1966 volvo 1800s

[amazondean]

I have just baught a 1966 1800s. I sold my MGB a couple of months ago because we have no use for it any more, so I have now gone and waisted £4800 on a very nice and quite original 1800s.

I am realy an amazon man but I have always fancied an 1800. It was on ebay last week and not far from me so I thought I would give the guy a ring. I realised straight away that he sounded genuine so I went to have a look, expecting to find nice shiny paintwork but bunged up with the usual pudding. I couldn't believe it, lifting the carpets reveiled no welding and no rust. Even the boot area had no sign of repair or rust and was very original. I took my torch to check out the front panel and wings and all was well there too.

The guy had spent a very substantial amount of money on having a fuel injected 2 litre engine totaly rebuilt with a K cam shaft, fully gas flowed head, lightened and balenced crank, a two and a quarter inch custom made stainless exhaust mounted on a four branch manifold using the standard twin SUs with different needles that I nannot remember the number.

When I started it, it ran a bit unstable and felt lumpy when it was revved lightly. I think he was a bit p!ssed that he had spent around four thousand pound on the engine and overdrive gearbox alone and still wasn't running right. He had even taken it to a place called expert test and tune, and they failed to get it to run right, But I noticed there was almost no oil in the SU piston dampers, I thought it might be slightly retarded as well. However other than that I could hardly fault the car. I am pretty ok on bodywork and although it has been stripped and sprayed some years ago it looks pretty remarkable to me.

I checked the history and found MOTs going back to 1971, looking at the MOTs shows that the 89000 miles is genuine.

I couldn't let someone else get there hands on it so we agreed a price of £4800, I think that is pretty reasonable but I am no expert on these cars.

When I got it home the first thing I did was take the air filters off and see what was happening. The rear piston was 6mm higher than the front at idle. When I filled them up with oil it brought them nearly leval, then I checked the mixture and the rear carb was four flats of the adjuster richer than the front. I started again and reset the carbs from scratch and now it runs and picks up as it should. Who the hell are expert test and tune? More like expert tits and toss.

I am incredibly excited about the whole thing and will be playing with it shortly so I will let you know whats happening.

There are a few problems that will eventualy need sorting if anyone can give me some advice. The clock isn,t working, The fuel guage reeds inaccurate, the rev counter is all over the place, the oil temp (i think) isn't working, although the oil pressure gauge is fine. I think that is about it, I will post some photos as I get them...Dean.