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.

Stage Zero Tune-Up - Follow Up

Miah and I got together over the weekend and put in a lot of time on the car. We were able to get the distributor, rotor, spark plugs & wires replaced on Sunday. We also replaced the soft vacuum hoses with new silicone hoses. On Monday we did a complete flush of the transmission fluid. It was really very simple.

While doing this work we found that I need to replace the existing brake lines. While I am at it I will probably go ahead and replace the rear pads and rotors.

Paint Finish Work Started

I did a complete wash and clay bar of the car tonight. I spent two hours working on the car. Things felt good when I finished, but a fresh wash would tell the truth. After a second wash I started to dry it and found that I didn't do as good of a job as I thought. It is going to need another pass with the clay bar. I dropped one of the bars that I bought, so I only have one left and have to be careful with it. I want to remove the spoiler to get to the paint underneath. I have to be careful and plan it out as I don't want to leave the holes in the trunk lid open for any length of time.

Lighting Done

Now that I have spent about $60 on light bulbs, I think I have all of the interior lights working. It has not been an easy process to get them all found and changed out. Now that I know what bulbs I need and how to replace them, I can order them cheaper than buying locally.

Stage Zero Tune-Up

The case of Mobile ATF 3309 arrived today. I think the people at my apartment office think I am a little weird getting a case of oil shipped to me. My new IPD plug wires also came in today. I am waiting on my new vacuum tubes to arrive which should be on Thursday. I bought the new Denso spark plugs locally as they were cheaper than getting them from IPD. The new distributer cap and rotor got here last week. FCP Grodon gets orders out quickly. I filled up today and added a bottle of Red Line SI-1 to give the fuel injectors a cleaning. I hope to get everything installed and flushed this weekend. I will keep you updated on my progress.

Exterior Work Started

I have started on the exterior styling work that needs to be done. I replaced the headlight wiper blades more for looks than functionality. At this point they don't work and are not high on my list of fixes. She has had two baths now and it is about time to take some TLC to the paint. The first order of business will be to try and pop out some of the door dings and hail dings on the roof. I am going to try one of the DIY dent removers on them. I will only be out $20 or so if it does not work. After that the car is going to have a date with the clay bar. I need to find a good place to work on her. I don't have a garage and it needs to be out of the sun when I do it.

Engine Cleanup - Part 1

I spent some time on Sunday cleaning up the engine bay. In being careful to not spray the electronics I was not able to get a totally clean engine. I think some of the areas are going to take some work by hand to get it clean.

Wish List

Here is my wish list of upgrades that I want to make. They are not in any particular order.

Eurosport Tuning: Reverse Intercooler Piping Kit

GlowShift: Universal Triple Radio Gauge Panel

Prosport: Digital Boost Gauge

KW: Variant 2 Coil Over Kit

Cherry Turbos: Strut Brace

iPd: Anti-Sway Bars

More Lighting Issues

The problem with not test driving a car at night you don't know what bulbs are burnt out. When I took the car out last night to verify the turbo was now working correctly I noticed that the HVAC controls were not visible. I took the controls out and found that all three bulbs were burned out. Luckily these are standard sized bulbs. I then went to AutoZone and they had two packages, but someone had helped themselves to one of the bulbs. I then tried WalMart, but they didn't have the correct bulbs. I ended up at Advanced Auto Parts to get another set of bulbs. At this point I think I have all of the lights working.

Turbo is Fixed

I fixed the blown elbow, but I was still having idle problems and no turbo boost. I could hear the turbo trying to spin, but it wasn't making any boost. I was chasing the issue as electrical as the MAF sensor kept throwing error codes. I pulled the ECU apart to make sure it was not an issue in there with a broken wire. I got out the volt meter and found that using a different ground point everything tested fine. I got in the car and started it up. I was still having idle problems. I revved the engine and I could hear very loud air movement. I found that the intercooler pipe going into the throttle body was disconnected. Once I got it back on it was like I had a new car.

Light Bulbs

I had to get the new bulbs from the Volvo dealer. They are not a bulb that is available at your local parts store. They were $18 for four of them. Everything from the dealer is not cheap. Hopefully I can get the dash all back together tonight.

Odometer Is Fixed

I was able to get the odometer fixed and back in the dash last night. It is nice to know that the mileage is now correct. In the process 3 of the 4 dash back lighting bulbs burned out. I had to turn on the interior lights to see the dashboard during my test drive. I will be picking up some new bulbs today and getting them all replaced tonight or tomorrow.

Engine Cleanup

The previous owner didn't do much to keep the engine bay very clean. Since I have to replace the vacuum elbows I am going to replace all of the vacuum lines with silicone lines from Stylin'Motors. I decided to go with red lines as I think they will make my car faster than if I went with blue or yellow.

Hopefully this weekend I will be able to give the engine bay a good washing. That should go along way in making the engine look better.

Odometer Fix

I received the gear to fix my odometer from IPD yesterday. I watched the included DVD and proceeded to take my dash apart. I have to admit that I went the hard way in disconnecting the boost gauge. I was trying to pull it off of an elbow, when in the end the other side of the elbow pops right off the instrument cluster. I got everything apart and found that I indeed had a broken tooth on one of the gears in the odometer. I decided that I wanted to roll the odometer forward so that it matched the actual mileage of the car. I didn't realize that this act was going to be so tough. I tried rolling the numbers manually, but they wouldn't move. I then turned the gear directly attached to the odometer and that worked, but was very slow and not comfortable on my finger. I finally broke out the power screwdriver. I used the end to sit on one of the gears and spin it around. I was able to get about 3K rolled up last night. I still have over 7K left.

Turbo Issues

I bought the car knowing that there was an issue with the turbo. When test driving it I blew something that caused the car to loose power. When the lady I bought the car from drove it the next day a CEL came on. She dropped $300 off the price for this. I was able to find a destroyed vacuum line elbow going into the turbo. I have a new set of elbows and silicone vacuum line on order to get this fixed.

New Car New Blog

I just purchased a 1995 Volvo 850 Turbo. It has 117K miles on it, although the odometer is stuck at 106K. It needs some TLC, but it should be a solid performer.