Repatriation Not Necessary - 1987 Volvo 740 GLE

[Ghosty]

There's no collection epic for this one as the car was only 12 miles away, and had 2/3 of a tank of petrol left.
PM'd the seller on eBay last night, arranged to go over, and did.
We were greeted with this:



The seller was a nice older bloke, ex mounted police. He'd had the car to tow a caravan and such, bought it in 1997. The previous owner to that got it in 1990, and was also in Hazel Grove.
Old Man checked everything over, the cambelt is probably due on age (but is non-interference), ICV needs cleaning as it's been pissing oil everywhere, and there's a rust bleb round the sunroof, but that's it.



Green velour it's lovely inside and hardly anything is broken. Sunroof might be stiff/stuck and the headlining is fucked as someone's tried to reglue it but that's just to be expected.



Original Volvo plastic mats. Covered with carpet too which is nice.
That blob on the steering cowl is a button for the starter.

The X3 in the background is his other car, he just doesn't need this any more.



Police watch sticker - and it's got an alarm too. All the glass is etched with the reg.
Note also the carpet covering the load space.
Under that is an orginal vinyl load space cover, and under that is a virtually new carpet.
The adjustable suspension is not Nivomat fortunately.



Cubby hole full of odds and sods. Boxes of screws nuts and bolts, 3 in 1, chemical metal, fast glass and such. And obligatory tights.
The toolkits are all there and complete.



Double electric towbar.



Only bleb on it.



'Above All For Volvo'



Even came with a Stoplock.



Lots of keys.



Twenty years of history, an HBOL and quite a few brochures.

It's smooth, runs well maybe slightly high idling but easy to sort.
No major pieces of trim are broken.

No clunks or rattles.
All the electrics work.
All the gauges work.
It's absolutely bloody lovely.


It was £650.

[The Moog]

Looks a good un- lovely and velourious

 

This is rapidly becoming the green forum!

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Thats bloody lovely that is. Health to drive and all that

 

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[scruff]

What a great car for the money, brilliant 

[Arthur Foxhake]

That's a proper volvo to me.

I was born in 1983 and these were everywhere when I was a nipper.

[jonathan_dyane]

I must say that's bloody lovely! Is it the AW or ZF gearbox?

[BorniteIdentity]

Is this the 2.3?

 

Either way, looks smashing. You will be frequenting petrol stations more often tho!

[Ghosty]

Yep, B230E, ZF gearbox, Ghent made, and so on. All the right stuff.

[Shep Shepherd]

Welcome to the crazy world of 740 ownership. I must warn you that these old bricks can really get under your skin and you most likely will never want to be without one 

[mercrocker]

That's very nice - about the same condition and background as my 190E when I bought it.    That also has a very similar bleb on the sunroof - I just knocked the paint off, treated it with Vactan and swore I would sort it properly very soon.   That was 7 years ago - it isn't any worse now.....

[purplebargeken]

Very, very nice indeed.

[Ghosty]

 

It even fits on the drive - just.

[danthecapriman]

Lovely car. The interior is just perfect! And it's absolutely the right spec.

 

Got any engine and bay pics?

[Shep Shepherd]

The tailgate isn't suffering from aluminium corrosion, which in my estimation means that the car's a good 'un 

[mercrocker]

 

It even fits on the drive - just.

 

I bet that wins "Best Two-Car Household on The Street" too.

[KruJoe]

Nice one Max, enjoy it!

[egg]

Cracking value at £650 I'd say. Well bought. Keep fixerating bits and bobs andmkeep us posted

[Ghosty]

Here's the bay: 

 

 

 

The switchgear is super easy to work out and I've got the majority of it sussed. 

However there are two things I can't fathom. 

 

 

Why are there two fog light switches? I don't have front fogs.

 

 

HRW is obvious but what are the knob and unlabelled switch for?

[somewhatfoolish]

Is it as Belgian as Jacques Brel Jean Claude Van Damm like Junkman was mithering about?

 

Knob looks to be a front/rear fader for the choonz? Perhaps the switch is a SAAB-style night driving lights out thing?

[Ghosty]

Yep, Ghent made.

[Six-cylinder]

The ad said silver, but the moment I saw those plush seats I knew it was green.

 

1987 Silver cars had black leather for the same price.

[trigger]

That looks really smart, well done! The left switch is the toggle for front or rear speakers and does it have fog lights built into the headlight?

[Rod/b]

Black toggle is aftermarket for sure. Where do those red wires clipped up to the bulkhead go?

[danthecapriman]

Engine bay looks good, do I spy a genuine Volvo oil filter? Good ownership if so and worth using them yourself as many non genuine filters don't have the non return valve inside.

 

Ref switches, is it possible your car did have front fogs but they've been removed for whatever reason? Your front lower panel doesn't look like it has the fog cut outs so maybe that's been replaced too for whatever reason.

 

The speaker switch is a bit like the ones old Fords had for adjusting sound side - side.

No idea what the unbranded one is though? Doesn't look original though.

[Shep Shepherd]

Yep, Ghent made.

 

Belgian-made Volvos are the best Volvos. Fact.

 

Also, all the best Volvos get a genuine Volvo oil filter at every oil change

[Rusty_Rocket]

Check to see if the front fog switch isn't a covert immobiliser.  That was a proper giffer 'thing' back in the day, a simple kill switch cutting off the coil's positive supply.  Effective, too, until crims worked out you could just run 12v to the coil with a separate wire!

 

I'll echo what the others say, what a lovely car for the money, gives you plenty left over for the fuel costs

[richardthestag]

fappin gorgeous, why folk arse about in freefall depreciation shit like X3 I will never understand.

 

Oh and true copper would have had fishnets in the boot and not naked dernier

[theorganist]

Looks lovely and a lot of car for the money. I do love those seats. I very much fancy a Volvo of this period at some point.

[Six-cylinder]

does it have fog lights built into the headlight?

 

740s did not have build in fog lights until 1990 for GLT 16v and Turbo. Front Fog lights were a dealer fitted option involving cutting the hole in the plastic front valance.

[PiperCub]

Chemical Metal - the stuff of champions! 

 

 

Personally I'd have kept the Ovlov and punted the Beaten-with-the-ugly-stick X3 Cross-dresser PoS any day of the week.