What's happening in garages?

[Fuse]

Topic for sharing your non-project-topic-having achievements in the garage. Everyone can post, also non-300 series stuff is welcome. Of course you can also post something which is in a project topic already if you want.

I'll start with some non-300 series stuff.

MOT inspector decided that the lower seam at one of the rear doors of the 244 was corroded too much.. Funny because it's been exactly the same for past four years and no complaints at MOT before. First time when the MOT is even paying any attention to rust damage on doors as those are not counted as supporting structures of chassis... Maybe he was having a bad day because the whole MOT hall was completely empty, I was the only customer there at 10AM with a year model -82 car and only other fault he could find was a driver's side tie-rod end which had slightly too much play.

Well, I decided to remake the whole seam area of the door so the MOT guy should be satisfied... Few crappy cell phone pics.







Still needs some 2-component epoxy primer and surface work (prepping for painting). I'll finnish that tomorrow.

[jtbo]

Very inspiring photos, sadly in my garage is no heating, poor lighting and not too great workplaces, maybe I should start from arranging finally that garage

Well put front end on jacks and removed tires the other day, might put them back and drive 343 in instead, we'll see.

[Fuse]

360 is hibernating during the winter, I'll return to it at the spring...

S90's brake pads were pretty much done and the parking brake didn't work at all so I bought some supplies...



Had some minor troubles getting the new discs back in as the new parking brake shoes didn't want to fit inside the new disc's drums at first but it turned out to be one of the short cables of the parking brake which was partially jammed.



More pics tomorrow, I still have to change the brake fluids.


-Marko

[Fuse]

Got everything done today. I also changed the tie rod end at the passenger side as it had some play.




Checking the tolerances.



All done!

I also changed the brake fluids. Quite a lot of rusty gunk flowed out from the front calipers with the old fluids. I used a vacuum brake fluid changer. It is run with a compressor and it creates a vacuum to a hose, which is connected to a bleed nipple of the caliper. Then you just add fresh fluid to to the master cylinder reservoir when going through the calipers. I flushed fluid through every caliper untill a new clear brake fluid started to come out. Took about ~15min to change the fluids completely and no need for air bleeding, pumping the pedal etc... Great device and it cost something like ~50 euros.

Pedal feel is great and there's zero vibration when applying the brakes.


-Marko

[thebear54]

Great job Marko!
Life is so much easier when you have all the correct tools for the job at hand.

John

[Fuse]

Operation 240 through MOT.



and the topic of the day is



Got the new spare wheel well welded in place. I'm going to paint it tomorrow and apply the underbody seal.


-Marko

[Chris_C]

Damn thats pretty. I've really got a thing for a 240 saloon with egg crate and flat hood atm :s

Great job Fuse.

[MCHUDD]

Hi Fuse.
Love the look of that 240
Cheers Mark.

[Fuse]

Thanks Chris and and MCHUDD! It looks better in pics though. Nothing major, but the doors (except the one I repaired) are bit rusty from the lower seams and there's a bad repaint (flaked lacquer) on the right side rear wing. Doors will be sorted out though as I've aquired four non-rusty doors and one acquaintance of mine is going to paint those to match the color.

I finished the spare wheel well today.




Bonus pic.



Should be ready for MOT.


I'm going to re-do the sills for the 360 also, but that will take some time because the 360 doesn't have MOT currently, it has summer tires on and it's parked on my apartment parking spot, so I'll have to wait untill the spring so I can drive it to the carage.

-Marko

[Fuse]

360 has been hibernating. Though there's some light ahead as I've bought ~200 euros worth of car polishing products, so the 360 will be polished at next month and I'll get it through MOT. It'll be nice to be driving the 360 again.

I've done some minor stuff for the S90.

Like this a must-have whiskey glass holder inside the rear arm rest... Now I just need a chauffeur...



Frame is made out of plywood, add some padding, upholstery cloth etc... and done.



Switch is for the fridge located in the trunk. I'll have to change it for a Volvo-OEM switch at some point.


I also changed the timing belt, tensioners, the water pump and the auxiliary belt as the previous change was done about 5 years and some 100 000km ago according to the papers.

I ordered the timing belt, the tensioner pulley and the idler pulley from Skruvat.fi

Price for the whole set was 96€ and it included a timing belt made by Goodyear, INA tensioner pulley and SKF made idler pulley. Quite a good price I think.



This has to be one of the easiest cars to change the timing belt. There's enough room to live in the engince compartment...




Notice a professional Fuse-branded timing gear lock tool. Well these engines wouldn't even need one as the timing marks are clearly marked and there's no variable timing, but it's always better to be safe than sorry.



This is an indicator of the stock status for the most important garage accessory. Olvi is a Finnish beer brand and "Olvia on" translates somewhat to "Olvi in stock" and if you turn the magnet so the thumb points down it reads "Buy Olvi!"



Btw this Kent One Shot stuff is excellent for cleaning the gasket surfaces etc... Also good for cleaning corroded electrical contacts. It will dissolve carbon deposits from valves also so you might not want to spray it too much on painted or plastic surfaces.



Up and running, very nice spring weather for a test drive!





I also installed a detachable tow bar which I bought from a fellow Volvo enthusiast for a very good price. It's a Volvo OEM (Brink/Thule) tow bar. A cloth storage bag for the tow ball, plastic cover for the tow bar and the OEM wiring harness were of course included.

Tow bar had suffered a bit from paint flaking so it needed some prepping.



Looks better already with the primer on. Notice the professional surface finishing facility at the balcony of my apartment...



2k poly-urethane top coat on the other hand is quite "aromatic" so I didn't wan't to annoy the neighbours and I relocated the painting facility to a better location.



Installed. All attachment points etc... were there. I just had to bolt it on and cut a small notch on to the bumper.



The wiring harness was included but the socket's casing was cracked so I had to change it. Original socket was epoxy filled so I had to cut the harness and fit a new socket with screw terminals. The wiring colors of the Volvo OEM harness don't seem to follow the standard for tow bar electrics as one wiring color was green-yellow, which is more commonly found from AC-installations as protective ground... Well few minutes with voltage meter and all the connections were sorted.



Good to tow.




Hopefully next time I have something to post it will be on the 360 project topic!


-Marko

[jtbo]

There is clearly a pattern here, Fuse also has same kind of wirebrush and it is green, while mine is red, must be reason why he gets so much done

240 spare wheel well pics seemed not to load up for some reason, maybe I need to refresh or something.

My garage is too full of stuff to have car in there, but I have been doing CVT diagnostics and other work for 343, very slow work.

Oh and I did some polishing to 360, see? It is only some 8 years since I did last time such and it does show

[classicswede]

Time for a green wire brush?

[jtbo]

Time for a green wire brush?

Might be good, it might help to get oil changed too, I'm sure of it, last oil change was 8-9 years ago