Story of this Car
Pictures of My Restoration
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The History of My 1800, #13797
I found this Volvo 1800S in Chicago Heights, IL on Halloween weekend, 2001. It was purchased by the previous owner as a restoration project in 1979. Prior to this car, he had rebuilt several Volvo 140s, but this was his first 1800. He started by rebuilding the engine, then removed the interior, stripped the body and repaired the rust. After reinstalling the engine, he repainted the car. He never finished reinstalling the trim or interior, never drove the car apart from the lot at the paint shop, and stored the car away for 20 years. After he passed away, I bought the car from his son. It was missing the passenger seat, and some miscelleneous bits, but had several extra sets of bumpers and such.
The original chassis number is 13797, which means it was the 13797th 1800 produced (they started making them in 1962). According to the other letter codes, the original color was light blue, but by 1979, it was already an orangish red, and was then repainted cherry red.
Unfortunately the 20 years of storage took its toll. First, it was left with gas in the tank, causing rust and leaving a nasty turpintine substance remaining. I have thus cleaned, derusted, and resealed the tank. Worse, there was sufficient moisture below the car to rust out the subframe components of the unibody construction. While the body and floorboards are fairly solid, the unibody is structurally unsound. The project has been held up waiting for my mechanic to replace the entire bottom of the car.
My original plan was to replace the engine with a Mustang 5.0 liter V8 and drivetrain. However, I didn't have the heart to toss out a newly rebuilt engine, much less the world-record holder for high-milage!
Now I am planning to make it an outstanding driver, with period American hot-rod wheels, Recaro Porsche 911 leather seats from the 1970s, the much cooler early 1800 egg-crate grill and cow-horn bumpers, and a superb audio system.
The Volvo 1800
The Volvo 1800 is best known as the car driven by Roger Moore in the 1960s British TV series "The Saint." The body is an Italian design, and it featured the first 4-main-bearing engine, which holds the Guiness Book's World Record for the car with the most miles (over 3,000,000!).