The girlfriend might be getting a 73 volvo 1800 ES for her birthday

She's looking at it today..

At this point I don't know if she is just humoring me or if she is actually interested.. I didn't think it would be a good step in our relationship to spring a 35 year old car on her

I guess I will know in a few hours.

Cheers

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Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

..

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Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

So what happened Andy?

Why a no go? The 1800 is the batmobile volvo yeah?

p.s. Little update on mine. I got a cheap set of junk tires for the rear of one of the wagons so they'll both roll now. I'll take pics it's pretty funny, they're enormous 225 75 15, completely fills the wheel wells. But they were cheap and will do the job until i make sure these things get going. I have a DGAS 36 weber and a downdraft ipd manifold on the way. I decided to say screw the SU's as a rebuilt kit was the same cost as the weber and manifold i got.

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Michael LeCompte

pikespeakgtx Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So what happened Andy?
>
> Why a no go? The 1800 is the batmobile volvo
> yeah?
>
> p.s. Little update on mine. I got a cheap set of
> junk tires for the rear of one of the wagons so
> they'll both roll now. I'll take pics it's pretty
> funny, they're enormous 225 75 15, completely
> fills the wheel wells. But they were cheap and
> will do the job until i make sure these things get
> going. I have a DGAS 36 weber and a downdraft ipd
> manifold on the way. I decided to say screw the
> SU's as a rebuilt kit was the same cost as the
> weber and manifold i got.


Well I didn't go to look at the car.. She's visiting her parents, the car happens to be just around the corner. She looked at it and wasn't impressed, she says that it's not as advertised.. which is fine. I wasn't going to shove the car onto her.. although it would have been cool

Yes the P1800/1800 volvos are the "sports" car ones.. the ES variants are the sports wagons.. or should I say "estate sport" models They only made a little more than 8,000 of the sport wagons.. but like most rare/sporty things there's significantly more survivors than the more mundane types. You can always turn up half a dozen of 1800 ESs of which only ~8k were made for sale any day of the week.. but you can't turn up that many of 142s of which there was 300+ k??? made.. I'm not going to bother to check, you get my point

To be honest, I think SUs suck. A cheap and elegant solution to a pre computer problem, nothing more.

BE VERY CAREFUL that your super massive tires aren't rubbing!!!!!!!! It doesn't take much to rub all the paint, etc off and introduce rust to your wheel wells (if they aren't already rusted).

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Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

Yeah I don't plan on driving with them much! HA! wait till you see it!

It's just to roll it around the shop etc until i get more work done.

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Michael LeCompte

pikespeakgtx Wrote:
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> Yeah I don't plan on driving with them much! HA!
> wait till you see it!
>
> It's just to roll it around the shop etc until i
> get more work done.


those tires are ridiculous haha.. ah well you gotta do what you gotta do. I really wouldn't drive it fast or far with those.. looks like if you hit a good bump the would eat the wheel well

Are you trying to get both on the road???

I'm supposed to be looking at another p1800 ES today. But the guy hasn't emailed the address yet. This one looks like it might be a good buy. I've come to terms with I can't handle much of a car project, work 55 hour weeks and rebuild my house.. but I'm still dying to have a classic car on the road and drop my stage 3 b20 head on something.

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Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

As of right now my plan is to get the one which has the new motor in it running. This is the one with big tires for now. I got the brakes working the other day. Whats left is to hook up the radiator, intake and exhuast mani's, and the dizzy and coil. Then the car should be running and driving.

The other car's motor is locked up and carbs are broken. But it looks really nice.

I'm going to be moving from here to the SF bay area in what looks to be 6 - 9 months. So my plan is to get one running. Get the other to look good and then sell the pair. As I already have 3 other cars and a scooter.

I'm lookin to slim my stock down to 2 cars and a scooter in order to move with the least amount of hassle, etc..

Good luck on the 1800es... let me know how it's lookin' or snap a few pics...

-Michael

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Michael LeCompte

pikespeakgtx Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> As of right now my plan is to get the one which
> has the new motor in it running. This is the one
> with big tires for now. I got the brakes working
> the other day. Whats left is to hook up the
> radiator, intake and exhuast mani's, and the dizzy
> and coil. Then the car should be running and
> driving.
>
> The other car's motor is locked up and carbs are
> broken. But it looks really nice.
>
> I'm going to be moving from here to the SF bay
> area in what looks to be 6 - 9 months. So my plan
> is to get one running. Get the other to look good
> and then sell the pair. As I already have 3 other
> cars and a scooter.
>
> I'm lookin to slim my stock down to 2 cars and a
> scooter in order to move with the least amount of
> hassle, etc..
>
> Good luck on the 1800es... let me know how it's
> lookin' or snap a few pics...
>
> -Michael

Well I wish you luck with that project. Think you can make any money at it that way? I'd say the best bet is one good looking and running car, or is that your plan and I just didn't read it right?

I'll post some pics of the one she looked at when she gets back tonight... if I can find a camera cord.. if not tomorrow. I'm still waiting for the one guy to get back to me.

What other cars do you have?

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Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

You read it right...I want to get one that looks good. One that runs good. That way both have features that someone would want. If I make one good lookin & good running car then the other will be worth nothing. And it would be a lot more work! Both cars have their plusses and minuses. At this point I'm looking at minimal effort/minimal investment of time and money/ max gain. But yeah... Think I can make a few bucks but nothing worth talkin about, but I'm more interested in the learning experience..

For other cars...
I have a 88 Mazda GTX with a full JDM BPT swap and upgraded turbo. pushing bout 17-18psi. A 95 Lexus Sc400 with a bunch of upgraded parts to the brakes and suspension from the turbo supra. I weleded up a custom class 2 tow hitch for it and I have a little 4x8 single axle trailor to haul stuff in. So in a way I have a pickup truck when I need one and a cumfy reliable sports car when I don't. and lastly a 82 toyota starlet that runs and drives but nothing fancy...And this pair of volvos.

My girlfriend and I had to take off on sunday and drive to her mothers. She's on her deathbed right now and it could be any day now it seems. Cancer is a tricky illness... she seemed fine two weeks ago and now it's looking really bad...

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Michael LeCompte