I'm considering a 7/940 estate for a long term project.. but

[meatballturbo]

Some will love this idea, some will hate it, others will issue death threats, but I'm considering my first volvo based project. I've always loved Volvo "brick" type estates, but have been a Saab man until now, 3, smattered in between with various Toyota/Lexus. Yes I love solidity, safety and reliability.

I have a plan to turn a 740/940 turbo estate into a scaled down replica of an American Landau hearse. It would be a long term project when money is a bit better, but I figure they have the necessary mass without the bulk of an american car. Plan would be to retain the 5 door estate shape, but have the load area side windows plated over and having a vinyl roof fitted with mock Landau bars.

One thing putting me off this is the plastic covered bumpers. Did anyone ever produce chrome bumpers or bumper cover accessories, either in metal or plastic?

This would be an over the top one off conversion, so I would be sad if I couldn't ditch the plain plastics.

Over to you guys.

[BlueBrickSte]

Try going the other way,MBT. Underneath the plastic cover is an aluminium bumper that you could maybe fit the trimmed ends of the plastic cover? Good to hear there are other nutters out there!

[meatballturbo]

Originally Posted by BlueBrickSte

Try going the other way,MBT. Underneath the plastic cover is an aluminium bumper that you could maybe fit the trimmed ends of the plastic cover? Good to hear there are other nutters out there!

Ah right, is the bumper all the way round or is it a girder just across the front/back with cover wrapping round.

Wonder if that could be polished up.

I suppose the other option is to find something smallish amarican and 70/80's which still had chrome bumpers and pray for a good fit.

[Tibbsey23]

Hiya mate, if you delve into my photo albums as per the link to the left and have a look at my "various volvo bangers" album you should see some pics of 740s with the plastic removed. What you are left with is an ally girder as you say which I have always painted black. As you can imagine though, as it was designed to be covered, the bolts that attach it arnt really very pretty for what you want to do. I would have thought it relatively easy to make something else fit though!

Good luck!

[meatballturbo]

Originally Posted by Tibbsey23

Hiya mate, if you delve into my photo albums as per the link to the left and have a look at my "various volvo bangers" album you should see some pics of 740s with the plastic removed. What you are left with is an ally girder as you say which I have always painted black. As you can imagine though, as it was designed to be covered, the bolts that attach it arnt really very pretty for what you want to do. I would have thought it relatively easy to make something else fit though!

Good luck!

Cheers, that gives me just the info I wanted. And you are right, I should be able to bodge something on there

[LankyTim]

Early 240s had wraparound ally bumpers, maybe they could be adapted to fit?

[meatballturbo]

Originally Posted by LankyTim

Early 240s had wraparound ally bumpers, maybe they could be adapted to fit?

Oh loverly, and if necessary, silver anodising would help stop coroding and keep them shinier too.

Might be an idea.

For now it is just another virtual/vapourware project, but once some large storage/workspace comes up and there is money to do it justice I want to build it.

[LankyTim]

They dont seem to corrode much anyway. Im sure Nightmares racing over on RR has a pair going spare.

[meatballturbo]

Originally Posted by LankyTim

They dont seem to corrode much anyway. Im sure Nightmares racing over on RR has a pair going spare.

It'll be one of the last jobs to do anyway. And when I raised the idea of a hearse style volvo it didn't go down too well over on RR.

I even posted a pretty poor photoshop to show what I had in mind,


The roof was shopped on from a Cadillac so had to be skewed a bit.
A real 5 door volvo hearse would be extra cool, but it seems that very few of them were made and they still had glass load area.

[Tibbsey23]

Originally Posted by LankyTim

Early 240s had wraparound ally bumpers, maybe they could be adapted to fit?

If I remember rightly though mate, I think these bumpers had holes in to hold a rubber cap for want of a better word. You will see what i mean on this picture I just found on a Google hunt

in any case isn't the 240 a bit narrower? I reckon you will end up having to look towards something big and chromey for exactly what you want, Jag maybe?

I couldn't help but wonder if you had considered converting a normal hearse, but it sounds like you have. Love to see the final result, but I cant help but feel that it might look out of proportion on a std estate. Have you considered keeping an eye out for a 6 door limo to use as a base vehicle? The middle doors could become your back doors and the rest of the back end then could be your hearse. They are certainly out there and would be quite imposing when done