The Family! [we need your pictures!!]

[Hell Driver]

The car was registered in August 1977, but I'm sure it was made in 1976. It might not mean anything but the air filter was date stamped Septembre 1976, so it can't have been put together before that, but must have been soon after? Also my dad suspects the dealer (Allisons, long since bought out by Riverside Volvo) found an old stock car because he had trouble getting the blue one. We were told we could only get a brown one. When the brown one came in it was quickly sold to someone else who wanted brown car and he was told 'we've found a blue one for you sir'. We always suspected it had sat around in a car pound somewhere for nearly a year

[trabitom99]

#######
# Mk1 #
#######

19th February 1976 - presentation to the press
1976/03 - 343 DL released

1977 - chrome mirrors replaced with matt black

1978 (early)
chrome door handles replaced with matt black
brown dashboard now black, rotary switches instead of push buttons

http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... 63&start=1 [wasn't this a "sticky" once?]

That's the best I can do on the early history ... I don't know exactly when the 1977 model year started - these days the "MY changeover" is usually in Autumn, but I can't see them having dropped the hub caps and the chrome mirrors 6 months after the car came on the market, so maybe the changeover to the '77 MJ with it's matt black trimmings really was in early '77?

I'm sure some there are people in Holland / Belgium who know ...

Cheers

Tom

[SteveP]

Great pic Hell Driver! Love seeing pics of old 300's back in the 70s/80s/90s

[trabitom99]

Great pic Hell Driver! Love seeing pics of old 300's back in the 70s/80s/90s

Helge (BUF340)
http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/m ... file&u=696
has loads of old pictures of interesting 300s taken on various trips to Sweden in the 80s and 90s. I keep pestering him to post them up here, but he's shy

Tom

[SteveP]

Post them BUF340!

[volvosneverdie]

Post them BUF340!

agreed!

[nomead]

This doesn't really belong here, but deserves being archived anyway...

DAF 77.jpg (97.54 KiB) Viewed 4795 times

Especially nice to see it with a DAF grille.

[trabitom99]

NIce ! Never seen advertising blurb for the DAF 77 before

Certainly interesting to see it with a DAF grille and bumpers, but pretty ... hmmm ...

Tom

[foggyjames]

Note that the front valance is different, too. Interesting how close it is to the early 343 otherwise, though...

cheers

James

[Hell Driver]

Amazing photos! I knew about the early Daf history of the 300 series but never seen those Daf 77 photos before. The true Mk 1 300 . Strange how the door mirrors are black (Volvo went black to black after chrome). Bumpers look a bit thiner (especially the rear one on the blue one, what's the grey on the bumpers Gear selector is not as the volvo 343 too and plastic patches on the carpet. Side repeater indicators dropped by volvo (later put back!). Hub caps not quite the 343 ones either. That blue ones the colour of the one we had! Are these cars still in existence in a museum?

[atroch]

Hi, thanks. I will do, it's garaged all the time and I try to avoid the rain! It won't be going out on the nasty salty UK roads over winter either Will sort out the tyres before long too. I've read about your travels, looks like a great trip. I used to have a Mk 1, still would like to find one, but not many left here now, not seen one on the road here for many years (apart from owners club meeting) Yours looks in great shape

Lucky! I wish to have garage for my Volvo
My must stay on the rain unfortunately.

Here in Poland I also do not seen MK1's.
One in perfect condition I have seen in Hungary while one of travels. It was beautiful light green one. Nicely polished.
Similar to Freerk's '76 green but lighter and with some horizontal line on the sides. In my town I meet sometimes 3 or 4 newer 340 but rather used as just old cars.

[atroch]

what's the grey on the bumpers ?

I guess it is just the metal part of bumper. You can see here also that middle top part of bumber of green one is little bit lighter than the plastic ends.

Are these cars still in existence in a museum?

Not in Volvo museum, I've found only this one in Goeteborg. Maybe in DAF's museum?

[Hell Driver]

Another good photo! Yes the grey bit must be metal painted grey, odd thing to do!

I've got lots of photos of the 343 I used to have, too many for this thread so will have to start another of my own. It was in the family for 29 years of which I had for at least 15! My parents gave it to me when they got an '85 model one in 1991 and I was at college. Lets just say it probably got into a few more scrapes (I don't mean crashes!) than probably any other 340's in the early 90's. At that time mine was already quite old while most others were still quite new and lets just say driven a bit more like shopping baskets To give you an idea; yes a variomatic car can go as fast backwards as forwards! (on private land of course ), yes, primer can last as a topcoat for as least 8 years A mate once said in the mid 90's, after some considerable input of body filler, piston rings, and rubber bands "you know what keeps that car on the road....sheer bloody-mindedness!"

[Hell Driver]

Here is the last ever photo taken of SDT 344S (on the right), early 2006, a couple of months before it was stolen

Yes it does snow in Doncaster (once every 10 years!)

[foggyjames]

What happened to it when it was stolen? Any ideas regarding *why* it was stolen?

cheers

James