My new 164. A sorry tale with a happy ending

[Nextmove]

Howza.

I finally laid hands on my '71 maroon 164 auto on Wednesday. And it arrived home after a long road trip yesterday to the western highlands from down south of London.



Bought sight unseen based on some months-old images, a chat with the owner, and some inspections by knowledgeable persons. A fair bit of trust involved but I haven't been too disappointed.

But I was disappointed when after asking the garage which was holding the car for the owner to give it a thorough inspection in view of my desire to drive it 6-700 miles home, I got 1. Minus - a car that hadn't been cleaned in ages, even though it looked sound. 2. Plus - Battery had been replaced at my request. 3. Minus - Tyres I was told were fine (they might have been 10 years ago, but were decidedly not fine any more 4. Plus - Fluids looked OK and brakes had been checked (I think!) 5. Huge Minus - Fan belt looked very worn, but I trusted that they'd checked it. But they obviously didn't, and this together with the thumbs up for the quite badly perished tyres has certainly taken those clowns off my Christmas card list

!0 miles later after making a cardinal error of judgement and trying to go a very short distance on the M25, we made it to the safety zone with a completely disintegrated fan belt, in peak hour, in the rain. Thank goodness for the new battery as it kept the hazard lights going. Scary place to be.

After nearly 30 minutes trying to tell a lady on the AA "dangerous situation emergency rescue line" where we were, I was at screaming point. They should put people with an IQ over 30, and some ability to read a map and listen to what I carefully spelled out 30 times, in such a job. Bloody appalling having to correct her... "M33 did you say?" "No, M25 heading north, between junctions 12 and 13 (I may misremember this, but I got that off my satnav and iphone so it was accurate at the time), just above the M3 crossover." "Okay, I've got it now, so I'm putting you on the M3 near the M25 heading west." ETC. ETC. on it went... Over and over.

Somebody please take this lady away and terminate her before she kills somebody.

40 minutes later still this phone debacle eventually resulted in a truck with a sensible driver ringing me to get an accurate fix, then arriving and spiriting us out of the carnage zone. He said he gets crap directions from the AA all the time and always tries to talk to the driver himself ... She had actually passed on directions that I was on the M bloody 3!!!!! He knew he'd better take it from the horses mouth, thank goodness.

So our new friend took us to a nearby REAL, professional garage where they love classics and do their jobs well, and we got new fan and ps belts and 5 new Continental tyres at bargain prices. The fan belt is a bit difficult for 164s as there seem to be several options, and it's a match it and see game. They tried 3 before they got a proper fit.

By then the BH and I were a bit over our dream of driving all the way home, and the weather where we wanted to go had turned very nasty again/still, so we transported ourselves home, and got our rescue truck driver to take our new steed up to Inverness. He does this sort of thing as a weekend extra - after rescuing breakdowns all week - and has his own trucks. Cost a bit more than Shipleys quotes, but he was a known quantity, and the garage owner gave him a good rep. Took him nearly 12 hrs as they closed his choice of motorway for roadworks without warning and shunted him and hundreds of other trucks over to the far right of the map.

All this transporting of us bodies and car added about 40% to the cost of the car, but sure saved us a lot of anxiety.

Delivered safely yesterday and all I had to do is drive 70 miles home from Inverness. Nothing fell off. It was lovely to drive (in fairly solid rain) along winding roads and get used to it's oddities, and it's finer points. A very nice car.

But how good is it really?

74k miles, in effect one owner- a marine engineer who did most of his own servicing (then passed the car on to his daughter when he died recently, but she hardly drove it) Good MOT record until mid 2018, then it mostly sat until now, so I was naturally (and rightly) wary of what might have happened to the perishable bits and fluids.

Small rust patches on top of the front wings in the usual spot behind the headlights , but it's better than the images I'd been sent made it look. Back lower edges of front wings just in front of sills also starting to rust through but again it looks very repairable. That seems to be the sum total of rust so far, and I already knew about it.

New back wings sometime in the past. Paint generally good but faded, so a good buff is needed.

Interior in very good nick, all instruments working except high beam warning light, running very cold so needs a lot of choke till warmed, so a new thermostat is on order. Plugs look good, and it has obviously been serviced reasonably recently at least re mileage, if not time, and generally well looked after - at least till the last year or so.

Needs new hoses, especially heater hoses. And that's about all I can find after crawling over it this morning.

Spit and polish, new coolant, thermostat, oil and filter to be on the safe side, brake flush for ditto reason, Ps fluid flush, check valve clearances, timing, and have a much closer look underneath when it stops raining.

I must say this car feels a lot like my 1970 Murk 280S (W108) which i bought when it was 30 years old and had for nearly 15 years. Same transmission, same sorts of bits in the engine compartment, same slightly bumpy ride at low speed, but smooth when you pick up steam, same bit of steering looseness at low speed but not when you speed up, same slightly squidgy brakes, that actually work very well, and same stickability to the road.

Very similar, but better.

Now looking forward to a long relationship. And a sore shoulder from buffing.

[JRL]

Lovely car, I have always thought these a very classy design.

[Laird Scooby]

Lovely car, just replied to your other thread too!

[ITSv40]

That does look nice and very correct. lovely colour too - very regal.

I had a 164E big bumper back in the day and it was a lovely car, a wafty soft lazy ride.

[90Wine745]

Originally Posted by Nextmove

Howza.

I finally laid hands on my '71 maroon 164 auto on Wednesday. And it arrived home after a long road trip yesterday to the western highlands from down south of London.



Bought sight unseen based on some months-old images, a chat with the owner, and some inspections by knowledgeable persons. A fair bit of trust involved but I haven't been too disappointed.

But I was disappointed when after asking the garage which was holding the car for the owner to give it a thorough inspection in view of my desire to drive it 6-700 miles home, I got 1. Minus - a car that hadn't been cleaned in ages, even though it looked sound. 2. Plus - Battery had been replaced at my request. 3. Minus - Tyres I was told were fine (they might have been 10 years ago, but were decidedly not fine any more 4. Plus - Fluids looked OK and brakes had been checked (I think!) 5. Huge Minus - Fan belt looked very worn, but I trusted that they'd checked it. But they obviously didn't, and this together with the thumbs up for the quite badly perished tyres has certainly taken those clowns off my Christmas card list

!0 miles later after making a cardinal error of judgement and trying to go a very short distance on the M25, we made it to the safety zone with a completely disintegrated fan belt, in peak hour, in the rain. Thank goodness for the new battery as it kept the hazard lights going. Scary place to be.

After nearly 30 minutes trying to tell a lady on the AA "dangerous situation emergency rescue line" where we were, I was at screaming point. They should put people with an IQ over 30, and some ability to read a map and listen to what I carefully spelled out 30 times, in such a job. Bloody appalling having to correct her... "M33 did you say?" "No, M25 heading north, between junctions 12 and 13 (I may misremember this, but I got that off my satnav and iphone so it was accurate at the time), just above the M3 crossover." "Okay, I've got it now, so I'm putting you on the M3 near the M25 heading west." ETC. ETC. on it went... Over and over.

Somebody please take this lady away and terminate her before she kills somebody.

40 minutes later still this phone debacle eventually resulted in a truck with a sensible driver ringing me to get an accurate fix, then arriving and spiriting us out of the carnage zone. He said he gets crap directions from the AA all the time and always tries to talk to the driver himself ... She had actually passed on directions that I was on the M bloody 3!!!!! He knew he'd better take it from the horses mouth, thank goodness.

So our new friend took us to a nearby REAL, professional garage where they love classics and do their jobs well, and we got new fan and ps belts and 5 new Continental tyres at bargain prices. The fan belt is a bit difficult for 164s as there seem to be several options, and it's a match it and see game. They tried 3 before they got a proper fit.

By then the BH and I were a bit over our dream of driving all the way home, and the weather where we wanted to go had turned very nasty again/still, so we transported ourselves home, and got our rescue truck driver to take our new steed up to Inverness. He does this sort of thing as a weekend extra - after rescuing breakdowns all week - and has his own trucks. Cost a bit more than Shipleys quotes, but he was a known quantity, and the garage owner gave him a good rep. Took him nearly 12 hrs as they closed his choice of motorway for roadworks without warning and shunted him and hundreds of other trucks over to the far right of the map.

All this transporting of us bodies and car added about 40% to the cost of the car, but sure saved us a lot of anxiety.

Delivered safely yesterday and all I had to do is drive 70 miles home from Inverness. Nothing fell off. It was lovely to drive (in fairly solid rain) along winding roads and get used to it's oddities, and it's finer points. A very nice car.

But how good is it really?

74k miles, in effect one owner- a marine engineer who did most of his own servicing (then passed the car on to his daughter when he died recently, but she hardly drove it) Good MOT record until mid 2018, then it mostly sat until now, so I was naturally (and rightly) wary of what might have happened to the perishable bits and fluids.

Small rust patches on top of the front wings in the usual spot behind the headlights , but it's better than the images I'd been sent made it look. Back lower edges of front wings just in front of sills also starting to rust through but again it looks very repairable. That seems to be the sum total of rust so far, and I already knew about it.

New back wings sometime in the past. Paint generally good but faded, so a good buff is needed.

Interior in very good nick, all instruments working except high beam warning light, running very cold so needs a lot of choke till warmed, so a new thermostat is on order. Plugs look good, and it has obviously been serviced reasonably recently at least re mileage, if not time, and generally well looked after - at least till the last year or so.

Needs new hoses, especially heater hoses. And that's about all I can find after crawling over it this morning.

Spit and polish, new coolant, thermostat, oil and filter to be on the safe side, brake flush for ditto reason, Ps fluid flush, check valve clearances, timing, and have a much closer look underneath when it stops raining.

I must say this car feels a lot like my 1970 Murk 280S (W108) which i bought when it was 30 years old and had for nearly 15 years. Same transmission, same sorts of bits in the engine compartment, same slightly bumpy ride at low speed, but smooth when you pick up steam, same bit of steering looseness at low speed but not when you speed up, same slightly squidgy brakes, that actually work very well, and same stickability to the road.

Very similar, but better.

Now looking forward to a long relationship. And a sore shoulder from buffing.

Super lovely car.
Very best of luck with it and health to wear it.
Mike

[julek780]

Hi, i just recently purchased a very similar 164, and i am now in the process of a complete respray , and i must say i am amazed at the amount of weld splatter, paint runs, and body filler that came from the factory when these where new, i always thought the quality was better, this is my 4th 164 over 50 other Volvos over 40 years, and until i took it apart for the respray, i was very surprised at the quality.
I've added some photo's, last photo of car outside is before respray.

[Nextmove]

Wow, that looked perfect in the "before" shot. It'll be absolutely magnificent after the final polish. And the whitewalls look brilliant. Beautiful car.

Mine still looks rather tired and sad, as I'm mainly sorting the mechanical side as a priority. I've compounded a couple of the most faded panels, then polished them, but was waiting on some decent wax to finish them off. In the couple of weeks delay time after polishing they faded again before the wax arrived, and I now think I'm not going to get the look I want without a respray. I'll give it another birthday when I can get outside to do it, and hope the wax will hold the look for a while.

It reminds me of the burgundy '70 Murk 280SE my BH had about 15 years back. I could buff it up and it would look good for a week, than fade and get blooms in it. We finally got it resprayed and it looked magnificent.

Then we sold it, for a pittance. At least it went to a good home.

Will have to offload one of the rest of the fleet before a respray happens, and that probably won't happen for a while, as things proceed at the moment. It ain't easy to sell a car when nobody's allowed to come and look at it.

Anyhows, congrats Julek780. That really is a lovely looking machine, and something to aspire to.

Nextmove

[griston64]

Originally Posted by Nextmove

Wow, that looked perfect in the "before" shot. It'll be absolutely magnificent after the final polish. And the whitewalls look brilliant. Beautiful car.

Mine still looks rather tired and sad, as I'm mainly sorting the mechanical side as a priority. I've compounded a couple of the most faded panels, then polished them, but was waiting on some decent wax to finish them off. In the couple of weeks delay time after polishing they faded again before the wax arrived, and I now think I'm not going to get the look I want without a respray. I'll give it another birthday when I can get outside to do it, and hope the wax will hold the look for a while.

It reminds me of the burgundy '70 Murk 280SE my BH had about 15 years back. I could buff it up and it would look good for a week, than fade and get blooms in it. We finally got it resprayed and it looked magnificent.

Then we sold it, for a pittance. At least it went to a good home.

Will have to offload one of the rest of the fleet before a respray happens, and that probably won't happen for a while, as things proceed at the moment. It ain't easy to sell a car when nobody's allowed to come and look at it.

Anyhows, congrats Julek780. That really is a lovely looking machine, and something to aspire to.

Nextmove

I'd be interested to know what car in your fleet you will be selling ?

Cheers, Mark

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by griston64

I'd be interested to know what car in your fleet you will be selling ?

Cheers, Mark

Thinking of an addition to your fleet Mark?

[griston64]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

Thinking of an addition to your fleet Mark?

Always on the lookout for interesting Volvo's DaveQuite fancy a 240 or even something older