8 October 2005, I went to look for a volvo 780 as suplement for my volvo collection, which already consist of a volvo 740, volvo 740, volvo 760, volvo 760, and volvo 760.
It wasn't the first time we've seen the car. In may we went to take a look for the first time. When we went to take a look we suspected the car to be just as 'perfect' as all others we had seen. The car turned out to be really alomst perfect. To prevent insulting the current owner we decided not to place a bid, as the car was clearly worth more then I could afford. Even when the seller offered it for 75% of the initial indication, it was still out of reach.
When I got some spare cash, I decided to ask if the car was still for sale. It was, so we went to take a look to check if the car was as good as we remembered it to be...
The car was advertised as a 780 with an defective engine, but with a body in near min condition. While looking for some extra info about the car within the club, when the financial situation changed, I stumbled on suspissions about the car being the first 780 on the road in The Netherlands. Volvo Netherlands confirmed this, so we went to take a look again.
As the car was stored outside since we went for a look the first time, it was a bit dirty. To give an impression of the car when it would be clean, I asked within the club if someone had a picture of it in their archive. I received several pictures, so I put one online of the actual car.
When we arrived the first time, we suspected the car to be in the usual 'perfect' state the dutch use to state that the car has bin used, but still runs and may need 'some' work. (usually a complete repaint) This car however was not running, but the body and interior were in near perfect condition, with some minor points that needed attention. (Oh, and a complete engine rebuild, but that was no suprice) This car was in such a state that I didn't make an offer as a good offer for the car wouldn't match my financials and an offer matching my financials wouldn't match the state of the car.
The second time we went to take a look, the car was a bit dirty, as it hadn't bin used for 5 months. Below is a list of points of attention:
The car was not running, so we didn't have a test drive.
The car is nice, in near perfect condition. The previous owner took good care of the car and had it restored as soon as some rust appeared. The engine however had a problem, that was not diagnosed correctly by the dealer, so it went bad. As with the 1986 780 I've devided the ToDo list per desired goal.
To be able to use the car as a daily driver from the start there is not much to do except the following:
The car can be used as a longterm daily driver, as no extra repairs will be needed. When you want the finish to be good, the spots of rust need to be addressed tho.
The car is almost complete. There is only 1 item missing to make it a complete Volvo 780.
To achieve a perfect state however, there is a lot to be done.
The car has lots of potential even when I want to fix it, as the only problems are technical or on bodyparts that can be swapped. Especially the fact that this is the first 780 that has been licensed for road use in The Netherlands made the choice easy...
It says My 1986 Volvo 780 in the title, doesn't it... :-)
Ok, not yet, I'll have to pay first and collect the car, but I already got my hand on a replacement engine, with computer. The B280E is from crashed 1987 760, so it's slightly different, but enought to prevent it from working as a direct drop-in replacement.
I've added a nice app to calculate all costs made for this car. Just folow
the link.
If you want to take a look at all the pictures I've got online, take a look
here, just click on the image to view the
fullsize image. I also bought a yunker for the engine, see the pictures
here, just click on the image to view the
fullsize image.
Last update: 26 March 2007
© 2005 Jan Huijsmans