240 General: The Rustberg

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Jackman

Thanks everyone. Yes it is bad but it can be saved. At the end of the day it's nearly a 50 year old car which is been fixed for MOTs rather than restoration.

Still motivated to carry on and looking at parts and things I need. Also thinking of upgrades like using poly bushes instead of rubber as from what I've seen modern rubber does not last long at all.

Working on the wing repairs now but that's very difficult as there is no reference to how it should look and line up from the sill to the rear of the panel.

I'm budgeting around 1.5k to get the underside of the car solid and finished.

There will be other expenses in regards to safety items that I might just replace even if they look ok.

Excellent Jackman, I can never understand why folk restore old motorcars like new (or sometimes better than new). I'm really pleased to hear this is a project to get the Rustberg up to MoT condition and then use it.

I'm guessing the £1,500 budget for the underside is just parts and materiel, so not including your time? If one was paying a body shop to do it that bill could easily be £5,000 and so more than the motorcar will be worth at the end.

I came across this article that Footman James sent me in an email and thought of the Rustberg:

https://www.footmanjames.co.uk/blog/...Q0MzIzOTYwNAS2

... I'm in no way deriding the Rustberg project - rather the opposite - I'm in awe of your resolution.

[Jackman]

Yes the budget does not include time. If it was then the car isn't worth doing for the financial reason and would also but labour at the same estimate as you.

I'm doing it as it's something I enjoy and in a way can challenge my skills with using basic tools.

I work on computers every day so it's nice being able to use my hands to create something.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Jackman

Yes the budget does not include time. If it was then the car isn't worth doing for the financial reason and would also but labour at the same estimate as you.

I'm doing it as it's something I enjoy and in a way can challenge my skills with using basic tools.

I work on computers every day so it's nice being able to use my hands to create something.

I think what you are doing with the Rustberg embodies the very spirit of this forum Jackman. You are saving an old Volvo even though it makes little financial sense, you are doing the work yourself and you intend to achieve a good daily driver, not a show car. I’m pretty sure I speak for all the regular correspondents in the 200 section when I say we all respect what you are doing and the way you are going about it.

Juular did something similar with his 240 GLT saloon a few years ago, if you haven’t read his thread already I’d recommend it (I’ll post a link to it later).



PS. Juular’s 240 project:

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showthread.php?t=312429

[Moomoo]

Hear,hear!🧐👍

[Jackman]

Update from the past.

Finally decided to start adding images from the initial investigations. I stupidly didnt take any good pictures of the front and back because I honestly thought that it would be a few weekends to fix this car and be driving it based on the fact it had a decent MOT... how wrong was I.

First thing I after getting it was check it started, which it did on the first turn of the key, however the engine mounts are so bad it looks like it could jump out of the car.

These images show the worst area of the rear panel and the interior. The interior needs a good clean but overall is not too bad. The rear panel was not even attached due to the rust in that area.

[Jackman]

First steps was to fix that rear panel, it was really bad and knew it would impact other repairs if I was not careful and fully seperated the wing from it.

Usual steps followed, investigated, cut out the rust and then fabricated the repair sections. This has not been finished, even to this day, as it may need some more changes once the bottom of the wing has been repaired after the spare wheel well has been replaced.

[Jackman]

Now the rear panel was actually attached back to the car I could repair the boot closing panel. It looks alot harder than it is but I was able to use the other side to get a template and then copy that over in order to fabricate the repair on the wing as well as the closing panel.

Now that was done I wanted to check out the areas needed to make the boot watertight again, a wirebrush did the damage to the corner around the rear window meaning that needs to come out in order to fix all that. Thats when I decided to do the arches first as the car is outside and needs to be kept as water tight as possible.... as you can see horrors were starting to appear.

[Jackman]

The arch repairs were not actually a full repair, just an arch over the old one and then tacked into place. Removing the tacks showed that its not the first time its had a patch just welded over rust for the wheel well which is why it was all cut out.

During this time is where I found out that the jacking points were not actually fully attached to the car, the screwdriver picture is going through the mount into the sill, it had been "welded" but not actually repaired.

Now this is the last of the pictures before the video documentation started for youtube and the first video in this thread.


This is now the latest video on the car and things are slowly getting repaired. It is nearly up-to-date with the progress as this weather has stopped me from making any progress outside recently.
https://youtu.be/hAsmx4He7_M


I hope this shows a bit more on the condition of the car, is it bad? Yes. Does it make financial sense? Not really. Are you going to carry on? Yeah, why not, where else would you see a green car with a brown interior.

I really appriciate all the comments too, it does help with the motivation as well as the threads to other peoples repairs, it means I can have a look at how things should look.

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Jackman

Update from the past.

Finally decided to start adding images from the initial investigations. I stupidly didnt take any good pictures of the front and back because I honestly thought that it would be a few weekends to fix this car and be driving it based on the fact it had a decent MOT... how wrong was I.

First thing I after getting it was check it started, which it did on the first turn of the key, however the engine mounts are so bad it looks like it could jump out of the car.

These images show the worst area of the rear panel and the interior. The interior needs a good clean but overall is not too bad. The rear panel was not even attached due to the rust in that area.

Originally Posted by Jackman

First steps was to fix that rear panel, it was really bad and knew it would impact other repairs if I was not careful and fully seperated the wing from it.

Usual steps followed, investigated, cut out the rust and then fabricated the repair sections. This has not been finished, even to this day, as it may need some more changes once the bottom of the wing has been repaired after the spare wheel well has been replaced.

Originally Posted by Jackman

Now the rear panel was actually attached back to the car I could repair the boot closing panel. It looks alot harder than it is but I was able to use the other side to get a template and then copy that over in order to fabricate the repair on the wing as well as the closing panel.

Now that was done I wanted to check out the areas needed to make the boot watertight again, a wirebrush did the damage to the corner around the rear window meaning that needs to come out in order to fix all that. Thats when I decided to do the arches first as the car is outside and needs to be kept as water tight as possible.... as you can see horrors were starting to appear.

Excellent update Jackman,

I've been following your YouTube posts with interest - thank you. This one is going to be difficult to make sure everything lines up at the end because so many pieces will be interdependent. I think you are taking the sensible approach in getting the tub more or less weathertight before the winter.

I can see this project becoming the textbook guide to 240 restoration.

At least the interior looks good

Well done - stick at it

[Othen]

Originally Posted by Jackman

The arch repairs were not actually a full repair, just an arch over the old one and then tacked into place. Removing the tacks showed that its not the first time its had a patch just welded over rust for the wheel well which is why it was all cut out.

During this time is where I found out that the jacking points were not actually fully attached to the car, the screwdriver picture is going through the mount into the sill, it had been "welded" but not actually repaired.

Now this is the last of the pictures before the video documentation started for youtube and the first video in this thread.


This is now the latest video on the car and things are slowly getting repaired. It is nearly up-to-date with the progress as this weather has stopped me from making any progress outside recently.
https://youtu.be/hAsmx4He7_M


I hope this shows a bit more on the condition of the car, is it bad? Yes. Does it make financial sense? Not really. Are you going to carry on? Yeah, why not, where else would you see a green car with a brown interior.

I really appriciate all the comments too, it does help with the motivation as well as the threads to other peoples repairs, it means I can have a look at how things should look.

I like your stoical attitude Jackman. Even at this stage it would make most sense to find a better chassis that needs a new interior and mechanical parts, and use it as a donor. Don’t give up though, there is more to this project than what makes financial sense. There will be a great sense of achievement when you finally get to the end and can drive around in a green 244 with a brown interior, just like the RB: