Near showroom condition 1982 Volvo 240 4 door sedan

1982 Volvo 240 Additional Info:

The car is absolutely mint condition EXCEPT for the actual leather that makes up the seats. The seat backs are good, with no holes or tears, but the seat cushions are shot and the leather that you sit on has tears and seams are coming apart. The foam and springs that make up the seat base are in need of attention or even replacement. If I was going to keep the car (which I may very well do if I don't get a reasonable price for it), I would take it to an upholstery shop and have them totally rebuild the seats with new leather (black, of course), and then I could call the car a collectors item. That is the one thing that I just haven't had the time to make it happen. I have repaired anything that wasn't as perfect as it could be just to ensure that the car was as good as it could be for the next owner, and enough is there for the next owner to tinker on for fun. I personally enjoy doing small projects on my cars (my other vehicle is a 1989 Toyota HJ61 Land Cruiser, which is also a lot of fun in a totally different way from this car!). and on this Volvo the only "project" I could find was that the battery tray was totally rusted out and needed to be replaced and a bit of the steel body under the battery tray was slightly rusted on the surface of it. It looks as though a battery of one of the previous owners sprung a leak, and so the steel battery tray was rusted by the sulphuric acid from the battery. I bought a new heavy gauge steel battery tray and associated hardware to replace the existing one, and after removing the rusty tray I wire brushed the whole area under the battery tray that was surface-rusted, then used a substance called POR-15 to get rid of the rust, and it created a rock hard black surface that looks as though it was painted by a heavy, thick paint that won't chip or gradually turn back to rust. If you are not familiar with POR-15, just google it, and you will see that it is the product of choice in 4 wheel drive restoration, often used extensively on frames and areas subject to heavy water and mud exposure. I haven't done much else to the car as I haven't had to. I did have the "computer" replaced, as there was some strangeness in the electrical system, and it was determined that this component was causing grief. The symptom of the problem was the car would sputter and stop running after about 15 minutes of highway speed driving. After spending $3000 on having that diagnosed and replaced, I looked into a product that is available that apparently replaces all of the components involving air/fuel mixing, fuel volume monitoring, and a few other things. The product is called a "MegaSquirt" and apparently does wonderful things for older Volvo's, and adds a whole new level of playing around with how the engine runs, and the monitoring that you can do with the MegaSquirt and a portable laptop computer. I should also state that the car was NEVER driven in winter here in Edmonton as the stuff that they put on the roads to combat the ice and snow makes short work of car sheet metal and cars in general. Every car that I have ever had that I drove here in Edmonton during the winter has rust, from just surface rust to gaping holes throughout.
I can't think of anything else to tell you about the car, other than I'm going to miss it. 'Nuff said.