CORROSION ON 740s

[czech240]

Having had a good poke around the 89' GLT I have just bought its seems to be really solid....the battery tray has been welded...and will need a patch on the driverside floor soon (LHD)

Otherwise looks better than the 245 that is currently in use....

[foggyjames]

They do rust in a few places, but they're pretty bloody good for their age. Front floorpans (seam with chassis rail), leading edges of rear arches, reverse sides of window surrounds on front doors and the battery tray areas are about the only areas of common concern.

cheers

James

[sunnyvic]

I dont know but i must be lucky i can only find a small hole in the battery tray which has been treated and i now have a plastic battery tray in use for my battery.Nothing picked up by my garage regarding corrosion.I was told by my local volvo dealer when we lived in Norfolk that the bottom half of car bodywork and the rear door was galvanised.My 745 is 1987 sept reg but 1988 model automatic ZFgearbox,2.3 B230e engine colour Blue/green metallic ,Beige interior,14inch wheels and a mere 105000 from new with all service history and i love it and like others i would say if you have a good one keep it..regards sunnyvic ps i have not learnt how to put photos on the forum

[swedish brick]

Mines had small patches on both front floor pans (near chassis), both front inner wings where the battery tray or air box sit have been cut out and replaced. I also found a tiny hole under the front scuttle panel (bolt on panel) where the plastic cover for the wiper arms is, again I cut it out and welded in a small plate then covered the whole inside of this area with wax so it shouldnt go again! Its all easy to fix if you can weld though!

As said above, they are very good for their age as far as rust is concerned. I have a mk2 Granada of similar age and mileage and that was pretty bad when I got it, ive sorted most of it now but it shows just how much better than the competion Volvo's were!

[Marty Dolomite]

On my 'F' reg 740 estate there is very slight corrosion on the floorpan where the underseal has been damaged.

[Prufrock]

Referring to my earlier post on this thread...Volvo in the 1980s claimed that the average life expectancy of their cars (specifically the 740 range) was 20.7 years - see the attachment to that post.

No manufacturer today would make that claim.

Current research has concluded the average life expectancy of a modern car is 7 years - although rust may not always be the"killer".

Slight wander off topic - apologies.

Prufrock.

[Chesh740R]

Yep they do rust, the pics below are from my 1988 740 Turbo Saloon, The main problems i repaired before MOT'ing it.

The Passenger floorpan







Drivers Floorpan





Back edge of Battery Tray into wheelarch.





Removed the Radiator/intercooler support as it was crusty and i had no further use for it as i hung the bigger rad/intercooler combo from main chassis rails.



Retied the front chassis legs tied together with a tubular cross member incorporating an oil cooler mount.




The current rust issues it now has left are and on the to do list in next year or two.

Drivers side front wing rusting round side indicator repeater.
Drivers Door rusted on inner edge where door skin folds over.
Rear Wheel arches started to turn, leading down to rear sills area.
Any area under the car where there is a fold of metal and joined together, the rust gets between the metal sections.

I'll keep my eye out for a low mileage mint shell without a sunroof to reshell my car.

[baggy798]

Were these problem areas rectified in the 940 or carried over?

[Laney760]

The tops of the doors either side of the windows were never galvanised even when the cars became fully galvanised

I often wonder if instead of looking at the year and the amount of galvanising which was carried out we should be looking at which factory they came out of and seeing if there is a pattern, somebody once said that a lot of the rusty 940s (you see a fair few on Ebay) came out of a particular factory. My 88 760 has got zero rust anywhere, it was made in Sweden (Gothenberg code 1 on the vin)

[Paris6282]

Yep they rust dont buy from coastal area (salt) cos they are holy not as in praying every panel sills floor chassis rails front and rear