Rusty, the 1971 145S

[IansPlatinum]

In July of 2018, while bored on a business trip, I scolled upon a 1971 145 for sale in albuquerque, NM, on craigslist. It had missed my 145 searches because it was simply listed as "1972 volvo" (incorrectly listed year, too).

It was being parted out at a small JY in NM (nobody had bought parts off it yet), the JY owner had purchased it from the family of a mechanic who passed away. The story is unclear whether it was his car or whether he purchased it and let it sit, or whether the PO just gave it to him... either way, no title, no history.

Here are the original ad photos:

I inquired, had the JY owner take a few more pictures of areas of concern, sent a Walmart money gram, had him fax a bill of sale, and scheduled a car transporter to pick it up.

When it arrived, first order of business was to wash off that NM dust from the body and engine bay, and inspect body for rust and damage.

 

[IansPlatinum]

Squad

Wanted to see how much life I could inject into the single stage paint with some compound:

 

[matt b]

That's not bad at all! The good thing is that most of those paints have enough thickness left for agressive methods like a wet sand, etc... Super fine steel wool and lots of Windex will bring those windows back to life too.

Can you get a bonded title out of TX for a NM car ?

 

[IansPlatinum]

And then I neglected rusty for about a year while I focused on other car projects (and other non-car projects) instead of clearing my queue.

After a time of considering selling rusty, I finally said F*** it, and just started fixing it. Sad that it took me this long to get to this point.

The steering was slop. hmmm, wonder why?

also adjusted the steering box flange further down the splines to pull the bushings down onto the shafts.

all the plastic parts were nasty. Brake MC leaky & MC reservoir had black gunk in it. Wanted to keep to OG 'tall' reservoir, so I threw the plastic parts in the washer & vapor hone.

after:

added some new battery cables, because the old ones were downtown sketch-ville

And also replaced the positive junction with a new one from hiperf, as it too was bound to let some wiring harness smoke out
(electrical tape on positive harness to be replaced with shrink wrap once the spade is changed out for a proper butt connector)

After attempting to start it (replaced plugs, gapped points, new wires, new coil, &put fuel pump line intop remote gas can), I was greeted with the pleasant sight of gasoline dripping from the carbs. Rebuild was in order before I could start 'er up

also decided that since I had them out, I'd plug them up and send them through the vapor hone after removing the loose dirt.

Bad idea folks. Abrasive always finds a way in... especially because I didn't realize the two front holes go straight into the vacuum chamber area. I should have just disassembled them fully and then blasted them... you live and you learn. After several disassemblies to remove trapped abrasive, they're finally working right and clean at least.

I also decided to clean up the combined manifold and plug the butterfly ports with plugs from hiperf

Haven't painted it yet, planning on getting some eastwood hi temp coating

who knew the heat shields were supposed to be galvanized in appearance?

shortly after, the choke decided it didn't want to be a choke any more. hiperf hooked me up with a good used one at a great price

 

[svinkle]

Nice work!

Where did you connect the battery ground cable? I’ve never been 100% sure whether mine is correct after having the motor out for a while a couple years ago.

 

[IansPlatinum]

After the engine was confirmed to be able to run, I then set about setting up the vehicle to be able to drive

New tires were in order...

note the original spare tire on bottom:

new michelin XZX tires and freshly sandblasted / powdercoated wheels

makes the car look so much better

gotta empty out that 20 year old gasoline from the fuel tank

dropped off the radiator & gas tank at the radiator shop for some good ol fashioned deep cleaning

Boat picked up the cleaned fluid vessels after they were done:

Since the car is staying outside for the most part, the door seals needed to be replaced to keep water out.

yuck

good used seals off a '92 244, cleaned with a product as seen in another popular thread 'round these parts...

scored a new aftermarket tail light on the cheap to replace the all-red -69 style:

then I started tackling the interior:

minimal rodent turds
lots of mold

also some pretty serious rust on passenger rear floor pan

for now, I scraped up the butyl damping sheets to prevent water from getting trapped and making the rust worse. soon, the 3 good pans will get stripped back to steel and coated with POR15 and some color matched rattle can paint from VP. I have a new floor pan for the rear passenger in the garage, waiting for COVID-19 to blow over before I take it to be welded in.

unfortunately the seat skins are not original. they were reupholstered at some point (so someone cared about the car at least). probably whenever the car was repainted (90s?).

I'll need to source some OG skins to make a pattern and reupholster.

webbing was some wort of tarp material

I rewebbed the driver seat and put the skins back on so I can drive the car until I get the new skins made. Want to order new foam from skandix too.

soon.....

 

[IansPlatinum]

Nice work!

Where did you connect the battery ground cable? I?ve never been 100% sure whether mine is correct after having the motor out for a while a couple years ago.

Mine goes to the side of the engine block. I have an AC compressor mounted, so it's technically sitting on the AC bracket.

 

[IansPlatinum]

After some new braided stainless brake lines from hiperf (no pics yet) and a full brake flush, valve job, carb balancing, choke adjusting, tire inflating, diff oil changing, m40 oil topping off, coolant top off, engine oil change, ....

....rusty took it's first test drive in many years. The latest date I can find on the car is 2003 for a NM registration.

Yesterday, rusty even got to visit a gas pump for the first time under current ownership... without license plates , thanks for the registration waiver gov. greg abbott

The carb were a little challenging to tune... here's where they started out ... this is warmed up with choke OFF

With a syncrometer & adjustments to the linkages, idle set screws, mixture screws, and choke/throttle screw, they are finally balanced and run smoothly. Hot starts still take a bit of cranking (i'm suspecting hot start valves aren't working right).

On the voyage, there were some funny noises... clunks in the rear, a 1st gear whine, still sloppy steering...

on the bright side, a lot of the electronics work. alternator, front wipers, rear wiper, tail lights, headlights, brights, horn, oil pressure light, temp gauge, gas gauge...

some things that don't work: blinkers, hazards, cluster lighting, speedometer, choke light

Some parts I changed previously but don't have pictures of:

brake master cylinder - VP
brake hoses - hiperf
oil cap seal - VP
fuel hoses - autozone
fuel level sender - VP
carb seals - hiperf
ignition lock cylinder - jack

also did a warm compression test, results seem decent:

1: 150
2: 150
3: 140
4: 140

 

[hiperfauto]

Originally, the battery ground cable is bolted to the weld nut on the battery tray. The engine is grounded through the strap between the frame and one of the bolts for the trans brace on the block.

 

[Tfrasca]

What's up with the rubber hose on the line coming out of the master cylinder?

 

[IansPlatinum]

That's not bad at all! The good thing is that most of those paints have enough thickness left for agressive methods like a wet sand, etc... Super fine steel wool and lots of Windex will bring those windows back to life too

thanks, yes I'm not holding back on the paint. Goal right now is to get it looking OK, and protect the exposed rust areas with some color matched rattlecan until I get body work finished on it & repaint (maybe by 2022?)

oh yes, I sprayway-ed the crap outta those windows. they are actually transparent now. needs a new windshield though.

Can you get a bonded title out of TX for a NM car ?

great question. I'll do some research, it might be in my best interest to actually 'lose' the bill of sale and claim the car was purchased in TX if there is legislation preventing out of state bonded titles. I purchased my 850 with a filled rear section of the title which forced me to go the bonded route, so I've done it before....

 

[IansPlatinum]

What's up with the rubber hose on the line coming out of the master cylinder?

probably to insulate the terminal... that's the side where my positive terminal sits, and the brake line would be grounded so arcing would happen should they contact. My 92 240 has the same thing from the factory, maybe the PO was attempting the same?

 

[IansPlatinum]

Something fun showed up in the mail today.

What could that be?

Ah, a set of 4 NOS door cards! Thanks VP

It'll be a while until these get installed sadly. Haven't decided if I want to wait until after paint, but it needs to definitely be after I replace window scrapers, and installed vapor barriers on all the doors

 

[Oerski]

what did these set you back? I got my PV cards from them a couple years back for about 250....

Something fun showed up in the mail today.

What could that be?

Ah, a set of 4 NOS door cards! Thanks VP

It'll be a while until these get installed sadly. Haven't decided if I want to wait until after paint, but it needs to definitely be after I replace window scrapers, and installed vapor barriers on all the doors

 

[IansPlatinum]

what did these set you back? I got my PV cards from them a couple years back for about 250....

way less than a 50 year old set of matching correct-color NOS door cards shipped from sweden should cost... $300

 

[IansPlatinum]

Next batch of goodies- any suggestions, anyone? Goal is to get the car inspected & registered now.

 

[Duder]

Cool revival story - keep it up!

 

[sksmith]

Looks good!

 

[Harry Tuttle]

^^ What those guys said. Great to see you getting after it so forcefully.

That car is the same color as the '71 145 that I drove a quarter million miles some years back.

 

[IansPlatinum]

^^ What those guys said. Great to see you getting after it so forcefully.

That car is the same color as the '71 145 that I drove a quarter million miles some years back.

That's fun- this one has close to a quarter million on it. And the odometer is not turning while driving so who knows, maybe more.

There're some interesting stickers on the car too. DoD, 1981 mexico tourist...