Volvo P1800ES...kinda

There are a couple:

http://alfaparts.net/p1800.html

and CVI in Sweden who I believe are the main supplier for p1800.com as well as irollmotors.com

Ian F wrote: There are a couple: http://alfaparts.net/p1800.html and CVI in Sweden who I believe are the main supplier for p1800.com as well as irollmotors.com

Pretty much partial repo stuff available from any of them. P1800.com has some DS sill panels left, you might want to grab one for your project if if is going to be required.

NOHOME wrote:

DILYSI Dave wrote:

NOHOME wrote:

Rather than the sheetmetal brackets that tie them together, could you not bend the cross bar on both ends and then notch and weld it for a cleaner (and probably stronger) joint?

The brackets are whittled from 2x4 1/8" wall tube. What I like about this approach is that the weld is not critical since the engine would sit on the cross member even without any welding.

I can see that. I still like the cleaner design of a coped joint, but your logic is certainly sound.

So, where we last left off...

There was about 7 inches of the outer sill that needed to come off in order for the new sill to go on. Problem was that the remaining chunk of sill was layered in with the B-post and rear quarter panel.

So, the clever me person thought, fine I will trim the quarter panel up a bit to expose a bit more of the old sill, then cut the old sill in a straight line, chop the NEW sill to match, and weld the lot up. I mean, not like anyone is going to see it right?

So I cut the quarter panel up a half inch higher. Drilled the spotwelds on the lower part of the old sill. The plan was to just continue the front cut all the way to the back of the old sill.

Could not bring myself to do it. I could not cut up the last original p1800 outer sill on the planet! You can see where I went so far as to cut the straight line on the old sill.

So I cut the B post and quarter panel instead. Easy enough to free the bit of old sill. Ready to trial fir the new one

I love working with factory pressings; stuff just fits!"

Simple matter of welding this bit back on with a but weld and cleaning up the seam for an invisible fix.

The yellow tape is for a patch that I will let in in order to deal with some lacy spots on the top of the middle sill. Easy piece to make with the combo shear and brake.

Looks like I have a bit of welding ahead of me next.

Looks great! CVI-Automotive sells outer sill panels, but how close they are to factory original I don't know. I do know the sill "kit" I have from Foreign Autotech (now irollmotors) is not even close to original. Mainly, it's missing the offset curve on top to match the contour on the bottom of the door.

Not much time so not much progress, but got a patch panel ready to weld in and the sill fitted and punched for welding. Need to get some POR to coat the middle sill and see if I can wrap this up by Sunday.

I'm doing the floors and middle & inner sills on my 63 1800 right now (outer sills are already in paint; previous owner didn't do the whole job when they should have ).. I'm not enjoying this task at all.. not one bit!

Having said that, yours are coming along nicely

ccrunner wrote: I'm doing the floors and middle & inner sills on my 63 1800 right now (outer sills are already in paint; previous owner didn't do the whole job when they should have ).. I'm not enjoying this task at all.. not one bit! Having said that, yours are coming along nicely

Funny you should chime in. Just finished binge reading your Honda build again, love that thing and got to wondering how you were making out with the P1800 build.

Having done the inner, I can see how it would be easier to do the middle from the inside while the inner membrane is out rather than try to do the middle from the outside. Does that make sense?

I am still looking for a RH side outer sill. iroll was about to ship me one when I finally got them to admit that it was a repo and not a factory piece. Ian was not very complimentary about their part. At $210 USD plus shipping plus the hasstle of getting it across the border, that was not a risk I felt like taking. If I must, I will call Wolf here in Canada for their repo at $50. If I actually have to, I will fab or fix what I have.

The good news for you is that the middle seems to be in good supply with factory bits.

In reply to NOHOME:

I will say irollmotors has said the outer panel they sell is closer to than the one have, although what is pictured on the website is exactly what I have.

CVI is in Sweden and is essentially what used to be Volvo's "classic parts division" so what they sell is as close to OE as you can get if you can't find NOS parts. They have a distributor in the US whose name escapes me, but with the import duties to Canada, I don't know if it would be any cheaper or faster.

If you are dead set on finding an original replacement outer sill from when the cars were new, you may be waiting for a long time. I still kick myself for not buying the sets Wolf was selling some years ago (now shown as NLA).

If need be, I will get the panel from Wolf and see how it fits. Their literature actually addresses the curve concern. At least they are in Canada. The reality is that it only needs to fill the space between front fender and rear quarter.

Today was doing a bit of spot remediation on the middle sill structure. It was remarkably solid exept for these two areas and the large portion on top that leads in to the door pinchweld. The tape shows the two areas of concern.

Here you can see the top bit that needs to be repaired. Note that bit of brass? Volvo used a lot of brass rod when assembling this car. Volvo hates car restoring fools.I hate brass filler rod!

Let in a bit of tin and cleaned up the welds and it is as good as new. I cant quite explain why I am compeled to make the weld seam invisible in a situation where I am going to coat the repair in POR and then cover it with another panel.

The long section that runs along the door is still open at this point so that I can POR the inside of the sill cavity. But first, a bit more prep work. Meed to remove the paint from the panels where I am going to spot weld, adn I need to mask the location where the spotwelds are going to be. So I marked each spotweld and using a punch, made masking dots to keep the POR off the locations where I need to weld.

Inside of the cavity well coated in POR. This is looking along the lenght of the door-sill pichweld. Happy to say that my secret method of preserving POR in the car was still working.

Will let this dry fully and then weld in the patch panel to cover the top of the sill.(the bit being held with vicegrips)

That all only took about 6 hours of my life. told the wife unit that the labour bill for her car was up to $30,000 and that she might want to start thinking of settling with the mechanic.

Since I want to finish this side of the car this week-end, drug my tired ass out and got the rest of the middle sill welded. This was done using the idiots guide to welding that I mentioned earlier in this thread.

One long ass butt-weld:

"Count to one" weld technique results:

I hate grinding spotwelds, so I use the same technique:

People don't believe me when I tell them to turn the 220 volt welder up to the second highest setting when welding tin, but this is my preferred setting using 0.035" wire.

Really want to wrap this side up tomorrow. Still need to spot-weld the outer sill on and then fit and weld the dogleg repair panel on. Sounds easy if I say it fast.

Well, I did not win the war today, but still got a lot accomplished.

Figured I had better put a door on to see if we were in the ballpark with the new sill to door bottom fit. Good thing I did because a small adjustment at the back made a big difference.

As Ian has alluded, fitting the doors once the hinges have been fully removed from the tub is an interesting proposition.

Outer sill welded in place with a good fit under door and to B post.Lord help me when the front clip goes back on!

And just cause I think this is a cool picture...

In the other good news department, after due deliberation I have decided that the passenger side sill is salvageable with a bit of welding. Hence I can suspend my quest for a NOS panel. (good because it was going nowhere fast)

Will cut out the hatched bit and will use the English Wheel to make a panel to suit.

The good news is that the topside of the sill is in good shape.

Where I hit the wall today was in this seemingly minor bit of rust remediation. The bottomest part of the wheel-tub was corroded where it meets the sill. (the white blob) I need to figure out what the part looked like and then fab a repair panel. Out of energy for the day.

Nice work dude!

DILYSI Dave wrote: Nice work dude!

Thanks, need all the encouragement I can get around now..getting a bit burned out because I am not seeing much progress even with the hours and dollars pouring in..

Keep up the good work! This is one of my favorite Build threads!

NOHOME wrote:

DILYSI Dave wrote: Nice work dude!

Thanks, need all the encouragement I can get around now..getting a bit burned out because I am not seeing much progress even with the hours and dollars pouring in..

Please don't let this one die. It is too cool of a project to allow it to whither. I'm as guilty as the next guy about getting bored and letting them sit and then die, but I really hope you can trudge through this part, because you have something so rad waiting for you at the finish line.

I love this thread. That is a great idea with the tape dots! And the sill work looks great!

don't be me. knuckle down and get it done. youre almost past the bodywork hump, and to the fun part: assembly.

OK, drug my sorry ass out and took another chew on the elephant. Got the lower piece of inner arch fabbed and welded in. Happy with the way it came out and now I know how to do it on the other side.

Can now move on to welding this bit back in and then the dog-leg repair panel.

I am feeling a bit better about the project because I just let go of a deadline that passed today. I did not meet it, but now the project can go back on a non-deadline mode. Hopefully more fun as it has been for the most part.

NOHOME wrote: OK, drug my sorry ass out and took another chew on the elephant.

Molvo the Elephant. Replace the Prancing Moose with an Elephant. That's kind of fun!

NoHome, I haven't posted in this thread much, (if ever) but I've been following along. Keep up the good work. You have skills!

IndyJoe wrote: NoHome, I haven't posted in this thread much, (if ever) but I've been following along. Keep up the good work. You have skills!

Might be more of a "Where angels fear to tread" situation than "skills", but thanks anyways.

If ever there was a case study for poor project planning, this would be it.

In reply to NOHOME:

Nope. You've at least stuck to the general plan. My builds, on the other hand, well....

You've seen them. Primer turned into frame off. Carb rebuild turned into full on pro-touring build....

Dusterbd13 wrote: In reply to NOHOME: Nope. You've at least stuck to the general plan. My builds, on the other hand, well.... You've seen them. Primer turned into frame off. Carb rebuild turned into full on pro-touring build....

You are right!

Best thing about a build thread is that it makes for a great time machine! I took a ride into the past,( Oct 23 2015 2:10 pm to be exact). That would be ten days after I announced the start of the project and before I made my first cut. I can honestly say that I am still within the original design intent of the project.

NOHOME said: A interesting approach that might come into play if it makes sense is where the entire Miata substructure is grafted under the Volvo shell. There is a good example of this on the Miata V8 forum using a Saab shell.

So, if we ignore the time when I said

NOHOME said: As to having it running in three weeks! I think you have lost it Tuna...I stoped taking the blue pill a long time ago...this one is on a three year timeline.

That would mean that I have to have this wrapped up by October 13 2016. Lets call the client and mention that her car is going to be two years late...

So I am getting better. The bugeye was forecast as a five year project and it took ten.