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Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Posted: Sun Feb 28, 2016 12:40 pm
by Fred
Rained heavily last night, and I got to bed late researching new computer hardware and got up late and had a slow morning with the mrs, but eventually I got outside and did something, though not much: I pulled the hand brake setup apart on the left rear corner and found out why there is fore-aft play: Shit design! I find it unacceptable, so I'm going to modify it by replacing the front strut with a star-wheel adjuster which will allow me to keep the shoes butted up against the stopper hard. I put one newer shoe in it anyway, and washed the other with brakeclean to remove some oil, and it's probably a bit more effective as a result. I'll probably do the same to the other side and call that enough for the WOF.

The car is back on its feet with new rear tyres which is something. It's got no exhaust, though, which is something else.

Tomorrow arvo after work I'll try to prepare the pieces for reinstallation with paint, diegrinding, and angle grinding of zinc coating off around where it'll get welded back together.

Once that's done, it's just a matter of installing a fresher seatbelt for the driver and painting some blackguard around underneath in various places.

IE, still a fair amount to get done! Closer, though.

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Posted: Mon Feb 29, 2016 6:23 am
by Fred
Got stuck in tonight and made room inside the garage to do a little work on the exhaust parts. Washed the big section aggressively outside with detergent and scrubbing brush and hose. Removed a fair bit of loose surface rust and other grime. Got inside and cleaned up the ends for about 10-15mm or so with a cutting wheel on its side. Freed the old inner bit with a freshly home-ground cold chisel. Ground that chisel earlier. hit the outer piece with extreme heat and chipped off bulk rust flake. Die ground about 1/3 of the weld from around the inside of the flange at the manifold end. Will be down from 36-37.5 to something like 41-44mm or so. Not sure what the OD of these secondaries is, but I will check now.... 44mm OD, so likely 1.5mm wall = 41mm ID when done, that's a significant increase in minimum area, at least until the non-mandrel bends below :-D 342.25sqmm (assuming 37mm ID) vs 420.25sqmm (assuming 41mm ID when finished). Or 22.8% :-) Should help reduce turbulence a bit, at least.

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Posted: Tue Mar 01, 2016 7:57 am
by Fred
More die grinding tonight, will finish that tomorrow and lay on some zinc primer as appropriate ready for install :-)

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Posted: Sat Mar 05, 2016 1:25 pm
by Fred

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Posted: Sun Mar 06, 2016 11:19 am
by Fred
Today:

Got the exhaust in! Yes, that's all. It took WAY longer than I had hoped due to brackets differing too much to bodge. Ended up drilling two new holes through boot floor and through bolting the 940 bracket roughly in the right place. Lined up OK, looks OK. Weld is rough as guts, but was done from horrible angles with bright sunlight behind the mask etc. Sub optimal conditions for welding...

There were two little noises when I took it for a spin:
  • Possible exhaust leak around flange at manifold. Need to service one of the studs as it was not torquing up correctly... Possibly use some goo to seal it, too.
  • A metal-on-metal sound at certain times, I think when the engine moves under load, not sure how, everything seemed fine underneath.
Count down to WOF has started! About to turn out the light, but before I do, WOF list:
  • Install new seatbelt and all interior trim
  • DONE Wire brush underside and then brush with rust kill
  • DONE Put two drain bungs in the spare tyre well
  • Weld rear lip, or at least reinstall seal and chrome trim temporarily
  • DONE Degrease undersides at wash world
  • Attempt to mod handbrake mechanism to work properly
Possible fails after all of that:
  • Tail light functionality
  • ABS not working
  • Sway bar bushings all raped
  • Handbrake play/effectiveness if I don't do the mod
  • Oil and/or coolant leak(s)
  • Subtle exhaust leaks - at weld or at engine
  • Air in brake system
Will see what I can get done tomorrow...

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Posted: Mon Mar 07, 2016 10:44 am
by Fred
Got stuck in tonight and went over the entire underside looking for exposed surface rust and flaking paint, etc. Mostly just cross members and brackets and so forth. The zinc plated body is holding up nicely :-) Scrubbed everything I found with wire brush, poked stubborn bits with a screwdriver, then used a water based rust killer to prime over all of it. This stuff turns blue/purple as it gets more dry, then eventually a dark brown to black which blends in nicely with other undercoatings. The worst bit was the front cross piece of the body under the radiator, and now it looks mint!

Although then I went to wash world and degreased everything sticky and water blasted that off again, and some water got on some rust killer and turned it all white again. Hopefully none that mattered got removed entirely, but I'll get under and recoat a few things in the morning regardless.

Fingers crossed!

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2016 6:07 am
by Fred
Fred wrote:WOF list:
  • Install new seatbelt and all interior trim
  • DONE Wire brush underside and then brush with rust kill
  • DONE Put two drain bungs in the spare tyre well
  • Weld rear lip, or at least reinstall seal and chrome trim temporarily
  • DONE Degrease undersides at wash world
  • Attempt to mod handbrake mechanism to work properly
Possible fails after all of that:
  • Tail light functionality
  • ABS not working
  • Sway bar bushings all raped
  • Handbrake play/effectiveness if I don't do the mod
  • Oil and/or coolant leak(s)
  • Subtle exhaust leaks - at weld or at engine
  • Air in brake system
Will see what I can get done tomorrow...
So, from all that, I forgot "cam belt cover missing".

And, the only thing was: Tail light functionality! :-D 3 bulbs needed replacing and she's good as gold.

WOF sticker on car, car back in service! :-D

Driving more nicely than ever before, too. Yay.

Still plenty to do, however most of it can wait a bit, as I have some other things to do at the moment...

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2016 5:45 am
by Fred
The 740 out and enjoying some sunshine with the new WOF: https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 1284685825

Ended up very dusty, and had some great times going wildly sideways on the throttle on some nice loose metal roads :-)

Rally 740, perhaps? Not really. Pretty fun, though :-)

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Posted: Sun Apr 03, 2016 4:52 am
by Fred
From wannabe rally car, to stately bridal car! How absolutely versatile! :-)

A couple of pics on twitter so far:

https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 3402604544
https://twitter.com/FredCookeNZ/status/ ... 4706447360

Many more nice ones taken! Pray for uploads later.

Re: Fred's 1990 Volvo 740 GLE Sedan

Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 8:12 am
by Fred