Hello all.

Well here we are, having traded the lovely C70 after just 3 months of ownership the other week for a 205 I miss driving a Volvo....again!

This, for those that don't know, is my late Father's car. He bought it in April 2007 completely standard and died in the December that year having hardly driven it. I was 15 when I took charge of the car, a long time to wait until I could drive it I tell you!

I started a thread for the car on volvoforums.org.uk in 2009 so the full story is there if you're interested. I'll have a quick round up below.

Once I passed my test in November 2009 at 17 I obviously couldn't afford to insure this so I bought a 00 BMW 316i Compact. I sold that one year later (to the day) as I had a years no claims and insurance was a bit more realistic, £4500 @ 17 down to £1800 @ 18 with 1 years no claims. In November 2010 it was ready to get the car on the road for the first time in over 3 years. I spent a month gathering parts and had a slot free in a half term break to take the car down to college to work on the car with no ££££s about!

In that couple of days we fully serviced the car, fitted a Jetex exhaust, and sorted a couple of other little things ready for it's MOT. It passed after having it's front brakes cleaned up a bit. There, legally on the road for the first time in over 3 years, driving a huge Volvo estate at 18, my Dad's Volvo estate.

It must have looked weird, a scruffy young git running around in an old Volvo.

In December '10 I nearly totalled the car in the extreme snow we had. I was going down a hill laughing at the 2wd morons failing to get up it and forgot about the crossroads just ahead! I was hurtling along at 40 or so and went straight into the high verge dead ahead! Thankfully there were no cars passing on the road or the car, well...you get the picture! My passengers were pissing themselves as I reversed off the verge, leaving bits of Volvo behind. A quick check saw that there were no leaks so on we went! It turned out that I'd bent the bumper, fog light brackets, dented the subframe and intercooler and even smashed both radiator mounts, it was hanging by just it's hoses! A new one was obviously ordered and fitted. It was a good lesson that AWD doesn't help you come to a stop. Thankfully I hadn't had the bumpers resprayed until after the incident!

So January 2011 saw the front and rear bumpers resprayed professionally along with a rare as hens teeth Heico splitter fitted. A good eBay find that .

I went on to fit a horrid silver rear bumper guard which is still on the car now, tried to remove it and the excellent tape used has ruined the paint! I'll either get a black guard or wrap it in something jazzy !

Feb saw some 302s fitted on the front and that meant different wheels as the Pureus (or whatever they're called) don't fit over them, I didn't know that until after I fitted the brakes over! Quick swap over to 280s then and I got some Tethys S60 wheels. Nice. The first swap of many I'm sure!

In March 2011 though I thought it was it. Got home from Asda and the gearbox was slipping, got out of the car and found a nice trail of red fluid. Took the car off the road as I thought a seal had failed or something. Bought a lovely 480 but it turned out the atf leak was from one of the cooler lines that worked loose, that was it, I bought a different car for nothing!

Due to the 480's lack of working correctly I had to get the V70 back on the road in June as we were going on a little holiday in a couple of days time. The car was perfect after it's 3 month rest. Here's a photo of it as it was then.


During the 'holiday' the car developed a knock. It turned out to be the rubber mount halfway down, I removed it and it's been on the garage floor ever since. I also fitted a BOV for some reason lol, you barely hear it being an auto of course.

October 2011 saw genuine rear spoiler and a black mesh grill.

December I belatedly fitted a little tribute to my old man on the tailgate.

March 2012 I sourced some C70 Comets and had them resprayed in a dark colour, looked ace on it!

Removed the roof rails for a cleaner look and that was pretty much the last thing I did to the car as I took it off the road in June 2012 for a fling with a Golf and it hasn't been on the road since as I've been driving other tat. Golf went in October and I got that 480 back on the road and then sold that in July 2013 and got the C70 T5, just traded that for the 205 GTi and we're up to date!

This is what the car looks like now having given it's wheels to the C70.

05-11-13 001 by AcidicDavey, on Flickr


05-11-13 002 by AcidicDavey, on Flickr

It's filthy and running way too high. I'm thinking that I will be selling the 205 (Yes, I haven't even had it 2 weeks!) and getting this beast back out there.

So there it is, not much will happen for a while but this is out there now.