Volvo P1800ES...kinda

I have a friend that has a drag race chassis shop here in AL. I have used that shop multiple times over the last 20 years as a place to build several of the cars that I have done over the years. Mostly because there was a stream of customers, and mutual friends that would stop by to talk, and hang out. I never thought one minute at the time that I had any special skills more than the next guy that was in this hobby until I started hanging out there, and realized that alot of these guys could barely check tire pressures, much less do any real "work" on their own cars. Nonetheless, as long as they had the money to pay somebody else to do everything else, they were "car guys" like the rest of us.

I now know that just because they like the hobby, not everybody can, will want to, or will do the kind of stuff I can do to a car.

However...I have just read through several pages of what you have been doing these last 8 years on this car. And after seeing what you have done, and the skills you have to get to where you are, I gotta say that my hat is off to you. Compared to what you and several others have done on this forum, I feel like I'm the guy that can barely check tire pressures. And after saying that, there is no way in hell that I can, will want to, or will do what you have done to your car.

Great work.

In reply to CarMichaelangelo1 :

Very kind words, but I assure you that I was in your shoes until faced with no way back on this project. I was pretty comfortable welding up sheet metal before I started, but this was my first effort at a body-swap hot rod.

You will note as you read the thread that I seek advice on several topics along the way. A LOT of stuff got done twice or thrice until it was right. 

The only superpower I have is fiscal negligence and not knowing when to quit.

Pete

In reply to NOHOME :

You and me Pete. There are plaques on the wall of that shop buggin on me, labeling me as " Do it twice Mike".

It was more like do ,Do it until you get it right,  Mike", but I finally figured it out....I did it until i got it right.

It's a funny thing, unless you're at the absolute top of the game, or live in a vacuum, no matter what your skill level, you wind up looking at other people's work and saying "I'm a hack compared to them"... I think it's great because it always pushes me to up my game that little bit everytime I do something. And doing things over is a natural part of that too, especially when you get 2-3 years into a project and look at the stuff you did at the start and go "well, E36 M3, that doesn't really cut it anymore".

And because automotive is so multifaceted, you get guys who are spectacular fabricators, but paint and panel gives the nightmares, or amazing machinists and engine builders who can't fabricate to save themselves, or guys who can't do composites... 

In reply to Gammaboy :

And doing things over is a natural part of that too, especially when you get 2-3 years into a project and look at the stuff you did at the start and go "well, E36 M3, that doesn't really cut it anymore".

I have learned to ask myself as I go along, what future self is going to think about something as a way to future-proof the project.  For the most part it is always the details, the freeking tiny expensive time consuming little details! A lot of abandoned projects are the realization that the final product is not going to be worth finishing because they now know how it should have been done in the first place.

NOHOME said:

I have learned to ask myself as I go along, what future self is going to think about something as a way to future-proof the project.  For the most part it is always the details, the freeking tiny expensive time consuming little details! A lot of abandoned projects are the realization that the final product is not going to be worth finishing because they now know how it should have been done in the first place.

Agree completely!

Almost every time I look at a new modification, I try to use it as an opportunity to perfect older mods that interact with the new one.  The real work is in all the little details, and that's the time consuming part.

I think project despair and surrender comes from looking at the big picture and seeing a mountain too high to climb.  You have to break it down into smaller pieces and tackle one thing at a time.  And nothing is really ever "done"... 

I am on a "One win a day" plan to get through the punch list of stuff to do on the Molvo. 

Today that win was the wipers. Going way back in the build, the wipers were going to be problematic due to space constraints.

Based on discussions on the build thread went with one of the spiral wound cable and gearbox systems that allow for remote mounting of the wiper motor. Very similar to what is found in most classic British cars.

The cable part works very well. The downfall of the system is the drive system is junk as delivered. It worked at first but due to poor clearances it failed within hours of testing. Who needs wipers Anyways, we don't drive in the rain if we can avoid it right ( wrong)  Today it got redesigned and reinstalled. They are a tad too long, and don't self park, but we have wipers so we no longer care if there is a possibility of rain. Right Mrs NOHOME?

The other fun bit of trivia with this kit is that it used 12V signals to pick the wiper speed. The Miata stalk signals send ground signals. That is where the three relays under the fuse box come into play, they reverse the polarity of the signal from ground to 12 V. Considering how much rework I had to do to the black box in this thing, I probably could have created my own using the Miata wiper motor easier and with a better result. Well see. For now, item #25 out of 42 is crossed off the list.

Is that the hot rod system discussed some time ago?  I was really hoping it would work better. I'm curious what you had to do to "fix" it?

It works in theory but is let down by cheap or poor execution. If you have had British cars, you will be aware of the general principles of how the cable moves the wiper arms via a rack and pinion type spindel at each wiper. 

The system is just a crank wheel and connecting rod moving a spiral wound cable inside of a metal tube sheath.  Up to you to bend the sheath and flare the ends to locate the ends of the tube. The sheath leads the cable around any convoluted path you want and is terminated at each end with a flare.

Where the designer went home is with the black lid that goes over the system. The lid needs to hold the connecting rod into the  crank wheel and into the "piston" that moves the cable back and forth. The first problem is that if you tighten the lid, it traps the connecting rod between the lid and the crank wheel.

The other issue is that the lid needs to trap the flared end of the guide tube ( green scribble). The flare fits nicely into a slot and this would all work great if the tightened lid was not still more than 1/8" away from the tube flare. This is where it failed in that since the flare was not tight, it wiggled upwards out fo the slot and started moving back and forth with the inner tube.  The solution was to weld in a 1/8" pice of flat steel on the underside of the cover so that it pressed the guide tube flair into place when the lid was tight, The 1/8" plate is also a good idea because the lid itself is a bit flimsy to to the job even if it did reach the flared tube.

So with the flair clamped down tight, and the lid level, the connecting rod being the highest part of the system is clamped solid against the crank wheel. The solution was to cut a keyhole in rouhly the shape of the diagram that I drew. This exposes the entire drive mechanism. However, since it lid is what holds the connecting rod in place, it needs a cover. Lucky for me the needed extra clearance was the thickness of the original cover, and all I had to do was weld a piece of tin over the new cover. 

This all seems to be working well at the moment. The wipers are supposed to self park, but they do not. Not sure if that is due to the Miata control interface or the wiper system design. Don't care cause I have wipers that will do the job for now, if you can related.

The wiper vendor is aware of the clearance issues. The proposed solution is to use nyloc nuts under the 4  #10 corner screws to adjust the height of the lid. It needs to be angled higer at the crank wheel and tight at the tube guide end. It does not work very well. 

If you do buy one of these systems, there are two prices to be bound on ebay. One is like $125 or so and one is much more, I bought the one suggested here but expect that they are the same. 

I mention building my own next time and probably what I will do at some point. That would simplify the wiring, give me park and make replacement easier if the motor fails. Not being constrained by the extreme cheap design criteria, I could build a better drive system and still keep the cable drive.

Man, it felt good to get out to a  car show on a warm day.  Only two Volvos in the whole crowd and they both had V8 engines. The 740 is petey's 4.6 mod motor swap. 

Oddly enough the underhood beverage holder  on the 740 was a major attraction with viewers.

hundreds of hours of work? Big deal it has a cupholder lol

Has Petey been keeping us up to date on this build or have I been asleep in the big chair again?

Not much to report.other than a weird cut out when its freakin cold this thing is amazeballs

Starts run drives brakes sound system is ridiiiiculous the car is amazing every time i use it.drives like  a new car its just so sweet and the engine/ trans combo is the bestest thing ever.even gets great fuel economy which shocked me cuz i beat the hell out of it on a regular basis

In reply to 759NRNG :

Bits and pieces of it have been on the forum. Petey could not put together a build thread if his life depended on it, Too busy doing 3 bazzilion other stuffs.

Bottom line is if you have a Volvo 740 and a Lincoln Mk VIII this is a pretty straightforward swap as far as engine swaps go.  The genius was realizing how well it was going to fit.

the day it all started....dropped the mockup kit into the old 760 302 car and went YEAH THIS CAN WORK 

and the real deal

petey said:

and the real deal

Ah yes, forgot that the Challenge car had the "Matt Gaetz" personalized plate!

I had volvos for years and always knew that V8s  fit in them really well. But those modular motors are always crazy wide, and then you put 32 valve heads on them holy crap they're enormous. I kind of can't believe it fits in there so well.

Fits better than in the mark 8 it came out of way more room

Another great evening of car show at the Plunket estate.  So far this year has been more Molvo driving than wrenching and I am good with that.

It has been nice to just drive the car this year. Maybe not as much as I would like cause of gas prices but nevertheless it seems happy to work as a regular car in the fleet. AC is maybe moving to the #1 spot on the list for next year. 

 Last weekend I made it out a Cars and Coffee at the London Auto Modifiers clubhouse. The "Car Club" scene is new to me and it was a pleasant experience to meet the members and see how the club operates. 

Photo courtesy of Dave Cook, found on the clubs FB page.

Awesome day at the Volvo Club Family Day event.  Weather forecast was scary as I set out, but I am determined to get miles on this thing so that I can be confident and start taking the fact that it is a car for granted. 

But then the weather changed and it was a beautiful day. Well received by the Volvo community.

Believe it or not, I have yet to find a Miata event to try and infiltrate. 

Always saw the Molvo referenced in different threads, but could never find it, until I saw it pop up on the current time line. Man what a read. Like mentioned above, I know how to swing a spanner, but what you did? Pure Mona Lisa compared to my cave man drawings

StripesSA1 said:

Always saw the Molvo referenced in different threads, but could never find it, until I saw it pop up on the current time line. Man what a read. Like mentioned above, I know how to swing a spanner, but what you did? Pure Mona Lisa compared to my cave man drawings

Thank you for the compliment. Do note however that along the journey I picked the brains of a lot of people on this forum.  There was a lot of backtracking when stuff did not come out right, And many redos further down the line as my skills developed and I knew that stuff could be done better. 

Other than audacity, the only real skill I had when I started this was that I already knew how to weld thin metal. The rest was on-the-job training.

Pete

Anybody else's neighbor's shake their heads when they walk past your driveway and wonder if any adults live in the house?