1968 Volvo project Pure Volvocity by 68EFIvert

14 minute(s) of a 271 minute read

Well Christmas finally came tonight. I picked up the rear and front suspension from the shipper. Swedish Ops did a fantastic job crating everything up. When I opened the box it was well organized and secured. 

I am amazed at the quality of the workmanship of the parts. Welds appear to be good, the powder coat finish looks terrific and all I can say about the brakes is WOW! Freaking awesome!! I took everything out of the boxes and inspected it. No surprises at all. I have a couple extra items on the way still so I won't be able to put in the rear suspension yet. I also new the rear brakes which are on back order at Wilwood.

It is getting late but I will post some more pics of the stuff as I get started working on it.

9-20-2012

I wanted to post some pictures of the rear suspension setup. I still need to do some welding on the brackets but you get the idea. Included is the crossmember, link bars, double adjustable coil overs and mounting brackets for the shocks. I did a trial fit of the crossmember and it fits like a glove. The last picture is of a reinforcement plate that mounts on the floor of the trunk.

I almost forgot the heim joint spacers for the link bars.

9-24-2012

I have the rear end in the car. Install took a couple hours and was pretty easy. The most difficult part was putting my 8.8 rear in. I didn't have a helper so it made it a real pain in the rear.

I did have a small setback on the install. I purchased one of those nice covers for the 8.8 that adds some support to the bearings. Unfortunately the cover doesn't clear the panhard bar and I threw the original away last month while cleaning the garage. I now have to wait for the new one to arrive before I can get the panhard bar bracket welded on.

When that is done I will be waiting on my rear brakes to arrive. The calipers are on back order at Wilwood. After they come in I will be able to measure for tires and wheels. Her are a couple pictures I took before adjusting the pinion angle. I now have it set a 2 degrees.

I am waiting for a couple spacers that take up the space between the crossmember and floor. One of the pictures above shows the support plate the mounts below the rear window.

9-28-2012

I have started doing a little work on the wheels. I still don't have rear brakes or a new rear end cover so I can't setup the panhard bar or measure the rear wheels. I did pull the front wheels off my Mustang to see if 17" wheels fit over the 14" discs. They came very close but touch the caliper slightly. If I used a different brand than Boyd Coddington they may have worked. 

I originally planned on going with 19" wheels but I think I have changed my mind. I like the way my Mustang looks with staggered sized wheels and think the Volco may look better this way as well. I will use 18's in front but stay with the 19's out back. 

My initial measurements on tires look like a 245/35/19 may work with some fender rollin in the rear. I am thinking of doing a slight mini tub on the car to make the rear wheel well's even with the frame rail. If I do that I think I could fit 265 or 275's back there. The final issue I have is with the rear wheel width. Ideally I would like to use a 9" wide wheel but the wheels I want only come in 8" or 10". Mini tub would allow me to use the 10's which would make a bolder statement as well as provide a bit more traction. Lots of things to think about.

Earlier this week I purchased all the items I need to do the brake plumbing. After consulting with the Wilwood guys I will use a dual master cylinder manual brake setup. I have the master cylinders ordered and think I know what pedal assembly I will be using. It will all be Wilwood components.

I think I am ready to send the car off to the media blaster but won't have the time to take it there for a week or so. I kind of want to finish the rear end setup before I take it back off the car for blasting. An exercise in patience I guess.

Here is a picture of the calipers and where the were rubbing. 

10-15-2012

I got a call from the blaster that he was done. It took a day and a half longer than anticipated. It looks like the last body man did not know the difference between a body hammer and ice pick. The front fender repair was terrible. It warped both panels of the overlap joint. I wonder if it is useable at this point. Pretty frustrated right now. 

Rust really wasn't bad. A couple places in the passenger front floor. One on the DS floor and some small spots in the wheel wells which will be removed for the mini tub. The trunk only had one small area on the curved area that leads to the gas tank. All of those are pretty easy fixes. I will take care of those repairs.

I think you are right about the rear quarter panels. I plan on rearching the wheels so I will cut out a square above the body line and blend it into the new arch below the line. I think I will have the bodyman take care of that. That makes my job of mini tubbing the car easier. I no longer have to worry about the wheel well and the connection to the fender. I can cut where I want and replace it with the existing modified wheel well later or just make a custom one. Still have to decide after I get it home.

10-17-2012

Thanks for the contact info Jon. After looking over the car with the the body he thinks the car won't need new panels. We plan on raising the wheel arches to the body line so I will cut ou the worst part. After the car got into primer it doesn't look quite as bad. 

5 minutes after the tow truck dropped her off at my house i had the grinder and plasma cutter out. i started taking out the inner wheel well to prepare for the mini-tub. I hope to gain about an inch to the inside and about the same or perhaps a little more on the outside. I really don't want large flares on the car. I want to look close to stock but with slightly more bulge to the fender. Here are a few pictures of her.

It looks like I will need a DS floor and a couple patches on the PS

We'll have to see how are this goes. I hope it is contained the the fender but it looks a little deeper than that.

The worst of the rust is in the trunk.

I will need to fix some horrible old repairs.

10-20-2012

I am about half way through my mini-tub job. It is looking good and it looks like I will pick up about 1.5" in the back and middle. I didn't measure the front because it will have more than enough clearance there. I still have some work to do on the outer section of the wheelhouse. I hope when I am done I will have 2.5"-3" more space. 

I ordered some tires today and they will be here on Thursday. I will get a good idea where I am at that time.

10-23-2012

The underside of the car doesn't show any sign of damage. That is what made me so surprised when I had it blasted. Not even evidence of wrinkled sheet metal. 

I started welding in patch panels tonight. My welder kept jamming so I eventually gave up. I will break out my other welder tomorrow and finish up. I still need to use my shrinker stretcher to fabricate some support pieces at the floor and where the upper part of the tub connects to the seat area. Pretty easy to do but just takes time.

The spot welds are a little ugly right now. A grinder should help me out with that. I also help my other welder will do a better job. In addition to jamming I noticed my welder was running low on gas. How much tank pressure to you guys have when you take it in for a refill?

10-27-2012

It has been a very busy week so not much to show. I did pick up my new tires on Thursday and finally got my rear brakes from Wilwood. The brakes are14" with 4 piston calipers. This car should stop on a dime!

11-2-2012

I finished one side and started the other. I am tracking the time on the 2nd side and so far 45 min to remove the inner tub. Plasma cutters sure are handy. 

I haven't done any grinding work so it still looks a bit rough. It should clean up well. I also need to box in where I trimmed the spring pocket.

I jacked my 265 tire in place to get a rough idea of what I have. I will take off a bit more from the spring pocket but an very pleased so far. It looks like a 265 will fit without a problem and could go bigger with a flare and more trimming.

11-4-2012

I picked up a new rear panel today. It is pretty rough in spots but much nicer where my rear panel is terrible.

12-24-2012

Not much to update on lately. I ordered the wheels mid November and thought they would be here by now but they aren't. It looks like they are at the polisher now and should be here in about two weeks. I will post some pictures when they arrive.

In the meantime I have been working on some rust repair. I put in a patch panel for the drivers floor. It also needed a new jacking brace. One I got everything cleaned up and the floor out of the way I realized the section of the frame rail under the jacking brace was rotten. Luckily a patch could fix the problem and I did not need a new rail.

I have a little work to do on the mini tub before it is fully complete. Some grinding, filling and sealing before I will be satisfied. I hope to have that done by the time the wheels arrive.

My wife and I purchased a new Audi Q7 last week which took some money from my Volvo budget. I still may be able to swing getting the engine in February but we will see. When that arrives I should be able to work on firewall and trans tunnel mods.

I will have some downtime early next year that will take me off the car for a month or longer. It looks like I will need to have ACL surgery on my knee. I hope to have a bit more time when the holidays are done and in front of the health issues.

1-11-2013

Not much to update right now. I am still waiting for the wheels to arrive. I am told will be here by mid to possibly late next week. It will be nice when they do show up so I can doublecheck my measurements. I sure hope they are correct.