Volvo P1800ES...kinda

NOHOME wrote:

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.

You heard this before. Better late than NEVER

Long day, but good day...

Got the dogleg repair panel welded in.

In all fairness, when I bought the repair panel I was given the choice of the $100 handmade panel and the $200 stamped piece.

What they forgot to tell me was that I was the one who was going to have to handmake the panel from the part they shipped. The repair part pretty much had to be reduced to a flat sheet on the E-wheel and refolded along the bottom.

Full panel and the bit I used.

The folds that had to be remade

Panel fitted with a nice tight zero-gap fit and tacked in place. Started doing short burst of overlapped tacks as previously described. Wire brush the soot off while waiting for panel to cool.

Dots all joined up

Ground and good to go

In reply to NOHOME:

Nice looking metal work as usual!

Moar.

Attacked the RH side today. I dont have a repair panel, so will see what I can do with fabricating a repair.

While the vertical face of the sill was a bit crusty, the top and bottom horizontal bits looked reasonably solid. Time to get out the grinder and investigate:

Well, the middle sill looks solid, so that is good

http://i.imgur.com/fDbs6AZ.jpg

The front of the outer sill that resides under the front fender, not so great.

The back part of the outer sill that resides under the rear quarter also has its issues. Would love to know the history of the series of holes in the middle sill. Hard to believe that the same person who did such a poor job of installing the quarter panel (car has had a new full quarter at some time) would bother to pull the sill where it will never be seen.

And of course, I would hate to not have to apply what I learned about lower wheel-tub repair

Great looking work as usual!

Where we left off...

big hole in the sill where the rusty bit got cut out. Was going to just replace the vertical face, but the rust went below the lower part that wraps around below. So, lets see how this is going to work.

The basic panel is simple enough. Long flat piece with a bend on the lower side.

But there is a problem..

Face on the Volvo panel:

Face on the panel I bent up:

Lets load up the E-wheel with a lower wheel that has a similar curve

But here is the deal: The English wheel will stretch the panel in two dimensions and raise the center. Not what we want here, I just want to put a curve in a flat panel. What I did was to pad the upper wheel with foam (rubber band is better but did not have one that fit) This will force the metal over the curve of the lower wheel, but not enough force that it crushes the metal.

That will work

Now I need a couple of swage lines where this sill is going to tuck under the front fender and rear dogleg.

Easy enough to run in the beadroller. Should have done it before I bent the lower bit, but good enough and close enough to where they need to be.

Front swage:

Rear swage:

Looking good so far.

I could actually call it quits at this point and weld this repair section in. I don't need any strength from it and the crusty original Volvo bits would be covered by the front fender and the rear dogleg at the swage lines. A smart man would call it quits. Right? And why is the word "Flat" writ upon the nascent sill?

Chipping away at this elephant. Got a lot done on the sill fab even though the pics dont tell the whole story. Panel is pretty much fabricated and the middle sill is wire-wheeled and POR coated ready for a major weld-fest tomorrow.

For a change of pace, I received some valvetrain parts and decided to put some more parts on the lump.

Engine assembly gets a bit complicated at this point because I have to pick a front cover but what cover I pick depends on the accessory drive that I use and that will depend on what fits in the engine bay. Since I am far from fluent in Fordese accessory mounting options, this gets a bit confusing

The Explorer/Mountaineer and 94/95 Stang acc drives keep things 1-1.5" closer to the engine than the Fox body acc drive does. Both have alt on pass. side. Fox has a/c high and ps low on driver side; the others listed above have a/c low and ps high. Aftermarket options abound. And Corvette pulley on LS gains you another 1-1.5" over the Exp set up.....fwiw.

Compact accessory drive "inspiration".....

[URL=http://s937.photobucket.com/user/MichaelYount/media/LS3%20Engine%20swap/psbracket_zpsjx4styk2.jpg.html][/URL]

I have both fox body and exploder bits.

The space between the rad is not as critical on this swap (cause 7" wheelbase stretch over stock miata). What will matter is what wants to fit where.

AC for sure. Alternator seems like a good idea. PS I am still trying to talk myself out of and just find a manual rack. For some reason PS seems like an awful lot of stuff and bother just when I am not looking for more challenges or things to go wrong.

Stay away from March performance. I spent 20 hours actually making their serpentine setup fit, and still wasn't happy.

At this point, you are going to go serpentine. It's only another bracket and two hoses for power steering. It will be a much more enjoyable car with, than without. Think: efi, od, power brakes, ac, why the berk not power steering?

If you go sans PS, just be sure whatever you mount on the driver's side you mount high....that way the belt will clear itself when wrapping the water pump and the stock tensioner will be tensioning in the proper direction. You'll see what I mean if your only driver's side accessory is mount lower than the water pump. With aluminum heads and reasonably sized tires on the front, you shouldn't have all that much more steering effort than the car did stock. And lots of folks have begun adapting the GM electric booster under the dash -- use a manual rack and ditch the pump. No fabrication that you're not easily capable of. There's even an outfit that makes a rheostat if you will that allows steering boost levels to be adjusted with the twist of a knob on the dash.

Almost hit the self imposed deadline for the sill build. Recall that there is no factory panel available for this side of the car, and the reputation of what is out there is a bit sketchy...as in I was going to have to make it fit no matter how much I paid.

So I made my own. Came out rather nice if I do say so myself. You can still see the long butt-weld along the top, but nothing that a slight skim of mud wont fix when the time comes.

Nailed the fit and detail on the bottom; you can see how it fits nice and snug against the middle sill so that the spot-welds will be easy to do.

When I say "Almost done" its because I still need to weld in this panel at the bottom of the rear quarter. Note however, that the lowermost crease does not line up with the bottom of the new sill. Gotta fix that.

Here is the reason. Whoever folded the repair panel does not have much in the way of QC on their stuff. The good news is that this is much better than the DS where I had to turn the entire panel into a flat sheet and remake it from scratch; in essence a $100 piece of sheet metal stock! Going to try a persuader and block of wood with a V on the end to see if I can re-form in-situ.

I know it is a somewhat loaded question, but are the rockers the "last" rust repair to be done? The suspense is palpable.

wheelsmithy wrote: I know it is a somewhat loaded question, but are the rockers the "last" rust repair to be done? The suspense is palpable.

Is it ever done?

When I first started this project, I was warned that P1800s rust everywhere. They were not kidding!

No, not the last, but it is a significant turning point to getting the shell reunited with the front clip.

When the sills are done, I can fit the front clip. The front clip needs some attention on the lower part of the fenders that fits over the sills, but that is not a big deal.

The rear apron was a bit lacy at the rear, so I have to let in a repair panel back there also. Once again, I bought a handmade repair panel and will have to wait and see how it fits.

The plan is to finish the rear quarter panel section this week. Then I will install the PS door, front clip and front and rear suspensions. At that point it comes off the rotisserie and gets rolled into the other garage until about October. I am kind of excited about the concept of this thing rolling.

Here is the punch list of what I need to get done before the end of the month:

1. Finish PS sill and dogleg repair
2. Modify transmission tunnel/firewall for extra clearance
3. Fab up new engine mount stands
4. Finish welding and painting K member
5. Install K member with(foam)engine and (gutted) gearbox
6. Install front suspension with springs
7. Install rear suspension with springs (no center section or axles_
8. Drop car off of rotisserie on to wheels
9. Drop front end over the tub

Looking great!

It's funny. As I've said more than a few times, my car isn't really all that more rusty than most 1800 " project" cars. It's just a lot more obvious about it.

Ian F wrote: It's funny. As I've said more than a few times, my car isn't really all that more rusty than most 1800 " project" cars. It's just a lot more obvious about it.

I always told the MGB crowd that the amount of rust of in their sills was largely immaterial. Either they should ignore it or if they were going to invest the time and $$$ to repair, they should be replacing the whole sill structure.

I must say, looking at the middle sill structure on the P1800. It looks like a hell of a job to tackle. REALLY glad mine was in good shape on both sides.

Light night in the shop. Got the panel fit adjusted, sprayed a bit of John Deere green on the bits that will be hidden and cleaned up the shop. Not feeling the welding gods speak to me, so called it early.

You can see where I destroyed the originality of the vehicle in this picture. The sharpie circle that shows through the green paint is the correct location for the hole in the outer sill. Since I did not want to be welding on the thin edge where it would meet the remains of the original panel, I cheated and moved it over a bit.

This is some epic work. Looking great!

Item #1 off the list. Pretty happy with how this came out.

2. Modify transmission tunnel/firewall for extra clearance
3. Fab up new engine mount stands
4. Finish welding and painting K member
5. Install K member with(foam)engine and (gutted) gearbox
6. Install front suspension with springs
7. Install rear suspension with springs (no center section or axles)
8. Drop car off of rotisserie on to wheels
9. Drop front end over the tub

Looks good!

I'm kinda bummed though. I understand the need for paying gigs and all. But this thread is what forces me to DO SOMETHING on my build even when I'm exhausted and need to take a break. Yours is getting so close to moving under its own power that I really want to see It continue!

Selfish I lnow..... But true.

itsarebuild wrote: Looks good! I'm kinda bummed though. I understand the need for paying gigs and all. But this thread is what forces me to DO SOMETHING on my build even when I'm exhausted and need to take a break. Yours is getting so close to moving under its own power that I really want to see It continue! Selfish I know..... But true.

Hey, thanks for the kind words, it's good to know I can be useful for more than just a bad example!

Stick around for the MGB build/resurrection...its going to make this thing look like a walk in the park and I only have 3 months to get it done.

The bet with the wife-unit is that the Molvo is going to drive out of the shop before next summer. She bet me $1000 that it would not. Pretty sure I have it covered.

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