It was the year 1979, and with it came the re-introduction of the GT to the Volvo line up, it came in the form of the lovely 242 GT. This was an interesting move for Volvo, this was around the era that the Volvo car corporation, having reached many milestones on the automotive safety front, seemed to be heading more towards the luxury car market, and all of a sudden the GT is back on the scene. This was the first two door Volvo to come to Australia since the 1800 series, it sported the B23E engine which put out 105kw, while most of the 242 GT's that came to Australian shores had the 'H' camshaft, mine actually came with the more racey 'K', lucky for me, this of course mine puts out approximately 500kws, well not quite, perhaps one day.

I remember the 242 GT coming home, many years ago, to be perfectly honest, this car wasn't for me, it was even bought before I could drive, Dad bought it for my brother, I'm not exactly sure what happened, I don't remember, maybe I don't want to remember, but somehow I weaseled my way into it, something vague about my brother going overseas for a while, I grabbed the car, had some work done on it, and the rest is history. It's been loved and looked after by me since. Well up until say 2000. See around this time I started buying 'newer' cars, and kind of neglected the beast, it started rusting and rotting, it was home to God only knows how many spiders, but if the amount of web on the car was anything to go by, you'd have to guess around 100. Sitting in the driveway, for years, getting worse and worse, it was always on the back of my mind, to fix her up, and one day I did.

Over the next few pages, we'll be watching the 242 come back to life, luckily a good friend, Cas, has put his hand up for the job, this works out well for me, as I don't have the money to spend on this car at a regular panel beaters, especially in the time frame they'd want to get it done in, ie. fast. No, instead, Cas will take the car, to his place, and lovingly restore her, well not quite a restore, it'll have huge modifications from the original. We're starting with the body, fixing the rust, cleaning it up, straightening panels, and a nice paint job. Then come the wheels, hopefully this time they won't get stolen, we'll move onto some light performance mods, then the interior, the probably back to performance, and I have a feeling back to performance. So stay tuned for the all the exciting action and watch her slowly, but surely come back to life. Better than ever!

Read the Volvo 242 GT write up in a Wheels car magazine from 1978! Page 1 2 3 4 5 6

Body Work - Getting the look right

The incredible amount of rust that keeps getting found around the car, behind the bumper, under the seats on the floor, when you take out windscreens, it's crazy, and it's all getting fixed. The car gets stripped totally, panels come off, some cutting, welding, sand blasting, a new roof here or there, a lick of paint, and we're done! Click on to see the progress and watch Cas and his band of backyard lebs work their magic restoring her to... well completely changing her.

Updated 25.10.2007 | Continue Reading »

Interior - Fixing up the inside

After the body work we'll need to focus on fixing up the interior, what this will entail is a rework of the dashboard to house a removal ipad mini, complete change of carpets and door linings, and some new seats I think. On top of that we'll be giving it a general spruce up fixing up the little cracks and tears here and there.

 

Updated 01.06.2008 | Continue Reading »

Audio Visual - Doof Doof

What to do here? Endless oppurtunity really, I think I'm going for an alpine headunit, one of the new ones with bluetooth, that'll save me from having to put in a hands free car kit, I've already got a couple of subs and an amp from Has, ready to go. I'd love to put in a couple of seven inch screens for the DVD, and maybe even an XBOX or PS3 in the boot, you know, pimp my ride style.

 

Updated 01.06.2008 | Continue Reading »

Performance - Vrroomm Vrooommm

First thing that happens here is the existing extractors get ripped out and a new set from Lambros goes on, I've already spoken with him, and apart from telling me the 242 GT is his favourite Volvo, he's also told me he'll be able to get some more power out of her. Perhaps we'll then look at boring it out, that'll be exciting... haha yes I made a funny. If not that we might explore some turbo work.

 

Updated 25.10.2007 | Continue Reading »

Rims - Shoes for cars!

A long time ago, one day in the morning, one of my brothers knocked on my bedroom door, he asked me whether I had lent my wheels to anyone. Thirty seconds later I was outside looking at my beloved 242 sitting on bricks, stripped of her 16" custom made siemens mags. Was a sad day, and perhaps, the start of the decline for the 242. However there's always a bright side, and that is of course a new set of shiny wheels!

 

Updated 31.08.2013 | Continue Reading »