Introducing my 142

[swedishandgerman]

I've just bought a RHD 142 originally from Finland.

I've spent many years with Amazons and more recently a P1800S. Earlier this year I bought a hulk of a 144 to harvest the lovely B20A for my Amazon Estate, then sold the rest of the wreck for parts. However, having never paid much attention to the 140 Series, I recognised its charm.

Earlier this year, over on a Facebook page, a guy showed a couple pictures of this lovely 142 in Safari Yellow saying that he'd bought imported it from Finland and about to embark on making it roadworthy. I commented on its appeal, then put it to the back of my mind, but to remind myself to keep check on its progress. It went silent, so I emailed him and he replied saying that he had done next to nothing seeing as he had too many other projects on the go and I persuaded him to sell it. I had it delivered by from Colchester to Devon last week.

The old car's been stood standing for a good while and the brakes are the first thing requiring attention along with a list of other things:

• Both rear shocks are non-existent,
• the exhaust is blowing and there are no rubber hangers left,
• the heater hoses are perished,
• there's a list of electrical faults including right indicators not working, left indicators hardly working, no horn, fuel gauge and temp gauge not working.

There are many other things, but those are the main things. Oh, and of course tyres. I'll set about all this work with my friend who has worked at Volvo in Exeter for 20 years and we're starting up together working on old Volvos at an extremely low rate. Do get in touch!

The bodywork is extremely good with little signs of previous work which includes one new spare wheel well, repairs to the OSF inner wing and a replaced NSF inner wing. However, there is now a hole under the driver's seat that needs repair.

The interior is impeccable only requiring new Pirelli webbing under the 2 front seat squabs.

First off is to get the thing registered and a V5 doc in hand. I feel nervous about this having had many dealings with the DVLA when I worked in the motor trade. As such, I'm not making any start with mechanical work until I have all paperwork in hand.