my wagons progress

[turbobrick]

well i heard about stanceworks @ fixxfest this year and have been checking out the forums since then.

figured i would post up some info on my car and its slow build into what i got....

info.....
1995 Volvo 850 turbo...wagon.
147k miles on the car.
automatic, FWD.
per Volvo hp should be 225hp @ the crank.

on with the story.

well before i got this car i had a 5.0 mustang, that was my pride and joy. gt40 heads, ford racing headers, and cai, 30lbs injectors, 410 rear end, etc etc etc. then the gas prices went up i was talking to a co worker that drove a hummer and they said they got 10mpg, then i said my mustang got 7mpg and I realized the car was no longer daily drivable....so i put an add on craigslist looking to trade it and that’s how i got the wagon.

Mustang
http://i46.tinypic.com/206yav7.jpg

For this…..
http://i49.tinypic.com/fm6v0x.jpg

It already had a nice 2 tone paint job. And the crazy body kit that was held together with zip ties and tape.

My first order of business was to clean her up real nice
http://i49.tinypic.com/op1q4k.jpg
Crack in rear bumper
http://i46.tinypic.com/f4pv0y.jpg
Front all stuck back together….
http://i49.tinypic.com/6ynng2.jpg

http://i50.tinypic.com/4dukh.jpg

So from what I was told…front was off a Mustang, sides are from an Astro and rear is from some kind of Acura.
Also the wheels are 17x7.5 Canistos…of a C70

Motor is a 2.3 turbo inline 5.
And wasn’t impressed by how dirty it was…
http://i50.tinypic.com/2hz02me.jpg


But I did like…the OEM carbon fiber spark plug cover…1 0f only 211 in existence…
http://i45.tinypic.com/6dssph.jpg

end chapter 1. more to come....

[turbobrick]

chapter 2...interior and audio....start

So the guy that sold it to me had some kind of crazy audio set up in it with 3 of the square kicker subs and 2 amps and crossovers and bla bla bla. He kept it all and just left me the wiring. So I started to remove everything I wasn’t going to use. Under the rear seat I found over 10ft of speak wire just wrapped in a bunch like to hide it. (extremely crappy install on everything). I went and yanked all that out and just left wires running to the 4 door speakers. The dash and hatch speakers are disconnected but they are only tweeters and are blown.

I put in my radio cause the guy kept his…crappy flip out DVD player but its been with me for years and hasn’t given out yet so I stuffed it into yet another car….
http://i45.tinypic.com/oig9ec.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/21khs8w.jpg

I used the speaker set up the guy had made for a short time until I found someone with new door panels to replace these….
http://i49.tinypic.com/2j11q1x.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/250pb48.jpg

Because I was redoing the audio I went ahead and threw in 2 10”s I had sitting in a shed and an old amp just to have some thump…
http://i47.tinypic.com/291f3hs.jpg
And I also removed the OEM cd changer that was in the trunk.

I re skinned the driver seat (it was all ripped up), and gave the 13year old seats a good cleaning and conditioning.… I got a used driver skin so that it wouldn’t look new and the rest of the seats look old and crusty….
http://i46.tinypic.com/ad0v4l.jpg

http://i45.tinypic.com/2igivmh.jpg

[turbobrick]

Chapter 3 fixing the outside
Front bumper gone….
So @ a local junk yard I stumbled across a black 850 front bumper for $35. So I figured what the heck its cheap and the right color and I **** my body kit……
http://i49.tinypic.com/316qf07.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/2qnqqsi.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/28lasdk.jpg

Finished…
http://i50.tinypic.com/bdwsj4.jpg
Quick black spray…
http://i47.tinypic.com/300a3hd.jpg

A few week later I was looking for random Volvo parts and found an Xc70 (cross country AWD model) with a perfect rear bumper. $50 later I started to put it on.
When I pulled the body kit rear I was shocked (again half ass work) the bumper was held on with a ton of Velcro to half of the OEM bumper under it…which @ some point has apparently started to melt….
http://i45.tinypic.com/inx4br.jpg
Oh and a class C trailer hitch….
http://i48.tinypic.com/28i2pzt.jpg
So I think its ready for paint and new exhaust…
http://i47.tinypic.com/iyzmzl.jpg

So one of my fellow CFLEuro Volvo guys had an AWD with dual exhaust that he pulled the exhaust off of, so I took it to the local muffler shop to have it modified to work on my Fwd. boy was that a pain….the AWD has the gas tank in a different location so this exhaust is sitting only a few inches from my plastic gas tank. Thank god for heat shields…
http://i50.tinypic.com/2ymhrnn.jpg

done
http://i50.tinypic.com/nd0f3k.jpg

http://i49.tinypic.com/2jcf2hf.jpg

had a buddy of mine with a plotter do some custom badges for me...
http://i46.tinypic.com/2pq84du.jpg

this is how she has looked for most of her time with me....

[turbobrick]

so my same buddy from the rear bumper also had extra door panels...sooooo

chapter 4 new changes

my grey door vs new Charcol door...
http://i46.tinypic.com/2qs2u6c.jpg

goodbye crappy speakers on the bottom, hello cubby hole for stuff...
http://i48.tinypic.com/fk9mbt.jpg

the doors worked perfect because if you look u can see the top of my dash is the charlcol (new doors) and the bottom is the grey (old doors) so it matched perfect.

at some point i met another volvo guy who hooked me up with an R model front bumper. the only issue was that it was made from 2 bumpers. i dont have pix of how he did it but its about 75% r bumper 20% non r bumper and 5% fiberglass and bondo. i think he did great!
http://i47.tinypic.com/aa92eu.jpg

u can see the R has a bit of a lip and is longer than the OEM (matches better with the side skirts on the wagon)

couldnt sleep 4am sanding in the living room
http://i46.tinypic.com/1zzsia.jpg

the non R side of it (this entire side was missing when he got it...)
http://i48.tinypic.com/2pph5ci.jpg

almost ready for paint..
http://i50.tinypic.com/rvdobb.jpg

spray painted and test fit..
http://i49.tinypic.com/s64pld.jpg

i think it all flows much better now...
http://i45.tinypic.com/2hn7yqd.jpg

i also did amber signal lights, i just didnt like the 2 color (clear and yellow) OEM ones...

http://i47.tinypic.com/m8h7gk.jpg

so i bent a wheel (nistos are known to bend easy)

got some Volvo Nebula Reps. 17x7.5 with 42 et

http://i48.tinypic.com/2a0c6d2.jpg

all dirty (fresh mowed grass on OEM suspention)
http://i48.tinypic.com/2mnhnk2.jpg



some show pix...

volvo @ ikea...
http://i47.tinypic.com/21kjcxc.jpg

pulling into fixxfest
http://i49.tinypic.com/11mezcz.jpg

on the way to fixxfest
http://i49.tinypic.com/10nw74j.jpg

u can see the front is flush as hell just need to be lowered. but the back has a long way to go, about 1.5" till its flush. then its gonna go low also.

[turbobrick]

black headlights....

http://i47.tinypic.com/14dhg5y.jpg

http://i47.tinypic.com/2jfevck.jpg

put back together...oh yea Russian Plate

http://i45.tinypic.com/jj19a9.jpg

i love this pic (no photoshop.)

http://i47.tinypic.com/2zq7qpv.jpg


cleaned up the motor, a little paint, some metal polish. and u get this....
http://i46.tinypic.com/w1qpax.jpg

i took the carbon fiber cover off for daily driving and only put it on for shows and stuff.

as for the motor...added a new filter, MBC general tune up, replaced all vacume lines. etc etc etc

inside a boost guage. and im now running 12psi vs the OEM 8. car feels much better.

http://i45.tinypic.com/2elxfdu.jpg





future plans are....

#1 suspention/stance. already have B&G rear lowering springs to install in the back (maybe a 2" drop), gonna make coilovers for the front trying to get 3"-4" in the front.

#2 tuned ecu.

once that is finished i dont really know what else im going to do to it. maybe some fiberglass work in the hatch area with custom speakers and stuff. who know......


well guys i know its not stanced out yet but what do you guys think so far?

[frink84]

nice work. always wanted a turbo brick wagon!

[slimadi]

That will be a sweet sleeper wagon when all finished :eyebrows

[Vegas13]

i love volvo wagons, i used to have a civic wagon, cuz i couldnt find a 740.

i think this needs more agression to the stance!

[74low145]

Looks pretty normal, but could be nice with some drop

[Rickysbmw320i]

much better then before by far. I laughed outloud when i saw those first pics. :rofl

[turbobrick]

That will be a sweet sleeper wagon when all finished :eyebrows

thanks. yea im gonna do, probably a bigger turbo (18/19t) 3" dp,ecu, EBC, etc etc etc but thats all after i get the stance right. it runs perfect and being my only car i cant afford the downtime at the moment to start ripping apart the motor and all that right now.
i love volvo wagons, i used to have a civic wagon, cuz i couldnt find a 740.

i think this needs more agression to the stance!
oh thats in the works....

Looks pretty normal, but could be nice with some drop

thanks. im planning to bring the front down about 2-2.5" and the rear about the same. i have about 1.5" of space from the back wheel to the outside of the fender so i plan on adding spacers in the back. the front is only a few mm for being 100% flush but i think im going to leave it as is for the moment. i just got my rear lowering springs last night. so all i need is to work on my coilover set up for the front (gotta make my own)

much better then before by far. I laughed outloud when i saw those first pics. :rofl

yea when i got the car what impressed me was the paint, and the space it had. im a big dude almost 300lbs. and i've always had small cars, eclipse, 300zx, mustang, etc. so when i sat in it i felt like i was in another world. and the 225hp motor pulls hard. so i got the best of both worlds HP with tons of space and great MPG.

[starbai]

love it! thank you very much for removing that damn body kit...

i swear people think body kits belong on anything.

[turbobrick]

love it! thank you very much for removing that damn body kit...

i swear people think body kits belong on anything.


yea i know. if im not mistaken i had seen my wagon @ HIN a few years before and it was crazy done up. it still has alot of the stuff it had (police strobes) has a ton of wires (no longer connected to things), crazy spanish speaking alarm, etc etc etc. unfortunatly it looks like most of the stuff was done like crap. and hasnt lasted long. the alarm stopped working about 3 months after i got it so i just disconnected it and used the OEM alarm that the car comes with. u seen how the body kits looked and how the OEM bumper was melted under it...thats how 90% of everything in the car was.

im sure it looked good years ago as a show car, but the kid i got it from sold it to me, and an hour after i got it a lifter started to knock. i checked the oil and it was bone dry.(i had checked the oil when running and it looked clean, but when i let it sit it wasnt reading on the dipstick) then i check the radiator and tranny...no water. tranny looked like motor oil. it was apparent that he didnt really take care of it. i have a crap load of hours put into this car, just pulling stuff that was broken out of the car. 2 amps, 3 RCA cables, full crossover set up, strobes in the front signals, the LED for the alarm was in 1 of the front turn signals....i ***** that....people coming into work @ night......"hey you know your turn signal is blinking"