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JaredR's Dad's 1997 Frost Green V70 T5

53K views 428 replies 47 participants last post by  JaredR 
#1 · (Edited)
So my dad just bought this. It's just west of New Orleans, so I'll probably take the train down there either over 4th of July break or between finals and commencement in August to drive it home. Initially, this car made no sense to me being that I've never seen a V70 T5 SE in the American market before, but then the carfax showed up. It appears to have a similar background as my T-5R: this one was built October 28, 1996, arrived in Newark January 28, 1997, and wasn't shipped to the dealer until September 4, 1997. Supposedly it only did 3,000 miles before being registered in Oregon, so my best guess is that it spent quite a bit of time on display in Rockleigh showing off how cool the V70 was going to be in '98, given the way Volvo spec'd it out. Note that it has heated seats but no headlight wipers, just like my T-5R, which seems to be a signature feature of a press car. After spending 10 years in Wilsonville, Oregon, it moved up to Vancouver, Washington for the next 7, and then to New Orleans in 2015.





Obviously the bumpers need a respray. Luckily we've figured out how to deal with that. We'll definitely be adding a wing while we're at it.

I don't know if we'll be able to save this tailgate if we want to make this thing look 100%. These are the worst dents on the car from what the seller says.



Karelian birch trim! My dad and I love this stuff, and this is only the 5th car I've seen in North America to have it. I'm going to start shopping for a nice chunk of this wood to carve a shift knob out of for the manual swap.







R door panels FTW.



Plan is for my dad to drive it as an automatic for long enough to see how he likes m4.4, then decide if we're going to leave it m4.4 or convert to ME7 with the manual swap, and then M56 swap it.....haven't decided for sure which one yet but I'm thinking a M56LK would be nice if we can get one. Not sure what other mods he's going to want to do.....probably not quite as much as I would if I'd bought it (and I was actually thinking about selling my 850R to buy this for the 2 hours or so until I realized he really was serious about buying it) but I guess we'll see. We are both really happy with how my T-5R rides and handles now so we will probably get as close to that as we can without going to the expense of adding Nivomats (yellow marked springs up front, some sort of S70 springs in the back???). Might throw an IPD rear sway in it too. I'm sure this thing is prewired for a 6 disc changer so I'm 100% sure he'll put one of those in here, and he'll probably add a center speaker, too.

Not sure what we are doing for wheels yet. The Perfos have new Continental ControlContact Touring A/S on them :facepalm:........given my experience with the ControlContact Sport A/S on my R and the fact that this thing supposedly had a new turbo put in a year or two ago so, I'm expecting it to be able to light up the tires well into 3rd lol.......so that's probably not going to be acceptable long term. Might throw a set of zLine AS on the second set of Volans and let this car borrow that for a while. Or maybe zLine AS in 16 on the Perfos. We'll see.

Unfortunately, this acquisition most likely marks the end of the '99 NAm project. I'd like to keep it around until I know if I'm going to end up with a job that I'll have to drive to (in which case I'd use it as my winter car...we obviously can't justify driving this car or either of my 850s when there is actually snow on the road due to all the morons around here with AWD and all seasons), but I don't know if we will keep it around long enough to find out; probably depends on how soon we get this car up here.
 
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#2 ·
Congrats - saw that ad in the other thread. I would be willing to guarantee that you will have the only '98 frost green T5 SE estate with heated seats but no headlight wipers in the States!

Sounds like quite the adventure - train to NOLA, drive back. I love those trips, by the time you get back to MA you will have a good list as to what you need to do with the car.
 
#5 ·
Great find, congratulations! No way you can consider bumper blemishes as an abused ride. Looks like it was very well maintained or at least respected for what it is. A very clean base to expand on. I'm looking forward to viewing your progress. Safe home with it!
 
#6 ·
Cool, unique ride! If you come thru here, I'd love to buy you a beer or a coffee and see it in person.
 
#7 ·
Thanks guys! It definitely looks like it's been pretty well cared for. The carfax is like 6 pages long from all the service records. The guy who was selling it on ebay obviously knew something was up with this car given he brought it from Washington to New Orleans and didn't seem at all surprised that someone as far away as Boston would want to buy it. He says he's selling this and his 2000 S70 GLT SE (that also looks quite nice) since he just bought a S60R.


I am thinking about hijacking this thing for Carlisle next year lol.
 
#8 ·
Very cool! The precursor to the Flash Green! I only know of a handful of Frost Green V70's, and definitely the only one with SE trim. Nice find, and I'm subscribed!

Correct me if I'm wrong, but SE cars got stitched leather door panels like the R's. I suppose it's possible that someone actually swapped R panels, but I'm guessing those are original SE panels.
 
#9 ·
Yes, SEs came with R panels and the SE seats with the Alcantara inserts. You also got wood trim dash, leather wheel, basically all the options.....just like this car has.
 
#11 ·
Swap to an ME-7?
I don't think this is possible. ME-7 is entirely different and partially networked.

Like the T5M I'm working on. The owner just bought it, a 1 owner V70 in CORAL RED!!!
I can't even remember the last time I saw a Coral Red V70 and it must be the only T5M made in that color!
 
#12 ·
ME7 swap is possible and has been done. I'm not gonna say it's a cakewalk but I don't think it's nearly as hard as people think, either.
 
#16 ·
Yeah probably we'd just buy an XC as a donor if we go that route. I'm hoping a Beust tune with CoP will be good enough.
 
#17 ·
I'm sure it will be. Swapping that harness would be a real pain for not much gain.

There was a frost green T5 for sale a couple years ago here in CO and if it had a black interior I would have bought it to replace my 01, the color is super cool.
 
#19 ·
Wow, didn't know it was that rare in terms of options/color. I'm kinda kicking myself for not being more serious about it (should be more open to long distance purchasing) but I think it's better off in your hands anyway.

The T5 wagon or sedan I'll end up getting will spend most of its time in a college parking lot, so body/paint aren't too critical on my list.
 
#20 · (Edited)
Coming soon:

 
#21 ·
Coming soon:

That the one from CT?

If so, since you need to paint it anyway....trade for a brand new unpainted R bumper skin?
 
#24 ·
PO said the headlights were a bit weak.....time for a lighting upgrade for the trip home and hope the reflectors aren't shot:

 
#25 · (Edited)
My cousin who lives in New Orleans has taken delivery of the car. Stay tuned for lots of excitement over the next two weeks both here and on my T-5R's thread :D.

 
#27 ·
Lol, we may still be able to arrange for a staring session. TheNater also wants to see it...and he just picked up a sweet saffron V70R that I want to see too.
 
#31 ·
Buying too nice of cars and making them even more too nice lol. Same troubles here. Which is why everyone needs a shiit70.


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#32 ·
Buying too nice of cars and making them even more too nice lol. Same troubles here. Which is why everyone needs a shiit70.

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Exactly. I kinda want to get a job I have to drive to just to have an excuse to keep ours around lol. If the '99 exits the fleet, neither my dad nor I will have a car we are willing to drive in snow, and my mom is definitely not gonna let us hijack her Base70 every time it snows.

:facepalm:
 
#34 · (Edited)
It's on the move! Report is that it is cruising perfectly at 75 except the AC is in and out. I'll take some plastic with me in case my cousin doesn't do the bread clip mod himself.

 
#36 ·
It's where you shim up the AC clutch with something to get the gap back within spec. The classic raw material for this is a bread clip. Some people also use zip ties or sheet metal. We didn't have any bread clips so I cut up an old oil bottle to do it on my T-5R today. Works great, my AC doesn't quit after 5 minutes anymore.
 
#38 ·
Oh my here we go.

 
#39 ·
Ok new problems we found in the first 15 minutes: sunroof does not respond to the switch, it looks like someone tried to pound out a dent in the roof or something so there's an area that's a little messed up, couple dings in the left rear door, no Dolby module hooked up to the 901, paint needs to be buffed out.

On the plus side, the trip computer says it's averaging 27.5 mpg and I have no idea when that was last reset so that's pretty good. Things are looking pretty good so far. I'm driving it 130 miles to grab a driver's door in original 609 for my R tomorrow morning so that should be fun.
 
#41 ·
Hey jared, maybe instead of doing a manual swap, while fun and nice to drive, maybe stick a AW-55 if it can bolt up! It'd be a good time to experiment with some TCU tuning!
 
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