Mom called last Thursday to notify me that she had gotten a quote from a bunch of gypsies to take down some more trees on her property and they were coming on Saturday morning to do the job . No contract, no insurance , you know the drill . Same bunch of dregs that run around offering to seal coat your driveway on a Sunday afternoon cause they have some left over from the job next door . They quoted seven hundred dollars a pop and they were not even going to clean up and chip the
brush . Guess who gets to do that part ? . . . . Yes and I am not even
done with the crap from last October's storm .
I tried my best to talk her in to delaying it a couple weeks until I could get a couple other quotes but she would not hear of it , no amount of reasoning and no matter how much I pleaded .
One of the trees in question was an 80 foot tall pine that stands about 8 feet away from the plastic boat barn where dad kept Quasimodo , the 1962 Volvo PV544 he left me when he passed in November. Mom had not even taken that fact in consideration . It left me no other option than to run out and buy a new battery and see if I could get the thing started before some knuckle dragging mooks with needle marks up and down their arms dropped a tree on it . We ran up to Freeport on Saturday morning and had to shovel it out from behind a four foot snow bank . After about forty five minutes of work and several false starts, I was able to coax it to life and make the thirty mile run to bring it home with me .
It now gets to live inside a real garage , and the daily drivers are out in the weather .
Original paint is a little rough in spots but has no rust .
Not what you call the prettiest girl on the block , but it is different enough it draws a good bit of attention .
Dad swapped the original B18 engine for the larger two liter B20
He also changed the original four speed M40 transmission for the M41 with the Laycock de Normanville overdrive . It has been a couple years since we have able to get the overdrive to engage, limiting speeds to about sixty mph . So after I got it home I rolled the thing up on the ramps and put power directly to the solenoid that engages the overdrive and heard the telltale clicking indicating at least that part of the equation is operational . As the relays on the firewall are clicking when I move the switch I suspect the faulty part is the fourth gear cutout switch on the gearbox , which of course is completely inaccessible under the transmission tunnel . So I ran a couple new wires (the red ones running across the battery in the photo above) directly to the overdrive solenoid bypassing the cutout switch and the relays . . . .
. . . . . and tied them to a new toggle switch temporarily mounted under the dash , and took it out for a run on the highway . Hit the switch once in fourth gear and it shifts in to overdrive cutting rpm and decibels by a thousand allowing us to reach about seventy five mph and purr along at 2800 rpm . At which point things get a bit squirrelly as the bias ply tires are really not meant for those speeds .
If you are inclined you can read dad's lengthy account about how he shoehorned the overdrive transmission in the PV here:
http://www.vclassics.com/pv_od.html
Neat old car. I hope your mom doesn't pay the money in advance.
ReplyDeleteYea me too, but I'd have more success talking to a brick than trying to talk any sense to her. There is a reason these gypsy types pray on the elderly.
DeleteSmart guy! BTW I undestand this Volvo model wes considered a good car -well, you know, it sports s couple british SU carbs...
ReplyDeleteIt is a fun car to drive. The SUs are a bit cold on the start but coaxing them to life is half the fun.
DeleteWhen you get some radials on it there should be a big difference. A lot of the Model A Ford guys are putting them on those 88 year olds and say there is much better handling. I just run old style as I am not into touring at high speeds. That is a really nice car especially with the upgrades, don't worry about the paint for now just have fun with it.
ReplyDeleteYes, when it comes time to replace the tires I will definitely look in to radials. These still have a few miles left in them. Mostly because anywhere I want to go here I will need to hit the highway for at least 20 miles before I can get out the urban traffic and hit the back roads. It really is a fun car to drive and certainly attracts the looks. Having the overdrive available makes a huge difference between screaming along at 3800 rpm instead of loafing along at 2800. As I have bypassed the standard wiring and thus the fourth gear lockout on the over drive, I just need to be extremely careful to disengage the overdrive before downshifting out of fourth or even worse going in to reverse. That would destroy the gearbox. When it gets a bit warmer outside I need to disconnect the drive shaft, remove the rear mount on the tranny and tip the transmission down to access the switch and the related wiring. I suspect the mice got to it where it was parked over the last couple years.
DeleteNice car! I hope that the guys either do a good job for your mum or she sees sense and gets in professionals, tree work is not something to be taken lightly. My brother was a tree surgeon for ten years and it's a dangerous job, not just for them but everyone around them!
ReplyDeleteI wish your brother was here, I have seen the pictures of some of the jobs he has done on his blog and I would trust him a whole lot more than those dregs that offered to do the job for mom. Unfortunately mom is as pigheaded as they come especially when it comes to taking advise from her own son. At this point she is just being obstinate. I fear she is going to have to get burned to learn her lesson. Hopefully they don't drop a tree on the house. In all likelihood I will be the one to have to pick up the mess they leave.
DeleteMy fear is that someone will give me an old car like that. I'd have to take it and it would keep me broke. However, it would be fun to play with.
ReplyDeleteIt is fun to play with. No real reason to keep you broke if you do your own work on it. The Volvo is in great mechanical shape. And it is simple enough one can actually work on it. It does need some cosmetic work. We'll see about some time later. I have all new rubber body gaskets/pipping and windshield, if I do all the prep-work myself I can get someone to spray it it should not be too bad. My big expense will be building another bay on the garage to keep it in this summer. Materials cost should not be too bad, though the concrete pad might cost a bit.
DeleteI remember that those Volvo's made very successful Rally Cars.
ReplyDeleteYes they did, and some still use them in vintage racing. Around here they were popular for ice racing.
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