:

- re-aim headlights (something that really surprised me about this car is how awesome the headlights are. better than any of my other cars - surprising for sealed beams on a car designed almost 60 years ago.

And by the time I'm done with all that, I'll be ready to daily drive it with no worries. Lowering of some sort is sort of an optional extra in that list, along with widened stock steel wheels (nothing crazy, probably 15x6 or 7). It's a long list, and I'm sure there are several things I forgot as well, but it will be such a satisfying car to fire up and drive by the time I'm done with it all. I can't wait. I wish my parents would let me store it at home over the winter so I could work on it, but eh, that's life.

You can expect it to be at eurowerks next year too, by the way.

[momo]

picture.

oh jeez.

[Digital K]

you sure have come a long way momo. very cool.

[momo]

thanks man.

[momo]

so I think I might be building a set of widened steelies for this thing, over the winter. nothing crazy, probably 15x6 or 15x7. will be a huge upgrade over the stock 15x4's though, especially with the reverse-stretched 195/60's the previous owner put on the stock 4 inch wide wheels. these are widened to 15x6 et20:



should look pretty good.

in other ramblings, I really wish I could drive this thing year-round. can't wait till next summer to cruise around in it and work on it again! I've been thinking a bit, and I might just sell one of my cars this spring, to fund the progress of this car.

[Sven7]

Sell me your Miata right now.

[momo]

tucked it in for the winter this weekend - put it up on blocks, took the battery and put it on a trickle charger, threw a car cover over it, and threw a ton of dryer sheets all over it.

as pretty much the first time I've had it in the air, I found something interesting. All the time I've had it, it's had an exhaust rattle that was really annoying and never seemed to go away. turns out, when the previous owner decided to make an ... erm ... custom exhaust, he decided it didn't really need any hangers other than the rearmost one. so the exhaust was simply resting on the panhard bar the whole time. that's cool I guess. :/

[aaronmjr]

This popped up as a related video after yours ended:

[JUSTION337]

That's been popping up as a related video after about half of the stuff I watch on youtube.

[mpls_a2_gti]

Awesome.

[Sven7]

Are you planning on doing the steelies yourself? I just ran across this C&C pic from a few months ago. Looks almost stock... but so much better.


Cars and Coffee by Tyler Linner, Intergalactic Man of Mystery, on Flickr

[hamradio]

Are you planning on doing the steelies yourself? I just ran across this C&C pic from a few months ago. Looks almost stock... but so much better.


Cars and Coffee by Tyler Linner, Intergalactic Man of Mystery, on Flickr

Pretty sure that guy stopped by where I used to work, one day. Had a little chat with him. Neat car and story he had about it.

[momo]

Are you planning on doing the steelies yourself? I just ran across this C&C pic from a few months ago. Looks almost stock... but so much better.

(pic)

I was... but I'd need to borrow a welder.

we'll see.