The Project

This is going to be just a fast update about where I am with my faithful project. So, this all began back in 2000. I had made the mistake of finding a Grand National motor and trans in L.A. My brother, John, had happen to be going there the next day. To make a long story short, he said I would be crazy to pass this up. I would also like to note that I was crazy to take it too. I had the motor and trans shipped to work. One other side note, my lovely wife had no idea what was coming home.

So, it began. I stripped the motor down and began to clean it up. I bought a few new parts and painted the motor.



At this time, I did not have a car to put it in, but I found a 1980 242 2 door Volvo with a blown motor for $200. It ended up being a year or so later when this showed up.





I didn't really know where to begin, so I looked at it for some time, until I got tired of looking at that nice motor sitting on a stand in my garage. If you look at something long enough its bound to give you the itch. I started to tear into it.




At this point, your thinking "Man that is a lot of work to just get it ready." I am only going to post a few more pictures so you can see what kind of work is involved before you tear into something like this. I have been welding for 12 years, and I know my way around a fab shop, so I had just a little hint of what was to come.

I had the engine bay painted and the cross member set up.




The motor went in for fit up just to make sure. Now mind you, there is a lot of in-betweens here that I am passing up to save on your reading time.


After that, it was just a matter of tubing and wires, etc.

And the finished product.....


Here are a few pictures I took of it finished with rims about a year later.

I also ended putting in a ford 8.8 rear end with ford 9" barrings and Ford F-150 12.5 break drums.

I also boxed the lower control arms too.

Here is a video of my run at the track. I would like to add that I had a burnt converter, and my slicks were rubbing on my fenders down the track.


Here is my time slip for the run. Twin turbo diesel truck, a close run for sure.


Last year I totaled the car doing 35 mph on a nice sunny day.

Believe it or not, the motor and rims were okay. I managed to save most of the car.

You can see from this engine bay picture that everything was pushed back just a little.

Here is the last front end shot.

That is all for now. I will be continuing the story. This seems like a good place to stop.

On the next posting, I will tell about what I picked up for a rebuild.