I'm after a bonnet to replace the original - which has a largish patch of rust caused by a pool of water when the car wasn't used for awhile and the mounting points? or whatever they're called what holds the bonnet closed....

Anyway the cars a 1989 DL (3door) Vario.... in a (faded) red...

Anyone know what models/yrs have the same bonnet? so if i find one in a scrap yard i will know if its the right one for my car?

Looking for one without any rust/major damage - preferably in red... need to find also what colour code the car is, but its all faded anyway so im not sure what ill do...


...or if anyone has a suitable one? let me know perhaps...

Cheers very muchly

all bonnets after 82 or so will fit. all the reds after about 87 should be the right colour - btw its pretty easy to get that red back to its origional colour - i did it to my mums 440 over the weekend, and that was as pink as anything

How how how did you get the red back?

I'd love it if the car looked half decent again, it deserves it.

Post me what you did and used or PM me please!

I've got to take some photos of the faded thing sometime, keep forgetting!

Cheers

Simon

Note later reds are different.. I seem to recall around '89 onwards 340s came in a deeper red than the 86-88 colour.. I think!

i think we proved that wrong before mate..

i got an electric polisher - it runs off 240v mains and cost a tenner from argos (half price sale at the mo). bung some polish (cant remember the brand, but anything should work) onto the pad, put it on the car, went over the bonnet, then took it off. then did the same to the rest of the car. the difference is honestly astounding, and a LOT less work than doing it by hand

And that polishing trick works for blue too

I did that last summer. After that polishing it is good idea to put some extra gloss wax too

Anyone recommend a reasonably cheap brand of polish that will do a good job?

I guess no one seen this so far has a spare bonnet...

Thanks very much to you all for the polishing thing, I'm buying that £9.99 one from argos tomorrow! but may not try it out till up at my parents in a week or so.

Simon

I did use Korrek Cleaner, but I'm afraid that is not very common outside of Finland?

hi i have 2 bonnets one is a red one but has a few scuffs on it also i have a blue one no rust at all

5lab wrote:i think we proved that wrong before mate..

Im not convinced.. the cars pre 89 with chrome window trim are a different red to cars with the black window trim (89 on)... if Mr administrator was here he would confirm this Just look at Ali's and Tom's (I'd say DeKays too.. but his car is a different kettle of fish ) car vs Oliver's and Huskyracer's

Vario Si wrote:Anyone recommend a reasonably cheap brand of polish that will do a good job?

You want a polish called 'Auto Glym'..it comes in a white container with a red box on the front. I don't think it's all that expensive, but I know for a fact it's cheaper than T-cut, which in my opinion, does half the job that Auto Glym does.

halfords also do their own brand stuff - should work quite well.. i'm not sure how good the colour specific polishes are, but they aren't expensive - £7 or so for a bottle, and it'd last you a lifetime - i'd say to give a car a really good going over (say 2 or 3 times on each surface) uses under 1/4 of a bottle

Auto Glym is ok, but it is needed to redo quite often, it was better before every shop started to sell it.

Simonize or what it is called is good, specially that hard(solid?) wax, some paint renovator first and then that stuff and car shines very long time, but sure it takes a day to wax car with that stuff

If you need the colour code, just cantact your Volvo dealer, quote the registration and they will tell you the code over the phone. The non-metallic touch ups are also very cheap - less than £5.

Well... I gave it a quick try with the electric polisher, and... it's red again - the bits i did ...





Will give the car a good clean soon, and finish of the polishing!
Used some left over red T-Cut my brother had btw.

Cheers for the advice

Si