looking good mate!

The effort shown is pretty damn awesome, hugely impressed.

Q: What are you doing about the front splitter man?
Is that going on the delipped vallance? or are you doing away with it alltogether?

We need a "like" (or similar) button...because I do, definitely, "like" this...

cheers

James

Thanks all. Need to get a clear run at this, but life keeps getting in the way!

Such as, Saturday I went down to Torquay with a mate to get an MR2 Turbo, and on Monday I was window shopping - not the kind you are thinking! Two little scrotes decided to put out the passenger side glass on my daily/beater/shitter/Fiat on Sunday night whilst I was in the garage working on the 360. Could have done without that!

Once I had taped black bags over the car I decided to cheer myself up by mocking up its soon to be new look. I have a few parts stashed/in the making. Here's four of them/ (Eight if you count the wheels) deeper, lower ET ML's than the previous ones).







I like these profile tyres, they will cushion the ride a little, don't seem to make the wheel look less dished, and will allow me to lower it an inch further than previously. I will run these all round.



Fitted to the axle. Shouldn't need very large spacers.




Previous fronts, complete with rubber bands

Previous rears, complete with part-worn balloons!



These pics have provided me with a sufficient enough vehicular mojo boost. Game on. Just wish that chill in the air would fuck off!


Cheers folks.

Those arches look super J man.

Awesome.

That is gonna look amazing. Top work

Wow them arches look like they'll be such a great fit

Weird. I looked at those arches awhile ago too. Did a photoshop with them on, on my car. Good to see them on in the flesh though! They the ones of the chap at retro rides? They look like a really neat fit! Cars coming along well.

Couldn't agree more bout the chill. the sun is teasing me!

the archs look the bees!!
what width rim are you using?

awesome progress dude loving the use of bolt on arches - i always wanted to fit a set to mine to cover up/get rid of some holes can't wait to start doing this kind of resto work on my one in the summer

Nice progress! Cant wait to see more
Are those the type 1 or type 2? arches from the Retrorides forum? Looks great!

looking sweet, Love it man!

Just FYI. This is still happening. There has been quite a lot of work done it since I last updated here. Most of it looks like I have spent barely any time on it, but trust me I have - although not as much as I could. Pics don't show a great deal. This really is awkwardly shaped in places!

I am being quite pedantic about underseal/rust removal. Not much left now, but I don't like leaving the bits I can't access. Time to buy a blow torch. Or another* heatgun. I am hoping to have it in seam sealer/stonechip/painted underneath and in the arches etc in around a month.

Then the cleaning up/reassembly of the running gear can commence. I have collected pretty much everything I need for that, and I am REALLY looking forward to not having to lie on my back 90% of the time I want to do anything to the car!
























I've been through 3 over the years.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot I own one of these things. It's got an awesome 'barn find' level of dust on it now.

Well the above post never happened lol.

I have barely touched the car since my last post on this thread. When I do feel like doing car stuff, it seems there's always someone elses mode of transport that needs to be repaired or modified etc. Consequently I push the Volvo to the back of the queue. The reasons are two-fold, for one I am sick to fucking death of lying on my back with the grinder vibrating in my hands [insert VND quip here], the second is that I do not want to cut corners and bodge this car and seeing as there are areas I cannot access (see below) I find myself doing nothing, rather than a poor job. When I do work on the car, I bare metal everywhere. Once I have the back wheels smoking and any further work it needs means it's clean and easy to strip down know it will have been worthwhile.

Yes this is taking a while, but I am removing and repairing anything suspect as I go. I hate the idea of just painting over areas of OE protection when more often than not there is diseased metal lurking below.

These cars really are a twat to clean up in this way. Such a crazy shape underneath!

Anyway, there isn't much left to do on the underside of the car, then it's seam sealer, Gravitex and a brush on colour coat and after that the cleaning up and restoration/modification of the running gear. Thankfully I have most of the parts for this, and believe me, it will be a joy to be able to do things standing up!


So I had a couple hours on it today, and here's where we are now






Not a lot to see really. The spare wheel blank is from the roof of my old Nissan. A part of it shall live on!

I also bought it some new shoes the other week.



I have them currently split, have started to refurb them and am awaiting new bolts. The original bolts weren't in a hurry to come out, and I had to remove the turbo-caked on brake dust from the barrels with a scotch wheel in a drill lol.




They're 3 piece Gotti 073A's in 13x7 and 13x8 flavour. Right up my street lookswise, if possibly a little small. We shall see.
I feel like I am committing some form of crime in having staggered rims on a RWD car. What would the FWD VAG boys say eh!

They're 4x140 PCD, but my mate says he can magic me up some adaptors no bother. So score.
What's the general consensus then, we like?


My question as promised. I am finding it hard to access certain areas of the underside of this shell. I have gone as far as I can with the grinder and drill, but there's areas I just can't reach. See pics.


Front inner arch/rear of front panel

Inside of lower rear quarter panel

Rear jacking point/spring hanger

What do people use in these areas? They look fine for the most part, but a quick wire brush and then lashing paint over the top isn't an option. I am going to get my compressor back from a mate, then lend another from another mate (same comp), link them together and attempt to use my spot blast gun. Although it was crap when I tried it on a rear beam in the past! I also forget I have some Bitlhamber Deox gel there. I guess that will help quite a bit.

Any ideas?