Duchess The Volvo 340 CVT

[thododd]

Oh shit. Didnt realise it was 360 specific. Is it just a case of swapping out the bar? If so, ive got a vario rack in bits

[classicswede]

The gearing might not be the same so probable not fit. If the gearing is the same it should swap over

[thododd]

How many different rack ratios are there?

[benji1985]

Hello all, the next small installment.
09/03/16.
Today I decided to heat up the bearing houses and drop the frozen bearings in.
This worked really well.
IMAG3877 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
Then decided to clean up all the rear bulb holder ready for the earthing upgrade.
IMAG3878 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3879 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3880 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
Hopefully I feel better soon and more things will be done soon

Ben

[benji1985]

Thursday I decided to enjoy the sun, which is a rare thing down here.
10/03/16.
Today the bearing carriers got some paint, they looked a bit dull even after the wire brush clean up.

IMAG3881 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr

They look good if I do say so myself.

Hopefully Monday will see me better and more being done.

Ben

[Ride_on]

Good to see another restortion, been through most of this myself but I'd say you are doing a better job.

One small piece of advice, is the rear axle, and/or other suspension parts. I'd recommend blasting at least, its usually cheap by itself, then painting yourself if you have a compressor. I'm not a fan of powder coat, I'd use Zinga (brush or spray) then rustbuster 121 (2 part epoxy mastic) sprayed. Get the zinga on within a day of blasting.

If you don't sandblast then abrasive disks on the angle grinder are the next easiest/effective option with a powerfile for difficult corners. Wire brush is pretty hard work, doesn't work that well and angle grinder twisted knot types send bullets at you.

Watch the sparks on the glass if you have it out.

[benji1985]

Good to see another restortion, been through most of this myself but I'd say you are doing a better job.

One small piece of advice, is the rear axle, and/or other suspension parts. I'd recommend blasting at least, its usually cheap by itself, then painting yourself if you have a compressor. I'm not a fan of powder coat, I'd use Zinga (brush or spray) then rustbuster 121 (2 part epoxy mastic) sprayed. Get the zinga on within a day of blasting.

If you don't sandblast then abrasive disks on the angle grinder are the next easiest/effective option with a powerfile for difficult corners. Wire brush is pretty hard work, doesn't work that well and angle grinder twisted knot types send bullets at you.

Watch the sparks on the glass if you have it out.

Hey Ride_on, I am using wire brushes (all different sorts) to do as much of this myself, I have POR15 to paint on the axle and any other bits i want to do myself.
I was going to get the engine supports blasted and powder coated because of the funny shapes, IO had not thought about just getting them to blast the parts and I paint them myself, That is a good idea

Ben

[thododd]

If youre POR15'ing stuff. Its advisable to use their marine clean and metal prep solutions for the best adherence.... the metal prep is really quite noxious and the paint itself is a right bastard to get off your skin

[Ride_on]

AFAIK the PQR15 stuff is moisture cure, which is an effective 2 parter but I tried rust bullet which is similar and found it doesn't keep well because you can't keep one part away from the other once you open the lid.

[Ride_on]

I'd also mention I did most of mine in my mid to late 40s, and wish I'd used contract blasting more. Wire brushes are really hard work, my hand and arms are pretty ruined now. Most of these new paints like a nice rough blasted or sanded surface.

[benji1985]

I'd also mention I did most of mine in my mid to late 40s, and wish I'd used contract blasting more. Wire brushes are really hard work, my hand and arms are pretty ruined now. Most of these new paints like a nice rough blasted or sanded surface.

I see, I'll see how I get on.
As I said I didn't think of getting the parts only blasted...

[benji1985]

Hello all, today's post is over two days as things took longer than a day to do.
14/03/16 - 15/03/15
Firstly I started by painting my cleaned up rear axle, and the rear brake back plates, while this was drying I thought i get on with removing some more bits from the car, started with the leaf springs, once all the muck and underseal was removed they came off pretty easy and removed the "torque rod" (i think that's the right name)
IMAG3885 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
Paint was still drying... so front strut dismantle was next, these were not as bad as i thought they would be, her passenger strut still had the original shock in it, but the replacement strut (when i was 19) had a insert, over all the springs were complete and the parts didn't look to bad
IMAG3884 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3886 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3889 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3888 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3893 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr

I removed the wheel studs from all the hubs, ready for drill and new studs
IMAG3910 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr

By this point the paint on the back plates was finally starting to dry
IMAG3892 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr

The axle was still tacky, so decided to give up for Monday and leave it over night to dry.

Tuesday: put the paint on the other side of the axle and brake back plates then went on to dismantle the rear shocks, this meant removing the rear plastic to get to the two nuts on top, pulled the carpet out at the same time discovered a little bit of rust, turns out that something had rust while sitting under the carpet and all was good
IMAG3894 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3895 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3896 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
then proceeded to strip the parts from the shocks
IMAG3897 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3898 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3899 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr


Again the paint was still only thinking about drying, so moved on to the manifolds.
all the nuts on the studs came off really ease, however trying to separate the down pipe from the manifold was a ball ache, but a lot of persuasion they came off, lucky with thanks to Mac, i have new studs and bolts and a nice shiny exhaust manifold, which is good considering the three bolts that hold the inlet manifold to the exhaust manifold al snapped.....
IMAG3902 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
this took a lot of the day, but yes you guessed it the paint was still only tacky, but looks good not to happy with the runs in the paint, but that is my fault putting to much on.
IMAG3907 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3908 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr

These parts are being added to the pipe of parts to be cleaned up
IMAG3909 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3911 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr

tomorrow will be another cleaning up day, and soon the rear axle re-assembly will take place!

Ben

[benji1985]

Good evening all, now for the next installment.
Today the 16/03/16 saw some more parts cleaned.
Started by cleaning my inlet manifold this cleaned up nice.
IMAG3928 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3929 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
Then moved on to the handbrake levers, these were fiddley but look good.
IMAG3920 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
IMAG3921 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
Next was the brackets from the engine mount to body.
IMAG3919 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
The water pipe was next on the list.
Before
IMAG3922 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
After
IMAG3923 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
Last for the day I decided to clean up the suspension strut, only got one done today, very please how well it came up.
IMAG3924 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
And so to conclude the evening I dismantled the top mount with the gator on, the bump stop will need to be replaced.
IMAG3927 by Benjamin Charlton, on Flickr
So all in all a good day.

Ben

[Ride_on]

Thats alot of work, looks like nice weather.

Top front spring caps can be a bit cracked, might be only visible after sand blasting. They need re-enforcing. Bearing looks a bit worse for wear.

[benji1985]

Thats alot of work, looks like nice weather.

Top front spring caps can be a bit cracked, might be only visible after sand blasting. They need re-enforcing. Bearing looks a bit worse for wear.

Hey, the weather is lovely.
The top spring caps are free from cracking, but yes bearings need replaced I think.

Ben