Hell Driver wrote: Will Volvo ever produce a modern car retro styled on the 343 like the mini/fiat 500 and beetle

The c30 is based on a 480, thats the only one so far

I know of only two modelyear 76 cars (chassisn° below 305381) at present: the one of Freerk and mine.

All the others shown, even though they were first registered in 1976, in the pics in this topic are modelyear 77 cars or modified later cars.

During the period prior to chassisn° 322000 Volvo made modifications to the cars "as and when" the parts became available for production. I suspect there may still be some MY76 cars left but honestly think that counting with both hands I might have some fingers left. One mustn't forget that Volvo has done anything in its power to get them all scrapped, even offering one on one exchanges. It has taken me 17 years to find my car (chassisn° 303800, delivered in June 1976).

Of the later 1977 model (chassisn° between 306000 and 346559) there are "plenty" left over, maybe even a 100 in total. These look pretty identical with the earlier cars but are in general a lot more durable and reliable. No chassisn° were issued between 305381 and 306000.

volvodspec wrote:Freerk's is probably the oldest one that is known, and he's very busy with a proffesional restauration!!

the very poor quality engine components of the B14.0 were a part aswell.. a B14.0 gives up after barely 60.000 miles, 85.000max.. then it allmost automatically throws its rods out. some very low quality steel was used back than (not even mentioning the tiny valves etc) dropping a later B14 in is easy offcourse but back then that didn't happen that often unfortunatly

That is if the pistons haven't molten through before.

Hi all.
This is fasinating reading.
I wondor why volvo wanted them scraped?
Cheers Mark.

theo2468 wrote:

Hell Driver wrote: Will Volvo ever produce a modern car retro styled on the 343 like the mini/fiat 500 and beetle

The c30 is based on a 480, thats the only one so far

Which was partly modelled on the P1800 estate itself (rear end). The P1800 rear end is still in evidence on the C30.

Hi all.
The C30 is a great little car.We have had one for the last three years as a motability car
as our son has learning difficulties. Unfortunatly with it just having two doors,it is not practical
enough for are needs and will have to be changed this year for something a little bigger.
Cheers Mark.

volvomania wrote:I know of only two modelyear 76 cars (chassisn° below 305381) at present: the one of Freerk and mine.
All the others shown, even though they were first registered in 1976, in the pics in this topic are modelyear 77 cars or modified later cars.

Of course, my beginners' mistake Everything from Sept (?) 1976 onwards will be MY 1977. So that means all of the cars up to 305381 will have been built between approx Febuary and August 1976. When did the chassis nos start exactly? I guess 300000 would be logical, but the VOC in the UK lists 5206 total 343s for MY 1976, not 5381. So maybe they began at 3000175

volvomania wrote:I know of only two modelyear 76 cars (chassisn° below 305381) at present: the one of Freerk and mine.
It has taken me 17 years to find my car (chassisn° 303800, delivered in June 1976).

So that makes car number 1800 "known" as well as "3800". That makes them pretty special cars. Even if MY 77 was better and more durable, having a car from the very first batch does give owning one a certain appeal. To me

MCHUDD wrote:I wondor why volvo wanted them scraped?

Image reasons I'm sure ...

Cheers

Tom

MCHUDD wrote:Hi all.
I wondor why volvo wanted them scraped?

If you yhink Russian cars were bad....think again.
The early 343's were so bad they could have taught the Russians :oops:a thing or two .

Warping dashes, non fitting parts, disappearing propshafts, braking seats, stop and only starting after a lengthy cooldown (hey, I knew it was a "green car" )... and that is keeping it polite.

trabitom99 wrote:Of course, my beginners' mistake Everything from Sept (?) 1976 onwards will be MY 1977. So that means all of the cars up to 305381 will have been built between approx Febuary and August 1976. When did the chassis nos start exactly? I guess 300000 would be logical, but the VOC in the UK lists 5206 total 343s for MY 1976, not 5381. So maybe they began at 3000175

So that makes car number 1800 "known" as well as "3800". That makes them pretty special cars. Even if MY 77 was better and more durable, having a car from the very first batch does give owning one a certain appeal. To me

Cheers

Tom

Freerk's car is actually listed as chassisn°301508 in my archives, Tom, which one is 301800 then?

I have been looking at the production start of the 343 for some time now.
Making everything confusing is the fact that the chassisn°'s indicate the sequence of sale and not as expected the sequence of production. This is because the factory was not able to change colours in a jiffy and cars were grouped by colour so that they could paint certain colours on certain days.
I have a good feeling about which car officially came off the production line officially as the "first" one, contradicting the production numbers.
One mustn't forget all the preproduction vehicles offcourse, which often (but not always) also carried a chassisn°....

volvomania wrote:Freerk's car is actually listed as chassisn°301508 in my archives, Tom, which one is 301800 then?

I don't know that for sure, I was quoting Anjo from this post:
http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... &start=936

volvomania wrote:I have been looking at the production start of the 343 for some time now.
Making everything confusing is the fact that the chassisn°'s indicate the sequence of sale and not as expected the sequence of production. This is because the factory was not able to change colours in a jiffy and cars were grouped by colour so that they could paint certain colours on certain days.
I have a good feeling about which car officially came off the production line officially as the "first" one, contradicting the production numbers.
One mustn't forget all the preproduction vehicles offcourse, which often (but not always) also carried a chassisn°....

Sounds like a pretty chaotic production start ...

It's not that long ago, surely there must be people around in Born that one could ask? The closest I ever got to an "insider" was when I bought some bumpers from someone who used to work in the design department at Volvo NL. He even gave me John de Vries's private address - I always planned to write to him, but when I finally got around to it I couldn't find the note anymore

I know of the books "Volvo in Holland" and the one written by the Swiss chap "Vom Volvo 343 L bis zum 360 GLT RSX2", but have never read them ...

Tom

volvomania wrote: Making everything confusing is the fact that the chassisn°'s indicate the sequence of sale and not as expected the sequence of production. This is because the factory was not able to change colours in a jiffy and cars were grouped by colour so that they could paint certain colours on certain days.

This could explain why when my dad asked for a blue car in summer 1977 the dealer in the UK said they couldn't get one and would brown do instead After getting used to the idea of a brown one they said they had found a blue one after all. Maybe a another blue customer had changed their mind and went for brown instead!

It might also explain why we got a car delivered in August 1977 which had a September 1976 stamped on parts!

I thought I'd resurrect this thread after randomly coming across it this morning, as it makes some very interesting reading. Somebody very nice bought me an amazing book called 'Volvo in Born - A History' for Christmas, and it has a lot of interesting pictures from the early production lines, including a picture of a blue 343 that was presented to the Queen Silvia of Sweden when she visited the Born factory in October 1976 - I wonder if the royal family still have it!? I'll try to scan in some of the pictures when I get near a scanner.

Andy, do you have any other pictures of your 343 - I've seen the 'first' and 'last' ones, but is there anything in between? I'd love to see them.

Does anybody know how Freerk is getting on with his green 1976 model?

I don't know how Freerk's car is coming, haven't heard anything for a long time.

The car presented to Queen Sylvia of Sweden is a MY'77, not a MY'76, and now resides in the Volvo museum in Gothenburg.

S10NPH wrote: Andy, do you have any other pictures of your 343 - I've seen the 'first' and 'last' ones, but is there anything in between? I'd love to see them.

I do have quite a few, as the car was in the family for 29 years! Almost all are on print or slide film however, as the car was stolen shortly after I went digital. Basically it's on a few late 70's and 1980s holiday type photos, then on photos from college and after, through the 90's. Not many from the 2000's as it retired from the road in 2002ish before theft in 2006.

I'll get some scanned in at some point, and do a bit of a history of the car.

trabitom99 wrote:I know of the books "Volvo in Holland" and the one written by the Swiss chap "Vom Volvo 343 L bis zum 360 GLT RSX2", but have never read them ...

Since writing that I've bought the Swiss book via the V3C. Some very interesting stuff in it, although it does have a few issues here and there ...

Tom