Category Archives: DIY Interior & Sound

Hot Buns

I finally got around to pulling the driver side seat out and installing my junk-yard seat foam. Since the foam was from the passenger side of my donor car it’s pretty firm and is an improvement over the sagging, crushed old sponge.

My driver side heated seat hasn’t worked since I bought the car, even though the light illuminates. All of the electrical connections seemed OK so rather than trying my luck with the donor heating element I decided to just swap the thermostat. Once installed it took a couple of whacks of the center console to get the button to work but, sure enough, I started to notice a nice warm sensation in my nether regions.

While the seat was out I took a look at the lumbar support and noticed this little I-shaped rod had detached from its mechanism. I crimped it a bit, snapped it into place and now the lumbar support works. Overall the seat is more comfortable and looks better since I also grabbed a fitted seat cover from the junk-yard.

Now if I can just get the damn headrest out I can put the top of the seat cover on. Working by myself I could not get that damn head rest off, even with my hands up inside the seat pushing the levers. I wrestled with that thing for like 15 minutes but it wouldn’t budge. I can only imagine what I looked like, slumped over the seat, humping away in frustration. Maybe I need to hire an assistant.

Junk Yard Throne

seat-old

During Thanksgiving I had a chance to go to the local pick-n-pull near my parents house. There were three 200 series in there, as well as a turbo 940 and turbo 740, both turbos about 1994. There was a manual tranny in one of the 240s, but I don’t have the scratch to buy it. Instead I pulled the tan seat covers off of one, then took out the bottom passenger cushion. They charged me for the whole seat, but I didn’t need it. I’m gonna swap it into the driver side with a new set of springs. Above is my current seat, below is the “fresh” vinyl and slip cover.

seat-new

locate-ink-junkyeardfordBONUS: I drew a picture of a towering pile of cars and posted to my Flickr page.

Installing Front Door Speakers

volvo-240-speaker-installedWhen I first bought the brick I tossed the cardboard speakers and plugged in a cheap set of Kenwoods. They never fit quite right, as the holes in the speaker panel don’t align with the holes in the speaker. They were only able to attach to the door panel, as the screws didn’t match the holes in the sheet metal. I mounted them with only 2 screws each and had crappy sound out of the crappy deck.

When I got a new deck I went through the torturous process of rewiring all 4 speakers. I pulled the door panels out, sound-proofed with RAAMat and closed-cell foam and installed a wooden frame for the speaker.
Continue reading

Getting Power to the Dash, if not the Road

I pulled the instrument panel again and figured out the problem with the tach install. I had posted to the BrickBoard and a reader pointed out that I probably forgot to plug into the circuit board. He posted a picture and sure enough, that was the problem.

Now that I have a tach I can see this car doesn’t rev very high at all. The only time it went over 3k RPM was today driving 65mph up a long hill with overdrive switched off. I see now the B230F hits peak torque of 136 lb/ft at 2750 RPM. No wonder the red block engine last so long. There’s no pressure.

How I Failed to Install a Tachometer

dash tach

I figured I’d take my mind off the fact that I may not have a job in a few weeks and finally install the tach I pulled from a 244 in a VA junkyard this summer. While I love the big clock in the Volvo instrument panel, I’d also like to see what’s going on with the engine. Unfortunately I now have no clock, no tach, no odometer and no speedometer.

Continue reading

Sound Dampening the Doors

I started installing sound dampening last weekend and continued yesterday. After doing a bunch of research I decided to go with RAAM Audio’s RAAMmat BXT and Ensolite closed cell foam. It’s been pretty messy but it’s making a big improvement. I’ve done both passenger side doors so far and will be reinstalling the front passenger side speaker today and hope to see improvement is sound.