Jump to content
Volvospeed Forums

The Chronicles Of Area 34, formerly 55


Johann

Recommended Posts

About "Area 55",

Roughly 9 years ago I bought a property on an industrial area. At the time there still was a company situated in the building next/behind the house. The company was selling kitchen's and the building was used as a showroom with a small workshop in the back. The rent contract ran out 6 months after the sale. After that some minor rebuild was done because of the mess left in the now kitchen less showroom. The workshop was left the way it was until mid 2001 when the inner roof/isolation came crashing down due to a leak..

Months before I aquired a broken autolift from a garage for 600 Guilder = 273 Euro's = 402 Dollar and soon after had the thing working again for about the same amount spend in parts.

After fixing the roof and removing a wall and ceiling in the building the autolift was installed.

Here's a picture just before the autolift was placed, August 2001,

area55-2.jpg

Behind the workshop there is a porch,

outside.jpg

(The 280ZX was brought to a wreck yard two weeks ago..)

This is where I work on my cars.

The cars are known I Assume.

First there was the white 850T5. I traded this car for a white S70T5. Both cars were former Police cars and both had roughly 164K miles on them when they were sold through public auction. I bought both cars from car dealers btw but the price was according the state they were in, in other words cheap.

3rd quarter 2006 I bought another Volvo, a 1992 850 GLT NA, for 300 Euro's. Car came with half an engine and all computers missing. This car was rebuild in about 6 months time to what it is today which I call SDM, project Mjölnir. Sadly I had some bad luck with the engine.

Then there's the next project.. Not a planned project..

Late last year during a Dutch "Volvo 850 forum" chat session we were discussing some rebuild issues. A members wanted to rebuild his very early 850 NA to original spec but with all the options available during that model year installed. For some parts he acquired a second 850 and wanted to swap those parts to his 850. Downside was the leftover.. An almost complete 850 GLT NA. Not knowing what to do with the car we were joking a bit and I said I had plenty of room on my property and from one thing came another...

A few week after I was the happy new owner of a '94 Volvo 850 GLT NA with a 5 speed manual transmission...

3.jpg

And all this for free... :lol:

The downside was that the car was running on LPG,

gas1.jpg

a thing I don't like so I removed the gas system from the car.

Another minor setback is the fact that the car has done 318K miles.. :o

The mileage shows.. Also the engine although running great shows it's age.

bay1.jpg

I have some fun plans with this car which I will report when all is set and done but it will be a slow moving project.

At first I will be using the original engine which probably won't live to long..

After that an engine swap is planned.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Always a pleasure to read your threads, Johann.

Do you have any closer/more detailed pictures of the machining that had to be done to fit the "wider" china rods?

Notch the bottom of the cyls

looking for a pic of mine..

i'll link to it, cause it's a big pic. I might have already sent this to you Joseph, i can't remember.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v186/BlackT5/DSC02103.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Where do you get the money for this stuff? You're so lucky!!!

As he said he gets alot of the stuff cheap or free, that helps. Plus he does most if not all the work himself, which also helps. These cars are not the pricey anymore so you don't need much more then a job to afford it.

What you really need more of is time and skill.

Good work Johann. Love your shop. I have been looking for a place like them of my own but have not found a good deal yet.

Edited by ProjectT-5R
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Always love you projects Johann, can't wait to see what's in store. :)

+1

Hopefully soon I'll have a shop like, except it won't be attached or near to my house...

btw, don't the projects get overwhelming at times...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...