What ever happened to...............



?

I Miss that kid.

Long time no update, i'm still about VND just don't really post.

Well it looks like its the end of an era, just got back from the garage where i had my Mot test booked for today.

Put this way it never even saw the Mot station due to terminal rot of the front valance, which as everyone knows is no longer available, and an iffy passenger cill.
Now this leaves me with a dilema, being that the panel is not available it would have to be fabricated,before the work even starts to chop it out and refit, which is going to cost.

So do i throw money at this car, or throw in the towel, find a better shell and do a re-shell, i'm thinking the later is the easier/cheaper option, but Gavin will be no longer

If I was you I would take it to another mot station, I work in a garage and you can't fail a 300's front valance as its not a structual point. The only way they could fail it if Ot has sharp edges but where fibreglass comes in handy to bodge

TBH thats what i thought too, hence i've never bothered getting it repaired due to me thinking it being non structual. The thing is it's gone on the outside pretty much the whole width of the car and it's also going through on the inside near the bottom rad hose. They said due to it being so close to the chassis rails it will fail, so saved me the £50.

That said i think i'll chop it out with a grinder just to see what i'm really dealing with here.

Here's some pics to get a better idea of the situation. As you may be able to work out it's been repaired atleast twice before (badly) as they didn't cut out the rot, just plated over it, so it now appears like its 3 layers of rust. Or are they triple skinned?

The black area above the rot still looks to be 100% solid, so could it be cut out and a plated again. Strokes chin and ponders as i know there are other bits that are going quite badly too .

I think that you don't have front valance.

There are kind of welded spots at top of what looks like to be sheet metal that has been put there where front valance used to be?

So as you don't even have one, then sheet metal route would sound logical.

I think that such could be repaired even with pop rivets, drill, some paint and sheet metal, but metal paint canisters work too for ugly repair, that would be ultimately cheap though

If the front valance is the worst part then I'd have a go at fixing it, that looks pretty bad but its non structural up to a point. A bit of rust you can get away with but it must be there for a reason apart from to look right (otherwise it would be plastic!), probably helps with strength by keeping the chassis rails together and keep it all square! I'd have a go at fixing/getting it fixed, after all it's not that visible so original parts are not needed. I rebuilt mine....
http://www.volvo300mania.com/forum-uk/v ... 4&start=15
It's not as original but at least I took the chance to add some foglights...there's two large holes in it now almost as big as yout rust holes!!!
It rebuilt it without the water trap seam at the bottom.

Thanks for the replies guys. The front valance is certainly the worst place, but not the only place it will need work for the mot, thats not including other iffy bits i know about, but won't affect the mot.

I think the mot man was saying to kill it off only due to the cost of work doing it would outweigh the value of the car (in their eyes), and to an extent it's true, with mine the value is in the engine and bolt on parts, not the shell. However i think i myself will chop out the rust on the front and just see what state of play we are in before making a final decision.