I recently bought a 90 Volvo 745 turbo with manual transmission from Clutchsmoke. The original plan was to swap the drivetrain into my nicer white wagon and put the non-turbo auto drivetrain in this before making it a pickup. The turbo and manual was so fun I decided to keep it in this car and chop it into a pickup/ute/a-traktor.
I drove up to Chicago in my white wagon (with no exhaust after the cat) to pick up some rotary engines and transmissions and the red 745t. Here is a picture of both of them stowed in downtown Chicago.
After blowing up my Miata engine I decided to throw my snow tires on this and take it to the last rallycross of the year. It was too sloppy to have a proper race so it soon turned into playing around in the mud.
Some of this:
And this:
And a lot of this:
Until it did it's best impression of the Delorean from Back to the Future and turned the coolant to steam 10 minutes after it was parked.
The plastic heater valve had cracked, now replaced with a brass nipple.
Loaded up to head home. Even the tow vehicle was playing in the mud.
The plan is to turn it into a pickup by cutting off the tailgate and moving it forward. Here is close to what I am going for but probably lifted with some larger tires.
Fu©k. Yes. Best plan possible.
Can't wait to see this ute build! Will a V8 swap be part of the deal?
paging DrBoost, this is so you mate. 
Great plan Evan.
NONACK
HalfDork
12/6/14 9:26 a.m.
I am very interested in how this pans out- the lack of utes in this country is a crime.
Bonkers... subscribed 
I had an '87 745 turbo as a DD for a while. It was a bit worn out but it was great! I love those things.
I have interest in this too, seeing as my next project will almost certainly be a Volvo 240 or 740 wagon, possibly for track or rally use :)
No v8 swap planned but it is always a possibility. I hope to get it in the garage tomorrow to finish stripping the rear interior and remove the glass and sunroof to prep for cutting.
Love this idea. Can't wait to see it completed!
I've seen this done before. It was white, and they basically just moved the hatch up to the b-pillar, had much less flying-buttress effect than your mockup. Turned out really nice.
Did a quick google trying to find it, but looking at "volvo pickup", there's a Ton of conversions. I thought this one was super-clean:
In reply to Tim Baxter:
Yea I plan to move the tailgate up farther than the red one posted. It also looks like they used the sedan so the rear window is slanted more. I may play around with the rear quarter window to see if it lines up.
I want to have enough space to move the seats back enough but also maximize bed space.
Awesome! Can't wait to see how this turns out! I love everything about this idea...
