1989 Volvo 360 GLE

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Gooly
Posts: 17
Joined: 11 Dec 2012 09:26 am

1989 Volvo 360 GLE

Post by Gooly » 11 Dec 2012 09:32 am

Hey guys, new here, heres my car post taken from another forum;

I'm pretty clumsy with the written word, but bear with me if your bored. So anyway, about two weeks ago, I was a pretty content guy, had a part time job as a delivery driver, nice modern reliable MK5 fiesta which I loved, worked fine other than a slight misfire, loved the corners, etc etc. Worked great as a daily driver for the 1700 or so miles I do a month. I had an essay to do for one of my uni modules (Am currently a first year student doing economics) and as usual I was procrastinating for ages and ended up on the driftworks classifieds. I've always had a longing for an old RWD car, but being 18 and having only been driving since march theres not much out there that's insurable. As I was flicking through the s-bodies and E36s that were for sale I saw a link for a Volvo 360.

I clicked on it and saw the beige beauty sitting there, and I knew right then and there that I was going to buy it. It had a welded diff and 12 months MOT and was based a few miles west of Worthing, so not far from my campus in sussex. I kept a note of the number and the next day I called up my insurance to see what sort of quote I'd get on it; lo and behold, the price would barely change for this 100BHP swedish beast. I called up the seller and went to see it the next day; it was pretty clean, with just a bit of rust on the arches, and it had a barely believable 63,000 miles on the clock. The paintwork (I believe the official name of this shade is peadophile brown) was in decent condition, etc etc, and mechanically it seemed fine, fresh fluids, matching tyres with decent tread, and crucially it had a welded differential; for those that don't know, it's an open diff that's been welded to lock it all the time, so basically an LSD that's always locked. I put the deposit down and collected it the next week.

To say I was excited doesn't cover it.

After counting down the days, I took the train down to Barnham and picked it up. As I pulled out of the lot, I had the biggest smile on my face; it just felt so right; these are quite small (escort class rather than full fat sierra class car) but after a mk5 fiesta it felt like I was at the helm of a proper car, the sound of the carb sucking in air, the big thin steering wheel, the square bonnet reaching out in front of me, it was great. The way home was nerve-racking though as it started cutting out; it had been left standing for a while and the fuel lines/carb were quite clearly a bit clogged up. For the next few miles it ran like a pig, but after a bit of caning it cleared itself up and ran perfectly. The sofa-like velour seats and the softly sprung suspension meant it was a great cruiser and it sat fine at 85.

Fast forward to later in the day, I took it to work. The welded diff made things interesting around the tight streets of brighton, and I was still worried that it would cut out, but it worked fine. It started raining for a bit, and the streets were pretty wet. Finished my shift, and on the way home I took the more scenic route and came across a well sighted 80degreeish corner; I thought well lets try the diff out. Approached the corner, h/t'd into 2nd and turned in with a bit of gas; like clockwork the back end stepped out and I caught it with about a turn of oppo, and threw it back straight. You literally could not get the smile off my face if you tried, I felt like such a hero, like richard hammond with the bowler wildcat. From then on every empty roundabout was taken looking out the side window, and now I'd like to think I'm pretty good at the whole dab of oppo thing(inb4 the "I spun it into a ditch" post). It's been four days now, I've done 370 miles and loved every single one of them.

A few issues though; it's a bh to start during cold, requires the choke about a 1/4 way out and a bit of throttle pumping, usually fires up on the fourth or fifth time, never let me down yet. It's also running very rich, this is my first carbed car and I have no idea how to tune the thing. The left speaker is blown, I want to retain the standard system and wonderfully retro headunit so I wanna figure out a way to fix that. It's pulling to the left a little bit, hoping it's just the tracking and not the wishbones/bushings. Other than that it's great, I love the interior, I love how airy it is, the slide sunroof, the big cushy seats, the sound of the carb when you give it some, how predictable the back end is, how it stands out among the blobby bloated superminis that trundle around brighton, the fact that nobody understands why I bought it, the fact that you can fix everything with a hammer and a spanner, how theres so much feel and feedback from the steering, how you can feel the carb jet opening through your right foot, how nicely it rides, and just the fact that when people see it they assume it's going to be driven by some OAP at 15MPH everywhere. And it most definitely isnt.

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My fiesta and the ovlov

Anyway that was alot of writing for very little car, but as you can see I'm just so happy with this loveable pile of crap at the moment. And I don't think I'll be getting bored of that diff anytime soon.

TLDR impulse bought a 360 with the carbed 2l (B200k?), carbs running a bit crap so needs to tune, no idea how to, want a nice set of wheels (like some nice dished alley kats or similar) but can't seem to find much that fits, trackings out and it pulls to the left, and left speaker is blown so want to fix that somehow. There are some very very very nice cars here including a black 360 with MK2 escort rally arches which looks AMAZING, and it seems like a great community. I'm in brighton (well london over the holidays but brighton during term) if anyone wants to meet.

Logan360
Posts: 848
Joined: 23 Jun 2012 08:51 am

Re: 1989 Volvo 360 GLE

Post by Logan360 » 11 Dec 2012 10:10 am

I'm glad you now know the reason these cars have a whole forum. I've had 5 in 4 years. i still have my very first one. white 86 glt. flawlessly reliable. sits weeks at a time and fire's first crank. yes i too have a lockie. hope you get all the help you need on here mate. have fun :) just not too much or you'll have the cozzers after you!
Own:
86 360GLT
97 S90
92 960S, Royal
01 Subaru Lancaster 6
96 Volvo 854R

Owned
E90 320 M-sport wagon
S60T -Mazda Familia
850lpt -AU Falcon
855T5 -91, 95, 97 960
940TIC -Mitsi GTO TT
16x 360-Toyota corolla
Toyota corona-R32 Skyline
V70R -V70T5

MCHUDD
*** V3M DONOR ***
Posts: 2537
Joined: 18 May 2006 03:43 pm
Location: BELFAST UNITED KINGDOM

Re: 1989 Volvo 360 GLE

Post by MCHUDD » 11 Dec 2012 11:49 am

Hi mate and welcome.
Good luck with the car. The wheel stud size is 4/100 if your looking for alloys.
I can let you have a replacement door speaker for a few beer tokens plus postage if your stuck.
Cheers Mark.
sm4 sm4 sm4

classicswede
*** V3M DONOR ***
Posts: 5461
Joined: 25 Apr 2005 06:52 pm
Location: Anglesey North Wales
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Re: 1989 Volvo 360 GLE

Post by classicswede » 12 Dec 2012 12:22 am

I was very tempted by that car myslef :D

Make sure you take care of it 340pw
Dai

Please email me directly on dai@classicswede.co.uk

http://www.classicswede.com

phone/text 07824887160

Web shop http://www.classicswede.co.uk/

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