I do like that grille, its what i am planning to do after my fail at making one from orig. volvo grilles.

thanks! its fiddly removing the old grill from the 'frame' but using mainly a knife... succeded

Sweet mate.

The diehards on here may not approve though.
They don't like my grille either. lol

Got a similar one I bought off Adam last year.

cool, that looks ace! where did the 'volvo' bit come from? i like adam's with blue 'volvo' on it too.

It's one of the wing badges. Shamelessly stole this idea from Adam as well as his black headlight surround idea I'll keep the pictures for when I've got the wheels I want though, it'll all look right then.

hahaha, i think i'll go for that black headlight surround too!
started on my diff today, but got stumped by one bolt although most were difficult and required more leverage using random metal tubes i could find, this one was just in a difficult place. tomorrow i should have the whole diff off and welded up.


spot the difference

well diff removal was harder than i thought but finally got it off today, been giving it a clean up before i head off to work.

going to need a new gearbox to diff gasket, thanks to Mac for giving me the part No.

took my diff coverplate off and that gasket was fine

to clean the oil off the gears i used brake cleaner then decided to set it on fire with a lighter rather than with my welder that wouldn't have been a nice surprise!!

then welded it up, and i'll finish the job on saturday

Hi and welcome!

Nice welding on the rear wheel wells!

Thanks Fuse.
Today i got my welded diff on the car, everything went well, I took it for a little test drive and it seems fine for normal use.

bit of porosity in the weld but my tig'er was set high for good penetration so it should hold,
i had a bit of trouble filling the diff back up with oil but did the best i could, i'll try and find a better technique of doing it.. any suggestions?


cleaned and sprayed up. it also has underseal on it now

ok so i had a little drift in a car park, in 2nd gear in the dry, it went well but im still a bit cautious. it has made the car handle completley different and i need to get used to it all over again. can't wait to have a little play in the rain.
i can say that it doesnt effect normal driving much, you only notice it when doing slow 90 degree turns such as into and out of car park spaces.
i need to put some more gearbox oil in and i think the best way is by using a little thumb pump action oil can.
next jobs are headlight surrounds and rust chasing then maybe if we have some nice weather a bit of filling.

slideway wrote: i can say that it doesnt effect normal driving much, you only notice it when doing slow 90 degree turns such as into and out of car park spaces..

Not tried a U-turn on a painted mini-roundabout yet?

Youve done it at the right time on year like dude. Winter + weld = slide.

ouch yeah thats gonna hurt
yeah hot sticky roads are probably going to kill it, have you had a welded diff then?
i look forward to rainy days now

slideway wrote:ouch yeah thats gonna hurt
yeah hot sticky roads are probably going to kill it, have you had a welded diff then?
i look forward to rainy days now

Nope. Open all the way for me.
Neven even driven a welded diff.
Been shotgun in a few though. And I know its not for me. My parkings bad enough as it is!