Volvo C304 (4x4) Restore and fitout - WR7002

[geckoadventure]

19 November 2017

Todays task drill out the headlight locking tab as the top half of the clip has been broken off due to rust etc.

The right headlight now hangs properly on the ring, The left will not as there is not enought lip for it to grab onto. Moew issues sigh.

Then help arrives and I get assistance from the boat builder who drops in for lunch in tacking in the indicator plates

I make up new headlight locking clips and put in a rivnut. The workshop can weld these in next week.

Hometime almost the headlights look like they will work eventually.

I mount the air cond blower but it will not bolt to the newly painted brackets damn.

Home time and 8.03pm I head home 190k to go. I don't get far 40k in one hour the traffic is crap and i'm exhausted I pull over for a 3 hour sleep and eventually crawl in home at 1.30am

 

[piratexpress1369a]

19 November 2017

Todays task drill out the headlight locking tab as the top half of the clip has been broken off due to rust etc.

The right headlight now hangs properly on the ring, The left will not as there is not enought lip for it to grab onto. Moew issues sigh.

Then help arrives and I get assistance from the boat builder who drops in for lunch in tacking in the indicator plates

I make up new headlight locking clips and put in a rivnut. The workshop can weld these in next week.

Hometime almost the headlights look like they will work eventually.

I mount the air cond blower but it will not bolt to the newly painted brackets damn.

Home time and 8.03pm I head home 190k to go. I don't get far 40k in one hour the traffic is crap and i'm exhausted I pull over for a 3 hour sleep and eventually crawl in home at 1.30am

That makes for a long day

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

 

[Outback]

How are things going?

 

[geckoadventure]

terrible unable to update my webpage hence no pics here. Still sorting it out.

Progress is being made on the cabin with panelling and roof and air cond and wipers will try and post tomorrow night.

 

[geckoadventure]

Saturday 25 November 2017

Assist the boat builder looking at a Volvo 4 hours away from home so no work on my Volvo.

He makes the offer and he is the proud owner of the worst Volvo I have evr seen. Bent up front of the chassis. Cabin smashed up 3 inches shorter on the right side. Smashed in rear of the cabin where the czrgo rammed the Cabin and oh yeah its running Toyota BJ40 Axles

Sunday 26 November 2017

Todays task drill out the headlight locking tab as the top half of the clip has been broken off due to rust etc.

Then the boat builder turns up and helps me by welding in the indicator fillers then grinding them down.

The headlight rims are almost ready

The headlights finally are bolted in I still need one more clip on each to finish them.

Side view

The two workers for the day

 

[geckoadventure]

Friday 1 December 2017

Public holiday so up 4am and reach IPOH 190K away 22 hours later as I have the pocket rocket 1.5litre Suzuki Swift while Adam borrows my Isuzu to collect his "Volvo" and will drop by when he has collected it some 8 hours later. Later I realise I have left my mobile phone at home so I head back to wonderful Kuala Lumpur 7pm.

They have not got back to KL with the Volvo till late due to the traffic hell which is public holidays. So it becomes a bar session instead. The Volvo is outside my house on the trailer.

Saturday 2 December 2017

I head to Penang with Adam in the Isuzu towing his Volvo.

Unload time at the boat factory.

We rebuild the fuel tank for the Volvo it will be tig welded during the week.

Then it's time for Kuala Lumpur 365k away and return the trailer and hit the bar before 12.00am. Then the crap starts. We have to repack all the trailers wheel bearings there goes over an hour. Then the lights fail on the trailer and we blow a fuse in the Isuzu more lost time. Then a fast 10k test on the trailer makes the wheel bearings hot. So it's a slow trip back to KL we arrive in the time at 1:0am to be told bar closing lol. I sleep in on the Sunday morning no Volvo work.

 

[geckoadventure]

23 December 2017

Up 4am and on the road to avoid the traffic. 7am I'm sitting having breakfast 190k has whizzed past with the help of ZZTOP and BLONDIE.

The speaker panels are back and I test fit them. Still have to get the smoked Perspex and the LED light for the gecko fitted.

I finish 8.30pm and find a hotel - really expensive like 4 times the rate I normally pay.

Sunday 24 December 2017

I get some help and we fit the 50" LED light then we realise the bottom panel needs to be remade with some more reinforcing it drops 5mm in the middle. Rats!

The speaker panel is bolted down with 1 rivnut to replace.

It's 3pm time to head back to KL for XMAS dinner. Mr Brown will not let me pat him as I leave. 6pm I’m sitting back in KL getting cleaned up for XMAS dinner.

 

[geckoadventure]

30 December 2017

5am on the road head off to Ipoh again actually the drive is getting to me. This is bad damn motor bike groups thousands of them heading north on their 150cc scooters then it rains making it even worse and I need new front tires. The mighty little Isuzu since I have started 2 years ago reassembling the Volvo has done 98,000 killer meters

I work on the roof panels by lunchtime I have carved one out. Meantime Brett comes in and starts making the bracket for the wiper motor. He has also made the left side of the air cond ducting only the right to do and made the new top for the blower. I realise I have also left my phone at home again.

I start on the rear panels also and get long ways then realise I need to fix up the design a little.
7pm home time back to KL I cannot be bothered with the excessive overnight rates for a holiday weekend. I end up in the bar with my mates and it’s a long night.

31 December 2017

6am I wake up late and just step on it to IPOH the 190k goes past not so nice I need new front tires and it gets dicey rapidly after 120kph in the rain.

The right roof panel is done.

The finished wiper motor. Just need the arms and the wipers completed.

I toil away all day and get the rear panels ready and then realise I need a little redesign on the top portion. Doing big panels by myself is not easy on the guillotine.

Final pics of the year before I head home.

 

[geckoadventure]

6 January 2018

I wake up late 6am I'm on the road and I have a set of Volvo axles in the rear to deliver to Penang tonight.

9am at the workshop fed and ready to go.

Lunchtime it’s down to get new front tires and a visit to the bolt shop for 150 rivnuts to fit the rear panels.

Bolt down the gearlever cover - it's marked ready for final cut and prep. The rear panels are now split into 3 parts a top 100mm piece (4"), the middle part (in the next pic) and the bottom piece.

8.30pm I finish up after spending 4+ hours making the top rear panel twice - first one ended up as an alloy template.

7 January 2018

Mornings work, make the middle panel.

Mid afternoon I have the bottom panel bolting down started but I need a double fold done to finish it.

The middle panel fits finally but needs the bottom panel and top panel bolted in to finish it.

I bolt in the centre console and slip the steering wheel on and the engine cover. Gear lever cover is cut and trimmed and the holes all drilled to test finally bolt down

It actually looks really good.

Time for home its 6pm

 

[geckoadventure]

The Drone followed us on our holiday

Part 1

[video]https://youtu.be/uxi4JTUuL2k[/video]

Part 2

[video]https://youtu.be/gxkcKcC3hto[/video]

 

[geckoadventure]

13 January 2018

The workshop is closed for the weekend so I elect to drive 365k up to the boat factory drop off Adam's Volvo Axles for his Volvo and help them strip my boat and collect the 2JZ-FSE and bring it down for mods it needs before we install it.

Takes me 4 hours to get to Butterworth (Penang) the traffic was hell.

So we only start work at 11.30am on the boat.

By 4pm we had the boat stripped with only the seat left to cut out.

7pm we finally offload the Volvo Axles onto a pallet then we run through my 2JZ engine sitting on the boat shop floor. The list is compiled and then its loaded onto the Isuzu for the drive back to KL. So after the previous incident with Volvo 2's engine and gearbox and the polis I decide to return nope in the dead of night. 8.30pm I leave Butterworth after the fisrt 100k after the speed camera's are over I really step on it and reach KL at 11.15pm in time for a meal and a beer in the pub.

Sunday is a rest day.

Saturday 20 January 2018

Sleep in 6:08am on the road. Traffic for the last 90k was hell trucks being arseholes. Had breakfast at

7:40am and then at the workshop at 8.30 to wait for it to be opened. I have the overhead console with me which I collected last night it looks ok maybe.

A quick fit trial shows it's not in good enough condition and needs to be remade with a different style so no welding is needed inside.

We bend up the top panel and the bottom panels. The bottom panel is trial fitted and looks ok.

I go out in the afternoon and collect new speakers and then spend hours preparing one speaker to fit the panel.

8.00pm decide its time for food and the hotel.

 

[geckoadventure]

Sunday 21 January 2018

8.45am start

The bottom panel is trial fitted and looks ok.

8pm I get assistance from the boat builder and we work on the speaker panels again. All 4 base plates are cut away to fit nicely. The 4" speaker holes are expanded for the 6" speakers and we trim a tab off and a test fit reveals they fit nicely. When finish they need to be stripped and re powder coated.

We test fit the chair. I already have bolted in the middle panel and spent the afternoon getting all the holes drilled some 80 rivnuts and been drilled and installed incpuding redrilling the speaker rivnuts from 4mm to 5mm.

Then its time for a dash review and we set the drivers seat in then start the dash panel layout design.

However its 8.15pm and its really time for home.

Dinner before I leave Ipoh at 9.30pm for the 190k drive home. It's a 2 hour drive home.

Friday night - weekend is a bust. I wake up on monday with diaroeeha from dinner sigh then wednesday afternoon I'm down with the flu from the office. Any plans for the weekend on the volvo have gone out the window.

 

[geckoadventure]

Wednesday 31 January 2018

Public Holiday

4.08am I'm on the road and miss the holiday traffic. 1 hour 20 minutes later i'm at breakfast then the workshop at 8.30am. There is 3 of us working on the Volvo. One on the console. One on the air cond ducting and me I first convert the speakers from 4" to 6" holes.

I have assistance Raj the new guy and Brett the owner.

I pull the starter motor so it can be converted to 12v. OMG I realise the SUMP has to be removed to pull the starter.

So I drain the oil and pull the sump off. Then pull the starter motor.

The passenger side of the ducting is ready.

and the middle piping is alomost finished.

Then it's time for home at 6.00pm I have the 190k drive to go as I have to look after the cats as wife is in IPOH visiting her mum.

 

[geckoadventure]

Thursday 1 February 2018

Another public holiday 5.30am I'm on the road I sleep in. I drive fast for the 190k - not saying how fast but the Isuzu spends most of the time on the wrong side of 150kph.The 190K whizzes by to the dulced sounds of Creedence.

Quick Breakfast and at the workshop 7:55am it's a workday in IPOH. Oh crap yesterdays worker Raj has dissappeared.

It's decided the 24v starter and alternator are to be removed and dropped down to 12v. So it's sump off damn to get the starter out else its engine out. We decide sump also needs to be trimmed and that prompts it being remade to chop the remaining sump wing and then fix it up so it can have the 2.5 litres we have chopped out.

The sump will be remade Friday.

I scoot the Starter down to the nice sparky shop. They say come back 5pm it will be ready converted to 12V.

The sump before it gets chopped (already chopped for front prop shaft) and hacked into its new shape.

Time for home at 6pm 2.5 hours later I arrive home damn traffic was horrible

 

[geckoadventure]

Saturday 3 February 2018

Sleep in, way in I hit the road at 6:08am and hit the 6am saturday traffic the trip is hell 190k takes me an hour and, 40 minutes.

Some idiot in a showpony V8 Landcruiser really gets up my nose pass then pull in and slow down then I have to pass over and over. He decides to try and flash pass me at 160kph on a long uphill as a truck pulls out in front of me and we slow rapidly to 80kph. Pissed I let him pass, I pull up beside him at 160k on the downhill and goad him into racing me. He cannot resist I slam the brakes on at 160k and he races past the speed camera at 160k then flash flash then he decides to slow down I pass him with a BIRD salute lol 13k

later it's the IPOH turnoff.

Fast breakfast then its 8.30am at the workshop

First install the radiator back in with its new metric pressure cap welded on last night in Kuala Lumpur at 8pm. Check everything and trim hoses etc to stop any rubbing.

They have remade the sump to retain the 2.5 litres lost when cutting the sump wings off and spend the morning welding the new bottom to the top.

I re-fit the second air compressor after the workshop destroyed the previous one and leave it for them to re-wire.

I have to pull the 12v and 24v alternator today and then take the starter down for conversion.

I get the 12v alternator and brackets stripped off. Then pull the 24v alternator. Down to the auto sparky shop. Get a 12v replacement for the 24v alternator. They convert the old pulley to the new alternator I wait an hour for this to happen.
Meantime I go find cotton canvas for inside the Volvo cabin and oil for the engine. 5pm I return to the workshop and the compressor has been wired in and sump is sand blasted ready to paint.

I collect the powder coated items and fit the door lock covers.

Meantime Raj has built the removeable drivers dash panel template (access to clutch and brake fluid) ready for them to now make the swingaway instrument panel.

Tomorrows work fit these.

Compressors all fitted and wired in again.

The sump is completed and sandblasted and now ready to be painted Monday.