MY CRAPPY VOLVO BLOG.
UPDATES and IMAGE GALLERY below!
It’s got those little Vs on the hubcaps, I thought I should name it Vendetta.
I bought a new car. It’s a 1975 Volvo 245DL wagon. Can you believe the teenager from whom I bought it wanted a thousand dollars? He accepted five hundred so fast that I wish I’d said three, though. His mother bought the thing for him, after he assured her he could learn how to drive stick, which he couldn’t. He might have had a go at it if it didn’t need an oil change so bad, and if it were firing on all cylinders.
It’s got a very smooth suspension, a new clutch, a full-size spare tire that I probably should make sure isn’t flat, lots of room in the wayback, and it’s fuel-injected. The power steering and power brakes do their jobs but if the brake pedal is depressed or the steering wheel is turned all the way in either direction it won’t start. Makes parallel parking a bit of a chore. New vacuum lines it probably needs.
It needs either new spark plugs or a new distributor cap, I’ll figure out which cylinder isn’t firing next time I get a chance. Probably should replace the spark plugs anyway. It’s also running kind of rich and I can’t figure out where to adjust the fuel/air mixture, the diagram in the manual doesn’t match the actual engine. I have a service manual on the way from eBay, that should clear things up.
It has trouble getting up to speed on inclines, troublesome because Seattle’s high-speed arterials can’t avoid the hills, so there are places where I’m expected to go fifty on a ten per cent grade. But I got it to drag seven people up Queen Anne Hill (twenty per cent grade) after I got used to the clutch, (Seattleites are excellent at downshifting on hills.) Didn’t break fifteen miles per hour but it got there. Didn’t overheat neither. Good car.
UPDATE: JULY 28TH 2OO8.
Turns out one of the spark plug leads was hanging off. Seriously, it just needed to be plugged back in. I replaced the leads and the spark plugs anyway, and now the car is awesome. It's got excellent torque, torque enough to start on one of Seattle's twenty-per-cent grades and even accelerate enough to get to second gear. If I can get a running start it can go up a twenty-per-cent grade in third gear no problem. The gas mileage must be much better now that it fires on all four cylinders, but I can’t figure the mileage because the odometers don’t work.
This car’s transmission is a little weird. It’s in decent condition, but it’s a quirky design. First gear is an extremely low crawler gear, which gives the car even more excellent torque than it already has and would be great for off-roading if I did any, but when I turn at a stop light I have to shift into second before I’m done turning or else crawl through the rest of the turn with the engine screaming at me. Fortunately the car doesn't have any problem starting in second, so I only use first gear on hills and in parking lots. Third gear seems to work from as low as ten miles per hour, but there’s a bit of a gap between third and fourth exacerbated by the fact that I have to double-clutch to get into fourth anyway. Except, I only have to double-clutch if I want to get into fourth, if I’m trying to downshift into second it’ll slide into fourth no problem. And fourth unfortunately isn't an overdrive gear, it's one to one. So speeds above sixty are a little uncomfortable.
Transmission aside, I would have paid much more than five hundred dollars for this car if the previous owner had noticed one of the spark plug leads hanging off and put it back on before trying to sell it. This is excellent performance for a sparsely-maintaned thirty-three-year-old car. When Volvo builds a car it stays built. And things are still looking up if I can ever afford to get the shocks and springs replaced.
UPDATE: AUGUST 1OTH 2OO8.
I got into my first accident in this car. It was a narrow street in the vast nineteenth-century suburbs of Seattle, lined on both sides with parked cars and thus only wide enough for one car at a time. I approached an intersection with a small roundabout installed to force people to slow down at the intersections. An S.U.V. had parked way too close to the corner and I couldn't see if anyone was coming so I stopped. A few seconds later a chartreuse Scion came around the corner (turning left by going the wrong way around the roundabout) and hit me at a speed I cannot accurately judge but fast enough to be in second gear. As soon as I saw him I reflexively stomped on the brake even though I was already stopped and thus my car did not actually move more than a foot.
Here’s the bit that actually works out pretty good for me what with my high insurance: He reversed and drove away, (running over the roundabout in the process.) Half his plastic bumper cracked and fell off revealing the styrofoam inside and his hood had bent in two, plus his radiator was steaming. Here's the super-awesome part: My car is almost completely unharmed. The enormous steel bumper mounted on springs did its part and protected the car, then bounced back into its original position with some green paint on it. The only damage is the grill, which the Scion didn’t touch but the force of the collision sheared off one of the plastic pegs keeping it in place, now it swings open on its remaining peg like a gate when I stop. Also I have to realign the headlights which got knocked out of alignment. He’s still a jerk-ass, because honestly I could have broken me neck and he wouldn’t have been able to tell. But still.
UPDATE: AUGUST 11TH 2OO8.
I painted my car. Actually I only got as far as the primer, I’ll put the topcoat on eventually. In addition to looking cool this should curtail some of the rust. I’ve always wanted a two-tone car, so I figured I’d paint half of it and leave the roof and the side white and then it’d be two-tone. Looks pretty good even with just the primer, I have a couple of tins of blue paint but I might decide on black or violet or gray instead. Turquoise would look awesome but that's an easy color to mess up so I’ll restrain myself. It looks cool in these pictures even though it wasn't dry yet when I took them but it looks crappy up close because the car's original paint shows through a little bit, but that's why I used gray primer. Check back for updates.
My tailgate was open while I was painting, and while it was open one of the neighborhood cats wandered in and curled up in the blankets on the back seat. He came out several times to squeak at me and then climbed back in. Also, everyone who passed by asked me what I was doing. To which I replied, “I’m painting a car.” And almost all of them said, “With brushes?” And I’d say yes with brushes and remind them that this was primer and the top coat would look better and none of them looked like they believed me. Double also: while my tailgate was open a couple of the neighborhood kids stole my can of turpentine. W.T.F.
UPDATE: AUGUST 24TH 2OO8.
I finished painting my car ten days ago, here are the pictures. I might make a habit of doing this, perhaps I'll paint it yellow next time. You'll notice there's a little bit of white paint on the passenger's side mirror, that was there when I bought it. I did manage to get blue paint on the chrome trim at the bottom of the windshield, though.
MY NEW PAINT.
“ MY ROOFRACK ”
The bottom rusted out of my spare tire well and the tire fell out, so now it’s lashed to the roof. It occurs to me as I write this that I don’t have a tire iron.
“ BRAKE FAIL ”
Everything’s actually in English, no ambiguous glyphs. I like how the fuel gauge just says TANK. And BRAKE FAIL is worth a lark.
MY PRIMERED STATION WAGON.
MORE PHOTOGRAPHS.
“ HOW MANY ROADS MUST a MAN WALK DOWN. ”
From what I can figure looking at the service journal, the last time the odometer worked was 1999. Unfortunately I can’t figure out its gas mileage because the trip odometer is broken too. I got nervous when the needle dropped from full to half the day I bought it, but the needle hasn’t budged since, probably broken.
Interesting fing: The record for most miles put on one car (2,600,000) belongs to a man in New York state and his 1966 Volvo P1800, inside of which you’ll find the very same Volvo B20 straight-4 that powers this unassuming station wagon.
Black rubber has never been a suitable accent material in my eye, I intend to replace the slats on the grill with chrome ones from an earlier model.
“ WHO WANTS TO RIDE IN THE WAYBACK NOT IT. ”
WHO WANTS TO CLING TO THE ROOF RACK NOT IT. Manual says the car can carry up to fifteen hundred pounds, that's like ten people. Most college-age-car-crammers forget that whereas they may be able to fit thirty people in a Volkswagen Squareback, the rear suspension bottoms-out at eight hundred pounds. Think about how much your friends weigh.
“ WHAT? IT DOES. ”
In the thirteen hours since I took this picture I smashed the right tail light glass on a sapling, which will now grow up to be one of those bendy trees. Everyone loves bendy trees, children will sit on the trunk it a row and their parents will take pictures. I found a new tail light glass on Craigslist.
The tailgate must have been bashed at some point, black rubber instead of chrome tells me it's from a newer model.
“ CONGRATULATIONS on YOUR PURCHASE. ”
I can’t believe this has been in the glove box for 33 years. It actually starts with the line “Congratulations on your purchase of a Volvo 240.”
“ THE SAFE CAR. ”
This fine automobile speaks for itself.
