Another Newbie

[Tubthumper]

Afternoon all,

I've been lurking around this site for a while, but decided to keep quiet until I bought a 340........

Well, about an hour ago, I did

It's a 32000 mile 340 DL, light blue, fairly straight, 2 owner, and about as OAP as it gets.....excellent.

I paid £150 for it, as the MOT runs out in 2 weeks, but I gave it a good going over, and a long test drive, and there was nothing obviously wrong

My plan is to keep it looking as standard as possible, but drop it low, but retain the steelies.

I searched for lowering kits, and a chap in Wales, Dai ?seems to be the man who does them. Is he still around, as I'll need some blocks/lowered springs and dampers. Or even better, has anyone else got a kit they want to sell me?

My background in cars is varied, from old Triumphs/Fords/Porsche and my last project was an old rag top beetle, but I've now joined the Volvo RWD fraternity, as well as the FWD, as I've also got an old V40.

Cheers,

Malc.

[Ronnie]

Welcome Malc - show us some pics!

[Tubthumper]

Will do Ronnie, I'm picking her up tomorrow morning

[petefarrell360]

Hello Malc, welcome to V3M, I'm pretty local to you if you need any help with the 340. Hope you enjoy it, you're in the right place by coming to V3M anyway!

Pete

[Nikdev]

Welcome, yes its true that Dai`s got all that you need, but he is currently unavailable

I got a "complete" kit from him(+front dampers) on my skid car, its has completely transformed the car!
But if you stay with the stock tires and steelies it wont help how much you tweak the suspension the car will still be like a boat! Trust me

[Tubthumper]

well, here she is...


I dug a little deeper when the rain finally stopped, and it will need a 10p size bit of welding under the battery, a plastic bumper insert and a n/s rear light cluster. better dig my MIG out

[Tubthumper]

Afternoon all,

Well, having scraped off some of the underseal from the O/S front wheel arch, and cut out the small amount of rot, caused by a previously leaking battery, it's ready for the MIG.

I've taken next week off, so if it stops raining I'll sort it out, and organise for the new screen to be fitted. All that's needed will be a N/S rear light cluster a damn good T cut,a N/S bumper bolt cover, then MOT time. If it does stop raining this week I'll update with pics

One thing I have noticed, is that scrapyards around my way don't seem to have any 340's anymore. I assume they have all been crushed due to the high price steel is fetching at the moment?

I also plan to lower it slightly, but Dai is still not answering his pm's, but it's not urgent, so I'll hang on.

[trabitom99]

Welcome Malc!

One thing I have noticed, is that scrapyards around my way don't seem to have any 340's anymore. I assume they have all been crushed due to the high price steel is fetching at the moment?

There seem to be very few scrappies who can be bothered to part them out these days. Every now and then there are Ebay auctions though where people put up "300 breaking for spares - you are bidding on a wheel nut" - here you can usually ask if they can remove any other bits for you as well. If all else fails, just ask here

I've also got an old V40.

Saw that and thought "V40s are old ? Just worked out the oldest ones are over 12 years by now, how time flies

Let us know how you get on with the windscreen change! Are you keeping the old seal?

Tom

[petefarrell360]

Good to see you've got it now and you're making progress on it. Scrap yards around our way don't tend to keep them at all, they crush them as soon as they come in, and have done for quite sometime, they seem to think there is no demand for parts and they are too old to bother with. There is a place out Wycombe way that kept a 300 or two, but that was a couple of years ago.

Good luck with it. If you're stuck for the cluster and bolt cover I can probably find one when I get 10 mins!

Pete

[Tubthumper]

I hadn't really thought about the seal, do you know the best place to buy a new one, just in case?


There is a great yard near Bicester, Hughes' I think it's called, but when I phoned them last week they didn't have any 340's or 60's. ASM in Aylesbury also draws a blank, and Hunts in Hemel never bothered phoning me back with a yes or a no

I have contacted a chap on Ebay, who is parting out a 360 in North London, but he is asking a little too much, in my humble opinion, for the bits, although he has run the advert several times, so he might just be getting desperate to shift bits by now

Something else that made me laugh on the weekend was a scrap dealer knocking on my door to see if I wanted him to take away, in his own words, "the heap" on my drive. Cheeky git

[Jason B]

I had a pikey scrap dealer knock my door the other day, and he used a similar description. (though it does look a bit shed-esque at the moment )

[petefarrell360]

ASM told me they don't bother keeping 300's at all, they crush them when they arrive. I've only ever seen 300's crushed on the heap in Hughes.

Try the one out near Booker round Wycombe, they used to keep the 300's.

Yeah, there have been a lot of people trying that lately, coming to you and trying to convince you to part with the 'heap' on your drive for some cash. Quite an insult most of the time if you ask me!

Pete

[gltux]

I've had seven people trying to buy mine and one of them has tried it twice.

[Tubthumper]

The work started today, with the first job of finding out how much rot was under the O/S wheel arch.



Not as bad as I thought, so then having cut out the rotten metal, let in some new steel, paint/seam sealer and underseal, I've got this.



Tomorrow I plan to cut back the tired paint with Autoglym's fantastic paint restorer, and have a go at getting the dent out of the N/S rear door.By the way, anyone know the paint colour name of my 340 ?


Next stop, new windscreen, find a N/S rear light cluster, then....MOT [/img]

[petefarrell360]

Looks like it's coming along! You'll find your paint code on the VIN plate on the front rail under the bonnet above the grille. It's normally a three digit number from memory, I think there is a diagram in the user manual if you have one of what the information relates to.

As for the window seal, as long as it's not perished and you clean any rubbish off/out of it it should be ok. Chances of getting a new one, unless it's an aftermarket part, which I doubt anyone produces one yet, are slim to none! Volvo have probably deleted that part and run out of stock of any old ones by now. It's the plastic trim that pushes into the seal that is more problematic when it comes to having a windscreen replaced. As it gets brittle they break it removing it normally! However yours looks to be chrome as opposed to plastic pretend chrome, I've never studied a non GLT or non black windscreen trim to tell for sure like on your model, I know Andy's GLEi uses a plastic one, but the pretend chrome comes off and it looks white eventually!

Pete