My another project (240) Image heavy

[jtbo]

This probably does not belong to other areas, but as most of this is going to be rust eliminating, I thought I share few photos etc.

My 2nd car is 1983 240 diesel Colour code 192, which I bought last spring when it had only 278000km in odometer.

Now it is MOT time for it and when I did some basic inspection I found out that it is not quite in shape I thought it is. I knew that it has some rust, but seller told that only spots are in arc and one door.

During this year, one arc rot almost completely away, door has hole in it and there are holes in boot, edge of floor at driver's side is missing completely and passenger side floor edge is well rotten too, so it is not very good situation to start with.

[Ronnie]

Good excuse to buy yourself a welder, Jani!

[jtbo]

Good excuse to buy yourself a welder, Jani!

Already did run out of welding wire, need to go to buy new, with car that has few huge holes in it

[jtbo]

Hmm, could not find wire from here, also not welding gas either, so it looks like that I must ask local car repair guy to weld few pieces for me, irritating at least.

After I had cut piece of rusted metal off, I found out that other parts where new piece should connect was rotten quite badly too and of course if there is more rust than metal it won't weld, starts to feel rather annoying this.

[jtbo]

Got more wire, 55 euros for 1,5kg...

Then I had little trouble in welding as it was quite difficult to find proper steel, there was so much rust that if I sanded it all out I got just another hole.

Also had little trouble with welding wire feeder, wire got stuck quite often and reason was that 'magazine' of wire was too tight and did not roll freely, so had to do little changes how it is hold on place and after that I started to get bit better results.

I believe that I need thicker metal sheet as current one is so thin, I can bend it very easily between my fingers and of course when I weld there is quickly holes burning trough it. Then I got idea of bending edges of metal patch so that there is two layers of metal now and welding became bit easier, occasionally there was actually something that remotely reminded welding 'seam' but mostly those spherical spots all over the place as it refuses to burn cleanly most of time.


I just put rust converter and then primer after rust converter was dry, I have no time to sand it and do proper work at the moment, so that is only temporarily protection for so long until I have few days for sanding and painting it properly.

But I really doubt that it is worth all the trouble, it would need about 30% of chassis to be replaced, so much is rust underside and I don't really think that my welding will be enough strong in more critical spots. MOT is due at end of September, I hope to get 360 ready by then as this won't be ready for MOT on time.

[Ronnie]

Good plan - bin the 200, there's plenty more where that one came from - and come back to the 300 fold.

[jtbo]

Good plan - bin the 200, there's plenty more where that one came from - and come back to the 300 fold.

360 is at least lot easier with rust, this 240 is as bad if not even worse than Mazda 626 I had.

I put some plastic padding kind of stuff now to cover big faults in my patching, damn stuff was so slow to apply that it reacted too quickly and I got only one patch filled and when I took some stuff and started to apply to another patch it would not stick no more, I tried to grab softer stuff but it was solid in pot and started to heat so that I could not hold pot in my hand anymore, my frustration level reached new records again. Next time I buy proper brand that can give me 10minutes of working time.

So then I did sand it smooth, applied primer and soon put anticorrosion stuff to prevent stones peeling paint off from it.

Air tools are handy, did try to sand by hand and it was not making any progress, grabbed my sanding machine and few minutes later I had sufrace as good as it could be at the current situation and skills I rather lack of than have.

Maybe I paint it and then leave it be as it is or then I let it bit black bitumen like surface, depends how it looks when all is dried at the morning. With paint it could look worse as there is so deep faults in surfaces.

I think that I start looking Mk II car with B19E that has relatively low rust and mileage to replace my 360 as a hobby car. Might leave 240 for my welding practise car as I need lot of practise

Luckily I have space to leave car or two to wait better times, just need to build bit of shelter so there is no trouble with moisture and snow.

[SteveP]

Argh rust

Judging by that it's probably best to cut your loses and move on, unless you're particularly attached to the car or it's extremely rare then it's always going to be a problem

What about a 940? Do they rust in your climates? They certainly don't here...

[jtbo]

Argh rust

Judging by that it's probably best to cut your loses and move on, unless you're particularly attached to the car or it's extremely rare then it's always going to be a problem

What about a 940? Do they rust in your climates? They certainly don't here...

940 is quite sure my next car, it is just bit expensive for my current situation, prices start from 1400 euros and go to over 5000, to get good one and new winter tires for it (usually a must) then big service which also is needed, we talk about 3000-4000 euros quite easily.

[jtbo]

It seems to be that quite surely is not very surely, now I'm not so proud owner of Citröen, why you look like that? It is commonly known fact, that people that like 300-series Volvos will eventually own at least one Citröen

It is crap FWD, ZX turbo diesel break 1997 model with 226 000km on clock, it is not best shape, but should do it's job until I can get something better.

Fate of 240 is currently under some negotiations, it won't get binned probably, but it could be given out practically free or then I will get it delivered to my house.

[jtbo]

UPDATE

240 might live once again, I drove it to welder who will make new floor, spare wheel wells and rear wheel wells to it, won't be cheap for sure, but at least it has no electric failures like french crappy fwd has.

Maybe I will get some money back by selling crappy french car (which I drove only 60 000 in one year) to some eco minded person who don't need car to be pretty or reliable

My yankee wagon got also little ford threatment to brakes as brakes did stuck pretty damn tight, but that is ok now.

I will add some extra spots to 240 as autumn is getting closer, it is good to see something at dark roads.

Maybe someday I can get nice 940, but those are so high mileage and so high prices in here that there just is no point getting one.

[volvosneverdie]

I hope to see more pics of this moose roling again dude.
I love it!

[jtbo]

940 are expensive in Finland, but this one is tad over the top, 68 000 euros it did not cost that even when new...
http://www.nettiauto.com/volvo/940/2730628

240 should be ready around October, if I'm lucky, then in September.

[volvosneverdie]

That's an obscene amount of money.
But it's a lit of car too I suppose.