Hi Sion.
There is an e-bay seller in Germany who calls himself Volvo et vento.
He usually has some realy nice early stuff although expensive.
Cheers Mark.

baron_matt wrote:I used to live round the corner from Pillings Volvo at Two Waters near Hemel Hempstead and went to school with two of the Pilling kids, so used to see lines of shiny 300s and 240s on their forecourt. I do remember the launch of what must have been the Mk2 (whenever that was) because the noticeable difference in the headlights.

I grew up within 10 miles of there, I imagine around the same time. My parents bought an '88 340 from Hemel Pilling new, then a '91 ex demo 440 when Mum span the 300

Chris_C wrote:

baron_matt wrote:I used to live round the corner from Pillings Volvo at Two Waters near Hemel Hempstead and went to school with two of the Pilling kids, so used to see lines of shiny 300s and 240s on their forecourt. I do remember the launch of what must have been the Mk2 (whenever that was) because the noticeable difference in the headlights.

I grew up within 10 miles of there, I imagine around the same time. My parents bought an '88 340 from Hemel Pilling new, then a '91 ex demo 440 when Mum span the 300

The Sad thing is that the Pillings Showroom at two waters is now being pulled down, the Pillings body shop on Rucklers lane has also closed down as has the big Pilling parts department on Frogmore road. I think Pillings Volvo is no more by the look of it.

I always remember my best mate from Primary school's excitement when they got their fully loaded Brand new B reg 240 GTL estate in cobalt blue metallic. That Volvo dealership, boxes of Lego and ABBA were the only Scandinavian influences in my early life and it gave glimpses of a brave new ordered well designed world, full of stripped pine and tall gorgeous blonde women....sigh.

baron_matt wrote:Being a bit new to Volvo 300 series can you tell me why the 1977 model is the Holy grail?

To put it simlply....cos it's cool 70's brown

S10NPH wrote: The '76 model year was very short, from about March 1976 until the summer - the '77 model year would have started in September. Only about 5,300 cars were made in that time .

Sorry Sion, but I finally found something that is not correct in your posts .
It is true that the chassisnumbers prior to 306000 were allocated to MY76 and that Volvo claims to have issued 5206 cars but in reality they onl started to deliver cars from ch 3000 upwards. This lowers the number of cars dramatically.

S10NPH wrote:I can't actually see any physical differences between 1976 and 1977 model years, but I do recall RJ telling me that he had found a few.

There are too many to list but if you are slightly sane you may want to stick to MY77 and not hunt for an even earlier one.

Ah I didn't know that about the numbers of '76 models, as you say that makes them very rare indeed.

volvomania wrote:There are too many to list but if you are slightly sane you may want to stick to MY77 and not hunt for an even earlier one.

I'd quite like to know the differences, when you have the time. Don't worry though, a MY77 is early enough for me

I think I only ever saw a 76 car once, in about 1977/78, a metalic green one at the top of our street, if green wasn't available in 76 then I must have been mistaken, I was only 7 or 8!

The only other one I ever found was in a scrap yard in 1991 in Dorset. TTT 805R.

There's more chance of finding life on mars than a 76 car in this counrty......but maybe, just maybe, somewhere there is just one!

Hell Driver wrote:There's more chance of finding life on mars than a 76 car in this counrty......but maybe, just maybe, somewhere there is just one!

They'll be some bunfight when it turns up!

I only just heard about this. Fantastic work, Sion!

I know where there is a 'brown' car, but I don't know if it's a 76 or 77. I say car...there's not much left of it, but enough to "brown" a later model!

cheers

James

foggyjames wrote:I only just heard about this. Fantastic work, Sion!

I know where there is a 'brown' car, but I don't know if it's a 76 or 77. I say car...there's not much left of it, but enough to "brown" a later model!

cheers

James

I would imagine HellDriver may be interested in that for his JAK.

Today I have mostly got an MOT pass . A couple of welding patches were needed, but nothing major.

So all forms are being sent off to the DVLA tomorrow for a British registration plate.

foggyjames wrote:I only just heard about this. Fantastic work, Sion!

I know where there is a 'brown' car, but I don't know if it's a 76 or 77. I say car...there's not much left of it, but enough to "brown" a later model!

cheers

James

Now there's an idea. I already have the 77 wheels, hub caps and silver door handles.

Any chance of putting me on to this car James?

Only thing is JAK isn't a vario (and I have no intentions of it becoming one!!!) so centre console might not fit? Maybe gearstick would be in the right place and I could spray it brown , however, I always had intentions to modify my 'old brown' MK1 so that would kind of fitting really!

V5C arrived in the post today, so TUJ 247R is born

Wasn't too painful then?

Do you know the actual date of manufacture? Do they issue a reg plate that was in force on Jan 1st of the year then (as in 'R' rather than the later S which came out in August?)

Are you allowed to transfere that or is it now fixed?

The UJ part relates to Shrewsbury, same as my Q reg transit. I think it must be random in this case!

Will be good to see an R reg 343 on the road

Yes, I don't know why it doesn't show up correctly on the DVLA website, but the V5 confirms its date of first registration of 21 April 1977 (which is what the Dutch export papers said). That means it is correctly on an 'R' plate. I'm equally surprised by the 'UJ' location mark, I wonder if that's just where the DVLA choose when registering cars that have no particular origin? I was expecting it to be a 'CE', which is the mark local to here.

The V5 doesn't say that the plate cannot be transferred.