My V70- A Rolling Restoration Project.

[LPTJoe]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

They look great. Looking at the pictures, you wouldn't think it was a DIY job!

Don't forget the centre caps.

Thanks man, centre caps went on after the paint had hardened.

I was actually about to put these up for sale- but they're not perfect by any means, I think £70-£80 for all four taking into account they have good/newish tyres will be about right for them and a bit of a bargain for someone...

Difficult now thought what with lockdown, will probably need to wait until December

[LPTJoe]

*LONG PIC HEAVY POST ALERT*

After having had the V70 for a year and dealing with most mechanical faults/areas of liability, ie I'd changed the timing belt, replaced brakes/handbrake shoes etc the time had come to turn my attention to the cosmetics of the car, with only 92k on the clock and a good car underneath it seemed worth the time investment...

As luck would have it a car in the correct colour with great bodywork turned up as a breaker (Failed autobox) and I pounced. £150 saw me leaving with 2X front wings, front and rear bumpers, an entire boot interior, all speaker covers, 4X wheels/tyres, 4X doors and a host of other sundries...

Bits were assembled...





A rear door was changed...







Fresh boot interior was swapped in as the old one was torn up/battered...





Looking smarter...







Both front wings were changed as the old ones had seen better days...






'New' wings were given a good dose of rust prevention around the arch lips before fitting...





Old rusty towbar was removed and 'new' bumpers were fitted front and back. After this the wheels/tyres bought as part of the £150 bundle were quite badly corroded...





They were sanded back with various grades until they all looked like this...





Then given a couple of coats of Upol etch primer...





Followed by a couple of coats of Upol wheel silver and then Upol lacquer (Full house of Upol products) which left them looking like this...





After this the car was given a deep cleaning/polish/wax. With most panels changed it now looked very presentable...





I'm quite happy with how this all worked out. Within a year the V70 had been transformed from a cheap end of life builders van with every panel dented in some way into a clean, mechanically sorted family car

[Millie20]

You got yourself an absolute bargain with that haul. Car looks great. Did you have to fill the wheels at all?

[LPTJoe]

Originally Posted by Millie20

You got yourself an absolute bargain with that haul. Car looks great. Did you have to fill the wheels at all?

Thanks for the kind words man

I could have taken the whole car away (With the cat already removed unfortunately) for £220 but didn't have anywhere to store it or any way to get it back to base camp even if I'd had the space. The ugly truth is that Volvo stuff of this age isn't particularly desirable now, they don't have the same perceived 'Prestige' that Audi/BMW/Mercedes cars hold with the genral public... Prices for P2 stuff has plummeted as a result, I remember 4 years ago my old man had an S80 I used to borrow and the cheapest we could get a replacement wing mirror for was £60 after scouring breakers/Ebay, now it would be a £10 part.

Re the wheels, I didn't use any filler but probably could have in places. They look like new wheels from standing height, but if you knelt down and looked at them closely you'd spot imperfections/minor rim damage. TBH nobody I know really cares about cars and the chances of anyone being interested enough to look that closely are slim.... if it wasn't for dim/distant involvement in the motor trade I probably wouldn't care either (I served an apprenticeship for Leyland-Daf in the late 90's) The proviso here was to 'save' an old car that the rest of the world had written off, sort of like a rescue dog but in automotive format.

[barrybritcher]

how do you get the wings off these cars?

[simonwedge]

Good work fella - really like to see a thread like this - hopefully shows that good maintenance and improvements can be done on a budget and will encourage others to have a go.

Have done similar projects on my last 3 S60's but didn't take any pictures and a picture is worth a thousand words as they say.

[charles p]

Good work on a budget.
I've had 140, 170 and D5 in P2, manual and auto and I do really like my current 170 Auto best as a driving car. I've been through most of the procedures you've done but having owned it since 50k I've avoided some of the abuse. However, at 205k with the ride still deteriorating (done shockers, springs, bushes, ARB) it's getting marginal. The auto box has survived on frequent flushes but it's a simply a matter of time and the cost of repair combined with the punitive £565 road tax is likely to be the axe.
Given a wash it passes for a much younger car, the leather looks pretty dammed good and on a decent road surface the ride is great. I'm keeping it until the death through affection and the inability to find a viable petrol replacement. I don't buy 2 year old cars, I buy 7 year old+ and replacements are few and far between.

C

[LPTJoe]

Originally Posted by barrybritcher

how do you get the wings off these cars?

The formula is...30% lockdown boredom, 20% skill/enthusiasm, 25% undoing nuts and botls, 25% drilling out pop rivets.

[Adammorris]

Looking great! Slowing going through mine but by bit too.

[Lexington013]

Brilliant job man. Great write up, photos etc.