I continue the beautification of the 1963 Volvo P1800S.
The rear bumpers had the same issue as the front end, the bumper bracket to body rubber snubbers were missing, I bet they were not available at time of restoration. With the rear hardware removed I can clean and detail the rear panel.
The old fuel tank lost it’s drain plug during a repair at some point but I would not want to start driving this car with a 50 year old tank anyway so out it goes.
Also, this was a good opportunity to clean up the trunk. Everything is very solid but had surface rust and loose sound deadening.
It is almost guaranteed even on a California car like this that there can be surface rust inside body panels. It is always a good idea to treat these areas with a rust prevention product like cavity wax. For rust removal, I use EvapoRust to soak small parts but you can’t exactly dunk the whole car in the stuff. So…how do you saturate an inner fender?
I set up a large container on the floor and then I used a fish tank pump to flood the cavity with the rust removing product. I left it overnight and the next morning the area was free of rust.
I use this endoscope camera that connects to my cell phone to inspect the inside panels. Once satisfied, I used some alcohol to wash any residue away and then I applied 3M cavity wax.
After cleaning, the trunk floor got a coat of etching primer and then a white top coat sealed it up.
The old paper boards pretty much grenaded when I removed them but I used high tech forensic restoration technique (puzzle skills and tape) so I can duplicate the location of the attachment brackets and the Terry clips that holds the jack lever. I don’t know if Terry invented these but if he did…thanks Terry!
Left side board with Terry clips in place.
Bumper side brackets.
Rear brackets.
New right side board in place.
New butyl sound deadening added. The masonite piece in the center is later screwed to the floor and helps protect the tank and flattens out the floor under the rubber mat. The rest of the boards will go in next and then rubber mat, tools and spare tire.
With the rear panel all cleaned, polished and sealed, it’s time for shiny bits. New tail light housing, license light housing, new V-O-L-V-O letters and gaskets. All parts that was removed were pretty decent and they will be recycled to the 1967 1800S that will become the Hooligan Swede.
Mmmm…nice! I decided to use LED bulbs for best visibility. Not “stock” looking but the lights were not that visible when new Now, 50 years later there will be voltage drops due to corrosion in connection points and switches. LEDs will fire at the same brightness between 9-24 volts.
The reproduction tail light lenses (bottom) didn’t look right. Like the mold was worn out or something, not very crisp and too light in color.
I polished up a set of original lenses and saved the reproduction lenses for the Hooligan Swede.
Small o-rings will serve as gaskets against the lens.
The reproduction “1800S” emblem have smaller pins than stock it does not come with speed nuts but I found these and they worked well.
The fuel cap was solid but had surface rust.
I plated it with bright zink plating.
Plating is very addictive. Once I got a few things plated, I started to look around the shop for anything else that I can plate! The nicer the surface the better the result. Very rewarding!
Damn, that looks good.
Now, that is a nice arse! Still missing two polished slash cut exhaust pipes and a chrome license plate frame but we’ll get to that.
Wheels
The wheels had some chips in the paint so I decided to paint them as well. It’s a PIA to sand and paint wheels as you find yourself running around…you guessed it…360 degrees to make sure you cover everything.
So why not make the wheel rotate instead? I set up this old brake rotor on a fixed “spindle” and voala, there is my Binford 3000 Wheel Rotator.
Now I can sand, wirebrush and paint while standing at the same spot.
With new Michelin 165/15 XZX tires.
Add freshly polished trim rings.
And…the pièce de résistance…new hub cap! V for victory, right?
As much as I love to install the caps NOW! …I will wait with that until I have done brakes and suspension. It is really easy to scratch the wheel paint when removing these caps.
Next: Fuel tank, plumbing and I think I am tackling the suspension next. Never boring…