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Vol242vo's 1980 Cali White 1 Owner 242

Vol242vo

Keep it clean...
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
Location
Spokane, WA
I guess I would consider this my 'once in a lifetime' find and thanks to the help of Patrick (Patrickstar) for notifying me about this 242 for sale locally. With all of the time spent on my last '80 Beige 242 I had no intentions on replacing it, it's a great car and I tackled all of the rust it had and cleaned every nook and cranny.

That being said, on September 19th 2020, Patrick sent me a message saying, 'Derek...you gotta go get this' with this image and Craigslist link:

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Like most insane Volvo lovers, I check Craigslist on a daily basis for S&Gs somehow I missed this by a couple of days. At any rate, the ad only had the contact option of email, so I sent an email requesting to at least come look at it. 3-4 anxious days went by with no response until finally, I got a response saying I could look at it on that Saturday. That Friday before I replied with excitement and request for the address and good time to meet. Well, Saturday came and went with no response, the ad showed a general idea of the location. Again, like any crazy Volvo person, I got in my truck and drove around the entire neighborhood looking for this damn car! Unfortunately, I went back home without stumbling on it...I decided to send another email stating that I was very sure I'd like to purchase the car, I just wanted to ensure the body was in overall good shape, I left my phone number this time. Again 2-3 days go by with nothing and at this point I was just convincing myself that the car either sold or this was bogus. It wasn't until the next Friday that I received another email saying I could meet her son on the property where the car was located the next day and she gave me the address this time! Went to bed that Thursday night and of course got very little actual sleep but was bright eyed that Friday morning. Finally, I went to go look at the car and it turned out to be an absolute gem of a 242. I asked permission to pull the carpet back, check under the trunk carpet and up under the dash, to my surprise, not a speck of rust was to be seen.

After speaking to the owner's son, he told me his parents purchased the car brand new in Long Beach, California in 1980 when he was 4 years old. They moved to Spokane, Wa in 1984 and drove the car around town until 2006, at that point they decided to parked it in their garage and get a 'better suited' vehicle. As life goes sometimes, the father/husband passed away and the Volvo was pulled out of the garage 2 years after his passing to be sold.

The son was very nice and extremely helpful, he gave me his mother's phone number, I immediately went home, called her and left a message. She called me back about 2 hours later explaining she had 7 emails that all stated they would like to purchase the car 'sight unseen'... She then told me she called me back because my phone number has '808' in it and that is the area code in Hawaii, where she is from...Thank you Jesus! We talked for quite a while about the history of the car and her memories of it. The next day I had a car dolly and my truck ready to bring it home.

This 242 came with the title from 1984 (wish it was the original one), both sets of factory keys, all service documentation, manuals, the sales reps business card from the Long Beach Volvo Dealership, and only 85,000 original miles!!!

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Like any other Volvo I've owned, the first thing to do was clean it up...

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Once the outside was cleaned I rolled it in the garage to start carefully removing the interior and carpets to clean and get a better look at the floorboards. What I found:

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Removed all of the door, window, and trunk seals to clean them and under them.

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I didn't take pictures however, the door cards had clearly never been removed, the brown paper bag-like dust covers were still there but deteriorated upon touch it.

Under the hood as it sits, this will be the last part of this cleaning process because once I get it running, I'm going to want to drive it!

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The original blue interior wasn't great and I already had near perfect interior from my previous build so I swapped it all over. Kept the door cards in the event I ever want to put this one back to it's original form. In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy it the way I like 242s to look and drive, all bolt on stuff, this car will not see cutting tools or a welder...Nor will it get the shaved engine bay look I usually aim for, I just can't do it to this one. It will get the bolt on Penta intake and weber, stainless exhaust manifold, all my suspension upgrades, R-Sport Wheel, the AREs, etc.

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I also finished completely removing all of the baked on brake dust and road grime from the wheel centers and have 25mm spacers to clear the inner wheel well and upper shock mount. The fronts clear with no need of a spacer, 16 x 9.5 in the back and 16 x 8s up front.

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I still have a lot more to clean and upgrades to install, with winter coming I'm trying to get as much done as possible as this will be my daily come next Spring and Summer. I again have to thank Patrick for his help on this one, I've never been so satisfied with a 242 like this, really is unbelievable.
 
I'll get it out of the way early and say I am so incredibly jealous, and still kicking myself for not checking this out. With that being said, no better person could own this car and I'm happy to have helped! Thanks for the deal on the beige car, and I'm really excited to see where this one goes.
 
Thanks guys!

A few other things the car came with after digging through the trunk full of garbage...

Original toolkit, jack, and oil for my next oil change :-P

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Great score, congrats! A bit jealous also, super cool find.

Those oil cans may be worth selling, collectable.

What front seats are those? They fold forward?
 
I swapped over the GLE chrome lined vents, clock, and glovebox I already had and added a tachometer. Also, recently sourced an awesome looking R-Sport Momo wheel that’ll need a nice re-wrap. Let me know if anyone knows reputable upholster that’ll do this, I’m not having any luck so far.

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^

I've never seen those chromed vents before. That looks sharp and pulls the dash together.

It's funny but I like the look - I took the chrome strip off the dash on my 91 wagon and de-silvered the window switches!

And kinda envious of your project. It's looking great.

BTW - how much was the car?
 
^

I've never seen those chromed vents before. That looks sharp and pulls the dash together.

It's funny but I like the look - I took the chrome strip off the dash on my 91 wagon and de-silvered the window switches!

And kinda envious of your project. It's looking great.

BTW - how much was the car?

Thanks, I've have only come across this trim package 1 other time. I paid a whopping $900 for this 242.
 
I'll get it out of the way early and say I am so incredibly jealous, and still kicking myself for not checking this out. With that being said, no better person could own this car and I'm happy to have helped! Thanks for the deal on the beige car, and I'm really excited to see where this one goes.

Me too and I have the same car but with a m45 and not nearly as clean. Had the hood up making plan to get it up and drive and came across this tread. Nice!!
 
You probably did the same thing I did, Googling restore Momo steering wheel, I found the suggestion to ask a shoe repair shop interesting. I have had a hard time getting upholstery shops to do anything, even answer their phone. I even went to a locally well known guys shop. Lights on, no one there. Came back 2 hours later, same thing. Called and drove by a few more times over a few weeks, same deal.

Does the center console still fit? Did you need to mod the seat rails?
 
Keep in touch with the previous owner. Take her for a drive when you get it finished. She will appreciate it. Trust me I have been there.
 
Thanks fellas!

Jay, you nailed it on the head. I’ve called nearly every upholster in the area and even started calling in the Portland area, nobody wants to take it on. I’ll find someone though, bound and determined.

The center console has plenty of room on both sides, I kept that in mind when I made the adapters first the seat rails. Although I’m keeping everything to return it to stock if I ever wanted to, I prefer that later style center console with storage.

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I pulled the M45/clutch assembly/flywheel/driveshaft from the beige 242, I’ll enjoy the AW55 for a little bit but ultimately the M45 will end up in this.

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