I said i'll be back!
 

Having been absent for a while except for occasional visits due to lack of a Volvo, i now find myself the proud owner of a 1988 760 GLEa V6 estate!

http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/s...723704_HDR.jpg

http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/s..._175703009.jpg

Picked it up yesterday via an ebay listing. Aside from a few "silly faults", it's pretty much spot on throughout and so far is almost certainly the best 700 estate i've owned to date.
My one minor criticism of the others is they weren't quite pokey enough but they all had the B230E 131bhp engines. This one gets round that with 500+cc more, 2 extra cylinders and an extra 38bhp all of which make themselves known!

It was owned by an elderly gent in Rickmansworth and i think he only ever tickled the loud pedal as after an Italian decoke on the M11 on the way home, the engine is much livelier!

Look out for more posts as i go through the various small repairs it needs, fit LED headlamp bulbs (ones that actually work and give a good beam pattern) and generally get it up to the standard i want it to be.

There will probably be a few posts asking about the ECC system as that isn't working correctly (air delivery selector not making any difference at all!) and maybe a few other things too.

Fitting number plate! but not sure about LED headlights, I didn't think such things where available (well ones that actually work). You will find H4 LEDs but they will not work as headlights.

Love the colour

Good to have you back, m'Laird. Looks like a tidy motor you've got there. :thumbs_up:

Fitting in more ways than one! Obviously the 760 reference but i've also got into LPG in the past year or so and although nothing is definite yet, i may well add LPG to it, in which case the number plate is only one letter out!

As for the H4 LEDs, i totally understand what you're saying as it took me a long time find some that did what they said on the box but i've found at least 2 sources of them now in this country.

http://www.powerfuluk.com/h4-led-400...hite-pair.html

These are very similar :

http://www.classiccarleds.co.uk/coll...nversion-9-32v

For comparison, one evening i got my car lined up with two others :

http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/s...507_221332.jpg

http://i567.photobucket.com/albums/s...507_221238.jpg

Mine is in the middle with the bulbs from Powerful UK and the brightest lights with the very obvious beam pattern, the one on the left has ebay cheapie "Xenon Look" bulbs which are already an improvement over standard and the one on the right is on Nightbreakers.

They're expensive at £69 but will last a long time (50000 hours expected life time, equates to 2m miles at 40mph) and with Nightbreakers coming in about £30 a pair and having to be changed regularly (according to the local Police, their Nightbreakers are changed every 2-3 months, usually through failure but they do have their lights on a lot) the cost of Nightbreakers soon mounts up and those LED H4s outperform them.

Thanks - me too! Really suits the car and looking forward to getting the polisher on it! ;) :D

Thanks Stephen - it is a very tidy motor indeed. It has little bits here and there and the obvious ding in the tailgate (apparently caused by a flying trampoline during a freak mini-tornado) but nothing serious. It's just as nice inside as well, the moo-cow could do with some balm but there are no rips/tears and looks as if it's been kept clean regularly from new.

We used to have a '86 360 GL in that colour, ahh memories. Sold on but I think scrapped now :(

The previous 740 estates i've had were Blue-Green, silver and dark blue metallic. Out of all 4, i think this is the nicest although i'm a fan of blue cars.

I've just dug out the clear side repeaters and i believe the postie has just delivered the new thermostat for it. Postie did a "knock 'n' run" job and i can't open the front door to retrieve the package on the front step as one of the dogs is too close to the door and won't move her furry butt. She's an elderly 15st Rottweiler so unless she wants to move, she ain't moving! ;) :lol:

Nice car...your n/s headlight wiper has a mind of it's own like mine!