Goldmember the boozer wagon or how I fell in love with the 1$ Swedish safety tank

[Rcshaggy169]

Well hello! I see you like that odd ball 960 Volvo that gets no real love. Me too Beavis...me too.

So allow me to introduce my daily driver/new project.
A good friend of mine asked if I could get a car back on the road for her. She had the intention of using it to travel across country and go kayaking, hiking, kayaking, and generally bounce around doing nature hippie stuff.
I did all the basics, changing fluids, Filters, belts, hoses, and a new battery. I thought all four tires are flat, but it turned out it was just sinking into the ground, so after getting it started and some gentle pushing I was able to drive it around her property.
Reality set in when I was talking to her about her plans and 4wd and ride height came into play.
so I was offered the car for what she purchased it for.
1$
sold!
Once I chanced fate and drove it home on dry rotted tires and 8 year old fuel, the fun started!
New tires, a purge of the old fuel, removal of mice and wasp nests and a good wash, it gained daily driver status.
the current list of needs:
full exhaust (I’m building it myself, you’ll enjoy this)
misc trim and weather stripping
the seats are pretty much trash
more cleaning
struts (coilovers will be used)
the sunroof (a common issue)
more cleaning (yes, stated twice)
Stereo
all lights to LED
Im sure there’s more...lord knows I’ll find more.
follow along and see my insanity!

[IPD-PaulK]

What a beauty! I really want a 960 someday, I've gotta get familiar with that 6 cylinder since it's a special beast. I'm looking forward to see the progress you make!

[molarface]

You're gonna need a bigger bucket

[tardcart]

when you get tired of it keep the limited slip axel. The engines are horrible. a lot of fan noise poor economy and no power. My sister bought one new and I asked her years later why she didn't get the 850t. she said it was 17,000 more if you can believe that! that's a lot back then. Even the 940t is a much nicer car to drive. they share the doors, nose and seats and some dash items with the 960 as well as the rear axel when solid as on the early wagon. Im in NJ and have pretty nice gold seats, what state are you in?

[Rcshaggy169]

when you get tired of it keep the limited slip axel. The engines are horrible. a lot of fan noise poor economy and no power. My sister bought one new and I asked her years later why she didn't get the 850t. she said it was 17,000 more if you can believe that! that's a lot back then. Even the 940t is a much nicer car to drive. they share the doors, nose and seats and some dash items with the 960 as well as the rear axel when solid as on the early wagon. Im in NJ and have pretty nice gold seats, what state are you in?

I gotta say, this one doesn’t have those issues. The fan is actually so quiet I thought it wasn’t working. Power wise it’s not terrible...but there wasn’t much in the early 90s that was setting the streets on fire, and fuel economy hasn’t been terrible (25-27 mpg) but I pretty much do highway driving.
The transmission is my only complaint so far, but this may get a drivetrain swap later so I’m not overly concerned.
im in Fredericksburg Virginia, but the interior is the grey/ black.
ive got an idea about that....

[Rcshaggy169]

So one thing I need for my drives is proper tunes. The tape deck and cd changer wasn’t gonna cut it. Especially since the code to unlock it was lost many years before I came into possession of this guy.
along the way I decided to remove the 30 pounds of wiring for a 90s era car phone.
Unfortunately I didn’t get a pic of how the power was connected....bare wire wrapped around the leg of 2 fuses in the fuse block....
now to make a harness and replace those speakers

[tardcart]

I often wondered what all that stuff was.

[Rcshaggy169]

Ok nothing much to report right now...other than the frustration of trying to clear the CEL with that radio shack 80’s era lightbrite bs under the hood....
pic dump of parts that I’ve picked up.
taillights are on it already.
enjoy the straight through goodness of that glorious dynomax muffler!!