my 1988 minty green 360 GLT

[trabitom99]

I recently noticed that I've never started a thread for my GLT. Amazing, since I've had it for nearly 6 years now. It's a car that's always been lurking around, sometimes on the road, sometimes off it, always playing second fiddle to my daily GLi, or the DLS / Mk1 "rescue" projects. But now my GLi has headed off to the scrapyard, it's time to drag it out into the open a bit more.




I actually only bought it for its toys, a fully equipped V300 is very rare in Germany, even central locking was an option on most cars. So on the way back from our Moldova trip we took a detour via East Germany to take a look at this car - all I did was drive it around in a circle to see if the PAS worked, and bought it straight away.

On the the long drive west, the exhaust got louder and louder, getting so bad that I had to leave it at a Volvo dealer's to deal with it - and after paying main dealer prices for replacing a B200F downpipe, and after a full check, it was soon pretty clear that I wasn't going to strip it for its parts anymore. In fact, it was in a much better condition than my daily GLi, and with loads of lovely extras including electric mirrors/windows, a sunroof, extra gauges and a catalytic converter - all so important for those "Umweltzones".



A few electrical niggles were sorted early on but what took a while to sort out was overheating problems which I couldn't make head or tail of. It never boiled over or anything, but the gauge was always a tad further to the right than what I was used to from my GLi, particularly at autobahn speeds. The radiator appeared to be in near perfect condition (I even had it flushed and tested by a place which overhauls these things), the thermostat and water pump were changed, I even swapped the instrument clusters over once, just to see if it was the gauge at fault. And what did it turn out to be? Wrong radiator fitted - there was one from a 340 in there. Thanks, Mr. previous owner! Thicker, 34mm V360 radiator fitted, and all has been well since.

Almost? Well not quite - rust has been eating away at this car too, but luckily not as all-consuming as on the Gli.

More to follow ...

Cheers

Tom

[SteveP]

Good to be seeing more of your glt! I've always really liked this car, it's pretty unusual being that colour

[thebear54]

Beautiful Tom, just beautiful.
Glad you decided to keep her instead of stripping her of accessories.
Love the license plates.

John

[trabitom99]

Thanks for the comments I like the colour too, although TBH I'd rather have had a more "user-friendly" one, like red. It's hard to find replacement panels in 302 green, and both Halfords and my local bodyshop both seem to have trouble matching the colour too ... No original colour available from Volvo either, unlike the more common shades. Volvo changed the "light green metallic" from 89 on (312 / 321(?)) adding to the confusion ...

Cheers

Tom

[volvosneverdie]

Thanks for the comments I like the colour too, although TBH I'd rather have had a more "user-friendly" one, like red.

Lovely.

red?!

That goes pink if the sun comes out from behind a cloud once a year for three years in a row?

Green is much better. And more environmentally friendly.

[trabitom99]

LOL, yes of course, red has a bad reputation in that way

I've never found it to be as bad as all that though. Sure, red cars parked under a lamp post all their lives which have never seen a bit of T-cut go that way, but it's never been any trouble on my red cars. The GLi was garaged from 1988-2000, in the following 12 years it was parked in my road, and I polished it, maybe twice? The DLS has never been polished, and the colour is a little matt (but not pink) and the Mk1 turned out great after I had a go at it with one of those twirly machines.

It's easy to get a rattle can of red to spray over any area you've been working at, but I've never found any green which was a good match. The Halfords stuff was the worst, more silver than anything else.

I had a mate at school who would never get into a green car, saying it was unlucky

Cheers

Tom

[trabitom99]

Thread update time for my GLT which will be getting a bit more attention now that my Mk1 is sold.



Around the end of 2009 I had a bit of a petrol problem. The car had been standing around for a while and the petrol hose which joins the two "saddle bags" of the tank had gone rather leaky. Anyway, not knowing this I put the number plates on, brimmed the petrol tank and went to pick the kids up from kindergarten.

Picture the scene if you will: dozens of mums picking up their cherubs, a 21 year old Volvo outside the kindergarten gates and a river of fuel flowing past the line of children. In a mild state of panic I drove on to a quiet bit of road, called the fire brigade (recieved a bill for 250 Euros later) and lost lots of face with the mums. Luckily, at kindergarten age, children tend not to be embarrassed by their parents quite so much.

Here we are a few years later under an autobahn bridge, having run out of battery power on the way to a wedding:



... and again on a trip to the Ahr valley:



I'd thought the problem was a duff battery, but at the end of the day it was the voltage regulator of the alternator playing up. The battery light never showed, so it took a while to locate the problem!

Another problem with the car which took time to fix was the play in the (power) steering. Unfortunately, no-one other than Volvo ever made track rods for PAS-360s (track rod ENDs are common as muck, being the same as in non-PAS 300s along with several 1980's VWs) but the track rods themselves are unique to PAS-360s. I'm not sure what the actual differences are compared to "nomal ones" having never put both types side to side.

What's lucky is that LHD and RHD power steering racks use the same track rods, and a RHD PAS rack found it's way into my boot (thanks, Pete!) at a DAF meet one winter in the Sauerland.

For those of you interested in the details, a full read up can be found here:
http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... f=5&t=6720

Anyway, enough boring text, here're some random pics from the past 6 years of ownership:

Holland:


Holland:


Holland:


Holland:


river Sieg:


river Rhine:


river Rhine:


Cheers

Tom

[MCHUDD]

Hi Tom.
Great looking motor. Loved reading that Moldova trip again.
I wonder if that cracking looking tractor is still sitting in front
of that apartment block.
Cheers Mark.

[trabitom99]

I wonder too That was a superb trip, one of the best ever ... We've been back to Romania a few times since then, but always with a plane/rented Dacia, the flights are much cheaper than they used to be.

Great-Grandfather-in-law is now heading for 102 years of age Home-brewed plum schnaps and 45 years of Communism can't have been all bad.

Cheers

Tom

[trabitom99]

Summer tyres on:




a quick trip to the "Bergische Land" to run them in, together with a mate on his Yamaha FJ1200:



steering wheel swap:



... and off tomorrow to the "Dafhobby day".

Cheers

Tom

[SteveP]

Wow nice wheel, where'd you get that from

[trabitom99]

It came up for sale just round the corner from me a few years ago, but it made the steering on the non-PAS GLi much heavier (despite being the 370mm version) so I swapped it back for the standard wheel.

I still need to visit the TÜV though, this kind of thing needs extra papers ...

Cheers

Tom

[MCHUDD]

Hi Tom.
I love that steering wheel also.
I want i want i want i want.

Cheers Mark.

[trabitom99]

Drove in convoy today to the Dafhobby day:



as Rainer's Daf 66 wasn't quite ready yet:



3x 340 varios for sale, including one saloon with electric windows:



This rather sorry looking manual 1980 345 wasn't on offer:




... and nor were these:




I recognise that Mk1!





360 with a turbo engine from a V240




a (modified) air mass meter from a BMW 535i running with standard LE jet






Lovely special edition Volvo 66:




I was surprised at the amount of V300 stuff Danny has by now, although Daf parts are still his main business of course:



Black Beauty seats and steering wheel:




Chrome door handles!



... and I haven't tried it out yet, but I'm kind of hoping I sourced my last missing leo centre cap (after 4 years of searching).

Cheers

Tom

[TheUglyDuckling]

Great pics! And I love that turbo'd 360 - gorgeous. What bodykit is that?