It begins!

I was just going to remove the battery tray to get in with the grinder to attack some rust, and the next thing I know... I've removed the wheels and I'm unbolting the front suspension. 

Take a good look at this stuff now, because it's not staying this way!

The Brakes have a great little graphic... I'll bet you the G is for Girling! 

1968 Volvo 140 Sales brochure

Just picked this up off ebay. It will serve as a good reference as to what the interior should look like. plus it's a nice little artifact to own. 

Recaro

The stock interior is so minimal and cool that I want to restore it by replacing the worn out vinyl with the same color leather... but in the meantime, my bro has lent me a Recaro SE out of his airbagged 62 econoline... It's awaiting a full electric conversion, so needless to say it doesn't need a drivers seat right now. 

Ooh dang!

I ain't gonna lie. This piece has some rust, but it's all good, because I've got POR 15 ready to attack. These photos show all the rust under the battery tray. I was going to use the air tools tonight and get that metal all "ttub dekan", but I decided to let my neighbors enjoy the stillness of the night... Turns out it looks worse that it is, the metal doesn't have any holes from what I can tell and I can't find any weak spots. 

Oakland Parking Tax

My Neighbor calls it "Oakland Parking Tax", but I call it a pain in the ass. I felt like taxing the thief's face with swaybar when I saw what he did to my mint dash! If there was one thing on the car that I was almost 100% sure wasn't going to need any work... it was the crack-free dash. The stereo face wasn't even in the car, yet he had to break in and destroy this nearly impossible to find, original dash. 

Thinking about a sting operation, with a booby trap. Might as well put it in the garage...

The Volvo B18

From wikipedia: 

Volvo Cars began manufacturing the Volvo 140 series at Torslandaverken in the late summer of 1966 and production continued through 1974.

Beginning with the 140 series, Volvo used a tri-digit nomenclature, indicating series, number of cylinders and number of doors. Thus, the series, which followed the Volvo Amazon and preceded the 200 series, consisted of the Volvo 142 coupe, 144 sedan, and 145 (estate).
The 140 was the first Volvo to feature a more rectilinear or boxy styling. Compared to the Volvo Amazon, the 140 was a radical departure with minimal exterior and interior carryover, notably the front split grille. The car's basic shape would survive into the 1990s as the 200 series.

The first 140s used the same 85 hp (63 kW) B18 engine as the Amazon, with both cars later getting the 2-litre B20 engine. Mechanically, the car used many of the same drivetrain components as the Amazon, but also showcased many improvements, including disc brakes on all four wheels. It was named car of the year in 1966 by Swedish magazine Teknikens Värld.

16" Black wheels

I picked these up for the Lemons Car but they just looked too damn good on the 140. Plus the race car is out of the garage, so it's time to get cranking on the 140 project. They're not final, but they're a good in between. By the way... I'm selling the 14" 240 GL wheels it came with, email me if you want them :)

The shop is coming together nicely, we're painting the walls bright white, the ceiling matte black and eventually laying down a nice thick glossy clear epoxy coat on the floor. 

We've been driving it around on the weekends. We don't take it far because it's super sketchy on the freeway... basically within walking distance of the house. 

SSPP22 is in the way!

Can't start the 140 project until we move this project.

New Grille!

That's better! I found a mint condition original '68 aluminum grille on craigslist!

Here are some shots of the interior.

Rust, Dents and Rips

40 years of loving has taken it's toll on this thing. 

First Sight

One day after work while heading home on the Bay Bridge I came up on this rad little 140S. The shear fact that it was keeping up with the flow of traffic was a good sign. All the other 140s I had looked at in the past were hoopties. This one had some minor body damage, but nothing scary. I started dreaming to myself how awesome one of these would be to fix up. Maybe with a 2.3 16v turbo motor, maybe turbo diesel out of a newer VW... or maybe even a crazy all electric conversion...  

As I moved around to the drivers side I noticed it had a FOR SALE sign! Holy crap, now if I could only read the phone number... I'd at least like to test drive it! 

I pulled along side the driver door but still couldn't read the phone number... I started thinking about following this dude to wherever he was headed... and then I realized that I could take a high res photo of the sign in the window... well it worked! 

Just then, some jackass in an X5 swerved over and got on my tail. I moved out of his way, and he sped past me only to swerve in front of the 140 and slam on his brakes! Asshole! The brake-check made the little volvo dive hard to avoid smashing into the back of the bimmer. After all, it was one of the first cars sold with full disc brakes. The X5 took off fast with the 140 in hot pursuit! And me in hot pursuit of the 140... I didn't want my future whip getting in a pointless fender bender, so I decided to play a little interference... I was pretty surprised that the X5 couldn't shake the 140 even at 90mph! 

I called up the owner and had a good laugh about the X5/140/R32 chase, and that weekend I met up with him to test drive the car. And now it's mine! My brother tailed me home in his xb.