Project 740 "The BattleShip!"

Post 765810 by hemihusky on 2015-03-28 22:13:57

Hey all. so here is my new cheaper daily driver project! its a 1989 volvo 740 GLE manual. the car has done 107,000 miles with a full service history right up untill 106,000! i bought this fine thing from stoke on trent where i was told the history was some elderly couple used it eventually the husband died n she sold it on after it being sat for 3 whole years! explains why its a lil spluttery on start up! but i drove home n immediatly found the tires to be unbalanced 60 was hell 70 was even worse go faster n it smooths out slowly. but thats not a hard fix. i got no clue where this project will go but will keep posting the odds n sods i do to it on here performance mods wont happen for a while cause i said i wanted to keep this my cheap n cheerfull daily for a bit! previous owners left this! conservative nutcases

Post 765812 by V70 Graham on 2015-03-28 22:19:12

Looks tidy enough, and I do like the colour.

Post 765814 by hemihusky on 2015-03-28 22:20:23

i do like a good gunmetal silver style silver car. specially with the verry period side stripe =) gonna hafta get that tape deck working (stuck in code atm) n get some orchestral maneuvers in the dark tapes out! enola gay while cursing around in the ocean liner =P

Post 765820 by jamesy12345 on 2015-03-28 22:32:51

Nice one, great project. Classic insurance might save you some cash You'll be glad to know Christine won the election. In 2004 http://www.andrewteale.me.uk/leap/results/2004/108/

Post 765829 by c70geoff on 2015-03-28 22:43:40

Oooooo I do like a 740

Post 765867 by JUDGENINJA on 2015-03-29 03:47:22

Many Old schools cars are coming out of the wood work at the moment.... Keep it up!

Post 765870 by Doingitsideways on 2015-03-29 05:31:57

Loves me a shovel front 740 :)

Post 765882 by stribo on 2015-03-29 09:37:46

Looks very tidy.

Post 765883 by Ettienne on 2015-03-29 09:40:00

A fair amount to swap over if it's not turbo, but looks clean enough, local scrappy has just crushed a saloon

Post 765884 by Ettienne on 2015-03-29 09:40:43

Local scrappy has engine and box you'll want if tuning and they have a good condition grey estate in

Post 765885 by hemihusky on 2015-03-29 09:52:00

i will eventually be looking for a 16V maybe and it will need a box as i think mine is a M47? (4 on the floor with OD) but currently wanna get the fuel guage working right. and the headlining fixed then a bloody good service. who was it on here who made the strut braces for the 700/900 cars was it oblark? id love one of them

Post 765891 by oblark on 2015-03-29 10:21:38

The fuel gauge fault will the sender in the tank. It wasn't me who make 700/900 strut braces

Post 765895 by Doingitsideways on 2015-03-29 10:55:09

The fuel guage is also quite possibly dry joints on the board behind the guage. Plagued 7/900s for years that one. No, the strut braces are by "MI 1990 740 Turbo" Think the O/D box is the M46, the 5spd is the M47. Box of choice is the M90.

Post 765896 by jamesy12345 on 2015-03-29 10:58:22

[QUOTE=hemihusky;765885]...who was it on here who made the strut braces for the 700/900 cars was it oblark? id love one of them[/QUOTE] it was a guy near me in Newcastle, so I paid attention....username was somthing like MI 740 1998 turbo but looks like he hasn't registered as a trader so the thread has been deleted Ebay link http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Volvo-740-760-940-960-Strut-Brace-please-Read-Description-B4-Purchasing-/161634823364 //edit doh too slow)

Post 765898 by Doingitsideways on 2015-03-29 11:04:25

He's still got a sales thread in 7/900 sales on VOC.

Post 765901 by hemihusky on 2015-03-29 12:00:19

would say sender in the tank is more likely atm as just driving around if i stamp the brakes the guage shoots about n sometimes then starts working again other times it sits on empty. but when ya turn the ignition off n on you can still see it move up a lil like its energised it. thanks for the links ill stick the strut brace on my list of things i want to buy after a good service and run in =) found out my squeak was the power steering pump belt but just gonna replace it. it has seen better days so

Post 768378 by hemihusky on 2015-04-10 20:53:13

So things have been done to the battleship believe it or not! a good wash. de-stickered it and applied my stickers back from the 850 on this one but the main new thing being my new spoiler! this is a original 80's GLE spoiler that i managed to steal away for dirt cheap. part of me was tempted to paint it silver but the black works well with the black coach lines so figured would leave it as it is!. only slight issue is now the boot struts dont hold the boot no more due to being too heavy so a temp fix was the free steering lock i found in the car when i bought it. least its doing something usefull now! i also went to volvo to get some belts for the screaming issue and turns out. they dont make um no more joy of joys so contitech to the rescue. but do you think these belts have done a life from the pics? jeezus Spoiler prep new spoiler on =) looking something like now! shovel nose! dicking about with my camera a lil here interior got a lick for a wash. nothing proper yet new rear look genuine volvo too no knock offs think a de-badge may be in order here my new boot prop. least i found a use for the useless lock snapping belt much? oh jeezus old style volvo writing tells me they been on here a long ass time! new belts

Post 768382 by AcidicDavey on 2015-04-10 21:09:44

Nice feet :) I'd be tempted to paint the badges black to go with the spoiler and pin stripes ;)

Post 768384 by hemihusky on 2015-04-10 21:16:56

lookin at my slender figure? XD. but that aint a bad idea either. may give black a try first as its easy to get rid of the paint. more of a pain to re-line um up on the boot!

Post 768385 by AcidicDavey on 2015-04-10 21:19:28

At least they are one piece badges so easy to line up :P If you do decide to take them off just measure how far from the edges they are incase you want to put them back on ;)

Post 768386 by hemihusky on 2015-04-10 21:20:53

and from the top n such. and id need a straight line ala masking tape style to make sure they were both perfectly in line or my ocd would explode

Post 768389 by AcidicDavey on 2015-04-10 21:24:07

From the side and below, you only need 2 measurements as if they line up with those 2 then they are lined up :P I'm just the same, repainting my badges but on these newer ones the letters are all seperate, fun!

Post 768390 by hemihusky on 2015-04-10 21:26:59

oh jeez. no tah. i also got a set of the early early badges for these im tempted by. like these ones

Post 768391 by AcidicDavey on 2015-04-10 21:30:45

Oh I know the ones, didn't realise you could get 740 ones, thought they were only on the 60s?

Post 768395 by hemihusky on 2015-04-10 21:49:41

dunno. i got a GLE. Turbo. Intercooler from a scrapper here didnt have the engine in so couldnt tell nor the number badge jus saw these n they looked executive style! XD

Post 768397 by t5 pete on 2015-04-10 21:55:25

Love those head lights

Post 768398 by hemihusky on 2015-04-10 22:02:58

soon i shal have a set too to play with. and ill needa figure out how to get um working with RHD. hella do conversion lights to H4 bulbs that ill get to see off the old sealed beams as they are crap! then the wiring will be a fun thing to do XD

Post 768406 by FIREBOLT on 2015-04-10 22:55:47

If you can get replacement 6x4 headlamps from Hella just make sure they are RHD. It is the filter on the lense that determines if they are LHD or RHD. Although some you can just turn over or I have some round lights that rotate to change between L or RHD. Looks like GTO ones are the same: http://evilempireperformance.co.uk/gto-3000gt-shop/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=0&products_id=127

Post 768409 by hemihusky on 2015-04-10 23:04:49

yeah hella do some sets. a set for highs with H4. then a high/low light with directions also to take H4 bulbs so ill get that sorted for when they land in england. should give the battleship a nice lift from the old man volvo look to a more executive mean look!

Post 768417 by Shinsplintz 101 on 2015-04-11 07:01:34

Looking good fella,, with regards to the badges, if you do want them black just take some 1200 sandpaper & rub them back, just finish off with a bit of 3000 or cutting compound to get them nice & glossy -

Post 770034 by hemihusky on 2015-04-25 10:35:09

Been a while so thought id update with some pretty pics from gaydon and the only other thing ive done to it so far that is my brand new headlight + windscreen wipers genuine from ovlov cause the old ones were ruined. waiting for my brakes to arrive to do those =) Having just rolled in (Pic by acidic davey) on the approach rode with my face of not a single damn was given (pics by mr stephen evans) catching up with people n trying to figure out where my engine is in the engine bay old and new together shined up pretty good for just a quick wash (quick by my standards) leading the pack. or is it slowing the pack up? retro back lines. need to get some chrome 760 bits on it ASAP! More talking n catching up. can just catch glympse of my shiny intake Nice side on pic as the clouds decided "screw your day" a pic showing the terrable 80's color match resprayed wing my car had when it was not even a year old and as promiced. heres my genuine headlight wipers and windscreen wipers brand new from sweden gives them a nice updated look with the aerofoil and the headlight ones

Post 770064 by Hound on 2015-04-25 16:16:30

Looks terrific Husky!

Post 772602 by hemihusky on 2015-05-11 21:07:10

So its been a while so time for a update as quite a few small things have happened to the battleship. so first on the agenda was to sort the brakes. they were binding and making a ££££ing god awful squeaking noise and what i thought at the time was the source of my speed vibrations. get above 60 it started to rattle. my 850 did the exact same n seeing how it was a known issue figured it may be that FPF swansea did me a great deal on the disks n rear pads (only volvo things i can still get!) so ordered 3 outta 4 corner recon calipers (PFV didnt have the 4th =( sucky) new volvo pads and disks all round. hardware n such but no brake lines cause i was broke xD fitting the brakes was fairly straight forward. not being a terrably old/high milage car most things did come eventually! the fronts gave us a lil scare when the brake lines got stuck n started to round but grips n a hammer fixed that issue. the handbrake was binding and stuck on one side that wasnt helping me issue either. turned out volvo hadnt lined up a pin in the factory that needs to be flush n was just catching. but a angle grinder sorted that out brilliantly as it didnt wanna shift and we adjusted the cables so now it actually works! everything bolted up fine. i didnt have my front pads at this time so we sanded the glaze off them installed n went for a drive. came back to smoke POURING from the front brakes. but it hasnt done it since so i assume i was burning off high spots in my terrable sanding efforts and after another bleeding the pedal feels good n firm again so thats a thing and now it stops but still the vibration continued. so i had the wheels balanced. and still the vibration occours so maybe prop, center bearing or axle? i then also got my new cb all installed! i know i know why use cb. well a lot of my fur freinds use it. its good fun on long road trips and i installed it for just that. me n britishfoxy all the way to scotland to be at the funeral of one of our best freinds n the nicest guy you have ever met draelen who sadly. took his own life =( but anyway the install went perfect. the cb is JUST right for the lower din unit. i modified the back to be open to accomidate the cb and it sits on top of the relays. the ariel is a stinger with a mag mount so i can take it off for the time being. and a moonraker ext speaker so i can hear whats going on kinda! signal is brilliant on the thing n rather crisp. i used the transmission tunnel bolts as a earth n the cig lighter as a power source and even with cb on and phone charging no electrical issues at all happy days =) New brakes n hardware Bendix sliding caliper thingy on this car new ATE rears with the 38mm pistons brake parts for the rebuild of the final side and handbrake shoes. just in case i needed them all laid out =) more bits for the car genuine volvo this time new front disk nice n shiny n new new rear disk + drum new hardware all round already been painted from volvo so no faffing to be done here new drum surface. handbrake shoes will need re-bedding in like but not hard to do rear pads are genuine =) small handbrake mechanism needed some freeing and was greased installing the new rears on the car. went pretty smooth after the handbrake was free'd

Post 772603 by hemihusky on 2015-05-11 21:09:07

new rears all done =) back up on the jacks new fronts all done almost done! yeah these were jus a lil buggered

Post 772611 by hemihusky on 2015-05-11 21:41:40

Continued on Heres the CB i bought for the battleship this was the first mounting idea but didnt like it ended up mounted like this used the cb screws as they just reached n did the job well wiring started here my small moonraker EXT speaker as the built in speaker will be useless modified din back coax cable for the ariel. i needa hide it fully but for now that will do ariel and aux wired in springy stinger mounted small over-view CB earthing point and it lives! this needs a mount but bleh. later moonraker mounted

Post 772613 by hemihusky on 2015-05-11 21:43:25

and how it sits now

Post 774374 by hemihusky on 2015-05-27 22:36:46

Well another small update like. after the VT lot dropped outta the holland trip i decided bugger it ill still go myself. i couldnt fix the vibration in time for the trip but figured i got breakdown cover. if its breaks it breaks dont it as im sorta past the point of caring about it for a moment. but i organised to go visit freinds for a weekend and just clear my head with work life car n everything its been getting me really down recently (as some people know if you follow my facebook. i went slightly crazy) so thought holland may clear my head and if the fresh air dont. the hookah me n my freind smoked sure did! (Strawberry non tobaco hookak i could smoke for bloody hours) so off i set n the drive down was fairly un exiting. usual english motorway stuff got to dover with my phone just about dead (died as i came down the hill to dover luckily i knew where i was then) and then hit the traffic. **** me they were queing for this ferry!!! i just about got on n had a small chill out n some epic onboard fish n chips. Heloooo france and off we went. going went fine and i found out with europe's 130kph motorway limits it was enough to balance the rattle out on the speed end! so barely noticed the issue. englands 70mph really rattles it to hell. but doing like 83 its fine. it was hot as hell in europe with no air con and then i hit antwerp. and solid traffic for about 2 hours took 3 hours 45 for a 2 hour drive usually! but every cloud n all that. i got to breda n thats where we flopped for a bit was a nice place tbh. friday was shopping for the essencials. some strong vodka. n some food. saturday ended up a full on games n hookah smoking day. we were gonna do something productive but that vanished. and sunday we went to a comic con in nokke belgium right on the coast where i suited up a lil. drive to there was rather nice with leon on the tunes (tape deck adaptor yeaaaa buddy) and only after a good day suiting n entertaining people with my freinds i got told we were being paid for it too!!! so 70 euro richer we went out to a fancy resteraunt in bruge n i had a nice steak chips and on the way home i got a wave from a 240 driver old volvo freinds. and once home we did a photoshoot with spanners and my inflatable wolf mainly messing with cameras as ya do. the 740 did really well on fuel doing about 400 miles to 50 quid n really cant whine at that!! it was comming home things went wrong drive back was fine and got to the port 2 hours early. DFDS was nice enough to put me on the 8am ferry rather than the 10 as there was plenty space so thumbs up to dfds. i also got stopped n searched by customs who found my suit hillarious and my volvo a nice car but then in england just passing cambridge *BANG* rear tire blowout sent me sideways nearly into a ditch. funny they were michilins with MILES of tread n the pressures were ok when i set off. but whatever i got a full size spare. walked to a garage with it to get some air n then set off. and then next day *BANG* exact same thing on the spare wheel!!! ****s sake. so to the garage i went n had 2 of the cheapest **** things i could find put on to get me by untill new wheels time. ill burn these ditchfinders out before i get rid of um. i also got a £108 fine from the dartford crossing from a crossing i did on the 1st of 2015 in the 850 when their website ****ed up n said "charge £0.00" so i couldnt pay anything! but ah well every cloud n all that im contesting it i aint paying that! so overall its been a interesting few days. volvo clicked over 110,000 too so. thats a thing. i didnt take many pics as my phone was dead n i didnt bring my euro adaptor (derp) at the services on the way down. CB setup n euro ready Aaaaand traffic Eventually got there Boarding nice bikes at dover Seen this V40 in breda with funky wheels Comic con in Belgium one of my fav pics from the photoshoot home from the trip rather mucky now just a flat? no issues oh bugger

Post 774377 by t5 pete on 2015-05-27 22:45:06

Sounds like a fun trip out really ££££ news on the tyres you've got to be really careful with old ones. Lol ide of loved to see there faces when they found the fox suit in the car at customs

Post 774386 by MaxTS on 2015-05-28 09:16:56

Woah I love this car! I'd love to get one as a daily driver and do as you have done by keeping it OEM, the R can be for the weekends :D How good is it on fuel?

Post 774395 by hemihusky on 2015-05-28 10:46:13

Well MPG figures i aint bothered working out but i can say instantly it is a TONNE better on fuel than the T-5R was ill get some actual figures on my way to work soon. i know the 850 on a work run did about 21 ish if i was carefull. and about 28 on the motorway (Also these are old updates im posting from other forums. my life dont shift this fast!) Finally got around to washing all the euro crap off the car today n i will say it looks all nice cleaned up. this is its pre confuzzled fur con clean cause i always like to rollup looking flashy =P clean that includes. wheels cleaned with acidic wheel cleaner then jet wash off. then normal wheel cleaner. car snow foamed. all arches + under car cleaned. washed off. soaped n washed off lathered polished. glass polished (inside too) headlights + tailights n such polished. glass rainex'd wheel center caps polished. under bonnet clean of the engine n such. all re-blacked. interior leather care'd n vinyl care'd to perfection. carpets striped. boot cleaned. and most importantly. the air freshner installed in total its about 4 hours cleaning my car but it looks like it just rolled off the factory line. also i found a little interesting thing i found the original pre delivery inspection for the car! and it was sold to our dorris. so once again this is a 1 owner car. its original reg used to be F999 rather than F511 and it was sold on the 4th of may 1989 so shes just turned 26 years old =) 110,000 miles later discounting the rattle its still going good. Fully polished and re-blacked Interior cleaned Polished badges Polished side on shot Classic lines do have something about them Oldschool shovel front Did the rears too but they didnt need much to bring them back up good and gave the rigals a wash

Post 774413 by hemihusky on 2015-05-28 15:59:22

(And were caught up after this so dont expect anything more fancy XD) Well im home from confuzzled. good fur con and motorfurs meet. showed some of these young yobbo's that just cause its a volvo dont mean its boring sideways around the NEC roundabouts xD. so on with what ive done to the car it now has volvo OEM Gemini wheels. set of 5 in pretty good never refurbished condition (still see the original cars reg etched onto them) with 2 bridestones and 2 michilins ok tread depth sold the old rigals to the guy i bought um off so i didnt have to lug them back. all my wheels have center caps and i LOVE them. rides a little better now n handles better on slightly lower profile and wider J tires. but this rattle still persits so its a propshaft issue =( anyway heres some more pics of the silver barge New gemini's all lined up going on n already look nice even without center caps one side done. now the other finish on these is just amazing completely changes the car looks like a lot higher model now specialy in the nice silver! slight dish on them that i love can actually see my brakes now! kinda leaving the hilton bye bye confuzzled 2 years of con stickers close up on this years and how the car sits now

Post 774463 by AcidicDavey on 2015-05-29 00:00:40

Great wheel choice, they look great on it!

Post 774652 by hemihusky on 2015-05-30 21:52:41

gave mine a post confuzzled fur con clean cause it was filthy by the time i got home and had bits of kfc all over the interior (hotel food was making everyone sick so we kept driving out) and i gave the wheels a good going over with wonder wheels and some general cleaner and they are almost like brand new! amazed how well the finish is on these and so glad i jumped on them. thanks to jay for selling them to me. and giving me the rest of the toolkit i needed including those lil gloves. and a spare propshaft to fix my rattle. new center bearing is on order n the prop is being painted up so it looks nice all clean This was the wheel with all the corrosion on believe it or not

Post 775275 by hemihusky on 2015-06-07 18:07:16

Another small update of work done this weekend. actually made some progress so im rather happy with this weekend in general. also helped along by 2 great mates. So brought the battleship over with a slightly used but non rattling M46 front prop section with ok center bearing and flex joint n set out finding the cause of my rattle thinking just prop out of balance. got the car on stands and dropped the front section of the prop off that came off rather nice n easy to be fair no stuck bolts or anything here. and here's were i find my rattle at some point in the past the prop rubber has been damadged and the bodge fix by someone was fill it with black silicone! this put it off center and was causing my speed rattle. so i replaced it with the other prop unit i had took it out and smooth as glass. and it got rid of my gearbox n overdrive whine so the thing was straining my drivetrain stuff! sadly it has caused a bit of pitting on the gearbox adaptor plate but ah well. i also then replaced my window switches to 940 ones that light up and have the writing/picture on it that also turned out to be rather easy n sorta updates the interior slightly so this weekend has been a good one all accounted for =) Old prop to come off Removed! old Uni joint just hanging + splines the pitting damadge the rattle caused heres the bodge job that was done =( new prop to go on (slightly used) my old flex coupling all brittle n starting to crack all the way through. not good battleship high n dry new prop in + greased 940 switches installed

Post 775301 by AndysR on 2015-06-07 19:21:37

Nice work, how bad was the whine? Looks like someone had a good attempt at trying to stop that centre bearing from doing anything at all!!! Wow what a bodge... Like the switch upgrade, the drivers and passenger seat belt buckles on my 760 are illuminated, so you can see them at night to plug your seatbelt in, yet the switches for the windows arent! How strange.. Did you do the rear switches and passenger switch as well? Does the auto down work for the drivers window with the newer switches?

Post 775304 by hemihusky on 2015-06-07 19:28:00

the whine was pretty noticeable you could hear the whole transmission winding down when slowing down and in overdrive it had a nasty drone. i did the rear switches and everything just need 3 more to complete the set then they all light up. and sadly no as you need a relay n some wiring to make the auto down work. something i will do eventually just not right now =)

Post 775307 by AndysR on 2015-06-07 19:32:02

Did it sound like a wheel bearing type droan or something? Sounds like it could have done..? Yeah I did wonder if there was a separate relay for the auto down function, I'm guessing that the switches themselves were a straight swap and fitting the relay and jumper loom will also be.

Post 775312 by hemihusky on 2015-06-07 19:43:38

nah it was definetly the overdrive. it only did it once overdrive was engaged and only if you were putting power through the transmission. now its quiet as hell even all the way up to the national limit (i dont speed mr officer honestly!) but yeah switches were a direct replacement n no wiring need to make um light up either

Post 775820 by hemihusky on 2015-06-13 10:48:25

Got spotted comming back over the M62 by one of my freinds so now i know how i look like on the roll =) also managed to get some of the original volvo oem cotton gloves that they gave you in the service kit. so you dont dirty your hands jacking the car up! aaaaand we sprung a leak captain =( header tank cap i think + the bottom metal collar on the expantion tank has cracked so will replace all that soon ish. but it does explain why my coolant would keep dropping slowly n i could never find any leaks. only jus spied this crystlisation now On the roll Sat at my work. looks good to me finally Spare gemini got a clean too Volvo cotton gloves Header tank sprung a leak Cap failure but the radiator looks ok so thats good