Hello all I'm Dan. My day job is a Marine officer but I spend most of my time and money modifying automobiles. I take a great amount of pride in what I do, so consider me a die hard enthusiast. My wife and I are expecting our first child here in a few months and I had been looking for a perfect vehicle accommodate all the things that come with a new child. Initially I was looking for a E34 BMW wagon that I wanted to swap an M3 engine into but I quickly found out that there where very few on the market in good condition. After searching on Craigslist for wagons for a few weeks I stumbled on a 1998 Volvo T5 for sale for $800. I must admit that I knew nothing about this car but the price was attractive and the seller was local.
The visit: When I arrived at the sellers house we were greeted with one of the worst maintained cars I had ever seen. Keep in mind that I have had a hand in repairing some vehicles that have been in very poor condition but none that compared to this. First off the car didn't crank over due to a dead battery and we connected jumper cables the car would turn over but not start. After a bit of head scratching and careful listening I noticed that the fuel pump wasn't priming; after a quick check under the hood I noticed that the FUEL PUMP FUSE WAS MISSING!!!!!! Two minutes the car was running and bellowing white smoke everywhere. At this point I figured it had a blown head gasket but after about ten minutes of running the smoke color changed from solid white to a grey color with a blue tint. "Great I say, its only burning oil, maybe it will need new valve seals or something more labor intensive". The rest of the car was a wreck, trash was everywhere, the windshield was cracked and the front end had been in an accident. My wife gave me the "go ahead nod" and I gave the guy his asking price. When we talked on the way home she said it would be a good project to keep me busy and we never worked on a Volvo together before (My wife is very handy and has helped me do everything from paint cars to engine swaps).
Here are a few pics of what we found.
