Jump to content

Volvo 740, interior headlining finished! Pg 23.


danthecapriman

Recommended Posts

Awesome, looks like it was a really satisfying job undoing that previous earthing 'job' (I won't say bodge, as you said it did the job) but its much cleaner without it!

 

There's always something immensely pleasing about sorting out previous electrical bodgery. I think it's a combination of a relatively easy job and the victimless smugness of cursing / laughing at the bodger's crap work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That looks bonny! It's remarkable the difference new tail lights make to it and being able to sort the mangled lamp wiring is a bonus.

Speaking of Volvo plastics, the door bins on these are particularly good at exploding.

The ones on this car are all good, surprisingly. My old saloon though, I opened the door once and caught one with my leg which made it explode! The plastic is unbelievably brittle on them. Got a good black replacement from a scrap yard at the time though. Not so easy to come by anymore.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good stuff. I changed the rear lights on my old one as they were way worse than yours. They're easy enough on paper but in actuality I needed ratchet elbows and a lot of patience. Worth it for the difference though, it was massive.

You might want to line the top of the rear clusters with silicone btw, water can get in there.

The door bins on YHG were perfect too. Not a lot wrong with that car. Wish I could have afforded to keep it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That's looking really smart now. I'll agree, a new set of lights always improves the look of a vehicle, particularly if the old ones are all gray and cloudy.

 

Working outside in the winter with water makes me glad somebody had the foresight to fit both hot and cold water taps on the outside of this building, both with hosepipe attachments...

 

Phil

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Another year gone and it’s MOT day tomorrow for this.

 

I’m not in the habit of letting my MOT man see my cars in anything other than spotless condition so this evening I gave the car a good vacuum out, polished and trim shined all the interior, dash etc and cleaned all the glass.

Then gave the outside a good wash. It wasn’t particularly dirty (my cars never get dirty!) but there was a fair bit of moss and green stuff starting to accumulate around some of the badges and exterior trims/seals so that’s all gone now. It always seems to build up during winter. Followed by a quick polish for the paint.

 

It probably won’t make any difference to the MOT but it always looks good if you present a clean well looked after car than a filthy turd! Plus, it’s a reflection on me too!

Also checked the lights, horn and other stupid things - all ok there. All levels are good and no signs of any other things wrong so fingers crossed for tomorrow...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I always make sure mine are cleaned before an MOT. If the bits of your car that you can clearly see are neglected then it's probably likely you haven't taken particularly good care of the bits you can't see, at least that would be my thought process...

 

Good luck with the test chap.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I’ve got some genuine MOT tester yellow chalk still in my toolbox from my days in a garage, I have considered sliding under the car and writing ‘ministry’ on the bottom of it!

 

No idea if they still do spot checks like they used to? Back then they often used a Sierra, but because it was being used for ministry spot checks if there was anything to be found it had to be a pass and advise as they couldn’t knowingly drive an unroadworthy car on the roads to a test centre! If other testers got wind of these cars they often used to write ‘ministry’ on the underside to warn the next guy!

 

Hopefully things like that shouldn’t be necessary!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Fuck!!

 

I wish I had written ‘ministry’ on the underside now!

 

 

Not the worst failure list ever really and tbh part of it wasn’t entirely unexpected as I’ve been nursing it through the test every year until now and just scraping by.

 

1: ball joint dust cover split. - needs new track rod end basically, which isn’t a big deal. Tracking also will need re-doing afterwards.

 

2: rust hole just within prescribed area of anti roll bar mount. - it’s a tiny hole through the front X member below the radiator. Just needs a bit of mig action.

 

3: one rear brake binding excessively and handbrake efficiency piss poor. - this is the one I knew about! The brakes keep on squealing like mad at the rear, normally I can get away with a clean up and exercise the pistons on the one remaining original rear calliper but this time I’m shit out of luck!

This now needs a recon calliper as the old one is seized solid and won’t release. They aren’t cheap on these cars.

The handbrake is at max travel and not working properly on the seized side, the handbrake ‘drum’ inside the rear disc needs a strip and clean out and the handbrake cable is also fucked so that needs replacing!

 

I’ve decided this cars an ungrateful bastard having repaid all my attention with this!

Nonetheless, It’s getting fixed by the garage. It’s going to cost me a bit but I honestly don’t have the time to fix it myself. I could, but doing that will take the free time I do have away from getting the Capri back on track, and that’s more of an issue I want sorting if I’m honest. So I’ve given the go ahead to fix it and I’ll just lump it with the bill.

 

I think much of this is from not using the car enough tbh... oh well, it’s only money!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Old Volvos don't like sitting...

All in all though that's not a bad fail sheet really, well done for getting it sorted out.

Yeah it’s not the end of the world really. I still think most of the problems stem from the cars lay up before I got it, as you say, they don’t take well to being left sat. It’s just not helping that I’m not using it much either I think! Last year it’s done under 500 miles!!

It does piss me off a bit tbh though given how much work I’ve put into trying to pull it back from the brink! And even after all that it’s still throwing up problems.

I suppose on the other hand, once these problems get found and fixed it should be ok then.

 

Besides, I’d rather do this and spend money on cars like this than buy some modern piece of shit!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

They're ungrateful bastards aren't they.

 

Mine rewarded me for taking it out for a slap up new part leather interior by promptly shatting itself, filling the footwell with antifreeze and landing me in a situation in which I had to replace a part that's no longer available. You've got to laugh...

 

What you say about modern alternatives is spot on, getting yours sorted might cost a bit but you have to remind yourself that the majority of people are paying £200+ every single month for a car they'll never own. Pales in comparison really.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I can haz MOT again!

 

Picked this up today with its new ticket, it’s been a while getting it fixed but there were reasons why.

 

Firstly, the welding. It wasn’t where I thought it was. It was actually the hole through the corner of the battery tray! The very same hole that’s been on this car many many years... it’s visible and mentioned earlier on in this thread but I’d put off fixing it in favour of other things since it didn’t seem to be a big issue. Why it wasnt mentioned on earlier mot’s I know not but the hole in the battery tray on these cars is immediately next to the front anti rollbar mount so it is justified. I suppose!

Anyway, it’s been cut back to solid metal and a new lower corner bent up and welded in. I trust the work of the garage I use but I always check afterwards regardless, and the welding looks very good, it’s seam welded all round and it’s not just plated over old rot so I’m happy. It saves me a job doing it myself now too.

 

The ball joint has been changed. The old one was only a fail on a split dust cover but the ball joint itself turned out to be on its way so a whole new one went on instead. The tracking has also been checked and adjusted so that’s that off the list.

 

The rear brakes were more of a pain.

The calliper was slow to be delivered from the supplier, I get the impression these aren’t as common as they once were and tracking one down locally turned up nothing. The one I had to get in the end had to be liberated from a Scottish supplier! No idea why it was such a faff to get but there you go.

The rear handbrake mechanisms and handbrake drums etc have been stripped, cleaned and rebuilt. The handbrake cable however was a nightmare.

The original was mangled and frayed so had to be changed. Two types were listed for my car but neither fitted! Managed to source a NOS one of unknown vintage eventually though which fitted perfectly! Apparently it’d been sat in this cable suppliers store room for a very long time!

 

So, all sorted and back on the road. I’m hoping now most of the damage and trouble caused by this cars long period of sitting unused is now about sorted though. Between me and my MOT man just about everything must surely have been covered by now!

One good thing is that the steering now feels much better, I think the tracking must have been a bit off before.

 

All good for another year!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good news and glad to hear you're back on the road chap.

 

The rear caliper and handbrake cable situation doesn't surprise me at all, it's been a steep learning curve for me with the 940 RE coming to terms with the amount of parts I need for it that are not only hard to find but sometimes simply no-longer exist. So far the 'no longer available' list includes a heater control valve and sunroof seals but I'm sure there'll be more. Pretty frustrating as the 940 was built in 1996 so hardly ancient!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Good news and glad to hear you're back on the road chap.

 

The rear caliper and handbrake cable situation doesn't surprise me at all, it's been a steep learning curve for me with the 940 RE coming to terms with the amount of parts I need for it that are not only hard to find but sometimes simply no-longer exist. So far the 'no longer available' list includes a heater control valve and sunroof seals but I'm sure there'll be more. Pretty frustrating as the 940 was built in 1996 so hardly ancient!

Cheers!

 

This particular car has been a bit of a pain with its braking system from the start. There’s usually a little data sticker in one of the door shuts which should tell you what make/type brakes your car has front and rear. Naturally, my car doesn’t match its own data sticker! It took a bit of working out at first to get the right bits!

 

I don’t feel I can complain too much though about parts being hard to get or no longer available, this ones 31 years old now so it’s only natural I suppose that after that long there’s just not going to many of these cars around anymore to need the parts or even justify manufacturing them. It’s just one of those things you have to accept if you want cars like this, but if you run them as daily drivers it probably gets to be more of an issue.

I’d still gladly do this and put up with the problems it throws up than have a modern though!

Thinking about it, there aren’t many of these 700’s around down here anymore. I always keep an eye out for old Volvo’s of all types but the few I did used to see around seem to have disappeared recently. Even 900’s are becoming few and far between. There’s probably more 200’s around here than anything else and they’re even older! Maybe it’s classic status making the 200 more popular and numerous and the 7/900’s? I think these are struggling still to quite make it as classics.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aye, the 240's have more of that' iconic/classic' thing going on and as a result buying parts for them seems to be easier. If I'd needed a RHD non aircon heater control valve for a 240 it would have been no problem, in fact there'd have been several manufacturers parts to choose from!

 

The fact that 700/900 series are as old as they are is no excuse though, Volvo has a classic parts devision and it's a bit of a fail on their part IMO that spares aren't in better supply. There're still plenty of bits available to cater for almost anything you might need for a Mk1 MX5/Eunos and they ended production in '95, I'd wager a lot more 940's were sold vs MX5's but I could be wrong...

 

As you mention trying to run one of these as a daily would be a frustrating experience but either way they're great cars and they do feel great to drive. I can fit just about anything in the boot, the build quality is impressive and every trip out in mine feels like an event so I won't be letting go anytime soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

Little update on this,

Its been faultless and done and gone where ever I’ve asked it to...

Sadly though the other day it took a bit of a knock. I was on a narrow lane and some idiot coming the way decided to overtake a bicycle as I was coming the other way. There’s plenty of room for two cars normally but not if one car is half way on the wrong side! Anyway, he just about squeezed through but the two door mirrors clashed!

Mine lost it’s glass and one of the little tabs that moves the electrically adjustable bits. His though was smashed to bits! Volvo - 1 Golf - 0. It could well have been worse of course and I also had my window down when it happened and got showered in bits of smashed mirror, lucky it didn’t go in my eyes!

Heres the damage. I’m surprised it didn’t take the mirror off completely tbh or at least crack the casing. They’re solid old mirrors though on these.

31FC0E89-4333-45B5-A7CE-E28568E34C51.thumb.jpeg.75c6ff3e46e57fdc0dd490626bb39b67.jpeg

So, not one to do things by half’s I decided now was a good opportunity to replace both my mirrors. The old ones are very faded and scuffed after over 30 years and the mirror glass was starting to fade and go a funny colour underneath. You can still get brand new (non oe) ones if you look for them, however the drivers side ones are much thinner on the ground it would seem. I’ve found one but it’s coming from Germany and I’m still waiting for it. The passenger one though I got off eBay for £35 so I’ve fitted that one this morning.

To do it you’ve got to remove the door cards, and wiring for the door light, speaker and mirror, and the trim around the interior door handle. Then it’s a simple matter of pulling off the interior mirror trim and undoing 3 bolts that hold the mirror on.

This is the drivers side stripped down. I’ve done both sides so once the new drivers mirror turns up I can get it straight on.

B2ED7691-C125-4495-8918-21DD65E2E748.thumb.jpeg.25283ddec570d061a303bd150ac08418.jpeg

And here’s the passenger mirror back on. Lovely and shiny with crystal clear glass! Mines electrically adjustable and heated glass too but even so, they’re not expensive for new parts.

9CED3D00-2C5A-4683-9814-C279DFF46101.thumb.jpeg.7971cc96eb0613b90e9cd502aa89a098.jpeg

25C1C53B-11D6-4987-B42F-FB83C9073429.thumb.jpeg.f300be58950c2b3e4f93e7cc0f784da9.jpeg

While it’s all in bits I did the usual and took the opportunity to clean everything and then re-grease the locks, power window mechanism etc etc and also I hoovered out the door bottoms inside. There’s no trace of any rust, so I sprayed both door bottoms with a good coating of Dynax S50 cavity wax to keep it at bay.

I noticed while doing this that these cars actually have their door skins both folded onto the frames like most other cars but also glued with seam sealer around the edges. It’s probably why even after over 30 years there’s no rust on the doors, moisture just can’t get into the joint. It’s good weather to do waxing in today, baking hot! It thins the wax and lets it soak into the seams better. 

7A041057-9A0A-4E86-9EB6-D9CEA7545082.thumb.jpeg.bb324bd1a02113ff1087a58934ed96c5.jpeg

EFCDED69-E71D-46EE-97DB-1EF8DC62AFE8.thumb.jpeg.3496ae3be24e7dd32a1eec703e3c635a.jpeg

F48E843F-AC86-4216-A33C-549C0CDD4A70.thumb.jpeg.77600342360fb8cc3dad905ed10f9deb.jpeg

Then I just reassembled the complete passenger door.

F8C957E2-6117-416D-9FC8-83B0DCA43187.thumb.jpeg.3485df1938c1b54f7ccf80dcc3a1867f.jpeg

Job done, for now. Hopefully the drivers mirror will turn up early next week and I can get that fitted.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Given what the plastic on these cars interiors are like I’m surprised these mirrors can take such abuse. It took a hell of a hit but the casings just got a little scuff mark on and that’s all. The bit that attaches to the car is metal though. The Golf’s mirror was annihilated!

 

Btw, if any of you fellow Volvo lickers are in need, I’ve got a complete new boxed RH (drivers) mirror (Electric adjust & heated glass) for a facelift 700 or 900 here I want shot of. I bought it in error for this and of course the shape of the mirror casing is different at the bottom on the later cars so it won’t fit!

I put it in the ‘for sale’ section for £35 but open to offers...

5892B86E-0EEE-4A70-975B-8602A2BD216D.thumb.jpeg.73f875b362771ab2a6f6178f2001bd6f.jpeg

4CBEAB7B-2C88-4455-BF79-FDC9F825214F.thumb.jpeg.ef0a4b3c4120ca3c98e8a9c91dcc8259.jpeg

0B459B0D-CD29-4C7A-BA43-1C032DBA6AF7.thumb.jpeg.aae9d315716570a43ad84ad639351fe2.jpeg

 

if anyone fancies it give me a shout.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The new drivers mirror arrived yesterday so this morning I’ve got it fitted. As is often the case with old cars though, things weren’t quite as easy as they might have been.

This new mirror came from Germany and although it looked identical on the sellers eBay listing when it arrived it was clear there was something not right! This mirror is for the earlier 700 models so it’s got a small round electrical connector instead of the later square type my car has. My previous 740 saloon was an 87 model year and that car had the round connectors but this one is an 88 so I’d guess that is the change over year. Other than that it’s exactly the same mirror though so it’s not the end of the world.

Heres the connector difference.

0A8FF2BA-83AD-4354-A71D-E48C7546203A.thumb.jpeg.f60d190e6352fc8d10abd6ee5f3dba95.jpeg

As you can imagine, the way to fix this is pretty obvious. Chop off the wrong plug from the new mirror, chop off the old (correct) plug from the old useless mirror and simply reconnect the two together. 

Old mirror off, new one on and bolted to the door I did just that. Luckily I anticipated problems here as the new mirrors wiring loom has different colour wires to the existing loom in the door and the old mirror. I temporarily joined all the wires just to test it and see what it did - joining them together in the most logical way only gave me any movement in the mirror upwards and outwards! Arse!

Based on the fact this was going to require a bit of trial and error to get all the wires joined in the right order I crimped on some spade connectors just to avoid accidental shorts between wires and make it quicker & easier to swap the wires around until I got it right.

E6DB4A25-E8FA-499B-BF69-3DF98AB7B5E8.thumb.jpeg.ef7622d05ebb37e163c8eaf26b2a45b2.jpeg

Once I’d got it right I could chop these connectors off, strip the wires and solder the ends together permanently for a good long lasting repair. I also used some heat shrink tubing over the joins then the plastic trunking and a bit of insulation tape over the top.

7E49C2B8-0C79-40E4-A73B-ADF0A046D956.thumb.jpeg.09b27abce7a27fe15bef53c3970d0201.jpeg

Testing it again and all working as it should be!

Finally, the door interior trim etc etc went back on same as the other side. And I finally took the chance to replace the badly broken plastic trim around the switches and door handle on this side. I’d already done the passenger side ages ago, I just didn’t do this side for whatever reason. The new ones came from the US and fit perfectly and look 100% better than the old smashed ones.

Heres the new shiny mirror in place.

E6B5B5B2-ABA5-4449-9AC0-0AA0DD3610D5.thumb.jpeg.4a9e08b18cd9f9e45b0fc751967c4bf0.jpeg

Looks much better than the old faded horrible mirrors I think. Only thing I might need to do is get a new drivers mirror glass to replace the one on this mirror... the one on it now is the German one so the RH mirror would be the passenger side whereas here it’s not meaning it’s not the wide angle mirror glass. It’s not a huge issue as it still works fine and I can see with it like that but it does mean I have to set this one to its maximum outward travel to see as well as I want to. That’s a job for another day though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

39 minutes ago, JoeyEunos said:

Good work fella.

I bloody hate any kind of electrical carry on, I'm embarasingly inept where anything like that's concerned! Non-corresponding plugs would probably have been enough to have me returning the part.

I must admit, I’m certainly no expert when it comes to auto wiring. I find it quite difficult to get my head round sometimes but I just try to strip tasks down to basics and have a go. All well and good until the car burns down because of a short or something I suppose!

This really was a piece of piss to do though. I was a bit miffed when I found they’d sent a round connector mirror instead of the one they’d pictured on the item listing but I really couldn’t be arsed returning it because of that. I know it should be the right part really but I had the required bits to put it right, it wasn’t particularly difficult either. Besides, I can’t find any other brand new mirrors for this side anyway so I’ve got to just make do.

 

Funnily enough, I did this very same job on my old saloon. Just to give it a bit of a refresh and get rid of old tired poor looking bits but the mirrors were on the shelf and cheap at the local parts shop. It’s not so easy these days! Parts are starting to become much more difficult to get now for these cars.

Come on Volvo! Have pride in your past and start stamping some new bits for us!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 months later...

It’s been a few months since I updated this thread. There’s not been much on really though! Almost all my time has been spent on the Capri, unfortunately recently though the utterly shit British weather has fucked that up with the last two months being almost unbroken piss!

So, instead I’ve had to do other things and squeeze in a few little odd jobs in between the rain. One of those jobs was to give the Volvo a service.

Nothing particularly difficult but it was a job I could do quickly and even if it rained it wasn’t the end of the world. So it’s had new service bits, including a genuine oil filter and a good check over. Not much to find wrong with it really! The brakes are all like new still and just about everything else is fine still too.

The only things I did find were the exhaust system is not long for this world! It’s very crusty and there’s a slight blow somewhere on the front pipe. I’m not even going to bother trying to sort that, even temporarily, as it’s just so rusty I think if I start poking about with it I’ll end up making it worse and there’s a danger it’ll end up too bad to repair afterwards! Ideally it needs the entire system changing so I’ll look into getting a replacement from somewhere. 

The other little issue found was that with the front of the car jacked up one of the front anti roll bar to body mount bushes looked a bit dodgy. It’s starting to split but it’s also looking very loose and worn when it’s pushed out of the position it sits on when the cars weight is on it, if that makes sense. The other side looks old but still ok though. This is also confirmed by a very slight knock down the front when turning sometimes. The fix is easy - replace the bush! You can still get new (non oe) rubber ones, which I fitted on my old saloon, but given the piss poor quality of modern rubber components I think I’ll give those a swerve! So I’ve bought a pair of new polyurethane replacements instead, they’re more expensive but won’t ever need changing again and will tighten up the anti roll bar better than cheap soft rubber. I’ve got these bits ready to go now, fitting them is a simple case of dropping the front undertray down, then undoing the two clamp bolts, rip off the old crappy rubber and slide the new bush on. Easy peasy! I just don’t fancy laying under a wet car on a soaking wet floor either so these will have to wait! The cars still perfectly drivable as it is anyway so I’ll do it when it’s drier.

One thing I can do while the weathers being a dick however is to have a go fixing the radio. I did try it a while ago, it turns on and electric aerial goes up but all I get from the thing is a regular ticking noise and no tunes. The radio in it now is the factory CR702 cassette player, which I’d like to keep, so I might try slotting the head unit out of the dash and see what, if anything I can find. I’m no expert with radios and stuff however so anyone got any ideas wtf is up with it before I start!? Why would it only make a ticking noise?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...