You get the favor of a short version packed in 32 pictures.
Because i live in the USA now for an internship, i will not be updating the project. I will continue with updates somewhere in the middle of next year.
I thought you might like it, because you could get inspiration on welding your own 340/360.
This car is a 1987 Volvo 360i. This means it's the model without any goodies. Not a GL or GLT. I have to add everything myself
As an introduction, this used to be my car:
Check out all the rust on the front beam...
I have only 1 pic of the side. That's too bad because there was a lot to tell. You can see from this pic that the entire side was battered up.
And when you think de other side is better? It isn't. Neither is the back of the car or the front
I think the roof was the only thing that is not in really bad shape.
This is the engine of the car:
It is a completely rebuilt B230E engine. (see the nice paint job!) It has a 531 head and VX3 cam.
I have used the original 360 manifolds and injection because i haven't had the time to work on that. In time that will probably change.
It ran like a charm. Because the B230 engine came out of a low-mileage car with automatic gearbox, it looked like new. Completely rebuilt with every sealing, bearing and gasket new: the whole thing feels new.
Too bad i forgot to use new flywheel bolts when replacing the flywheel. 1 bolt broke, it ripped the others loose and it destroyed the clutch and the coupling in the torque-tube.
Well, a great opportunity to put everything in nice and shiney.
New (used) gearbox, torque-tube, diff, clutch.
Gastank plate, gearbox subframe and exhaust bracket gritblasted and painted.
After that, i put everything in and i began to get annoyed about the amount of rust on the car.
Then i saw a new frontplate on the Dutch sales-site http://www.marktplaats.nl.
Unfortunately, it was a '85 340 frontplate because Anjo (volvodspec) already bought the 360 one
I had to cut a new radiator hole. I decided to give it a sleeper look and to cut no foglight holes. I also had to weld on new bracket for the lower radiator rubbers.
Here the 360 is with the engine, but without the front
And here it is with the new NOS front, with the radiator brackets and the big radiator hole cut out.
While i was busy with that, i decided to also fix the cracked windshield. I took the windshield out and unfortunately i also took out the metal around it.
So i removed the dash and cut out the whole window beam and pillar from a breaker and weld it in my own car:
And grind the welds down to flat surface and put filler on:
Also the inner front panels were both sanded down to bare metal and put into zink primer. Here you still see the open window beams.
Then came the fun part. Straighten out the battered rear panels. Left and right were both bad, but left was really gone. That was a big job.
Here it is sanded down to bare metal. Shows all the dents in it.
With the worst holes welded straight and the rest pulled out, i could put the finishing filler on:
(the lower left side is not sanded down yet)
Because i also have a Mk2 rear-window louvre, i wanted the Mk2 tailgate. I also like the round rear-window more then the square one so that's a good reason.
I did not know that the locks were different so i did not buy new locks coming with the tailgate.
I had to grind out the locking mechanism and weld in a mk3 lock:
Also remove the small dents from the tailgate and then it's done. The reason it does not fit is because i have no bootrubber installed. With the rubber and lock installed it fits perfectly.
Then i could start on the sills. Both were pretty bad and holes started to come to the surface. Also the jacking points were coming through the floorplate.
Open the sill:
Rusty jacking point openen up and cleaned:
Inner sill opened up. It was a rusty mess...
I put the jacking point in the zinc primer:
New metal installed:
Done welding this part of the metal. Still needs some grinding though.
Closed up the inner sill with new metal.
Drilled new holes so i can still squirt anti-rust in there. from the in and outside i sprayed it in zinc primer and before closing with anti-rust Tectyl.
Closed up the sill with numerous spot-welds. This is where the project ends for this year.
I can only give you an photo-shop impression of how i want the car. I have not decided on the wheels yet but probably it will be standard 340 steelies, maybe white.
