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We attempt to respond to every E-mail we receive. If you do not get results within five days or so, send your message again -- something went astray!Another Saab storyWhen I turned 16 a few years back, I purchased a red '80 242GT with about 180,000 miles. It was a lovely car. It looked cool, was super comfy, and it was as loyal as a puppy. I drove it a lot over two years with only a few minor problems.Then I was rear ended by a Cadillac. My poor Volvo was wrecked and replaced by a red '80 Saab EMS. I loved this car also, but only a few weeks after I purchased it, I started having problems which were very expensive to remedy. The brakes failed, the starter died, and the car was plagued by more electrical problems than I would ever expect. When the transmission started popping out of fourth, I scrapped the Saab. My current car is a Toyota, which is trouble-free but incredibly boring. It just has no personality, and I'm not overly fond of it. I am planning on replacing it with another Volvo.
I just thought I would compliment your magazine and share my Volvo story. Thanks for writing in and for the compliment. Your want ad for another Volvo has been placed. And the winner is...Phil,The [Burlingame] meet was great fun. And my red '62/'63 won 3rd -- which was about what I hoped it might do. Am pleased. My white '66 won 1st -- for the second year in a row. Pleased about that too. And Bill Webb asked me to help judge; that was very interesting. Judged a green '74 164E, two 145 wagons, and a 122 wagon. Irv Gordon was there; he's up to 1.6 million miles now. Drove in from New York, of course. Next decision -- how to proceed with improvements to the Jensen. Would like to move up in the ranking next year.
Am looking forward to seeing my car in the magazine. We congratulate Bob for his fine showing at the meet. His Jensen will be featured in the October / November "Star Cars." V70 AWDWe are considering buying the new V70 AWD wagon. I have a S70 Sedan and a 940 Wagon. Has anyone in Europe or Canada driven the V70 AWD in snow? How does it handle? Also, have there been any major kinks in the new drive hardware? Please respond to us by E-mail.
Thanks and drive safely! 1960 122S questionsHi,My name is Luis Costa, and I own a Volvo 120, year 1960. It's in perfect condition and the restoration [necessary] was minimum. I have nevertheless some doubts that I'm having difficulty in solving. Were there 122S in 1960 equipped with a B16 twin carburetor engine? Were they equipped with front safety belts and 4-gear drive?
Thank you for your help, In 1960, every 122S had a B16 with twin SU H4 carbs -- the single-carb motor equipped the 121. A four-speed manual M4 transmission was standard in the 122S (it was an option in the 121). If you can tell me the serial number of the car, I can probably tell you how it was originally equipped. I do not have a certain answer about the safety belts, but advertising pictures from 1961 show cars without them.
Back over to Luis... Yes, your car was equipped with the B16B engine and the M4 transmission. I suppose the advertising agency felt that the interior pictures I saw were more attractive without the safety belts. What's in a name...In 1980, I convinced my mother to trade in her gas-hog '74 Caddy on a 1980 240 GL automatic. In 1989, with only 89,000 miles on it, she got handed down to my dad. In 1994, still only showing 134,000, she became mine.Sadly, there the tale ends. At 145,000, I couldn't afford $1200 for (yet another) automatic transmission. She went away. I have since seen her at the local Volvo dealer, once again waiting repairs. I swore that I would never own a Volvo again, due to the high price of parts, and the lack of competent repair shops in this area. This year, my new fiancee told me that all she wanted to drive was a 200-series Volvo. I tried as hard as I could to convince her otherwise, but to no avail. Today, I take ownership of a 1983 240 DL OD with a mere 150,000 on the clock. Incredibly rusty, but at $750, probably a good buy. And no automatic tranny to replace! The point of this long note is in reply to the postings on naming your Volvo. Mom had named her 1980 the "Silver Streak" due to her metallic silver paint job. By the time I got her the metallic was long gone (seems Volvo hadn't gotten the silver paint quite right by 1980) and the "Gray Streak" wouldn't cut it. Took quite a while to come up with the proper name for her. Finally it dawned on me. Henrik Ibsen (Swedish, just like a Volvo!) wrote A Doll's House about a sad, lonely woman. Her name was Nora, and I knew that was the name for my car. Today, upon receipt of our "new" Volvo, she will immediately be christened "Nora II."
Thanks for your fine site. Best wishes to you, your fiancee and Nora II! Pages won't printHi Phil,Thanks again for your efforts on the cyber-zine. One comment I'd like to share ... is that I like to share our zine with my dad and his friends who are 122 nuts ... however this issue, while very eye-soothing / interesting, doesn't print very well since most of what's there is dark background with yellow or white type. I'm sure there must be some way for me to change the color of the type and print it ... but I'm not too bright with this computer stuff and need help ... if you can offer any.
In any event, I enjoyed the information, as usual. Thanks again. Steve, you've found yourself on the wrong side of one of the dozens of tradeoffs we made in trying to design a site that would showcase its content in a way that is visually interesting, easy to use and accessible to a wide variety of browsers and platforms. There is no simple way for you to print those pages -- so, in future issues, we'll try to provide alternative "plain Jane" versions of "negative" pages for those wishing to print them. P1800 Convertibles?Thanks for such a wonderful web site! I've been debating taking the plunge into a P1800 ever since I was fortunate enough to drive my sister's in college, and I now may be ready to do so.One question though: While I truly appreciate the beauty of the P1800 as it is, I can't help but think that it would look quite slick as a convertible! I know this may be sacrilegious to some out there, but I would appreciate hearing if you or any readers know of anyone who's tried this. I realize there may be some technical barriers (e.g. the rigidity of the unibody), but the concept is too intriguing to not look into.
Thanks again, It's certainly been done a number of times with varying degrees of sucess. You will find a photo of VSA former president Jon Keebler with his convertible at www.vsa.org -- well, you can sort of see the car behind Jon and Kevin Greenaway. I don't think I've ever seen one with the top up, though -- might look pretty funky... The Adventures of Little FredaCool site. Great to have such resources available; thanks for a very professional and friendly page. I have an '88 240 DL wagon with a 5-speed stick and 130K miles which I dearly love. Its name is Freda, after a radio character named Little Freda in a hokey sci-fi NPR series named (I think) The Adventures of Rocket Pierre. There's no rust on my little white Freda with the tan interior and, and with the exception of a few dents on the hood from pine cones and the standard cheesy plastic interior parts, it is elegant, frugal, classy, and its AC is way chillin' -- essential for civilized life here on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Many cheers to all my fellow Volvo owners!Steve Hodges hodgess@freenet.tlh.fl.us RE: What's a 244S?Phil, I have looked and can't find anything. I've also never heard of a pre-1981 special 240. The wheels are definitely from another car. They will be date-stamped on the inside of the rims. The older style dash cannot be swapped with the '83 newer style dash. They did make a sport and rally dash with all the gauges black with yellow numbers and markings. There were lots of gauges, too -- looked very cool. It replaced the entire dash. This may be what is in there.How many doors does it have? Does the paint code that is stamped on the car match the exterior and interior colors? What transmission is in the car. Sunroof?
Still looking... Volvo Skunk WorksFollowing a number of E-mails about rebuiding a B18...Thanks for the pointer to the Volvo Classics Interactive Magazine series coming up on engine rebuilding -- couldn't be better timed! My biggest priority (re: the 122) is to get the engine and trans out so the engine compartment can be repainted before it gets too cold to do it in my garage... but that still leaves the prep and priming to do before the paint can be applied, and my available time comes in small chunks, especially since we recently had our 4th kid back in July...!
In fact, last night I was going to spend some time under the car when I walked in the garage and was greeted by a young skunk rummaging for food! Of course, instead of running out of the garage, he ran further in! About 40 minutes later I succeeded in luring him out of the garage with a handful of Cocoa Puffs, Cheerios, blueberries and muffin crumbs... The reason it took so long is that when I'd try to close the door -- with him on the outside -- he'd run back inside as soon as he heard the door start to close (it's electric), so I had to open the door only about 4 inches, wait for him to get his courage up again and venture out to the food bowl, which I'd moved a little further out, then close the door before he had a chance to run back again. It finally worked, but not until it I had used up all the time I had wanted to spend on the car. Oh well! We once had a skunk family living under the house. They were quite beautiful, but you had to announce your presence before going onto the porch -- it would not do to startle them. Our cats gave them a wide berth, and no chemical warfare ensued. The series on engine rebuilding will begin in the October/November issue and conclude in December/January. What's a 244S?I just purchased a '78 244S and was wandering what the "S" stands for. It has an odd instrument panel and wheels like a 242GT. I purchased it from the original owner who bought it off the lot and claims that it is stock although I have not seen a model quite like this one. Any info?Willie Oteri wilicry@global.california.com No. I'm completely stumped, and so are my reference books. Readers, please enlighten us if you can! Greetings from AustraliaJust found your web site, most enjoyable. I am a member of the 1800/120 Club of Australia and have a 1966 122S 2-door which was purchased in London, driven around Europe for three months then shipped via Marseilles, France, to Melbourne Australia.
Keep up the good work, Wreck "Down Under"Dear Editor,I would not be here to write this letter if this car did not save myself and four other occupants' lives. Head-on collisions are very bad car accidents, and I believe this Volvo deserves respect in order for it to rest in peace at Swedish Auto Wreckers BOWEN HILLS Queensland... I've attached a picture before the accident...
Thanks, Compliments accepted...Just wanted to say you have a really classy site, and it seems to be getting better. I will be contributing some snaps of a couple of racing Volvos and maybe some more "stuff." Love the cover picture. Thanks!Kermit Lucas and... Daisy Junebug ('65 PV544) and Bo ('71 142E)
PS: Which reminds me, maybe you could ask if owners name their cars and what/why did they name them? Thank you back -- we try to please. We love to get "stuff." Although some of our other cars had names, neither of our two Volvos does. I don't know why this is... Green Volvos...While living in L.A., I was listening to KPFK one afternoon and to a "green" show. The guest speaker was talking about cars in general and the effects they have on global pollution. His recommendation was to NEVER buy a new car as the amount of pollution created in the total manufacturing proccess of a new car exceeded the exhuast output pollution by TEN times for the life of the car. I can't verify this, perhaps one of your readers can...Later, when living in Mexico and not far from the Volkswagen and Ford plants in Touluca, I will forever believe the above statement, as I daily drove past the red, or green or black (color of the day) river that carried away the factories waste... So, the point is, I think, coupled with several comments in the article, that less used, well tuned OLD cars have in the big scheme of things little impact on global pollution. Issue Four is great -- you are doing a really good thing here!
Regards, More from BelgiumHello Phil,After I fixed the problem with the cam in my 122S (the one with the Webers), I started to rebuild a blue 121S from '69 that was in a lousy condition. I bought the car for almost nothing after it had been standing in a garden for 9 years without ever having been started or cleaned. You can imagine that it wasn't a pretty sight. After half a day of work on the wreck (pumping the tires, checking oil, installing a battery and replacing a water hose) the engine started and I drove the car home. Everything worked, the lights, the brakes, the Smiths rev counter, the wipers and even the heater. The idea was to use the car for parts but I just couldn't get it over my heart to take it apart. So even though everyone told me that it would be almost impossible to rebuild the car, I started with the restoration. I have taken photos of every step in the restoration proces so far. If you are interested, I'll scan them and give you the complete story of the body and engine rebuid (the engine now has an S-camshaft and a D-jetronic injection).
Greetings, Interested? Absolutely! Skyway ToolsHi! The purpose of this email is to let you know about a website that may be of interest to you and those who browse your website.Skyway Tool Company is a small retail tool business in Chico, California with an extensive line of specialty tools. Our website contains articles and information about automotive, woodworking, construction, computer repair and hobbyist tools. "The Answer Man" answers tool-related questions with no charge to the internet user. May 1st we premiered our new online tool store with secure server and over 1,000 different specialty tools. We also started a contest to win $250 worth of tools in the new store and we will be picking a winner August 31st. I hope you can take the time to check out our new website.
Sherry Gillis We were happy to add your site to our "Links" page. 1800 valve jobHello fellow 1800 enthusiasts!I have a '67 P1800. If you'd like to see a picture of me and my car, go to: http://www.netcbc.com/sarver/images/me&1800.jpg. I need a valve job on my P1800, and am wondering if you or any of your readers can recommend a good place to do it in either the LA/Orange County or San Francisco areas? Also, the shop that looked it over and recommended the valve job said it would be good to install steel valve seats when it gets done. Do you have any opinions on that recommendation? I am not a preservationist when it comes to my car, so I'm only interested in comments regarding performance, reliability and durability of steel valve seats. Last, thanks for your review of the ipd Weber Carb! I'm definitely going to look into it.
Thanks, Hardened valve seats are a good idea for use with today's unleaded gas. Will readers with experience with shops in L.A. or San Francisco please E-mail Evan directly? European source of 122 body partsDear publishers,After having a major crash with our Volvo 122S (built 1967, four doors), I would need various parts of the car's body: left + right rear wing, trunk cover, rear left wheel casing and the floor of the trunk (I hope this is the right expression). Maybe you could provide me with a list of spare spart dealers (esp. Germans, Austrians if available) or some other (private) sources.
Many thanks in advance, My recommendation is that you try to find a "donor" car (maybe one that has front-end damage). You might also try Stephane Lapointe in Quebec, Canada. Good luck! Looking for sunroofFor a friend, I am looking for a sunroof for the 121 Amazon. The make of the sunroof is probably "MUDDE", and the dimensions are: 92,5 x 61,5 cm. Does anybody know an address for a second-hand sunroof like this?Peter de Bue bue.peter@pi.net Back to the Top |
