The most rewarding part of being a motor head is the people you meet along the way. Your Editor met Peter through my own website VintageSwedishCars.com where I document a restoration of a very early 1961 P1800.
He is doing a full bottom up restoration on a 1963 Volvo 1800S, chassis number 6023. This means that the car was originally assembled in Sweden. You should know that the “S” in the model designation stands for Sweden, not Sport as in 122S for example.
Looks like a pretty decent solid car to start with. Some people would be happy to drive this car as is. Not Peter…
Peter went to work and fixed any questionable sheet metal.
This is the track that holds the weather stripping on the doors. Since you can not go to Volvo1800doortracks.com and buy these with your Visa card, Peter made a wooden buck to duplicate this track and then made a tool so he can shape the inside exactly like the factory part. Impressive!
Editors note: it is my understanding that they are now reproduced.
Peter actually built a bath for the car to run rust removing solution through it. According to Peter, the key is fluid movement. He used a pump and as the fluid is moving about, it keeps destroying rust and moving it away from the body. This he used a spy camera to look inside the cavities to make sure he did a good job.
All open seams got sealed to keep out moisture.
Then a coat of protective paint.
…and finally undercoating to protect everything. This car may last until end of time.
Peter even built his own paint booth.
He is returning the car to it’s original color, 79 pearl white. You know, like the Saint!
THIS! is when it really get to be FUN. Installing all the trim and chrome on a freshly painted car.
All hardware was re-plated to factory specs. Note the black bolts. There are used in areas where the bolt is painted like the trunk bolts for example.
Front cross member painted in the correct blue gray color.
I met a lot of car guys that tells me “they” restored the car. A lot of times that means that they wrote checks! Peter not only do all the paint and body work himself…get this…he does his own chrome! Me impressed!
This is the steel frame that holds the headliner. The advantage is that you can work on a bench with it to make sure all wrinkles are gone before it goes back in the car. On later cars it was replaced with wood.
Here you can make sure the headliner is straight with no wrinkles. It goes in via the back window cavity so don’t go and install the glass before your headliner!
Undercarriage porn!
I look forward to updates from Peter and of course the finished product. I will post them here. There will be some serious awards handed out to Peter for the incredible work on this car.