Almost as good for sailing off to Valhalla as a flaming longship...

...it's a 1978 200-series Volvo HEARSE!

From the owner Robert, in Gothenburg:

Have you ever seen a Volvo 245 Hearse? No? That's because they are very rare! Even here in Sweden, there are almost none left, but I am the proud owner of one of the very last ones, which I am hereby presenting to you! This is a 1978 Volvo 245 Hearse. It was used by a funeral home until 2001, then they decided to fix up the car, so they spent about 6000 dollars repairing rust, giving the car a complete paintjob, and changing the exhaust, radiator and a few other things. After they were done, they decided they were not going to use the car after all, so it has been sitting in a garage for the past four years!

That's right--it's FOR SALE! With a Buy it Now price of only $1,499! Snap it up while you can, folks!

I imagine the photos won't be left up long, so I copied a few for posterity.

Here's the front 3/4 view:





The full side view:




And the lovely and restful interior/Ikea showroom:





Quite a find for when it's time to join the choir eternal, I must say. (Although I think it might be more accurate to call it a 243.)

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

Well, maybe. But now, I will be able to check the temp from inside the sturdy confines of Järn with a new toy I picked up on Ebay, the rare and highly sought after accessory, part no. 1129311-5, Volvo Ambient Temperature Gauge, 240, 260 1981-1993, made by VDO!

Really not the most useful tool, at least in these climes, since it's intended to help warn a driver of freezing conditions on the roadway. This is helpful where you might be driving in the mountains and going from warmer to colder temperatures, or when the weather is unpredictable and you need to be aware of conditions that can cause an icy roadway. Around here, if it's cold, it's cold, and I pretty much figure there's going to be ice anyway. And I don't do any mountain driving to go snow skiing, but still it's a neat accessory, and one that I've been hunting for for a while now to fill in that last gauge hole in the dashboard. They are no longer listed in the Volvo accessory catalog (not an analog model--they now list a digital one that doesn't really go with the other gauges), but when they were available, they listed for over $200, and I wasn't about to pay something like that for a thermometer, and Ebay bidders seem to think they must come with solid gold bricks attached given what they bid for them.

BUT, after carefully biding my time, I finally found one worth getting, and the bidding hadn't veered over into the ridiculous realm. I watched it closely, and at the very last minute snapped it up for (a still ridiculous) $78.

BUT, as opposed to most of the gauges listed on Ebay, THIS one was NOS (New Old Stock). That's right--a brand new gauge with light, in the box, with ALL of the hardware: rubber feet AND metal bracket so it could be used in either type of gauge position, the entire wiring harness to tap into the fuse box, the entire length of sending cable from the gauge to the front bumper, a rubber firewall grommet, zip ties, a bumper mounting bracket, ILLUSTRATED INSTRUCTIONS, and--and, hmm.

And no sender.

Yep, despite my great find, I still have ONE piece left to make it work, the actual sending unit itself that bolts onto the tiny ell-shaped bracket that came in the box. (Part No. 1347010, for the curious.) ::sigh:: Oh well--surely I can find one for a relatively inexpensive cost. (Famous last words)

Anyway, here's what the item looks like in its nice cushy box--



As a tip, be VERY cautious if you decide to get one of these, because sometimes sellers will only be selling the gauge, and not the whole thing with cable and wiring. You might think trying to find a sender is bad news, but unless you like playing with wiring, it's MUCH less fun to try to cobble together all the right wiring and have something that won't burn up in your driveway.

The part number above is for the whole gauge kit, and if you have a seller who's saying that's the part number, be SURE to ask if it has all of the hardware that's supposed to be in the box. Especially those instructions. They aren't much for verbal length, and really it's not a difficult gauge to install, but they have very clear photos and illustrations, and you'll be much more confident that you did it right.

Now, to find that sending unit...

Hey, when you gotta go...

...you gotta go!

Interesting story out of South Africa: 14 road speedsters nabbed in Ekurhuleni

January 15, 2006, 16:30

A Volvo driver going at 219kph [136 mph Ed.] because he desperately needed the toilet was one of 14 speedsters Ekurhuleni metro police nabbed on the N3 in Linksfield yesterday and today. "The man in his brand new Volvo advanced the reason of being compelled by the call of nature to travel at 219kph," said Wilfred Kgasago, a spokesperson. [...]

I'll have to remember that the next time I get pulled over for doing over 130.

And Happy New Year to You!

Boy, that sure was a long vacation. You figure being off for 10 days in a row would be relaxing, but when you take 10 days off from work it seems to create twice that many day's worth of work for when you get back.

AND, in among all the holiday cheer, there was precious little time available for Volvo-bothering. The only thing I managed to get done were to install the upper strut tower braces. I was going to take pictures of this, but it was getting late and I was in a hurry to get it done before we had to go somewhere, so you'll just have to make do with my stunning verbal description.

Basically, it's just about the easiest modification you can make. I didn't try to clean and repaint the bars, I just wiped off the crud, popped the hood, and removed the spring seat nut on each side that was closest to the firewall. Then, the small piece of ell-shaped sound deadener was removed from the driver's side firewall and the little black button cap was removed from the bolt hole. The corresponding mount hole on the passenger side was already uncovered and uninsulated, which could have been intentional, or it could have just come undone sometime in the past. There is a ground wire attached to that area that you do need to protect from damage, but that's about it.

The bars were placed over the spring seat bolt, a washer and nut placed onto the bolt, and then the firewall ends were loosely bolted to the firewall. After everything was threaded properly and I was sure everything was fitted correctly, I torqued everything down using your basic 12mm and 11mm box end wrenches and an Alabama torque wrench (i.e., "feels about tight enough.") The whole exercise took only a bit more time to do as it took to read about it. Fifteen minutes, tops, and that includes several minutes spent silently cursing the plastic under-engine shroud that makes a dandy, and entirely inaccessible, resting place for dropped 12mm box end wrenches.

I didn't really expect to feel that much difference with just this change--to get the full effect, you really need the lower bars in place, and a crossover brace, and I imagine new bushings (either poly, or even rubber) would help as well. However, (and admittedly, this could just be a placebo effect), the structure did feel a bit tighter and less rubbery feeling over things like speed bumps and potholes. I haven't noticed any appreciable increase in noise transmitted to the cockpit, but then again, it's a bit buzzy anyway with the dashboard swap-out and the effect of 220,000 miles.

Pretty sweet, especially for something that is relatively cheap and very quick to do.