1959 Volvo PV 544

So I finally got around to picking up my 500 buck PV. It had been sitting in grass for as near as I can figure !6! or so years before I came to coax it out of it's early grave. All 4 drum brakes were fully locked and it had sunk in the ground a good 4 or so inches.. good thing I had thought to bring an overhead crane to use as a come along (same thing depending on your lingo). After a lot of work it's now in my garage and has had the initial throw out of rotten interior and various crap finished.. most importantly after backing off all the brake adjusters IT ROLLS!

Other than the rockers and some other bits it doesn't seem to have been completely destroyed by it's vacation on grass.

I'm not sure what I am going to do with it yet, my initial plan was to flip it, but I really like how it fits in my garage (a lot better than my 140s) and the styling is growing on me.

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

b23 with 11.5 comp a big cam and a pair of DCOE 48s...
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaww!!

---

John Vanlandingham
Sleezattle, WA, USA

Vive le Prole-le-ralliat

www.rallyrace.net/jvab
CALL +1 206 431-9696
Remember! Pacific Standard Time
is 3 hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

Love the olde fashion soda fountain interior

You KNOW that would make a fantastic historic class car.

Cheers, Ted

---

Pure mathematics is the enemy of every truly creative man -- Sir Alec

I may just do that.. but I would probably go with DCOE style throttle bodies.

I need strip it first and figure out what's what body and suspension wise though. The rear axle is freakin weird. Disc brakes would be nice as well, even if it were just upfront.

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

I'd race it in the Targa Newfoundland if I built it.

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

Andrew,

A friend of mine near Seattle has two 544's. He's race prep'ing one of them up from bare metal. It's maybe 60% done. The second is a nice "custom" street restoration he just bought that's about 90% finished. By custom I mean it's been decked, has tinted windows, etc. These cars are great fun.

Keep it... build it... you'll love it!

Rich Smith

That's got the potential to be a cool looking car!!
Another one here.

http://www.johaneliasson.com/under_sidor/PV.htm

---

Nick Taylor.
Knobhead.
Los Angeles, CA.

When I think of cool looking PVs, I think more along the lines of:

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

john vanlandingham Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> b23 with 11.5 comp a big cam and a pair of DCOE
> 48s...
> Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaww!!
>

From what I've been able to find, I don't stink that's technically legal for Historic, but it sure would be fun.

This whole thread is odd, because someone just gave me one. A b18 Pv544 Sport. At the moment it's quietly rusting in the yard while I attend to my Golf, but it'll probably show up in rallies in a year or two...

Anyone have any dope on what the car's config was when Volvo campaigned it? As near's I can tell it was disc-front/drum-rear, an M40, a B18b with SUs and some mods that got it up to about 170hp, and...what else?

What I can't find are the details of the shell prep, what shocks/springs rates to run, what the actual engine/carb mods were, what the gear ratios and diff were, and all that sort of thing.

---

Self-righteous douche canoe

Hey that's awesome. Yeah I couldn't tell you exactly what they ran. I'm trying to find a fair bit of that stuff out myself.

hoche Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> john vanlandingham Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > b23 with 11.5 comp a big cam and a pair of
> DCOE
> > 48s...
> > Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Haaaaaaaww!!
> >
>
> From what I've been able to find, I don't stink
> that's technically legal for Historic, but it sure
> would be fun.
>
> This whole thread is odd, because someone just
> gave me one. A b18 Pv544 Sport. At the moment it's
> quietly rusting in the yard while I attend to my
> Golf, but it'll probably show up in rallies in a
> year or two...
>
> Anyone have any dope on what the car's config was
> when Volvo campaigned it? As near's I can tell it
> was disc-front/drum-rear, an M40, a B18b with SUs
> and some mods that got it up to about 170hp,
> and...what else?
>
> What I can't find are the details of the shell
> prep, what shocks/springs rates to run, what the
> actual engine/carb mods were, what the gear ratios
> and diff were, and all that sort of thing.
>
>
>

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

yeah, if you ever wanna get rid of it, hotrodders love 'em!

Doubt I'm going to get rid of it now.. it's grown on me a lot and it fits in my garage better than my 140 series cars.. makes the garage a lot nicer to work in with a car all the way in it. Just did some stripping today..

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

http://www.georger.com/Tuning%20Vintage%20Volvo%20B18%20Engines.htm

---

Self-righteous douche canoe

I've been in contact with that guy. Neet information eh? I haven't spent much time looking, but I'm 90% sure I've got a b16 in that car. Probably going to go the b23 route for power. Also have to make up my mind if I will use the 544 subframe or put another one in.

But first gotta repair rust and put in the larger trans tunnel that has been hanging around my basement.

---

Andrew M
Onterrible
30ish

I haven't figured out how to post pics here yet, but if I do I'll post ones of mine. It's also got rust, but in different places. Both front floor pans are virtually gone, as is the very rear part of the trunk floor, but the rust doesn't appear to've gotten into the frame rails. Nonetheless, I'm going to have a lot of grinding and welding to do. Fortunately, you can still still find pretty much everything for it.

Yeah, if yours is a '59 it's probably got a B16. Mine's a B18, probably a B18D, with twin SUs. The engine purrs nicely, and the transmission seems to be in really good shape, but the clutch is shot so I haven't been able to try it out.

I crawled under it today and was looking at the suspension, trying to figure it out. The rear's a pretty straightforward trailing-arm system, but the front completely baffles me. It looks like a double a-arm setup at first glance, but the really teeny shock is mounted between the lower a-arm and what I thought was the upper a-arm. Is that upper arm fixed or is it supposed to move? If it moves, what's the shock working against? How the heck do you get more shock travel out of the thing?

---

Self-righteous douche canoe