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TG’s Yellow Volvo Obsession & Progression & Memories Thread - Very Past, Past & Present (Picture Heavy)

52K views 475 replies 45 participants last post by  Magnus Cars 
#1 · (Edited)
Been meaning to do this for a while and never got around to it and also it has been a while since I have owned my favorite car of all time: a 1995 Volvo 850 T-5R. (Sedan)

How it all started:

Back in 2002 (dating myself in here) my roommates and I were hosting a party as we just moved into this huge house and I was super happy with the garage, parking and the space situation. As the night progresses, a buddy of mine approaches me and starts asking questions about my cars, what I do with them & etc etc. He is not a car guy at all so I ask him where this conversation is going? He tells me that he is looking for a place store his mom's car in Seattle (they are originally from Canada) and he was wondering if I can keep the car at our house. At this point I am thinking asking my buddy to sell his mom's car or park it in the street somewhere.

But then I of course ask: -What kind of car is it? -He responds: -Volvo
Me: It better be one of those Yellow ones as I am not interested in keeping a brick at my house! -He responds: It is Yellow
Me: Your mom drives a Yellow Volvo?
He goes, no my mom doesn't even have a driver's license. She saw it at a display at a Volvo dealer in Toronto in 1995, loved the color, how it looked and walked in and bought it on the spot and of course never drove it. (My buddy's fam is very successful)
Story was then his bother took it down to Texas for college but after his studies did not need the car anymore and shipped it up to Seattle. Now the poor car with 28K miles is sitting in a shady parking lot somewhere in downtown Seattle as we were having this conversation.
10 hours and a jump start later she was rescued, detailed and parked next to my WS6 (please do not judge!)



Car actually gets transferred to my name and I am asked to maintain it with an open check book. It pretty much got annual oil changes and time based maintenance. It sat next to the WS6 for another 2 years until we moved to a smaller house in town.

One day, I am bored and I tell myself that I am going to spend some time with the Volvo like it was my own car. I decided to take it out, buff it, detail the heck out of it and actually made my mind to start diving it time to time which was completely ok with the owners -I just hate driving other people's cars. After my full wash and detail (also while I am thinking I must be the only person in the planet who thinks this car is cool) I park the car in front of my house.



Couple of hours later, as I am taking the trash out, I find a card on the windshield from Volvo Speed Northwest Crew to contact them and the rest was pretty much history. That night there were at least 6 other super cool Volvos in front of my house and I was introduced to the Volvo world and bunch of good folks that I am still friends with to this date.
We had amazing gatherings and did some exciting stuff back in the day. I was also informed that my Yellow is the 3rd one to be accounted for in Seattle area……. Later on my best friend / roommate ended up bringing the 4th one to Seattle and of course we arranged another Volvo Speed meet to document the occasion.








In 2006 as fast as it began, I got a call from my buddy who owns the car that his fam wants it back in Canada, back at their house. By now, we were all thinking that his family will eventually want to sell the car to me and would not want it back. I have had this thing for almost 5 years! NOPE, a truck showed up in a week and picked the car up and I have never seen it in person again (we will get back to that)

My roommate still had his yellow and I ended up ordering a 2007 BMW E92 335i via Euro delivery to keep me sane as I was super bummed.



Later that year, we came across a Yellow Wagon that my best friend wanted since day he saw one at the Paris Auto Show and of course we bought it sight unseen and shipped it to Seattle. I had 188K miles and was in pretty rough condition. It was a new project for us and a dream come true for him. And of course, I bought his sedan.
Wagon Being delivered….only way to pick a yellow Volvo is with another Yellow Volvo to confuse everyone. :D







This was our new project and he wanted to make this thing the 1st day it came out of the factory with very few minor modifications. Again, with open check book. By this time we know these cars pretty well, we know all the locals who work on them and my body shop can match that yellow paint in his sleep. So off we go.
It took us about 2 years to get everything sorted out. Car was very original and mechanically solid. We fixed replaced whatever it needed and my buddy decided to go all out on the cosmetics….and we did.

Hood, fenders, bumpers, rockers all got a fresh coat of single stage paint, wheels were repaired to perfection (not painted), new Volvo windshield, grill, battery & emblems were installed, our paint protection film person re-did all the factory pieces and did a custom clearbra to protect the new paint.
All of this was done just in time for IPDs 50th year anniversary…..











I ended up selling the sedan bec it just was not the same as a 30K mile example that I got used to driving. That particular car felt way under powered and clunky in comparison to the low mile one and no matter what we did to it, it kept asking for more and more which I got tired of and called it quits. That car is still on the road and I hear is in good hands.

Sale of the Wagon:

So my best friend who had the Wagon for quite some time asks me to buy it from him all of a sudden! He knows I hate wagons, I have no room and what I am really after is a low mile sedan. So, I say, you are stupid for selling it to begin with but I definitely do not want it. We have been working on it for a while now and I am done with it as much as you are. Now the reason why he wants to sell it is pretty justified. We found a 2006 E55 AMG Wagon. Back then Benz did not make these unless you ordered one specifically and 2005 & 2006 model years are just as rare as Yellow Wagons. Of course the car was on the East Coast and that's where we went to go get it.



Safe back in Seattle



Yellow sells real quick and shortly after the guy who bought it from us puts it on ebay, sells it and she is now in great hands.
At this point the only Volvo around is his wife's 2005 V70R M66 which we love working on but we are also both driving different non-volvo cars.



Benz was replaced by a BMW F31 M-Sport and I went through several cars during that period. However, every single car / Volvo person that I know, knows that I am still after that low mile Yellow that most likely doesn't exist or its locked up somewhere and is not coming out anytime soon. So my hopes are continuing to fade.

Remember my buddy who started all of this? Well, I get a call from him and it is about the VOLVO! He goes do you want to buy it back? ---I am super excited and thinking that the car went to storage after it was picked up and it still is in the same condition. Short answer is a big fat NO!
It stayed in storage for a long time until my buddy who is not a car guy decides that he wants to daily this thing and haul his dogs around. Long story short, he seizes the engine due to oil starvation bec a service light did not come to remind him that the car was due for a service unlike his modern Acura.
Life gets in the way, car gets flat bedded to their property in the middle of no where Canada for 2 years until I get the call. I sent a friend up there to take a look at it and he tells me that I do not want it back. After sitting like this for 2 years, farm animals chewed through pretty much everything and most likely she will never be the same again. It had a little over 40K miles and one of the saddest moments in my life was seeing the final pictures of the car that started it all for me. I did try to bring it back to Seattle due to its low miles and straight body but importing / transporting a non-running car back to US is a major hassle.

These are the last images of my old friend that I have. I understand that she was sold for scrap later on.





To be continued.
 
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#3 ·
Great post! I love the history of the yellow cars. I bought my yellow sedan and wagon both from their original owner's and it's really cool to hear what attracted to them in the first place
 
#4 ·
Great story man, wish it had a happier ending...hope you find one some day!

damn shame...probably scrapped with the wheels bumper and interior still on the car...



Also, I've never seen the other Yellow wagon from IPD50. It has a later style roof rail and an XC rear bumper and a washington Plate. Anyone on here?
 
#5 ·
Great story man, wish it had a happier ending...hope you find one some day!

damn shame...probably scrapped with the wheels bumper and interior still on the car...

Also, I've never seen the other Yellow wagon from IPD50. It has a later style roof rail and an XC rear bumper and a washington Plate. Anyone on here?
Used to be owned by my friend Spencer, he took it from the PNW down to Cali and then sold it to Taras/CEO of Swedish Metal who brought it back to the PNW.
 
#8 ·
About time this thread happened! Looking forward to the rest of the thread.
 
#9 ·
Yes - cool read. Derek just posted this one on the west side... wonder what it looks like. It's on IPD classifieds page.
104592020-03-31CARS FOR SALE: VOLVO 850 P80 1993-1997jared.witmer@gmail.com
1995 Volvo 850 T-5R (Sedan) ~165,000 miles. One of the extremely rare and coveted yellows that came to the US - nearly impossible to find anymore (especially in this good of condition with low mileage). I've owned over 10 Volvos in my life - selling this one is going to hurt the most but with a growing young family it's probably not the most practical to own anymore. I'm the 4th owner and have had this garage kept as long as I've owned it (~4 years) and has been babied as it's our third car. Currently located in Monterey California just south of the bay area and has spent nearly it's entire life on the west coast (previous owners in Washington and Oregon). In excellent mechanical condition - I have service records and have recently done the timing belt kit, pcv valve kit, new brakes and rotors all around, brand new Koni adjustable strut and shocks, H+R lowering springs (have originals saved), Volan wheels, changed all fluids, numerous other mods (various poly mounts, subframe bushings, ipd short ram intake, etc). Asking $7000
 
#10 · (Edited)
The "Swiss Watch" and the "Museum Piece"

It is now 2009, I just sold my 335 (at a very nice profit), housing market crashed and economy went down the drain and trying to recover and of course my never ending Volvo search continues. It has been quiet as far as the leads go and nothing interesting comes up for sale. Couple of local 850Rs, some cars on the forums but none of them check the boxes that I am looking for.

One Monday as I am doing my weekly Volvo search, I come across an ad from an independent Volvo shop in San Francisco called Popular Mechanix and they are selling one of their customer's cars. She is an older lady, bought it brand new and Popular Mechanix serviced the car all of its life. It has 44K miles on it. BINGO!
Car is not advertised anywhere else. I honestly don't even know how I came across this ad. I call the shop, speak with the owner, Andrew and ask him to describe the car. He is a super nice guy and goes, this is as close to a Swiss Watch as you can get. It is in outstanding mechanical condition, we have all the records and we just serviced it in preparation for the sale. I ask if the timing belt has been done due to age (question that most of us ask) and Andrew responds with a -No. But then he immediately goes, we totally can do that service for you if you are serious about the car. I ask for some additional interior pictures and ask him couple of random questions which everything else checks out. Awesome! This might be happening. I send Andrew a deposit, he does the timing belt service and replaces anything else necessary to make the road trip up to Seattle. My best friend Geoffrey and I buy one way plane tickets and fly down to SFO and head straight to the shop.

Andrew greets us with a smile and T-5R is sitting in the middle of the shop ready for a road trip. The plan is to do all the paperwork and start driving right away. Car looked awesome from a distance as we walked in…..but as I am getting closer to it, it keeps getting worse and worse and worse. These are the type of things that you can not tell from pictures or from 20 feet away.

CRAP! I start going around the car and realize that every single panel pretty much except the roof needs paint and body work. BIG no go for me as I would rather buy a car with blown transmission than one that needs paint and bodywork. I want an all original car and I am about to overpay than what this car is worth. So, I am looking for a bit of perfection. Old lady pretty much bumped everything in site and bumped the car all over the place. Interior of the car was in outstanding condition, mechanically it was all dialed in so I decided to call my body shop. (This is before video chat & etc) I describe the damage and they guestimate an estimate which is almost as much as I am paying for the car. One the phone they are actually trying to talk me out of buying the car as it is going to be a car repainted all over the place.

Andrew totally understands and agree that this is not the car for me. Later on, he updates his ad to show all the imperfections of the car and actually drops the price. We spend the weekend in SF, meet up with some friends and come back to Seattle without a Volvo. Since all the exterior pictures were posted on Popular Mechanix website, I only have pictures of the interior in my files. It was a very clean car but not what I was looking for. If I were in SF, Andrew would definitely be working on my cars.






Life goes on and summer of 2009 is coming to an end but what do you know! A 21K Yellow T-5R is listed on Ebay out of Chicago! At work my inbox blows up as people are forwarding me the link. It is not an auction but it is a for sale ad from its original single owner. Here are the pictures of the beauty. Just look at its pictures!









I get in touch with the owner right away and it is his dad's car (no worries). Story is that right after he bought the car, his work gave him a company car and he rarely drove the Volvo. It stayed parked in the parking garage of their condo building and it is as original as it gets. Son is a car guy but doesn't know much about Volvo's. They also have no service records! Interesting. I ask if it would be ok to do a buyer's inspection. He is a bit hesitant but agrees if I prepay for it. I make an appointment and the car goes into the dealer. Dealer doesn't know how to verify the mileage, owner refuses to do a compression check, so they take my $130 walk around the car and give it a good bill of health. The whole thing is fishy so I ask a well-known forum member in here who is a regional Volvo rep to go look at the car and he does! He is impressed and tells me the car is a "Museum Piece" and belongs to Volvo museum. - Good enough for me! I ask the owner to take the ebay ad down (he refuses) and I tell him we will be there the following weekend.

Here is a copy of PPI (if you call it that)




Same drill, buy plane tickets, make transportation arrangements for a pick up as we are not driving this car back, make hotel reservations and go to Chicago.

Transportation company tells me that the car will need to be picked up from a rather big parking lot as one of their big trucks will be in the area at the time of pick up. I book the hotel accordingly and the owner, his father and the car show up early Saturday morning as planned. I am super excited as I am thinking this is IT!

We go to the parking lot introduce ourselves and owner's son appears super nervous and the dad won't even come near us. The 1st thing they ask is if we brought the money? (Weird) I tell them that I would like the verify the mileage by pulling out the codes. They refuse and tell me that I cannot touch the car (hmmm ok :rolleyes:). They will turn the car on and I can walk around it but that's all I can do……. At this point I am not getting good vibes at all as this about to get hostile.

I start seeing things that are not making sense to me. The car has a brand new undercoating in some spots, tires are originals but all have different valves stems and the interior of the 40K mile SF car was in better condition than this car. I ask them to open the trunk (remember I am not allowed to touch the car that I am buying) and immediately realize something is off. One of the clear bra pieces on top of the trunk is missing on the driver's side right under the spoiler. I start focusing on the rear quarter panel and realize that the other factory clear bra piece in lower fender is painted over! HERE WE GO AGAIN!





I ask the owner once again if this car has ever been in an accident or been painted? At this point they get really hostile and tell me: What are you a professional? Are you going to buy the car or what? Where is the money? I calmly point out to the missing clear bra piece and show how the other piecee has been painted over. They don't want to hear about it and insist on I don't know what I am talking about.

I inform them that there will be a no car sale today and thank them for their time. Geoffrey and I call our friends in the area, have a good weekend and fly back to Seattle as planned, unfortunately without owning a museum piece. I am pretty bummed.

Someone eventually ended up buying this car and I remember reading an article about it on VCOA news letter. I am sure some of you can look up its vin from the PPI and see where it ended up.

EDIT: Our own SS did an article on this car as well:

https://www.swedespeed.com/artman2/publish/Feature_Cars/Feature_Car_Dave_Lipkins_Spotless_23_000-mile_1995_Volvo_850_T-5R.html

After 3 years of searching for the right car, I convince myself that my expectations are not realistic and I am no longer traveling across the country chasing Yellow Volvos and better stick with buying new cars.

More to come...... Hope I am not boring you folks!
 
#11 ·
Ahhhhh yes I do indeed know that car. Saw it in person a couple years ago. Funny how so many people in that chain of events were ahead of their time. That quarter panel had been repainted again by the time I saw it.
 
#12 ·
At the time there was a famous story of a guy buying a low mileage E30 M3 off of Ebay only to find out that someone made a low mile car by cutting 2 cars in half and putting them back together. There were pages and pages of threads on BMW forums. When I saw this car on top of the shady situation we were in, that is all I can think of. So many things did not make sense and I am glad we walked away.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Magic and the Sonic

By 2010 my Volvo dreams were fading fast and I decided to custom build a BMW M3 via Euro delivery (again) and take advantage of the bargains BMW was offering at the time. They cut the 2010 model year short and started producing 2011 model year cars in Feb of 2010 and I ordered one of the very 1st built 2011 M3 Competition cars and went to Munich to pick it up. If anyone is considering a Volvo / BMW or any other brand that allows Euro delivery, definitely take advantage of it. It is an outstanding experience.

Here she is at the Welt waiting for me.





Around this time we still have the Magic and continue to spend time on it with its repairs, details & etc. I am getting my dose of the Volvo needs through that car. We keep it up to date and make sure that it stays in top notch condition. Car stays with us for a very long time and serves the family with no flaws.

Of course my daily Volvo search continues and I come across a local ad for a one owner low mile (35K) V70R. Ad is very emotional and the seller claims that this car was the very last Sonic delivered via Euro delivery. They had no intention of selling it but their new property has a mile long dirt driveway and they can not bare to drive the Volvo on it.

Keep in mind that I am not a wagon guy, so I called who is one (Geoffrey) and made him buy the car with a condition that he will not daily this thing. He agrees and we go take a look at the car, fall in love and bring her to her new home. He was missing his Yellow wagon anyway and this is a pretty darn close replacement. Owner of the car is pretty upset and emotional and makes us swear that we will take car of his baby for years to come which is our intention and we assure him. 1st pic as we 1st saw it and 2nd pic is at home and safe.





Sonic & Magic Love



One of the very very 1st order of business was to get \the car covered with Stek PPF at Metropolitan detail. They installed the headlight wipers incorrectly which I fixed once I got home.




We of course took it down to IPD after full service and a detail. That year, there was another Sonic V70R on display which reminded me the time we took the Yellow to IPD only to have another Yellow wagon there.







Sonic is a total garage queen and Magic is getting somewhat tired but after almost 8 years of service it is time for a change. It gets replaced by a beautiful X5 M-Sport and I put the car up for sale here on SS only.

2005 V70R 6M 122K Miles / No Sunroof - Seattle (2nd Long...

I get bunch of inquiries and car goes to a non-Volvo enthusiast out of CA but someone who always wanted one of these things. The plan for him to fly up to Seattle and drive it down which is no problem. Geoffrey and I go over the car one last time to make sure that all is in outstanding condition for it to make the trip.
Car gets delivered, makes the trip to CA with flying colors and we are happy!

Then 2 weeks later, I get this picture and she is dead, gone, destroyed!

Owner and his young daughter walked away from the crash and they were not at fault. She did her job by protecting the occupants of the vehicle especially the young child in the back seat.

-Magic no more! :(



More to come…….
 
#18 ·
Great Volvo story, and not boring.
Nice to see the gathering at Northgate mall. I didn't know there was a Volvo scene in N Seattle.
I was still running my Saab's back then before moving to Volvo.
I'm enjoying seeing the collection... it helps for normalizing owning multiple Volvo's.
 
#20 ·
Thank you! North gate was the most popular place as it was an easy drive for the Canadian crew to come down. There were times where we drove up to Bellingham to meet up with them

LOL is that Kevin Teeter and Danny Melville?

Great post, man! A lot of old photos there that I've seen back in the good old VS days. The close-up of the two T-5R front ends... I remember that one very well!
Great memory! That's Teeter and Jeremy (Exexpat)

I think you are thinking about this pic which is still my Avatar in all the other forums :)

 
#33 ·
Very cool thread, thank you ... good memories. I remember most of this, theunderlord and exexpat lol. I remember all you yellow guys and had total respect but dearly loved my platinum a little more :cool: Sold it to Gary (yellow95) in '07 and dropped off the radar for a long time, and definitely off VS. Never gave up on the Volvo's though. The neighbors think we're crazy.
 
#35 ·
We have one of the few legal importers of JDM cars in the US in my state, near janesville. Beautiful cars, they have an R31 autech I'd be all over if it were 10k less.
 
#38 · (Edited)
I give up…..

Back to the story folks!

After the San Fran & Chicago experiences, I pretty much decided to give up on my Yellow hunt and chose to chase my other dream of owning a 911 Turbo. Most of the pleasure for me is the hunt for the right car and chasing the right 911 can be quite difficult as I found out through my research over the years.

1st it was the sticker shock, then it was the endless options Porsche offers (which ones are the ones to have) and then of course what year is the year to own.

If you are in the market for a 997 Turbo here are the cliff notes (I know this is a Volvo forum): 2009 is the year own as it is the last year of the Mezger engine. 6 Speed Manual Coupes are more desirable over convertibles and tiptronics, sport adaptive seats and sport chrono packages are must have (you would not believe how many 911s do not have these) and for me, heated seats were also required. Anything over that was a plus. Of course I am after a low mile, stock, accident free example. To make things further complicated I do not want black cars (70% of 911 are black) and no beige or funny colored interiors. Well, that took out 99% of the cars on the market…..

I am going to keep this short but 8 years, many stories later, I found the ONE in spring of 2018 (on the other side of the country of course) from its original owner with only 6K miles and made an offer. Now I have a depleted savings account and a smile on my face.

Here are some pictures at delivery & garage pictures






By this time, I still continue to very casually browse through SS classifieds, BAT and some other places to see if a Yellow will pop up but my hopes are faded and I have no additional funds left to spend on a car. Plus how likely will a unicorn show up at the worst possible time anyway.
Well, than this happened:

https://forums.swedespeed.com/showthread.php?594487-1995-T5R-yellow-with-42000-miles-in-FL&highlight=t5r+original

HOLLY COW. Crazy car at a crazy price. Deep inside I am thinking this is too good to be true, it is at a farthest possible location from Seattle (of course) and I have no money. I call couple of friends and they all tell me that I am insane / crazy / etc etc if do not just go buy this car. -I have only been looking for one for over 10 years.

I get in touch with the owner and it is actually his son selling the car (this sounds familiar). But he is a car guy so is the dad (Ken Sr.)and this is their mom's car located at their Florida summer house. Son (Ken) remembers the day the car got delivered brand new as his mom wanted this exact car and had to have it (She is Swedish BTW). His parents are getting up there in age and they decided to divide up the car collection among all the kids and -No one wanted the Volvo!!!! Ken knows how special the car is but he has his own uber low mile toys.

I ask Ken bunch of questions that we all ask when buying cars and he answers them either with pictures or by asking his dad. Everything checks out and Now THEY ASK me a question: Are you a broker / flipper & etc?? I was actually pleasantly surprised by the question and tell them my Volvo story and convince them, I am who I am. Having said all of that, I had no intentions to go to FL to see the car in person so a friend of mine (Danny - many Volvo guys know who he is) is in the car industry and he sends a person from one of their local dealers to inspect the car and paint meter it.

Ken's dad freaks out and convinced that I am going to flip this thing and doesn't want to sell it. Ken convinces his dad that I am who I am and the car is going to a nice home, very nice home.

Price: It is super high, it is pretty much the parents FU price (pardon my french). They have no intention of selling the car but if someone (me) is stupid enough to buy it at that price they will consider it. After going back and forth we agree on a price. They discount it as they don't think timing belt has ever been done so the price of a timing belt service is the discount I am getting. Meanwhile, I am thinking that there is NO WAY this thing is still on its original timing belt.
I mean these folks bought a brand new set of yellow stitched floor mats as a back-up, when Ken's mom scraped one of the Titans, instead of a repair, they bought a new one but never serviced the timing belt?? I am thinking that during one of the dealer visits it must of been done. Sooo, we do the deal and everyone is happy and I am nervous.

As this is happening, I get an unexpected bonus at work and life got pretty cool at that point. May be this was meant to be after all?!?

Danny's guys went to Ken's parents' house with a private transport and loaded the T-5R with an intention of never starting it again due to timing belt uncertainty while in transport. They said that the car will be in front of my house in 3 to 4 days!!!!!! There goes 3 to 4 sleepless days.

3 to 4 days later, I get the call and they are almost to the house.

Here are some pictures from unload and a very long inspection. We kept circling the car over and over again to see if there were any flaws. -Nope! What did I just buy? I have not driven a T-5R in ages. The smell, the noises it makes, it is all coming back. I will never forget that day.

I just bought a 42K mile T-5R from its ORIGINAL owner :bow:

1st peek!











The only thing that I wanted to know if it was untouched enough to have the white gloves still in the trunk? CHECK, they are there and never even been opened..... Along with the spare lightly damaged Titan, extra set of brand new T-5R floor-mats and other spare parts.



We drive the car straight up to my garage and Danny pulls the timing belt cover off - Yes, it is date coded 1994 ......:eek: Ok, this thing is not going anywhere.




My ultimate dream becomes reality and I find a pretty emotional hand written card by Gloria and Ken Sr. in the glove-box with all the paperwork asking me to take care of their Yellow Veloow.

This just became a build / restoration / insanity thread :D !
 
#39 ·
#42 ·
I remember seeing this car come up on autotrader, over in West Palm iirc, close to me but only a little tempting. Posted it up on the monthly cl thread and there were the typical dispersions cast about, but I had a hunch it was the real deal, cars like that happen down here. Congrats again ...
 
#43 ·
Wow congrats! The yellow does look very mint (except I will say, the pin stripe has gotta go haha). Pretty jealous of your setup, a 911 is my "by the age of 40" goal, except I would be looking for a 993 generation. Does yours have the aero kit? It looks awesome!

Did you get the Alcantara owners manual binder?
 
#46 ·
This is a wonderful thread, I’m sad no one is talking about the jaguar though!
 
#53 ·
This is a wonderful thread, I'm sad no one is talking about the jaguar though!
Well, it is a Volvo forum.

My other half is more focused and determined than I am. Her fam is into Jags, she loves the XJS' and always wanted one but her dad or any others never owned one. She sees this at the parking lot of her office, happens to know the owner and they have the "if you ever want to sell it" conversation......long story short, she showed up with it at home one day. It is a one owner 1992 V12 w/ 22K miles. It was still on its original tires when she drove it over. I bought another set of wheels & tires for her to be safe clearly. She daily drives it during summers.
 
#49 ·
I'm sure we can find you a Alcantara binder at some point. With my yellow wagon, the owner had never even opened it from the bag ?

The way to remove the painted pin stripe is to polish them off, a bit more advanced than something a "weekend warrior" can do, but it can be done. And luckily the single stage paint on these cars is pretty resilient

See here:
 
#50 ·
Not sure if you got it or not, but if you want a correct window sticker for your car, you could easily photoshop in your VIN and the original dealership onto mine, that could be pretty cool to have

 
#54 ·
First Things First = Stage Zero

Having owned couple of these cars in the past, one can easily create a pretty big shopping list before even seeing the car and that's exactly what I did:

-Full OEM Timing Belt Kit
-Add Cabin Air Filter & Replace Air Filter
-Full Tune up - OEM Wires / Plugs / Cap / Thermostat
-Clean Throttle Body & Replace Gasket
-Replace wipers (not that this thing will ever see rain again), including headlights
-Stainless Steel Brake lines
-Flush all fluids
-PCV is clean and functioning as designed so we left it alone for the time being.

When I said the car was not going to move an inch befoer timing belt, I meant it. Danny came over and did the entire timing belt service at the house, then, it got registered and went to Daisy Wagon for all fluids to be flushed follwed by my weeks long details.....

Here are some pics in that order.





Waiting for her to burp after new coolant.....and she did just that :D



This car is going to be all OEM Volvo down to its air-filter...... There was nothing wrong with the old one but I like the blue one better!



And the new / replacement headlight wipers have always been slightly longer than factory originals......Can't have that. So, I saved the originals and used only the blades from the replacements.





All registered and ready for detail!

 
#55 ·
Looks great! I unplugged my headlight wipers because I don't really drive the car in the rain anyways. Might I suggest throwing in an OEM Volvo battery? Really completes the under the hood look
 
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