I haven't updated this thread for a while, but that doesn't mean that there hasn't been some activity. Some quite considerable activity actually.
In the depths of our ever extending winter, I decided that the only way that (a) the car was ever going to get finished this year and (b) I was going to actually enjoy the car rather than stare at it sitting on my driveway, was to get it professionally restored. So that is what I have done. Some will think that I ought to have persevered and done it myself, and I would have liked to, but the reality is that I work full time in an entirely unrelated profession, do all the cooking, cleaning, washing, shopping, DIY, chauffeuring etc at home, try to have a social life outside of cars, have no interior workspace, have no sensible equipment to lift the car, and can at best be described as a 'novice' in terms of bodywork repairs. Most of the major work that I have already done on the car was done with Mac's supervision, and I can't keep dragging him into daylight from his cave in Suffolkshire. Furthermore, as I was priming the wing it became clear that no finish that I could manage would ever do the car justice, or more importantly, satisfy me.
So here's the story.
In October, I headed over to DAF Central in Essex for a fun day belting around with variomatics. I met a chap named Lewis who as well as having a lovely Daf 46 estate works in a small classic car restoration firm in Norfolk -
Purely Classics. We got chatting about the work they had done, and I was impressed by the fact that they took a lot of care over otherwise unloved cars. I got in touch in March, and went to see some of their work. The next day, BHX was trailered away by Lewis and Les Heaton who actually runs the company:
Five days later, I was in the area so called in to see what Les and his team made of the car having had a few days to scrutinise it. They had been hard at work, and all the structuring welding had been done, the mechanicals sorted including a new full set of driveshaft boots, and the car was sorted as far as the MOT was concerned! The dent in the driver's rear quarter was also in the process of being sorted.
I went back just over a week later, and some more progress had been made. The wings had been welded up and skimmed, and I'm pleased to say that Mac's welding stood up to scrutiny, as did my metalworking skills in making new metal for the wings. All the small dents and imperfections in the car had been sorted and primed.
Mmm, paint:
Two weeks later (today) I went back again, and the car is shaping up! It has been fully painted, and re-assembled. I'm really pleased with the colour match to the original paint, so much so that when I went in today I had a brief moment thinking nothing had been done at all, until I realised that of course it had!
A pink interior(!):
The next jobs are to clean it up, sort out any overspray, polish a few minor blemishes out of the new paint, underseal inside the arches etc, sort out new tyres and take it for its MOT. I should take delivery of the completed car on the weekend of 20-21 April, and I am very excited
. I will then have some fun fitting a few NOS bits that I have acquired to finish it off properly (including replacement front bumper stripes). I also need to re-gas or source new boot struts, and possibly a replacement front numberplate - anyone know of somewhere that does good classic numberplates, I have used
Framptons in the past but wasn't completely happy with the font they used. Ideally I'd like somewhere to match the typeface exactly, and also replicate the dealer details on the plate.
Anyway, I wasn't sure whether to put this post up, or whether to wait until the BKV for an in-the-flesh reveal. But I thought if I put up some pictures and a story of a 300 being lavished with love and care, that it would help inspire others that these cars are worth restoring, and doing so properly to be preserved for the future.
88 Volvo 340DL Diesel
). Usually manage a bodge up which looks ok at 10 feet if you squint 
