Trippin' Out

Day 1

I'm skipping some stuff. Between now and back when I should have written about it, I overhauled my rear brakes, some of my driveshaft, and some other stuff I'm forgetting about right now.

That's OK though, this will be worth it. You see, I've taken the Volvo on it's first road trip! Don't tell the missus, but she partook in the shakedown cruise where any (every?) number of things could have gone wrong, and (so far) didn't! The speedometer doesn't work, but the little app I downloaded to my phone says we averaged about 70 miles per hour. Of course, it also kept alternating between 36 and 68 miles per hour, so take that number however you want it.

The trip was uneventful, except for the fact that we drove from Reno to Sacramento in a sweet old Volvo that I rebuilt myself!!!

Nice hair, Poindexter

Tomorrow is the Golden Gate Volvo Club Of America (...what a mouthful) meeting in Davis where we will no doubt be overshadowed by sweeter old Volvos rebuilt and maintained by people far smarter than myself.

In case you haven't surmised yet, I'm writing this from a hotel in Sacramento - so there is plenty of time for all the things to go wrong. Stay tuned, updates to come...

Day 2

Delicious dinner with friends last night. Delicious Volvos at the park all day. Volvos of all shapes and sizes (but mostly squares) descend on the town's central park. Raffles, swap meets, and more enthusiasts than you could ever hope to talk to in one day. Also, the greatest concentration of 1800s this side of the tequila aisle at the liquor store! As usual, we showed up fashionably late and were directed to a parking spot down at the end with the rest of the fashionably late folks.

And fashionable we were!

My car will never be a concourse winner. It's built for me (and my budget, of course), with plenty of non-standard parts in plenty of non-standard places. These other cars though... Whoa, simply stunning. Daily drivers bought new in the 60s, gorgeous professional restorations, and more than a few lovingly pieced together in crowded home garages like mine.

Let's see a few!

You could eat off of some of these engine bays

Amazons

OG Wagons

When the only tool you have is a soldering torch, everything looks like it needs to be a steampunk roof rack.

544s

I also had the pleasure of putting several faces to familiar names of folks who I've chatted with on the forum. Bill, Dudek, the other Phil S, and plenty of others. That's the thing about events like these. They aren't about the cars. The cars are just something to gather around. The real reason we gather is for the stories. Had a Volvo? Have a Volvo? Want a Volvo? Saw a Volvo on TV once? Doesn't matter, all of the fun is in standing around telling (inventing?) stories about adventures gone by and adventures to come. Let's do it again soon!

There are many like it, but this one's mine.

Postscript

So, what's a 300 mile trip in a 45-year-old car assembled in your garage like? Luckily, rather uneventful. The car handled wonderfully. The suspension work gave us a smooth and predicable ride, predictably falling into every semi-truck rut on the freeway. It ate up the miles cruising comfortably at 70 MPH and had little trouble going up hills in overdrive. It's no performance car, but it's more than capable of backing up its good looks. Yes, the heater control valve doesn't seem to close all the way (but we already complained about that one...). Yes, something knocks against the transmission tunnel in a terrifying way whenever we go over a large enough bump. Yes, something important might have fallen off outside of Colfax (we'll find out when I go on my next missing bolt hunt). But, warm air from the heater box was made up for by the 2-70 AC (two open windows, 70 MPH), bumps and knocks add character, and if something fell off it couldn't have been that important if the car didn't drive any different. Ultimately we made it there and back again in comfort and style.

Next time - less tools, more dog.

The Little Things, Part I

Just wanted to outline a few little bits done to the car lately. I don't know if there will be Parts II or III of little bits. Probably. Maybe not. Who knows. Maybe if you people would bug me to write more, I'd write more. Don't look at me like that, we both know it's your fault.

Today's little things is all about heat.

Heater Tubing

Technically, it's a hose. But, everybody assumes the water hoses when I say hose, not the air hoses. Anyhow, the original paper/foil ducting from the heater box to the defroster vents turned to dust when I touched it. After much research I came across something called "carburetor preheat/emissions duct," Goodyear part #65924. Seems hard to find, but Summit could get it, lucky for me 'cause Summit has a big warehouse right nearby.

Looks something like this

I picked up three of them, but two would have worked if I measured things right. Good thing I got three. Anyhow, I could make up a lot of words to go in here, but it's pretty simple. Cut to length, squeeze onto the vents and heater box outlets. This isn't rocket surgery.

Snakes in a car.

More Heater Tubing

Hah, you thought this would be about something else! The Volvo 1800 uses a Ranco heater control valve. Reproductions are available but would cost about as much as I spent on the car. We'll save that for a last resort option. First resort was to use the valve I had. This worked fine until I tried to turn off the heater and dribbled coolant all over my passenger's shoe (sorry 'bout that, Dave). Well, the weather is turning warmer so an always-on heater is no longer an option.

El Cheapo Strikes Again!

What you're looking at is a generic straight-through heater control valve. Costs $15 on Amazon. You're also looking at a 180 degree bend hose and a back-flush kit. Here's how it works: Plug the existing line from the radiator into the outlet of the valve. Hook the 180 between the valve inlet and the back-flush kit. Plug the line from the motor into the other side of the back-flush kit. The back flush kit does a couple of things for us. First of all, it lets us couple the existing hose to the bent hose (most important function). Second, it is the high-point on the cooling system and is an excellent place to fill from to reduce the chance of trapping air (second most important function). Third, it let's you back-flush your cooling system (but who cares about that anyway?).

I'll seal off the opening eventually...

So, how does it work? Hmm... Not very well actually. The valve is fully actuated by the existing control, but it never seems to fully close off. Air goes from "hey, that's pretty warm" to "oh my god my toes are melting!" Of course, this could be from having a big black metal box mounted right behind the motor and picking up engine bay heat. Further analysis is needed, but I may end up swapping the control valve.

And with that, I leave you on a down note! Until next time!