Join Today
Page 1 of 6 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 20 of 108
  1. #1
    Senior Member
    Swede demon
    hemihusky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    482
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 235 Times in 155 Posts

    Project 740 "The BattleBus"

    So after the battleship was sunk i had to get a new car and this is it! a 1989 volvo 740 SE estate in Pink....i mean red its a 2.0 N/A 8V redblock with the 5 speed M46 (i think) bought for £500 from hull with a years mot car looked ok when i picked it up. tired but ok set off driving and it immediatly came apparent the last mot advisorys were right.

    inner tie rods are knackered so it has a slight wobble to it. theres a nasty grinding clicking noise from the passenger side could be brakes or something im unsure. tap the brakes and it shoots hard left so the right side brakes are non existant. the tracking is out as i need to have a fair old ammount of left to go in a straight line (on the steering wheel) but heres the biggest pain. on the way home the head gasket let go. was pressuring all the coolant system to **** and i was doing about half a mile n boiling over again. so the drive home was less than fun to say the least.

    it has a aftermarket radio in it too that keeps going to "seek pi" so thatll be ripped out. useless bloody thing that it is. the car REAKS of dog n the interior is more dog than car. and the headlinings non existant n tailgate corroded as per the usual 700 series issues. so currently at the time of writing. im not that impressed but will just see where it goes with this thing i guess.

    Front



    back



    buggered paint



    some top bodge work going on n i aint even touched it yet!



    interior shot. more dog than interior



    non existant headlining



    154K on the clock



    stupid aftermarket radio



    rear door cards



    rear interior



    Corroded tailgate



    rear load area



    B200E engine bay



    still on kjet



    and broken down at the side of the road. yay

    The Scrapyard Saved 740


  2. #2
    Gearbox Killer
    Proving the power of the
    15g....13.4@104.3mph
    MoleT-5R's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Mid-Wales
    Posts
    5,624
    Thanks
    2,798
    Thanked 2,673 Times in 1,797 Posts
    to be fair if you'd read your own write up about this car, you would have walked away and save your hard earned for sometime better, seems a lot of buck to splash on something not worthy of saving imho, but it's your choice so good luck with your project mate

    Current Volvo's 1995 854 Gul T-5R 1996 855 Olive T-5R 1997 855 Olive AWD 1999 V70R AWD and 2005 XC90 D5 AWD
    Previous Volvo's 1987 745 gle 1989 745 GL 1995 855 Olive GLE 2001 V70 p2
    My Ebay Items http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/quik.connection

  3. #3
    Senior Member
    Swede demon
    hemihusky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    482
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 235 Times in 155 Posts
    tbh i would also have probably left it. but i was completely outta options this is the cheapest thing i can find. need a car for work n the other 740's were worse than this + cant afford to insure the 850. all the 240's i looked at were rotten and i dont like 940's so XD ah well. ill fix it
    The Scrapyard Saved 740


  4. #4
    Gearbox Killer
    Proving the power of the
    15g....13.4@104.3mph
    MoleT-5R's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2011
    Location
    Mid-Wales
    Posts
    5,624
    Thanks
    2,798
    Thanked 2,673 Times in 1,797 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by hemihusky View Post
    tbh i would also have probably left it. but i was completely outta options this is the cheapest thing i can find. need a car for work n the other 740's were worse than this + cant afford to insure the 850. all the 240's i looked at were rotten and i dont like 940's so XD ah well. ill fix it
    well best of luck with her, I had 2 of these 2.0l kjet 745's and tbf there were great, indestructible and excellent load luggers, bit sluggish but once there wound up they'll plod on all day long, just don't slow down......lol....do sometimes wish I still had my 745GLE...

    Current Volvo's 1995 854 Gul T-5R 1996 855 Olive T-5R 1997 855 Olive AWD 1999 V70R AWD and 2005 XC90 D5 AWD
    Previous Volvo's 1987 745 gle 1989 745 GL 1995 855 Olive GLE 2001 V70 p2
    My Ebay Items http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/quik.connection

  5. #5
    Senior Member
    Swede demon
    hemihusky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    482
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 235 Times in 155 Posts
    it didnt appear to be too bad when you did give it some revs n get going but yeah. trying to drive it like my 2.3 it just wont pull the same way up some of the hills. had to drop down a gear for some but i expected extremely slow. i got a spare H cam somewhere i think i may put in it. a lil hotter cam to see if that would give it any power up the top. just to faf with for the time being
    The Scrapyard Saved 740


  6. #6
    Senior Member
    Appreciative
    kmb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Suffolk & Rhone Alpes
    Posts
    1,396
    Thanks
    926
    Thanked 455 Times in 375 Posts
    That looks a 'challenging' restoration, what's going on with the head lining? Looks like water damage - good luck!

  7. #7
    Senior Member
    Swede demon
    hemihusky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    482
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 235 Times in 155 Posts
    im thinking sunroof drain holes may be blocked. as the sunroof itself is stuck closed. the motors clicking but no movement is happening so ill drop it down n try free it up + de clog the drain holes. i got another head lining to go in
    The Scrapyard Saved 740


  8. #8
    Senior Member
    Swede demon
    hemihusky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    482
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 235 Times in 155 Posts
    Sorry there hasnt been any progress posts for a while life got a little hectic!

    so cutting back to the chase after i got the car home by limping it n constantly boiling over decided a new headgasket was needed. turns out euro car parts were totaly useless. ordered the parts for wednesday said in stock on the site. then when nothing comes i ring and get a reply "oh they werent in stock. thursday" ok fine. thursday came and STILL nothing so i rang n got my money back as my freind ste had all the parts and i just ordered them.

    comming apart the car was fine and once the head was off it turned out to be pretty clean inside. minimal bore wear and pretty clean pistons. and it had turned out the head gasket had let go on one of the water passages but not to worry new genuine volvo headgasket went on and all back together. the only issue we ran into was the pesky 700 series distributor on the back of the head that didnt wanna fit in its bore but unbolting the rear cam top sliding it in n re-torquing sorted that.

    at the same time we replaced the plugs. rotor arm (as we broke it. was rusted solid onto the shaft!) all the seals and gaskets including the injector seals so it runs so much smoother now. needs a new fuel accumulator as it struggles to start after being sat for a while so its leaking off pressure but were now back up and driving. huge thanks to john n ste for doing the headgasket on my driveway for me!

    The cavalry helping me!



    some cleaning of the head. yes that is a toothbrush to clean my intake runners out



    back looks a mess with the cylinder head replacement going on



    Engine all in bits

    The Scrapyard Saved 740


  9. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to hemihusky For This Useful Post:

    craigoodwood (Tuesday 7th July 2015),t5 pete (Monday 6th July 2015)

  10. #9
    Senior Member
    Appreciative
    kmb's Avatar
    Join Date
    Oct 2014
    Location
    Suffolk & Rhone Alpes
    Posts
    1,396
    Thanks
    926
    Thanked 455 Times in 375 Posts
    Looks like a good start - Hope the rest goes well

  11. #10
    Senior Member
    Swede demon
    hemihusky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    482
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 235 Times in 155 Posts
    More updates (i progressed rather fast with this n didnt have time to update threads so these are old updates)

    after the engine was fixed i de stickered and de-dog spec'd the rear bumper making it a ltitle cleaner (not much) and then decided to attack the interior with some general purpose cleaner and a jet wash by taking it all out piece by piece to get the interior to somewhat of a ok standard. and well the pictures speak for themselves how awful the interior was. so much dog hair grit. sand. whatever the hell else everywhere.

    so then the interior looked semi presentable. not a minter but good enough to live with.

    De-stickered rear



    Free bag of tools!



    Horid dog hair



    Hair muck sand and whatever else!



    Parts to be cleaned



    dont even wanna know what this stuff is



    side trim pieces rather muddy



    still muck behined the trip piece!



    anybody need some sand?



    more dog hair



    Extreme valeting with a pressure washer and the pavement cleaning attatchment



    Cleaned parts



    Cleaning the rear hatch



    Eeeewwww

    The Scrapyard Saved 740


  12. #11
    Senior Member
    Swede demon
    hemihusky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    482
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 235 Times in 155 Posts
    more updates!

    so after geting the interior to a somewhat ok standard i started to tackle all the rest of the small interior niggles that annoy me. first thing to go was that AWFUL aftermarket radio that wasnt doing it for me. the stupid adptor plate needed snapping to get it out as the makers never designed a release system! stupid idea. then luckily the prior owners had used a proper adaptor cable n nit just chopped it so once everything was plugged back in the battleships radio went back in and sounds SO much nicer going through a proper amp.

    at the same time i replaced the screw holed heater control cover with the one from the battleship so no more handsfree kit screw holes. replaced the leather shift cover with the battleships one as its barely marked. replaced the steering collum cover with the ones that have my stainless screws in for asthetic purposes then the next large item was the seats. i bought a set of grey 940 seats for another person but thought in the time being they would work in mine untill i get another 700 leather interior.

    fronts fit easy bar swpaping over the seatbelt buckles and all seemed fine. right up untill i wanted to install the rears. and turns out the 940 has a differant hinge location + latch system than a 700. damnit. so im currently running with no rear seats still.

    in the same weekend my freind john let me borrow his set of alloy wheels untill my gemini's got tires on them. they are "Hydras" and give the look a nice small lift. better than wheel trims. also ste had a epic bodge fix on my exhaust (that is still working may i add!) the hole in the exhaust had widened so much the sound was "Tractor spec" and really obnoxious so 2 budwiser cans some exhaust paste and silver foil. and blow fixed! the silver cord is there in case the exhaust fell off going to BKV!

    also bought some pressed plates (the legal style ones so dont whinge!) and installed those. had to fix a minor spot of corrosion behined the rear licence plate but ground off and re-painted so shouldnt come back for a bit. swapped the battleships door cards back over as they are near perfect and installed my half iluminated switch set (missing a few switches) to give it a more modern feel slightly.

    wired in the volvo OEM alternator guage that goes in the spare slots that was a nice easy install. comes with the leads and just uses the dashboards power and earth so no faffing about. light by the dash lights and finally installed my steering wheel. its from a isuzu trooper with the "handling by lotus" pack. a genunie momo and i used a momo boss kit to install it. it did need some slight modification to get the horns working. drilled and tapped a hole into the steering wheel to use it as a earth. ground the paint off the back of the wheel and the mating surface of the boss and hey presto horns work. then added the volvo R sport sticker for a little volvo ness!

    radio wiring



    Battleships radio in and working well



    replaced the leather gearstick cover



    battleships non screw holed cover installed



    installed my stainless screw'd cover for asthetics



    940 seats installed



    hydras going on



    ste's epic bodge job



    pressed plates



    and the front



    battleships door cards installed



    light up switches



    my isuzu wheel



    and alternator guage

    The Scrapyard Saved 740


  13. #12
    Senior Member
    The Volvo with a 'twist'!
    AcidicDavey's Avatar
    Join Date
    Mar 2012
    Location
    Hereford
    Posts
    1,595
    Thanks
    284
    Thanked 801 Times in 547 Posts
    That steering wheel looks great, looks like a proper Volvo option, hard to believe what it came from

    I love Hydras and all, got any proper photos with them fitted?

  14. #13
    Senior Member
    Swede demon
    hemihusky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    482
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 235 Times in 155 Posts
    ill get one before i take them off. they were only loaned wheels my geminis have new tires and are going back on towmorrow morning =)
    The Scrapyard Saved 740


  15. #14
    Senior Member
    Swede demon
    hemihusky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    482
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 235 Times in 155 Posts
    So more updates!

    i managed to get my hands on a nice egg crate grille for the 740 from germany with the original "Lambda Sond" badge still on (europian + U/S ones had cats n emissions. mine didnt) but decided it looked better without the badge. then also managed to get my hands on a original genuine volvo Aero bodykit from the 80's! these things are like hens teeth nowerdays! this one needs a fair ammount of work to get it back to the standard but it will be worth it in the end.

    the plan is to buy a spare rear + front bumper. make a jig and mount it on that n bolt it up then work on it in a bolted position and try re-form it to a cars shape. other small details i installed the 3 light interior light from the battleship as on a SE you only get 1 light. dont get 3 you peasent! installed the black arm rest as the other was worn.

    i also got my gemini's back. yes they survived the crash somehow now wrapped in brand new continental premium grips all round including the spare! and then my epic freind ste haigh did some top notch work on the car while i was washing his in return. he fixed my crashed wing so now you can barely tell it has been dinged on that corner. machine polished the car using G3 showing that there is red under that faded pink! and flatted and fixed the rear pillar that was all cracking n crazed to look a LOT better.

    and then the exhaust fell off going to a freinds bday party =( so awaiting new exhaust + DP atm.

    new grille with the badge



    and without



    front half of the bodykit



    Rear half



    interior light



    black armrest outta the battleship



    gemini's back on the bus



    bonnet polished back up



    Repaired wing



    new continental tires



    Repaired rear pillar



    and one broken exhaust

    The Scrapyard Saved 740


  16. The Following User Says Thank You to hemihusky For This Useful Post:

    Shinsplintz 101 (Tuesday 14th July 2015)

  17. #15
    Senior Member
    Swede demon
    hemihusky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    482
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 235 Times in 155 Posts
    got a few new parts today from various places for the battlebus including. a set of lesjofors 40mm lowering springs. a set of PFV clear rear tail lights. a new DP + exhaust rubbers. and the automatic climate control unit. so heres some more pics for ya =)

    i got a lil cat drawing on my box from the states! made me laugh



    the haul



    sports lowering springs to get rid of the 4x4 ride hight



    new DP + Exhaust rubbers



    clear rear lights



    original automatic climate control unit

    The Scrapyard Saved 740


  18. #16
    Senior Member
    Swede demon
    hemihusky's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    Bradford, West Yorkshire
    Posts
    482
    Thanks
    37
    Thanked 235 Times in 155 Posts
    Few more updates. so went over to johns and fixed the exhaust with a new DP + gasket and mid section gasket ring as all were pretty shot. we also fashoned a new exhaust downpipe holding clamp as the original mount was missing and the extra flex that was giving the downpipe was causing it to stress and crack. so some bent metal and a exhaust clamp. and it worked! no blowing anymore. the exhaust bracket we made hammers on the floor if your on the point of stalling the engine like reversing up a hill for exmaple but just slip the clutch more problem solved!

    then also tackled the leaky sunroof with black sealent took the front cover off and gunked everything including the bolts and now hey presto no more leaky sunroof. managed to re-shape and install my genuine volvo lower chassis brace from the battleship too just a nice touch to have really.

    installed the switch pannel from the battleship as it was in better nick in general and finaly got another foglight for it. so no more mono fog for me! and fitted my clear rears (as can be seen in 1 of the pics)

    Exhaust fixing



    well theres your problem



    its all under control honest!



    home made exhaust bracket



    exhaust joint sorted



    shiny downpipe



    chasiss brace installed



    sunroof gunked



    the battleships switch pannel



    new foglight and bracket



    original bosch

    Last edited by hemihusky; Tuesday 21st July 2015 at 19:44.
    The Scrapyard Saved 740


  19. The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to hemihusky For This Useful Post:

    Hound (Wednesday 22nd July 2015),martin_r_smith (Tuesday 21st July 2015)

  20. #17
    Senior Member
    228k and still not broke it!

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
    Location
    Poole, Dorset
    Posts
    23,213
    Thanks
    6,548
    Thanked 7,752 Times in 5,648 Posts
    Come a long way in not much time there mate, well done .

  21. #18
    More cars than a Showroom
    This user has no status
    volvokid's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2008
    Location
    Cruden Bay (Scotland)
    Posts
    6,355
    Thanks
    1,464
    Thanked 1,624 Times in 1,141 Posts
    Yeah I agree with Martin, these volvos didn't do much for me but I'm starting to appreciate what they are, and they are looking like clasic tanks now.
    Thanks
    Martyn

  22. #19
    New Identity
    Back in an AWD....Oh the grip!
    Dangerous Dave's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2006
    Location
    West Midlands
    Posts
    8,921
    Thanks
    2,491
    Thanked 2,582 Times in 2,051 Posts
    Wow, well done for sticking at it and getting it back in shape, most would write it off...

    It was the 740 that started my Volvo passion, and the 940 is my favourite
    1996 Olive Green 850 AWD - Follow the Project - Forged rods, 19T, big blue injectors, 960 TB, 3.25" MAF, Ostrich, 608 binary, arduino data display, active exhaust control with Focus RS tips, 320mm front brake conversion.
    1996 Nautic Blue 850 AWD - Failed its MOT, now it's a donor for the green thing.
    2004 Sapphire Black S60 D5 - The new daily hack.

  23. #20
    Senior Member
    Still more fettling needed,
    will it never end?
    stribo's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2012
    Location
    Tadley
    Posts
    13,326
    Thanks
    2,620
    Thanked 4,587 Times in 3,404 Posts
    Good progress mate, love that climate control panel, so '80s lol.


 

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 2 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 2 guests)

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
This website uses cookies
We use cookies to store session information to facilitate remembering your login information, to allow you to save website preferences, to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners.
     
ipv6 ready