Finally! The wheels are painted and back on the car. I hate to boast, but you have to admit they look prrreeeeeeeettttyyy nice.



Well, here is an updated interior shot; the road-sign-turned-steering-wheel-center is looking decent, and the dashboard is about as fixed up as it can be without a bunch of new parts. Still need to work on getting the seats redone (or install others); and eventually, redo the carpet, door panels and rear seat. But for now I am satisfied. (Most likely suspension and engine work will come before interior, not to mention paint!)

I couldn't get air filters for this car by normal means, and the only ones I did eventually find cost $70! Building assemblies to accomodate washable K & N style filters seemed like a much better plan, soooo...

The necessary pieces:



The remains of the old units after being cannibalized for mounting plates:



A splash of red paint:



The finished product. Not quite as gnarly-looking as I has hoped, but they will do just fine.

More fun stuff with Faye Valentine today; a piece of aluminum road sign makes a great replacement for the missing center on the steering wheel, (alas, no one makes an adapter for the Volvo 140 steering column except MOMO, whose steering wheels go for $200-$500 dollars). Poop. Well, I have made up my mind that this wheel can be cool too, so it's getting some hand-brushed aluminum bling. I'll put up a better picture of the finished job when it's done gluing.



When I got the car someone had broken off the headlight knob, flush with the dash. I could still get my fingernails in there enough to pull it on, but it was annoying to say the least. So I spent some time thinking about the problem and poking around among the random spare parts in the shop when I was hit with a great idea: Volvos run for time eternal, right? And odometers attempt to log this progress toward infinity, ya? Well, it just so happened that my dear old VW Rabbit had one last favor to give: I disassembled her broken speedometer that was still in a box in the back room of the Tack House, extracted one of the one mile wheels (black) and the one-tenth-of-a-mile wheel (white), drilled them out a bit, very carefully drilled a hole straight into the broken-off stem of the headlight switch and put it all together with a long screw. Clever, no?



The first coat of red paint on the wheels. They will get another coat on Thursday or Friday. Then the hub caps go back on so that all you see is a nice little stripe of red between the aluminum cover and the tire.





The air filters are in a bad way...

Scraping off old nasty window tint with a razor blade is not really one of my choice pastimes, but it had to be done. An hour or so later I had clean windows that were all the same color!



The interior is looking markedly better, but I would love to find a steering wheel adapter for something a little more racy (if you know what I mean, and I think you do...)



The car came without rubber pads on the padals, and no gas pedal at all. I found these on clearance at AutoZone, and normally I think they look cheesy, but they look alright in this car---it goes with the vintage Euro-racer look. AND, by an interesting glitch in the system, I got them for only 1 cent. (No joke!)



Amazing, the transformation some soap and water can bring about...





If you want a nice-looking older car, it is all about the details...I am sanding and painting this oil cap which happens to be one of the more prominent things under the hood.

I love the way this car looks without bumpers. I took off the front mud flaps as well, (they were hitting the ground every time I went over a bump), and have been doing tons of little things to the interior and engine the last few days. There seems to be an endless supply of odds and ends that can be improved, but that is one of the reasons I love this car!. A new crankcase breather is a lot better than the old busted PCV valve which was sucking oil into the carbs, and the old vacuum hoses were full of holes. All better now; one of the next absolute necessities though, are front seats, the current ones just won't do at all...

I scored this vintage tachometer for Faye Valentine today at the local auto parts store. I saw it on the back wall, and they said it had been there, unsold, for over 20 years. $35 bucks, and perfect old-school styling. Beautiful.

The naughty girl herself...



MY Faye Valentine---slightly less naughty, but no less sexy...Last night I removed the bumpers and side-markers to clean up her appearance a bit. I haven't even had a chance to clean and wash the car, but she's already starting to look the way I wanted. Right now it's something of a challenge to see how much I can do to the car for the least amount of money.



These mud flaps are just too nerdy-cool to get rid of---at least for now...



The beautiful interior...

The day Charles bought his first 140. (Our wagon was very dirty that day).



Kyle's 142.



That which became the Nimbus 2000.



New alternator.



Finished. (We all know that old cars are never really 'finished'...)

I miss Oregon.

And Charlie.

As you can see, we both love 140s...

All it took was one look. Obviously, since I drove all the way to San Francisco for this car, I had to follow through and buy it, but I didn't expect to fall for her quite so hard. A 1968 Volvo 142S, shabby, dirty, and very, very sexy, with a smooth running engine and manual trans. I had to install a new clutch cable to get her rolling under her own power, she leaks water and oil, her steering is extremely loose, and two of the brake calipers seem to be stuck (hence, only two functioning brakes); but I am ecstatic. Driving her is a kind of beater-car thrill I haven't really experienced since high school. Every clunk and thud she utters over bumps or around corners, the smell of oily exhaust and the tired-engine growl in the rusty tailpipe reminds me of those wild days in Washington with loose fenders, broken stereos and muddy fields. This is a wonderful thing.

Her name is FAYE VALENTINE