Hi Sion.
Looking great mate. Boot boxes , now that has got me thinking
Never new you could get boot boxes
Cheers Mark.

The carpet rails under the doors are plastic coated metal, but thin metal. When you take them off and put them on again the screws catch the carpet fibres of that brown carpet type and wind in on the screw, very annoying, try not to let this happen as it rips the carpet and the screws dont tighen down properly!

I have a set of those seats, but in far worse condition!!!

Be carefull not to rest your arm on the big door pull, it will degrade the inner foam and sag. Eventually the outer plastic splits.

If you are doing any work on the interior post it up here first as I have fully stripped and reinstalled all the brown trim in the past. I can point you in the right direction to save breaking rare fragile parts!!!! Almost everything you touch will snap easily! I found them hard to get replacements for even 20+ years ago.

Nice NOS item on ebay for you http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/GENUINE-VOLVO ... 1c42cca02e

Look what exciting things I got for Christmas - shitty brown plastic NOS things





I shall fit them in the spring when the car comes out of its hibernation.

In other news, I have had a bit of a paintwork disaster: some cold weather in early December coupled with a fairly crappy car cover has played havoc with the bonnet paint, making it come out in little hives all over. It's not the original bonnet, as it's in fact yellow originally and from a slightly later car, but it must not have been prepared properly when it was resprayed. Oh well, you live and learn, and the paintwork is not great on the whole car anyway.

I have rented a garage for it over the winter, but I am very much hoping to construct one at my house ready for next winter. Only problem is, apart from cost, is that it will only fit a maximum of 2 cars, so I will still have 2 outside permanently, boo.

I have also had new bushes fitted to the anti-tramp bar, but they haven't stopped the 'squelching' coming from the rear when you move off too quickly. Any other ideas?

I have spoken to some upholsterers about re-trimming the seats, but no-one is able to find the correct material. Apparently it is corded bri-Nylon.

Oh and finally for now, I have had some information about the early life of this car. Production started on 14 September 1976 and the car was originally destined for the Austrian market (MC17). The paperwork was handed over to Volvo Car BV on 2 November 1976. At some point after this date the destination changed, and it was registered in the Netherlands as 80-RA-54 on 21 April 1977 and delivered to its first owner on 22 April 1977. So I can fairly confidently say that although a '77 model year car, it was built in September 1976 and thus is really very early indeed .

Bruintastic there Sion!

3 useless answers:
1) Move away slower.
2) Sell some cars or find somewhere to build a duodecuple garage.
3) Comission a roll of cloth or like me, forever be searching for the right material (if anyone knows where I can find '78 vintage alrince of Wales check cloth for a Citroen GS let me know)

Siôn - have you tried,

http://www.martrim.co.uk/catalogue/seat ... hange.html

Mac.

S10NPH wrote:Apparently it is corded bri-Nylon.

Surely someone on here has a pair of trousers left over from the 1970's they could donate? SteveP for instance............

V6 Man wrote:

S10NPH wrote:Apparently it is corded bri-Nylon.

Surely someone on here has a pair of trousers left over from the 1970's they could donate? SteveP for instance............

That's a tad unnecessary

I've had two problems with those raised spots of paint, first the GL got some (very minor though) on the bonnet. They appeared to be along the line of a very and I mean VERY light surface scratch in the paint. I blamed the car cover as they appeared after a spell of freezing weather with snow then a sudden thaw in the sun. I though that maybe the cover had prozen to the paint with condensation and then lifted the paint bubbles, made worse by expansion caused by the sun. But then Rachel's 54 plate Colt suffered the same effect on a wing that was resprayed a couple of years ago. That was not covered and so I think it has something do with sudden temperature changes on paint where there may be tiny surface imperfections where maybe water or air can expand between the layers. I think that overall, covers are fine but lift them occasionally to check for problems and take them off when the weather is good for a day or two to let the car breathe.

Glad to see you are looking at improvements!

I missed that paintwork post.

Yes, it seemingly can be caused by car covers trapping moisture as well as badly prepped/not enough gear in a respray. My new Mazda is pretty terrible for it, I've a feeling it's seen a spray but it not sure when in it's life. My plan is to rectify individual spots as they pop through, unless I'm convinced the body work is good enough for a respray, which right now I'm not.

MAZDA?

WTF?

As a bearded Suffolk resident of Highland descent put it;

+

Is it just me that thinks Mac ought to start his own comic series

If anybody is going to insult the cardigan, in public, using MY artwork - it's damn well going to be me!

Fear not - the MX contagion can be treated -



Moan, gripe complain, plagiarism, wobble POOT.
Mac.