Hi!
I've been here for a few years but never really introduced myself... I live in Sweden and have driven Volvo 300s since I was 18.

My parents had two while I grew up (1982 B14 and 1983 B19) and when I turned 18 I bought my first, a 1979 B14 MT4. Had it for about a month when I realized I couldn't afford it and sold it on...

Next car was my current project car, a 1987 B14 that was bought in stock condition with 155000km on the clock. Since then it's covered about 60000km more and had a new B14 stroker engine with a GT1849V turbo and Megasquirt fitted along with upgraded brakes and suspension as well as an LSD. If anyone is interested, ask here or translate my project thread at 300Power.

The latest member of the family is slightly harder to come by:


Chassinumber 343510EC303450, date of first registration 1976-08-25. It's covered 65000km and been sitting unused for 14 years. The seller recieved the car from a friend who didn't have room for it anymore, and as the seller took possession of yet another tractor, he too needed to get rid of it... 100 euros later, the car was mine!

It starts and runs, but needs plenty of TLC; my first testrun only lasted 150m before the car stalled and I had to tow it home with my Murray 6/25 lawn tractor! Considering how long it has been unused, it works surprisingly well though...
It has some rust in just about every part, but nothing too major. The interior plastics are falling apart and it has hade som rather bad accident damage repairs (trunk and right door atleast), but it is almost complete with most special MY 76/77 parts.
I'm missing the right hand side door mirror (chrome!) and one black hubcap; other than that most things are where they should be eventhough many of the plastic bits need replacing (gear selector handle, front footwell carpets, cowling for the underside of the dashboard in the driver side footwell et.c.). If anyone has any brown plastic parts for early 343s, please let me know!

B.t.w., my car has a 6-digit odometer, so apparently they appeared somewhere during MY 76...

My plan is to gently resurrect it and used it for going to the beach on nice summer days. Maybe someday it will get a proper restoration, but for now a good cleanup, service and general resurrection will probably be enough to make it a nice car to drive on calm summer evenings...

Hello and welcome.

Always good to see an early 343!

Hi mate and welcome.
Thats a realy rare 343 you have.
Well worth saveing.
Cheers Mark.

Hello!

What a splendid car!
It's story is quite similar to that of my '76 343 DL, low mileage (59.815 €100 price) and surprisingly original as well.
Only mine is fully restored and gets a new MOT next week (after 10 years finally back on the road)

I do have some brown (NOS!) interior parts, so if you list what you need, I just might can spare some..

Freerk Trenning

Hello!

What a splendid car!
It's story is quite similar to that of my '76 343 DL, low mileage (59.815 €100 price) and surprisingly original as well.
Only mine is fully restored and gets a new MOT next week (after 10 years finally back on the road)

I do have some brown (NOS!) interior parts, so if you list what you need, I just might can spare some..

Freerk Trenning

I've seen your thread here, your car looks truly wonderful now!

As for missing pieces, here's the list. If anyone has any of these parts, please let me know!

Exterior:

• 1 black hubcap
• Chrome right hand side door mirror
• Headlight wiper mechanism

Interior:

• Brown plastic gear selector handle
• Brown plastic front footwell carpets (left hand side especially)
• Brown cowling for the underside of the dashboard in the left hand (driver) side footwell
• Brown knob for interior door lock mekanism
• Seat adjustment knob (back rest angle...), right hand side
• Trim sourrounding the seat adjustment knobs, both sides

A few new pictures after the car arrived at my place:


Ready to be loaded, my friend Jesper and my brother Kalle are helping out











At home...


The tow hitch on the lawn-tractor wasn't designed for pulling 1000kg of Dutch steel...

Awesome work - keep it up.

Wow, another 1976 model year car (if my interpretation of the chassis number is correct)! I really like it. It may be that you have had a new slightly later odometer fitted, as 1976 MY should all have 5 digits only.

Do you have any pictures of the rust?

Danny at DafHobby in Sittard has some brown parts. He doesn't list them all on his website, but you could always email him with what you need.

For my seat winders, I had to get some brown and some black parts to re-construct a full set, but I don't really notice that they don't completely match. I'm more grateful at being able to get the seat to the correct position!

Your door mirrors are specific to the Swedish market - have a look at the one in the Volvo museum here: viewtopic.php?f=90&t=13765&hilit=museum versus the rest of Europe door mirrors such as on my car here: viewtopic.php?f=51&t=15243&hilit=1977

The odometer might have been exchanged at some point in the past, I have absolutely no history on the car... If I ever happen to take the dash apart, I'll look carefully at the gauges to try and see if there are any markings on the that indicate they come from a later date...
What chassinumbers do we know of that are confirmed to have the five-digit odometer?

I'll try to get som close-ups of the rust in the next few days; it isn't bad for a swedish car going on 40 years old, but obviously it isn't rust free...

Interesting about the Swedish spec mirrors; must have been som strange regulations in effect back then that forced different mirrors... Hopefully they can be found on some other Volvo as well (Volvo 66 maybe?), otherwise there likely to be near impossible to find here...

I'll send an email to Danny to see if he can help me with some parts, great suggestion!

[quote="Kurre86"]
Interior:

• Brown plastic gear selector handle Have got 3, so you can have 1
• Brown knob for interior door lock mekanism Have 1 for you

That's perfect, just tell me what you want for them!

Last week I found a very brief ad; roughtly translated:

1977 Volvo 343, complete car broken for parts

Naturally, I called immediately. The seller told me that the car was in fact far from complete, missing most of the drivetrain, bonnet, doors et.c. The car was also far from original being a 1980's custom build that had been left to rot on a lawn for several years. He did tell me it had a good front on it though, so I drove there to scavenge what I could...


The car was in a very sory state; centimeter thick layers of bodyfiller had been used to build up the sides of the rear and everything was badly infested with the brown plague...


The front, headlights and fenders were about all that was useable for me... Anything that could be unbolted had been upgraded o 1984 Volvo 360 standard, interior, drivetrain, brakes et.c. Even the paperwork indicated a B19 engine!

No 1976/1977 specific parts for me, but a few good parts non the less. If anyone need a front or a set of good front fenders (with indicators), let me know! My car isn't too badly rusted so I probably wont need them... If anyone wants the rest of the donor car, just yell and I'll see if it is still there. It looked like it might have a set of yellow Konis at the rear...

aaarrghh! my eyes!

Are those 200 series tailgate hinges I see?

Has it also had a roof chop?

Any pictures of the true horror of the rear?

macplaxton wrote:aaarrghh! my eyes!

^^ What he said!!

That's less rusty than my 360 and somehow mine had an M.O.T when I first bought it!

The pictures don't do the rust justice... Most of the horror is hidden underneath that centimeter thick layer of body filler!

I think they might be 200 series hinges, I didn't look too closely. The car has had a roof chop and a standard 360 sunroof, all liberally coated in bodyfiller. Unfortunately I didn't take any more pictures (didn't seem worth it since I only had the camera in my cheap chinese smartphone...).