The most fun I ever had with a car was an old 63 PV544 I bought for 75
bucks. It was transportation for a short time, A buddy of mine who was into
hotrods thought it would make a great street rod. The body was in good shape
so we knocked out the dings ,removed the bumperand painted it "Impact red"
We also lowered it a bit and put mag wheels on it. I was dating a girl who
was a fairly good artist and she helped us paint flames on the hood. The
engine was pretty lame, after a couple months of haunting junkyards we found
a V-6 and 4 speed in a 74 Ford Capri (the german 2.3 V6)that would fit in
without much work. we finished off with a 450CFM Holley carb,side pipes and
cherry bombs. Only bad thing about that car was the drum brakes.The rears
were studebakers and easy to find. The front drums were impossible to find
and were thin. I figured out a way to get a 142(disk brake) frontend to fit
but lost interest in the car before I ever did the conversion.
We didn't win many stoplight drag races but it sure attracted attention
(ie: cops and girls) I later gave the car to my friend who chopped the roof
off and made it into an open roadster. I wish I still had that car!!
rick
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dennis Hale" <dhale_510@yahoo.com>
To: "Team.Net" <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, December 31, 2000 1:13 PM
Subject: Old Volvos
> I thrashed a couple of 544s in my youth. The only
> critical [can't limp home] failures I could induce
> were
> 1. The distributor cap will smash against the steering
> column if you try a 5000rpm sidestep start and the
> motor mount breaks.
> 2. The crankshaft will eventually break from the same
> activity after about a million tries. 8-) The cranks
> were readily available, as in the wrecking yard guy
> saying "you broke a what!!?"
> 3. The distributor and oil pump drive share a drive
> pin off the camshaft. Unfortunately the distributor
> can keep turning without the pump. Found this out
> about 40 miles from Winnemucca Nevada at 2 AM in
> chilly October. That exhaust manifold glowed cherry
> red and all the valves were tuliped before the head
> gasket blew and I was stopped.
> 4. The exhaust manifolds broke and boiled/ignited the
> rear carb rather often.
>
> The P1800s used the same running gear as the sedan
> [the late 544, and 122], a lot like the VW bug and KG.
> Double a-arms up front and "truck arm" located solid
> rear axle. The transmission shifter was a bit
> different, the sedan had the long milk truck lever and
> the P1800 the short now conventional looking one. The
> P1800s had totally different bodywork and was
> significantly heavier. The weirdest part was the
> speedometer, a vertical thing that looked rather like
> a cross between a model A speedo wheel and a
> thermometer. The sedan had a totally 50s conventional
> horizontal Buick type needle speedometer. Both cars
> would scorch your leg if you ran the heater on high.
> Swedish design thing I assume. My sedan also had a
> flag attached to an underdash pull chain to close off
> the radiator from the driver's seat. I do not recall
> the P1800 having this.
> Studebaker brakes and Ford clutches and wheels interchanged.
>
> =====
> Dennis Hale
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