General: 164: Newish addition to the family.

[Mike_Brace]

My son Matt acquired this rather nice 164 in the middle of October:





It is a nice clean example that had been resprayed a few years ago and is a nice car suitable for being used regularly. The first job to be done was a full service, a set of decent tyres (he used 205/60R15 on standard rims - much better road holdong) and he also had this rather nice stainless exhaust made and now achieves 18-20 mpg with it. The carbs also had new metering needles fitted.





The next job will be to fit lpg to it to make it affordable to run - this will bring fuel costs down to about £12 per 100 miles (equivalent to about 45mpg).

Mike

[JIM C]

Nice to see a 164. Love the exhaust sytem. A good looking car.

[Velorum]

Yup, great looking car

[Mike_Brace]

Originally Posted by JIM C

Nice to see a 164. Love the exhaust sytem. A good looking car.

We are very lucky to have an excellent pipe man near us. Here is a 4 branch he made for Matt's 244 GLT:





Mike

[Triple-S]

When all I hear now is 164s being scrapped, its good that another graces this forum. Same colour as my 164E, also the one unneccesarily broken for relatively few spares in North London last week (I know cos I bought some of it!). If I had had a tow car capable of trailering it from the Midlands a couple of weeks ago, it would have been in my place now, undergoing assessment of what to do first. Still, thats progress I suppose...

However, I can't help but say that I think all large older cars (at least those with lots of shiny metal rather than plastic) look far better if darker in colour, unless they are white! This is the first non-dark 164 I've owned out of at least a dozen (except a white one and the one Ben in Ireland has or had). Something inside me says its colour makes it look less, er, old: can't say why but it does. Does anybody else have these strange conceptions or am I as big a wierdo as I thought?

Still, I try to keep mine as Mr Volvo intended regardless of colour, enjoy driving it (even at 20mpg or so, but not in winter!) and regularly take it to car shows in the south. Not as much a talking point for the uninitiated as the adjacent Amazons, but rare. Wouldn't it be good if we could each take our light blue 164 to the same show and park next to each other - how about the 140/164 meet planned for next spring?

Paul

[JIM C]

What a superb job he has done. He is a very skilled man . Not many around these days. A top job, I used to be a fabrication/mechanical engineer and from the photos and I can tell.
Thanks

[Mike_Brace]

Matt collected this one from Hove after it didn't sell on ebay. Quite a trip with his 244GLT as he couldn't collect till 2pm on a Friday and hit all the traffic.
I must agree the bigger cars do look better in general in the dark colours -I do like this blue and the white as well though. It's like with the 740s the dark colours work best - although I think the turquoise is quite good too.
Sounds a good idea for the show together but it depends whether Matt can get a day off - he's expected to work weekends.
Yes, Sean the Pipe always does excellent work and will take on any challenge - even managed a V70AWD and that was difficult - spent quite a time on it. His work is always so neat and tidy and it all seems to work perfectly. Also living where we do his prices are very good.

Mike

[Mike1967]

Lovely 164 you have Mike , looks pretty good underneath to !

The exhaust certainly makes it that be more special , im not jelous honest ! Grrrrrrrrrrr .

[Paul240480]

Yeh, it looks like a cracking machine, always liked those.

Mike, love the look of the 4-branch on Matts GLT too. Just for the un-initiated (ME!), what are the benefits of such a system?

Thanks.

[Mike_Brace]

4 branch - advantages improved gas flow - they can be built for increased torque, higher revs or somewhere in between. This one was built for improved torque as Matt does a lot of heavy towing with his GLT.

Mike