Electrical and dash work prep.
Yeah, I said it before…I really don’t want to do this. But…there is always a big butt…I have to do some changes to the wiring.
Since I am changing to an alternator, the regulator will be eliminated and the newer style J-type overdrive will require different wiring. Also, many meters of wiring will be eliminated due to the upgraded tachometer. More on this below.
This relay is from a Canadian 123GT.
The car itself was subjected to a destructive conspiracy: The Canadian National Highway Authority colluded with Mother Nature! The NHA liberally dispensed sodium chloride all over the roads and Mother Nature supplied the moisture ! This resulted in a very collectible 123GT being reduced to a pile of iron oxide.
But hey, the relay looks good!! The relay actually says “overdrive” so I will use it for the overdrive.
The purpose of relays are usually for taking the load off a switch and that is a good thing. You don’t want a bunch of AMPS going across your dash board or firewall.
I suspect that some dude named Lucas was involved with the wiring on these early cars.
For example:
The original overdrive wiring had the power circuit go:
1. From fuse box down to the 4th gear switch on the transmission
2. Go back up to the relay
3. Go back down to the solenoid.
The new relay will eliminate two of three stretches of the wiring as the switch on the transmission will now only trigger the relay.
I am not sure if Uncle Lucas also managed to corrupt the Smith engineers when they made the instruments but I have my suspicion.
Here is my theory: I am thinking Lucas took them out for a pint. It turned in to several pints and some kompromat pictures were taken and voila! Lucas was in charge, Dark Vader style!
This is pure speculation from my side but I point to the following evidence:
The original tachometer had a separate sending unit and they get hot during operation. So it was decided to put the sending unit way out in the grille where water, dirt and salt will splash in! Bloody Brilliant, mate!
This also means that wires are going back and forth from the coil to the grille then back to the dash tachometer. Just plain evil!
When I have the gauges restored, I had a modern tachometer unit installed so it eliminated that whole harness…mess. Also, the tachometer will be accurate.
The front of the tachometer looks completely original, it’s just sporting modern guts!
I used zip ties to hold the final harness together and I will just snip them off as I wrap the harness.
Volvo used black cloth wiring cover with yellow pattern but I am just going to black cloth tape for a vintage look. No concourse judge will ever get near this car anyway.
This is the horn relay mounted on the forward bulkhead. I didn’t want to take this apart to re-plate it so I just cleaned, polished and added a clear coat for durability.
It is a double relay as the early cars had two horns.
The left side horns are for “Would you please move over”, operated by the horn button in the steering wheel…
On the right side there is another horn called a passing horn and it is for “Get the F$@#$^K outta my way!”. This one is operated by a stalk on the steering column.
When these cars were made, Sweden did not have any speed limits. Most paved roads were usually two lane black tops so passing or overtaking was a bit of an art. When I got my drivers license in the 70’s in Sweden, a fair amount of time was spent on “passing technique and etiquette”
With the wiring all finished for the overdrive and backup lights, I can button up the transmission tunnel cover.
Like the Fixx sang: “One thing leads to another”
With the transmission tunnel cover in place, I can now install the heather box. It was restored with a new fan assembly and new gaskets. Also, the positive battery cable is secured by clamps using the heather box hardware.
Because of the alternator and the elimination of the regulator, I needed to run a new lead to the battery. Also, the wiring from the added oil pressure sending unit needs to go somewhere. Now it is all integrated in to the harness.
The alternator has a larger diameter than the generator so the stock top bracket will not fit. I needed a longer unit with a radius so I made a crude cardboard template and an equally crude “blueprint”. Yeah, whatever…
How’s this for killa collab??
Then I sent my blueprint to club member Russ who used magic, fairy dust and Autocad to create a digital file. Russ said the burn rate on the ferry dust was pretty high but it came out great.
I sent the file to sendcutsend.com who created the bracket with water-jet cutting in the material of my choice. I opted for 4.7mm thick 304 Stainless as I can polish it and make it all purdy.
Ta-Da! This is soo cool. Because of the minimum charge, I made two! The package also contained a bag of Swedish Fishes. How did they know??!!
If you can dream it up, they can probably make it for you. These guys will be a great partner when I start the Hooligan build.
The rubber insulators fit perfect.
Ah yes, good fit!
So what do you do when you have a raw piece of stainless in your hand? Polish the bejeeesus out of it.
Adjuster in place and all the wiring wrapped.
I made a bracket to hold the Lockheed brake booster. This car had an original Girling booster but I sacrificed it for Corky’s car as that car was all original. Now I just have to add the master cylinder and I can get started with plumbing.
Dash
Just dashing! Yes, you are looking at about three dashes. I plan to build two dashes of the best parts.
The dash pads that was in the car was actually nice. It looks like it was replaced when the car was restored back in the day. However, they probably went to the Volvo dealer as there were not much reproduction items available then.
I bet that the only part that was available was the 1973 ES dash and that dash pad had a coarser grain than the earlier cars. It’s a mystery why Volvo bothered to change the grain on the last year of the 1800 but maybe they streamlined it using 140/240 style grain?
That just doesn’t look right in this car and now I can get new repo dash pad with the finer grain.
The 1973 coarse grain dash will be recycled in the Hooligan Car. Since that car will be a restomod, I don’t care less about the vinyl grain in the Hooligan, the car just have to be functional, look good and go fast!
I also like that the dash destined for the Hooligan car have the early style mirror. It is more stylish and taller than later models. I know some owners of the shorter style complain about visibility.
This is what a naked top 1800 dash looks like!
…and this is how the lower dash looks like when stripped. The metal have a lot of surface rust and I would have to spend hours sanding and painting this. The dash pads are glued down so I need a solid surface for adhesion so the decision was made to have it blasted and powder coated.
Back from blasting and powder coating. Nice, now I have a solid surface to attach the dash pads and it looks good when you crawl under the dash!
Next: To assemble the dash pads and install the restored gauges.
