A Cult Car

This is a blog on refurbishing a Volvo 240 Wagon-- a cult car that is legendary for its durability. The 5 speeds manual transmission in particular gets great fuel economy, 32.5 mpg is attainable at speeds of 60 mph. Both the sedan and the wagon have plenty of rear leg and head room, even for tall people. Additionally, a tall person can sleep in the back--it is 77" long if the rear seat bottom is removed.

Thick sheet metal make it durable--so is the motor. Volvo took a V8 truck engine cut in half, to make this 4 cylinder engine. It has bearings and rods are designed for much heavy loads and this makes the engine nearly impossible to kill. People can get literally a million miles between rebuilds with regular oil changes and normal preventative maintenance.

The 5 speeds cars are fun to drive. Their durability means it is a smart economic choice to put money into them--they will last indefinitely if maintained. Parts are cheap. They are easy and simple to work on. Police just don't ever pull them over. It is because they like to stay at legal freeway speeds and purr along at 60 mph--so police expect them to be driven slowly. Finally, they are safe--built around a full roll cage. These are the reasons why there are so many are still on the road today.

Monday, August 22, 2011

New Tail Lights


I changed the front turn signal lights because they looked pretty bad. I threw out the old ones.

I wanted to change the back ones because they were faded and looked bad.

On one side, the drivers side rear turn lamp assembly was cracked at the edges. It still had a good seal, but, in general both sides looks old and tired.


I could have polished them up, but decided to buy new ones and to eBay the old ones. I figure I can get about half what I paid for the new ones, or close to it. So that is the plan. Even better I can use the packaging from the new ones to ship out the old ones. What could be easier.

This is one of the damaged ones to the left. See how the edge had split off. There was another area where this happened.


This picture on the right shows how the new one looks up close. A huge improvement. Just a few simple changes to lamps and turn signals and Sea Dog, my 1992 Volvo 240 Wagon looks almost new.

The paint job is not perfect, but it looks good. I may repaint the whole car in the spring.
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