1961 Volvo PV544 in Holland

[Derek UK]

Originally Posted by arcturus

My number could be 11234B. Still don't really know what it indicates. Certainly not vin number. Any thoughts on this Derek?

You should be able to work it out from the book that you should have received with your Swedish PV-Klubben membership. All of the relevant details are there.

Or for details https://katterugclub.nl/volvo-pv-544

https://translate.google.co.uk/trans...44&prev=search

[Army]

I normally use Motip spray filler over Ferpox and don't get any hassle from it but this time I couldn't find it locally and so tried a single component spray from Car System and this happened =>



It has wrinkled and lifted the whole blinking lot off! Drat and double drat - this mean I have to start again - sand it all off.

Pain in the arse

##########

So to think pleasant thoughts about the Volvo I've been concentrating on something else before I get back to the front bulkhead.

The rear axle has concentric rings around the tubes that hold the rubbers for the trailing arms in place. Mine cracked and fell off when I removed the axle from the trailing arm bushings.

My fix has been to carefully TIG weld in some blobs to hold the broken rings back in position. I really didn't want to get the axle tubes too hot as they are a casting - certainly didn't want them warping - didn't want them heat fracturing - structural connection and all that jazz...



...once the concentric bushing holding rings were in place I filled the gaps between the ground down blobs of weld with epoxy putty. The epoxy putty is (or might seem like) a bit of a botch but is really only added to fill up gaps between the strong weld before painting.



First coat of Brunox =>

[Army]

Has anybody tried these headlights before?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-544...0AAOSw4CFYvbr1

A set of new headlights with the little integrated parking lights - H4 bulb fittings (as usual) all for 53 euros including postage to Holland.

Wow - seems to me like the deal of the century (if you look and see how much a set of Hella equivalents would cost)

I reckon this could go one of two ways

I'll let you know what they're like when they arrive.

Within 5 minutes of ordering they were registered with the courier and marked as sent...

[c1800]

Interested to see the results, wonder if those parking lights could be used for daytime running lights?

[Army]

Originally Posted by c1800

Interested to see the results, wonder if those parking lights could be used for daytime running lights?

I suppose you could I was already thinking about getting these retrofit LED bulbs =>

https://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/23...onet-bulb.html

(Need T4W for the parking lights)

[norustplease]

Headlight units look good. I have been thinking for some time about installing units with integral sidelights, and then fitting an orange bulb into the front indicator/sidelight unit. I suspect that at night, the front indicators are not terribly visible with the sidelights on at the same time.
I may try a set if you feel that they are decent quality.

[Army]

Well very quick delivery - with a decent courier too - DPD

The headlights turned up today.

The packaging wasn't as great as I hoped but they arrived intact so I can't really complain (!)



The quality seem to me to be as good as any "A brand" manufacturers - I'm not in a position to compare these new items with new items from another brand - but they feel solid and look like they are well finished.



The connecting parts look like they are firmly attached and the chrome(?) coating seems pretty plush

For the outlay I'm a happy camper

The proof of the pudding, however, will be what they look like in 10 years time

[Army]

...'appening but I'm not ready to show and tell just yet.

I did, however, pluck up the courage to tackle that front bulkhead paint disaster today

Just wire brush attachment and angle grinder =>



First thin coat of Eastwood rust encapsulator =>



Second coat tomorrow - when I'll also have a chance to have a good hard look at it to make sure there's no signs of any more nasty chemical reactions

Despite the high price one of the benefits of the Eastwood rust encapsulator is that "they" say it is quite tolerant to being mixed with filler - meaning you can coat the metal in the encapsulator - do a bit of filler - sand back - coat again in the rust encapsulator

(In practice this means you don't need to add on shed loads of filler to make sure you don't ever reach the rust protective coating)

[Army]

I'm a bit stuck with the clutch release fork on my M40 gearbox.

I have searched on the interweb but can't find the answer

I have looked through my workshop manual but it seems to cover different gearboxes / clutches

########

Before I resort to big hammer and screwdriver and make a(nother) mess

########

How do I get the fork and the clutch release bearing off?

########





It is probably as simple as faffing about with an open ended spanner on the end of that nut section of the internal bobble onto which the fork pivots...

...but - you know - this is what the forum is for (asking dumb questions)

[Army]

Nobody help with the clutch fork?

I tried to get an open ended spanner on it today and felt there must be a better way...

...anyway - I'll try and help who ever it was who was asking about gearbox mounts (was it Blueosprey?)

Here's mine when it came off =>



The hole in the bushing is orientated at the lower point of the mount

The plan for bushing replacement was to push out the centre part of the rubber leaving the metal ring behind - I wanted to have the metal ring apart from the bushing as often these parts are useful to help push in the new part (so old helps new)



(I think that's a 32mm socket in there helping push the rubber out)

I then used a Mercedes W114/115/123/126 rear axle special tool (which I'm sure you'll all have in your tool kits!) to push out the metal bit



Unfortunately cunning plan of using old bit of metal from the old bushing didn't work out as the diameter of it was larger than the ram rod part of my hydraulic press - oh well - good intentions and all that...

...so I ended up using sockets as usual to push the new bushing back in.



In between the pictures above the outer part was wire brushed - brunoxed - and painted in Extreme Chassis Black. With a HD rubber bushing plus the gucci paint job I claim it is better than new (!)

Note pushing the new bushing in place needs to be done on outer part of the metal and not on the resilient mounted part in the middle. I did bung the bushing in the freezer for a bit and I left the housing in the sun for a while to help with the fitting but the hydraulic press did most of the work.