Sway Bar Bushings

While changing from my winter tires to summer tires I noticed that my sway bar bushings looked a little long in the tooth.

Alas, Volvo thinks that you need to replace the entire sway bar at this point. I disagree with this thought. I ordered some 20mm polyurethane bushings from Energy Suspensions. Miah and I will be installing them tomorrow. Hopefully all goes well and I will have a better ride.

Antenna Down Switch

While doing some research I came across a link to installing an antenna down switch. I remembered that I had one in the closet. I got it out and got it installed tonight. I had to make the wiring myself as I didn't have a harness. Everything went together well and I can now lower my antenna without turning the radio off.

Painted Door Handles

The trim on the car had become a weather gray. I decided that I would get everything painted I could without major disassembly.


Once I had the handle off I took a scotch pad to it. I then used SEM Plastic/Leather Prep to clean everything and a few coats of SEM Plastic Adhesion Promoter to help the paint stick. I then used SEM Bumper Coater in Charcoal Metallic to finish off the parts.

I am happy with how everything turned out. Now all I have to paint is the bumpers. I don't think they will be done anytime soon.

Visit from Miah

Miah made the trip up to Kansas City on Friday for the Volvo Club of Kansas City photo shoot with Connie at the Airline History Museum.

There was a good turnout and a broad range of Volvos in attendance. Afterward we had dinner at Winslow's. Then we set out on our own to take some more pictures of the cars. We found a old loading dock that we were trying to get pictures of the R, but we were standing two feet onto private property and we were asked to leave. We were not getting the shot we wanted so we moved on.

We found a nice pull off spot on a road with the Broadway bridge in the background. After much trial and error we were finally able to get this shot.


Satisfied with that shot we moved on to the Power and Light District. We drove up to the top of the parking garage just north of KC Live. We had a lighting issue with our first spot we picked so we drove around the barriers and made it to the roof level. We were getting things dialed in for a good shot when the security guard came on by to check us out. Instead of making us leave he hung around and talked while we experimented with different lighting levels. When we got this shot we decided it was a good time to change locations.

We drove around by Liberty Memorial, but the gates were closed. We headed down Main Street towards the Plaza. We hit a sobriety checkpoint on the way there. The officers that talked to each of us were a little confused when we each talked about wheat we were doing. We both referenced each other as "the other Volvo". Once through there we made our way to the Plaza. It was still busy and there were no really good shots so we headed back home.

On Saturday we ran around a bit before starting work on the cars. We picked up a Black Magic Bullet to work on getting the rims clean on both car. The head came off the shaft before we were done. While Miah was breaking the Bullet I started working on cleaning up the leather on his seats. In the time he did all of his rims I barely got one seat done. In order to make it easier to clean the back seat we pulled the bottom and side bolsters out of the car. By the time we were done with the leather it looked like a different car. Now all we need to do is get the suede inserts cleaned. When this was done we decided to pack it in for the night. Next time we get together it will include more Volvo fun.

Second Step of Paint Rescue

She has now been through 2 claybar sessions and several passes with Zaino Z-PC Fusion Dual Action Paint Cleaner Swirl Remover. The finish now looks a thousand times better than when I got the car. Unfortunately since it has taken off some paint to smooth the surface out the trim pieces now have a red hue to them. Once a couple of layers of polish have been applied using the buffer I will take care of dying the trim back to black. I will then finish the last layers of polish by hand.

Drip Molding Repair

When I got the car it had the standard issue with the tape pealing off of the drip molding. I have taken my time to get these cleaned and prepped to get a new coat of Forever Black and blackout tape. I did the majority of the work with a razor blade. I was able to remove the tape, but it left a lot of glue on the rail. I first tried using a piece of steel wool to clean the glue off. While this worked fine it took too long and was a very messy process. I found a can of Goo Gone Extreme at Wal-Mart and I thought I would give it a try. I sat down on the floor last night and spent about three hours cleaning up the rails. It was not a messy process and I could watch TV while I was doing it. The rails came very clean and ready for the tape. I did a test area of the Forever Black and I think it will work just fine. I will be starting on the rubber tonight with hopefully a plan to start taping next Tuesday.

Fuel Pump Relay Woes

My fuel pump relay went out last week, but the process to figure it out took most of the weekend. On my way home on Thursday the car kept on dying. It was typically when I was coasting, so I tried to keep the RPMs up and got it home. On Friday I was able to get to work with only a few issues. When I went to leave the car would not run for more than a minute at a time. I popped the hod and made sure everything was connected and no vacuum elbows were blown. I finally gave up and asked Tim for a ride home. He decided that we should at least try and figure out what was wrong.

We went to Harbor Freight and picked up a cheap fuel pressure gauge. I hooked it up to the port on the end of the fuel rail and started the car up. After a quick run to Home Depot for some Teflon tape after spilling some fuel we got everything hooked up. I got 40 psi at the rail and then it would just drop to nothing until the engine died, then it would jump back up to 40 again. We decided to put the gauge at the pump to see if we could figure out what was going on. After a quick from the store for some fuel line and host clamps we were ready to test. Now at this point we should have realized that the pump was shutting off when the pressure dropped, but we couldn't see the forest for the trees. We fumbled around some more and finally had to call it a night when it got too dark.

I hit it again on Saturday morning. I had to buy a jack, more stands & a creeper so I could try and figure out what was wrong. I went to pick up some more fuel line so that I could get the gauge in an easier place to read since I was alone now. The guy at the counter thought it might be a vacuum issue. I messed around some more and then decided to replace the fuel pressure regulator. I was lucky in that there was one in the area. I got it replaced, but in the process of pulling the fuel rail I lost a couple of the injector seals. I was lucky that the parts department at Superior Volvo was still open. I picked up some new seals at $5.oo a piece. FCP Groton has MSRP listed as $2.31 and sells them for $1.49 a piece. I am getting tired of being bent over by Superior. I hope that I don't have to buy many more parts from them.

I got everything back together and it still didn't work. I was getting more desperate and was actually considering having it towed to Vern's for him to fix. I tried bypassing the fuel filter. This time I noticed that the fuel pump was shutting off. I didn't have the service manuals with me as I didn't bring my laptop with me. I finally headed home and hit the computer to try and find a solution. I found a troubleshooting step that talked about checking the fuel pump relay. I made a posting on Matthew's Volvo Site about what I had done and what I thought was the possible fix. Ozark Lee posted that I was probably right about the issue and an easy way to test it. I used a paper clip to make a jumper and the car started right up and kept on running. Lee was gracious enough to offer to meet me Sunday night and give me a working relay. I owe a huge debt of gratitude to Lee for helping me out. I was afraid I was going to have to either buy one at who knows how much of a markup or pay for outrageous shipping to get the part quickly.

I now have a car that runs once again. I can now focus my time back on the paint and making this car shine.