Andy's '88 Volvo 745

[TheMorningAfter]

Awesome 745, glad to see you got a build thread started here. Did you slap on the suspension/control upgrades all at once or in increments? Curious to hear what benefits you found from the chassis brace/poly bushings. Saw iPd has a front end bushings kit but it isn't full poly.

[fortbrick]

Absolutely beautiful. And clean for six(?) owners! Sub'd, looking forward to the wagon

Thank you! It was very well taken care of by its previous owners. I'm a bit of a clean freak, so that helps also.

I should add that this will be a slow moving project, mostly due to funds. I'm just a 20 yr/old guy going to school and working at a dead end job.

[Darkyoshi154]

Absolutely beautiful. And clean for six(?) owners! Sub'd, looking forward to the wagon

[fortbrick]

Had a great time today at the show today.

[Mr Von Smack]

Subbed for this!

[am4nf]

in to see where this goes

[rightfullrudder]

Will be watching this closely for inspiration. Was just given a free, running '90 745; unfortunately it's n/a and auto. Hope to nut up and try a manual swap.

[fortbrick]

It was the first of May while out for a spirited drive in the early evening that I first saw her. She shined brightly in the sunset as she came my way. It wasn't until I realized she was just five minutes down the road that I set out to make her mine. After passing once or twice a day for a few weeks I had to stop and have a better look at her. Looking back, it was probably pretty obvious what I was interested in when I stopped by with her twin.



It turned out that the previous owner is a big Volvo enthusiast. He had picked her up from the fourth or fifth owner, depending on how you look at it, and after chatting for a while he told me I would be his first call when the time came. That day was October 13th. Not wanting the car to sit outside through the winter, as the car has always been garage kept, he thought it would be a good time to pass her on and move further into other projects. After a quick test drive (the car rolled over 250,000 the first time I drove it) and an inspection from my go-to mechanic, she became mine on October 21st. Here’s a picture of the first fill up and a shot next to the river after her first wash.





So far I have focused mostly on a solid stage zero restoration, replacing bits and pieces that have broken over the years and getting her cleaned up.



Above was the original intro my build thread over on turbobricks.com. I'll try to keep both threads updated as well as possible.

Here's another photo of the two cars together. The sedan is racking up the mileage now with a little over 480k.




Here is the final shot of the car before it went under the knife.




About a week or two after the car was parked I received a package. Didn't mind to take a picture before tearing them apart, but here are the new headlights for the car. A set of European E-code headlights. I breezed through the restoration of these without taking any photos unfortunately.




And the parts kept piling up.




Next up was the suspension. I really wish that I had taken more pictures, but it really is some basic stuff. Got the iPd springs and Bilstein HD struts and shocks installed (common Volvo starting point).




The foam that the original headliners came with has been known to deteriorate over time. It got to a point where it became a distraction, so out it came. Here's a picture shortly before I yanked it. Picked up a new one from a 960 that features a glass moonroof, so that'll be exciting to get installed soon.




And here is what is to come later this summer, along with some more low and performance modifications.