GL Injection Obituary

[trabitom99]

This is my 360 GLi - my daily for the last 11 years or so. Parked in the street, driven though every winter, never waxoyled, regularly patchwork-"MOT-welded".


And this is the result (heavy stuff for a Sunday morning, hope I'm not spoiling anyone's breakfast):

LH sill:




RH sill and floor panel:



LH chassis rail


RH chassis rail


fuel filler pipe


RH leaf spring bracket


A-pillar


To someone like me, that all looks dramatic - what does that look like to someone with welding skills? I've been to a body shop with the car, and their opinion was fairly clear . I've got a few parts, orig Volvo sills (albeit 3dr), a-pillar repair panel, wings etc. but...

Cheers

Tom

[volvosneverdie]

Jesus Tom.
Thats Grim.

[340GLT]

The work involved in repairing that is time consuming but not hard. I would repair it. Planning a trip to the uk any time soon???? Most welders won't get involved. Take it to a classic car restoration place and they would.
Adam

[volvodspec]

how you repair it depends on what you want with it, just patching up all the rust on the outside will give you 2/3 years more MOT approved daily use before the rust comes out again and you're back at square 1.

getting all that properly done really requires stripping the car, (you'll definatly find more rust while you're doing that.) and going at it from the inside out to clear the car of rust, followed by laquer and waxoil anti-rust treatment. very pricey but the shell will last 20+ years if you do it right.

[Speedy88]

As above, personally if it was my car I'd be hard pushed to decide whether to scrap the shell or not. It's the toss up between attachment to car or spending more money than it's worth...

[Chris_C]

getting all that properly done really requires stripping the car, (you'll definatly find more rust while you're doing that.)

This is the truth.

I'd say it's down to how much you are willing to take on yourself bud. If you can do the grinding and patch making and have someone zap the bits in then thats going to save a lot of effort, but the car will have to be offroad to do it.

How much are German 300's going for? I'd likely give it a go as stripping the car costs nothing and you can at least make yourself even more worried. Take the boot trim panels out, I'd guess your rear arches/damper points are screwed too, thing is, I also reckon 90% of 300's are.

Just remember, good patch making and a good repair has less to do with skill, and more to do with shear bloody mindedness. Make your patches as good as you can and the welder will find them easier to put in and be more happy to do more. Or... you could buy a magic metal glue machine

[Ride_on]

IMO it looks done, my car was in a slightly worse state and I am repairing it,fully stripping/restoring etc but finding more problems all the time, I'm sticking with it for the love of it only. For a proper job you will need new sills + floor pan, jacking points and intermediate sill panel repairs. You will also find problems in other seam areas, I know you have already had problems with you rear spring points, and the rear chassis cross beam will be probably knackered, even if it looks ok from the outside. You forward rear spring points will also probably need rebuilt.

Anything can be repaired, but unless you want a long running project I would look for a replacement.

[macplaxton]

Depends on how attached to the car you are.

Send it to Poland for the work? Or learn how to use a welder?

In the cold light of day, I'd probably find another, but on the other hand, I've sank more time, money and effort into worse.

[Hell Driver]

There's a lot of work there . It took me 10 months to sort mine out in my spare time between other stuff, and it wasn't as quite as bad as that, the suspension mounts are ok, although it had gone in most of the same places (as they do!).
I'd agree with everything said above.
How did it get through last year's 'M.O.T.'? Thats rust must have really accelerated in the last year.

[trabitom99]

thanks for all the comments ...

On the surface it looks like I've got the following options:

#1 buy another V300 as a replacement
#2 use the GLT as a replacement
#3 buy a non-V300 as a replacement
#4 mend the car so it lasts another 2 MOTs
#5 mend the car so it lasts "a lifetime"

To #1: buying another 300 isn't really an option to use as a daily. I need to be able to drive into the cities, so I'd need one of the few 360s sold between '87 and '89 which had a 3 way cat / lambda sensor / B200F engine. Since these cars are as good as extinct it would involve a long wait, thousands of kms to view cars, beaurocracy (car imports, MOTs etc). In addition to the car's initial cost, I'd probably have to invest in further work such as cambelts / springs / shocks etc - these are all fairly fresh on the GLi. Also, I'd want to swap the tow bar, air con, spot lamps, 6 dial dash over all adding to time, hassle etc.

To #2: I'd rather not. Daily year-round use and two kids are enough to accelerate the decline of a 20+year old car considerably

To #3: a non-V300? Where do I get 360 reliability, autobahn-mile-eating capabilities, and a big boot for small money? Used car prices are higher here than in the UK, for a good V400 you're looking at 1500 Euros with no real reliability win, half-decent V40s cost around 2500 Euros upwards. And TBH I'd rather have a RWD non-Volvo than a 400/V40.

To #4: more patchwork welding. MOTs in Germany are every two years, so a repair lasting 3 years would keep me going till May 2015. By that time, the car will have over 400,000kms on the clock where even redblocks start showing signs of strain.

To #5: See #4. A lot more investment after which I might not want to use it as a daily anymore

Jesus Tom.
Thats Grim.

Indeed But it didn't exactly come unexpected. The car had it's first piece of welding done about 10 years ago, and it's been patchwork-stuff ever since.

The work involved in repairing that is time consuming but not hard. I would repair it. Planning a trip to the uk any time soon????

In spring, maybe? MOT is due in May, so it has a bit of time

how you repair it depends on what you want with it, just patching up all the rust on the outside will give you 2/3 years more MOT approved daily use before the rust comes out again and you're back at square 1.

See #4 and #5 The question is really - call it a day now (or rather, come MOT time in May) or in 2015?

As above, personally if it was my car I'd be hard pushed to decide whether to scrap the shell or not. It's the toss up between attachment to car or spending more money than it's worth...

I'm pretty sure replacing it will prove more expensive, at least in the short term ...

I'd say it's down to how much you are willing to take on yourself bud. If you can do the grinding and patch making and have someone zap the bits in then thats going to save a lot of effort, but the car will have to be offroad to do it.

Time is an issue unfortunately ... I'm flat out at work ATM and the family likes seeing me too from time to time

IMO it looks done, my car was in a slightly worse state and I am repairing it,fully stripping/restoring etc but finding more problems all the time, ... You will also find problems in other seam areas ...

You are right of course - I'm sure there are other areas too which I just haven't found yet ...

Depends on how attached to the car you are.
Send it to Poland for the work? Or learn how to use a welder?

Pretty attached But realistic too. Romania might be an idea - Great-Grandfathers' going to be 100 next year, we were planning on driving down ...

How did it get through last year's 'M.O.T.'? Thats rust must have really accelerated in the last year.

MOT in Germany is every 2 years, the last one was in May 2009. A lot of those holes have been "largened" with a screw driver. The rear chassis rails were last "patched" about 4 years ago what remained of those patches has been removed. The area around the fuel filler pipe has been crusty for a long time, I think I first noticed that in 2002. Every single MOT man has missed it

BTW I also have a cracked windscreen, a snapped rear wheel stud and a non-working AC compressor. Other that, the car is perfect

Tom

[macplaxton]

Option #2 seems okay.

Option #3 isn't an option.

Option #6 import a decent one from the UK and put up with getting into the passenger seat by mistake all the time.

[Hell Driver]

I'd forgotten it's 2 years. Whichever way you look at it, it's going to be time or money (probably both). As 300's a rare in Germany and your's is OK for the city regulations I'd say it's worth saving more there than it would be in the UK. Run it until the M.O.T. runs out, get a temporary car, fix yours properly through the summer and worry about the engine later!

[Chris_C]

I forgot about the tax thing Tom.

Just think about how much a reliable car would cost to buy. Then work out if you'll get better value out of bodge fixing the GLi, or even classic repair fixing it.

Tbh, you sound in your post to have gone for bodge fixing and FWIW I don't blame you. You have 2 very nice 300's to keep, you can't keep them all. Having another 3ish years out of it as a daily sounds pretty much ideal.

Re time, you roughly know how much Fake has had over the last 18months and if I had a "normal" job or a family, I just couldn't have done it.

[trabitom99]

It's not just the increased tax for non-cat cars - it's the missing green sticker (so only '87 - '89 B200Fs):

No cat: no green sticker or else the car has to be 30 years old with a historic plate - by which time it's a shame to use it as a daily beater IMHO ...

There is the option of using the GLT in the summer and yet another cheap car for the winter (a MkII Jetta say - utter reliability, rust-proof, big boot) but I still reckon that'd be a more expensive (and duller) option than bodge fixing the GLi.

>> #3 buy a non-V300 as a replacement
> Option #3 isn't an option.

I know it doesn't look like it, judging by the cars in my sig - but there are so many 20-year old "family" cars out there which appeal to me too

My criteria:
no slower than a 360
no thirstier than a 360
no smaller than a 360
air con, other than that equipment not an issue
so-called "quality manufacturer", so nothing French or Italian
roughly 20 years old
one or two owners, no more than 200.000km, FSH

mobile.de spits out quite a few nice things, but few Volvos funnily enough

Audi 100 1992
6 cylinder, automatic, A/C, 199.000km, 2 owners, Audi-serviced
http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/showD ... =136463731

Mercedes W124 1992
two airbags, A/C, 4spd box 150.000km, "Doktorenvorbesitz", 1 owner, Merc-serviced
http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/showD ... =136995612

early C-Class with garish red interior
http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/detai ... =136485320

Saab 9000
fully loaded, Turbo, 200PS 167.000 km
http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/detai ... =132960559

That list should cause some controversy But don't worry, I don't have the cash for any of those ATM, so they're not an option really.

Cheers

Tom

[macplaxton]

or else the car has to be 30 years old with a historic plate - by which time it's a shame to use it as a daily beater IMHO ...

I'm a bad man for using my 1978 Citroen GS daily then (Why do I? Because I won't give the government pleasure in humping me senseless with Vehicle Registration Tax, nor extortionate Motor Tax rates)

a MkII Jetta say...
Audi 100 1992
Saab 9000

But they are all WWD (wrong wheel drive)