Volvo Collection

It all started with the replacement of my leasecar. As I needed an replacement I was looking for a volvo on prophane. I found it in the form of a volvo 480. It's a nice, wierd small car and it's a lot of fun to drive. The only problem is that I was to busy keeping the car running that all my other cars were neglected. To be honest, I didn't have time to work on them so the car has to be replaced by a car which needs a bit less maintenance.

That's why the volvo 740 was bought. It was still in the driveway awaiting it's hard needed repairs, when I totalled my volvo 480 on 27 march 2003. The repairs took a little more time then planned. To be able to drive I bought a Nissan Bluebird as a temp car. The planned timespan for the repairs was 3 weeks and for this short period it was financially sound to buy the Nissan. However, the repairs took 3 months, so finally, since september 2003 the 740 was used as a daily driver. The performance is terrible, but no matter what nature is throwing at it, it still runs. To bad I still need to fix the heater. The 740 has no working airco, so I started looking for something to use in the summer, with a working airco.

On 20 januari 2005 I found the car for this job. It's a 1986 volvo 760, blue metallic sedan with the 2.8l V6 engine. It's, except for a leather interior, full options.

We went to look at the car because we wanted to have some Volvo 760 specific parts. The car looked to good to become a partscar, so we bought it as a restoration object. To bad the gfloor wasn't as good as we suspected it to be. There were no holes, but this was mostly due to some filler instead if it not have rusted.

While browsing to a local ads site I found a 1990 740 wich had tried to swim across a river. As cars weren't made for this it failed misserably and died on the spot. It was a good partscar. (and I made a small profit while parting it out :-))

After visiting the '88 we went to take a look at a 1990 volvo 740 TD. It was advertised as a non turbo diesel GLE. Eighter the car was no GLE or it was a TD, as there were no non turbo GLE versions sold in The Netherlands. After inspecting it I made a offer, the seller accepted the offer and a down payment. As I already had bought a car I retracted the bid on the TDic. I pointed the '88 to some people looking for a car just for the holyday and they bought the '88 TDic. As of 23 april 2005 the '90 TD GLE is mine.

Ok, the car was nice, very nice and to be honest it still is, but it has developed a slight problem after fitting a cruise control. It probably isn't related, but half way during the testdrive (BTW cc didn't work) the dieselpump was leaking a bit diesel. At the end of the testdrive I missed several liters. (BTW the testdrive was < 1 km) After a failed attempt to fix the pump I had 2 options:

1. Get the car fixed.
   Which meant have it towed, pay someone to fix it and some other costs.
2. Buy another car and fix it myself.

For those who already know me a bit... Yep, I bought another Volvo 760 D24Tic. It's the 122bhp version with automatic gearbox, ACC,... all goodies a man could want, with a cc as the missing link. (I still have one spare for a diesel, so guess what...) On 27 juli 2005 I collected the car.

While I was driving the 760 I discovered what the real problem of the 740 was... a € 0.25 rubber seal.... The seal was one part of the problem. The bushing and the pin were also worn out. The total damage being... 32 euro (instead of the 800 that was quoted). After the fix we checked the same spot on the 760 for play... 1 week later that one was also fixed...

September 7th 2005 we went to take a look at another volvo 760... which was supposed to have a perfect body. The panels were almost perfect, but there is a bit of work on the floor. There were some very nice features and after some hagling I recieved a few special parts with the car so... You surelly can guess it by now... I bought it september 9th. This will mean that the '86 will be a partscar, but hey.. enough of those driving around... September 24th 2005 I've collected my '84 760. Which was sold again 7-7-7.

The parting out of the '86 760 has started. The '87 already received a new engine for the open roof, a new switch for the roof, new gas springs for the trunk,... Read more about it in the seperate sections.

While looking for some storage space we found someone within the area willing to rent some temporary space. There we found a partscar with a beige lether interior. The owner was planning for over 1 year to strip the car, after an abandoned restoration, but didn't do it for various reasons. We made him a small offer and now I'm the owner of car number eleven. It'll be scrapped within 1 month, but hey, it sounds impressive to own eleven cars.

Ok, it was stripped within 4 months, but hey, it's gone as of februari 7th 2006.

Ok, I have to admit, I really, really wanted a 780. So bad even that we visited this car and it's owner twice. The first time we expected the car to be in approximately the same 'perfect' condition as the other 2, but the car was much better. Ok, the engine wasn't running, but there were no other problems, except for the missing hubcaps.

The second time around we knew what to expect, but weren't sure if we'd missed some problems the first time round. WHen this wasn't the case, I made the owner an offer (same price as his offer, but the payments are spread), which he accepted.

BTW this picture is of my car, but it came from an archive, as my pictures were made when the car was dirty, so they I asked within the club for some archives photos. (and received some)
I got the confirmation from Volvo about this being the first Volvo 780 in The Netherlands with a road going license.

Ok, I have to admit, I really, really, really wanted a 780 TD as a daily driver... So I commited myself to buy this car within the following 3 months. That was enough time to scrounch enough cash to pay for it. (as it's mine per 28-06-2007)

As she was a bit overwelmed by the prospect of driving a rare car as a first car, we also planned to take a look at a 1985 volvo 340. It's not MOT approved (the old one expired 13-07-2008), it's currently stored in a barn... and she loved it, especially the fact it has a pre-made dent in it. (so whe wouldn't be to emberrassed when she'd add one herself)

The next time she says she isn't interested in cars... I won't beleive her, especially with a barn-find as a first daily driver. Indeed, we bought it, with the agreement we'll get her MOT ready ourselves (with help) and will collect the car when she's got her license. We christened the car "Streepje".

The car passed the MOT and we collected her before my wife got her license. Se quit after 70 hours, so she did her best, but it wasn't going to happen within our budget.

Ok, we received a tip for another RAI special. As the original could use some spare bodyparts, we offered a small amount. (as it was being sold as a junker) We agreed on a price and we're going to collect it next saturday.

When looking at the pictures I nicked from marktplaats and hearing the work that went into the car last year to get it going again after 7 years storage we suspect the car to be to good to part out. We'll have a better look at it and decide what to do with it.

Ok, when collecting the car the previous owners shows a video of the car dieing, which sounded bad. I sounded like the gearbox was shot. With a bit of time to spare, we used a bridge of the club member which helped collecting the car and found the torque-tube to be disconnected. We replaced the damaged tube and wow and behold... she could be driven.

The rear muffler was shot, so needed replacing before the MOT, but she's a running car now and christened "Lijntje". At the moment she's my spare car for when the 740 needs fixing or my left knee is acting up. (no clutch to operate in the variomatic car)

It's been quiet on the car front. I've married, been fired a few times (darn crisis), got ill, wife and I got ill at the same time and been busy with other stuff. But that's in the past, I'm now busy with cars, (kinda)

At the end of 2011 the 740 reached the point that the dist needed replacement (again) and the doorsill is in need of repair. As I didn't have time to fix this, I had to buy a temp while waiting for the weather to improve. The main plan was to repair the 740 in the summer and ditch the 940. (or strip it for spare parts)

As you might have guessed, the car was used as daily for 4 years, but it would fail the MOT of 2015, so it was scrapped, and replaced.

After having driven the 940, I wanted a 'real' Volvo 7 back. This one came along during the Volvo Klassieker Beurs.

As you might guess, I made a test drive, negotiated a price which I could afford and left me with a nice budget to repair all that was known and unknown. So as of October 10th 2015, this is my daily.

During commute someone was nice enough to let me know that the car needed replacing. I can handle comment, but when people tell me by totalling the car, I not that amused. Nothing to be done about that, the 740 was totalled September 17th 2018. As I needed to go to work I needed a replacement, so we went looking for an RDW station with a manual gearbox and a colour. (Not white, grey or black)

And indeed, we ended up with a black, FWD sedan with automatic gearbox. I have to admit, I like the car. It's full options, but that doesn't mean there's no room for improvement. Basic audio, even in this price range, is terribe.