1961 Volvo PV544 in Holland

[Army]

Originally Posted by simonvolvo

See:

https://www.volvoforums.org.uk/showt...light=katterug

Post #9

Thanks I saw the word for ¨back¨ and ¨cat¨ in there but wasn´t sure if the ¨ter¨ bit in the middle really was ¨from¨...

...you see if I´d had my arm twisted I would have translated it as the back of the cat

[Army]

Today I had a few milliseconds to play with the angle grinders.

Not that I´m paranoid but I thought it was worth checking if the replacement front cross member was the same size as the old one!



Not that I´m paranoid (#2) but I thought it was worth measuring between the two chassis legs before cutting the old cross member away



Not that I´m paranoid (#3) but it looks like I need to drill some drain holes in the new cross member as there seems to be a lot of stuff that gets stuck in there. Just look what came out =>



Not that I´m paranoid (#4) but I might weld plates on the ends of this tube and skip the drain holes...



Despite careful cutting and slow slow grinding I was caught on the hop. I thought that once the cross member tube was cut away I be able to see into the chassis legs. I was surprised to see that the ends of the chassis legs are boxed in / closed off =>



^^^^^^^

Nice bit of upside down welding is needed (arse)

[Army]

Blinking heck

Grinding away the welds on the underside of the other chassis leg went well



The holes I´ve made in the other end however are not playing ball. I like the controllability of TIG welding but in this case it is proving not to be a good method of welding as the inside of the chassis leg is full of waxoyl / rust proofing goo...

...rust proofing goo in the big scheme of things is welcome right up to the point when you want to weld (!)

I´ve resorted to arc welding (which is taking a long time but getting there)...

[Army]

I decided to have a look at the state of the vehicle under the rear wings...



Left hand wing came off really nicely and easily - so far I can´t see any rust problems there - so billy bonus



Rear right hand wing has been messed about with a bit more so odd fasteners and BS like that was occurring - still it came off

Only a small amount of rust there =>



Bumper stays and tow hitch have also been removed for repainting and so I can get into the boot and sand that dreadful black paint away and get it to be the same as the outside body colour

[Coach39]

Best of luck with that 1961 as it seems to be in fair condition. I bought me a 1960 same model here in USA and have invested in new exhaust, carbs and fuel pumps and running great with 54,000 one owner, no rust, great body. Needs struts for trunk. Trim all needs repair. It's the popular grey color. Driving great after difficulties in starting. Amazing that it's a california original owner that I bought it from who spent $2,300 in 1959. I'm holding the original Bill of sale. Hopefully, i wend pictures when I get around to it. Frank M

[Army]

Originally Posted by Coach39

Best of luck with that 1961 as it seems to be in fair condition. I bought me a 1960 same model here in USA and have invested in new exhaust, carbs and fuel pumps and running great with 54,000 one owner, no rust, great body. Needs struts for trunk. Trim all needs repair. It's the popular grey color. Driving great after difficulties in starting. Amazing that it's a california original owner that I bought it from who spent $2,300 in 1959. I'm holding the original Bill of sale. Hopefully, i wend pictures when I get around to it. Frank M

There used to be a chap who went by the name of coach on the Mercedes Shop / Peach Parts forum - you're not the same one are you?

It sounds like you've got yourself a real corker of a PV. I for one will be interested to see pictures if you are willing / able. Your car sounds like a real time warp - are there any gucci little stickers remaining in the engine bay?

(Series Land Rover chaps go nuts for things like that - I suspect Volvo owners would be interested in that kind of thing too)

[Army]

...at long last. I was hoping to have reached this stage two months ago,

Oh well

After the No1 rust beater stuff and making sure it had stuck nicely to the underside of the car (I can't stress how important this is!) I applied a couple of coats of Ferpox epoxy. This is a single component epoxy that I've used for years now. It holds up really well so long as you re-coat it with decent paint.

Note the colour changes (see pictures at the bottom of the previous page) =>



Whilst it wasn't necessarily planned this way the "red oxide like" colour of the rust treatment paint and the grey RAL whatever it is from the epoxy does help you see if you've missed bits.



The epoxy has been sprayed to the outer extremes of the underside of the car. The next layer Eastwood Extreme Chassis Black is being sprayed slightly within this area - so another layer of masking was applied



The underside and outer parts of the sills are going to be body colour (whatever that turns out to be - still having trouble getting the colour I want in the product I want to use) as will the spare wheel well and the chassis like rails under the rear wheel arches (they will also be body colour)

Three coats of the chassis black =>





I really like this Eastwood satin chassis black it dries to a real solid feeling paint that looks like an old car paint

[Army]

I wasn't sure if I had the time to get to see the Volvo today - I'm glad I did - because I really wanted to remove the masking tape from the underside as soon as possible.

(Well I could have risked pulling it away yesterday whilst the paint was still wet but that usually goes wrong for me)

The masking tape I'm using here isn't like the gucci stuff I was using at the beginning of this thread for the paint buffing / polishing this is pretty basic stuff that's way cheaper. It does its job but you can get a bit of seepage along the edge if you're a bit unlucky,



I don't want to leave masking tape for too long on the car as it has a tendency to bake itself on especially in the summer months when it is warm. So semi-brisk removal is better.

I'm quite happy with my masking - I did miss one bit (doh) so that needs to be sanded and there was one other place where the paint seeped under. But on the whole I'm a happy camper today...

...one other thing I wanted to do was to put the car cover over the body to help protect the epoxy from direct sunlight. Epoxy (most epoxies) tend not to be UV resistant so even under a glass roof like in my workshop it needs a bit of covering.

#####

Further in the news:-

Fingers crossed but after months of cocking about it looks like I might be able to buy some paint that I'm going to be happy to spray myself.

I'm pretty concerned about conventional 2 pack for health reasons (not only myself but other people in my building), so I've looking for an alternative that's not quite so dodgy to apply.

The Epifanes epoxy with the zinc looks like it will be removed from the inside of the roof. I've decided that poly-whatever system isn't going to be easy to combine with car paints. A tie coat primer needs to be used to combine with conventional car paints. Epifanes themselves say their intermediate coat is a "bit rough" so using this on a more flexible steel body (rather than a hulking big bit on the a boat) seems less feasible. The Epifanes stuff seems to be really nice quality - it does have a good reputation but I get the feeling it is just a little bit too left field for cars...

[old fart]

Looking good, you can do mine when you've finished!

[kishor]

Originally Posted by Army

G'day Folks,

I've recently bought something by accident.

I was looking for a MK1 Transit van but somehow or other I've ended up with a "Katterug" - Katterug is what the Dutch call the PV444 / PV544 models...

...'Cos I'm English I don't quite know why they hit upon that one (!)

Anyway - this ended up being mine because I jokingly asked if it was for sale - and then jokingly said "I suppose you want 10K for it". Unfortunately the answer to the first question was "yes" - the second answer was "no" - but even worse - the number that followed was so low I felt compelled to take on yet another vehicle.

It must be a sickness.

Well anyway 'ere it is.







On the whole it is amazingly solid despite being left out side for so long that there's moss growing on the trim.

It is road legal.

It has got some problems that even a Volvo virgin like myself can see...

Hi. If you deciding on selling it, please give me a call. Ta kassie 00447828879494