Time to assemble the front crossmember, brakes and suspension components.
With the front crossmember missing, I needed a way to move the car around. This is the new and improved Binford 6000 Caster Roll-a-Rounder. (TM) ® ©
It features expertly welded, all American steel construction with pneumatic radial tires on galvanized steel rims and all ball bearing construction for smooth swivel action! Coming soon to a Sears catalog near you.
Painting the engine compartment was something I dragged my feet on. There are so many nooks and crannies and I just wasn’t looking forward to it!
Applying some primer in areas helps to see imperfections before top coat.
The paint goes everywhere when sprayed so anything not intended for paint gets covered up. Two hours masking and taping, five minutes on painting!
Also, the panels that holds choke, hood release and more needed to be freshened up.
There! Looks white to me.
The windshield channel also got a good coat.
Nice.
These are the bolts that holds the bottom of the hood rod to the body. Any bolt that is not uniquely Volvo I figured I would just buy new but these Phillip head fine thread 5/16 inch were impossible to find. So in the zink bath they went. I did not want to disassemble the hood rod for plating to I painted to with a Rustoleum color called “stainless”.
I found this brass bushing that will work well for the upper hinge on the hood rod.
That looks presentable.
Before I painted the engine compartment, I removed the wiring harness and just let it hang on the side of the car. I will re-wrap the harness with black cloth tape before going back in.
One of the greatest challenges to assembling a car is to remember what goes together and in what order! The bolt that holds the pedals have to be installed before the fuse box plate as it goes left to right.
The pedals were repainted and new rubber installed. The return spring goes in the middle and it’s also designed the push the pedals apart to their location in the pedal tower.
A zip tie holds the assembly together for easy install.
Fuse box plate and “choke tower” installed.
Choke tower is sporting re-plated Rubery Owens bolts.
Idler arm in place. There are at least three styles. The Jensen version used needle bearings, this 1963 style had bushings and the later style used a rubber bushings.
Since the frame rails are visible I will just leave them painted but the surface below will be undercoated. These clips were probably zink plated but I just painted them black. I am not going for a 100% correct restoration, I just want it to be clean and look kinda era correct.
Time to get the crossmember back in place. The motorcycle lift is a perfect tool for this job.
This is the hardware that holds a Volvo crossmember in place.
These are the unique shims that was between the body and crossmember. I will just put them back in the same location.
The center bolt is stationary and rear has an oval hole so it can pivot if needed for adjustment of the geometry.
The oval hole used a washer but the center bolt did not so that’s how it went back together.
Crossmember in place.
With lower a-arms in place I can install the Swedish Lesjöfors lowering springs. They actually went right in without any compression so I still wonder if these are only 30mm lowering springs. VP-Autoparts claims it’s correct, so I have to trust them.
“Make-it-Stop Kit” Everything needed for front brakes. These rotors come with hub and races already installed.
In my nerdy fascination for original hardware, I noted that the calipers are held on by VERBUS brand bolts. Verbus is an OE supplier to the best of them like Mercedes, Porsche, Jaguar, BMW, VW, DKW, Opel, and many others.
New everything!
Big improvement. Even though this area will be hidden behind the wheel, you, me and the internet knows.
Next: Get an engine installed. The engine that was in the car ran great and it was already painted in purdy Volvo red. So why not put that engine back in?
Well, enter Oddvar’s Ghost. Oddvar operated a Volvo shop in the city of Ballard, the Swedish hot bed in Washington state back in the day and there are lots of stories about this fella.
I bought two 1800 parts cars from Oddvar and he told me there was a hot engine in one of the cars. He said it was “cammed, high compression and balanced and blueprinted”.
I was mainly interested in the body parts at the time so I just went…yeah-yeah, whatever. However, after doing a compression check, I looked closer at the engine.
Check out the lower deck or bottom part of the head on a stock engine. See the distance to that “button” casting?
Now check out the same area on Odvar’s Ghost Motor. The head is definitely shaved several millimeters.
I spy balancing holes drilled in front pulley as well as the clutch pressure plate so it certainly looks like it’s been balanced.
Sitting on the floor stone cold it displayed an impressive 175 lbs of compression in each hole with excellent oil pressure.
So the plan is to install modern neoprene front and rear seals, new pan gasket, aluminum timing gear and water pump. There is always the possibility that this engine is not good (Oddvar’s Revenge) or it will go like stink and be Oddvar’s Hot Rod Ghost! Regardless, I have to know!
Stay tuned…