About
A little about the car herself when she was made:
3.0L straight-6 B-30 engine
2 Zenith-Stromberg single barrel carburetors
4 speed manual transmission (M400)
145HP at 5500RPM
[more in-depth nerdy data here]
I’m 31 years old and I’ve never been one to work on cars. I’ve owned a handful, broken down and fixed a few, had one totalled on me, and lusted after many. In the last year or so I’ve been looking for an older car to bring back to life. I looked at Ford Galaxies, Falcons, a couple decrepit Karmann Ghias and Bugs… One day browsing the Richmond craigslist I happened upon a guy selling his 1971 Volvo 164 for a song. I was in the process of selling my ‘82 van for the same price coincidentally. It was a no-brainer. On a hot June afternoon my dad and I drove down to Richmond, loaded it on a car carrier, and drove it to storage near their house in the rolling foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
I found out more and more information about the 164’s and kind of got obsessed. This is the story of my work on it from car carrier to the street.
From the original Craigslist ad:
The 164 has a straight six, dual stromberg setup and was designed to compete with mercedes as an entry level luxury car with more power and styling than the boxier 140 series volvos of the day. This car is pre-’73 bumper regulations and has the much cleaner old style bumpers. It is a few inches longer than the 140’s to accomodate the six cyl. motor and always turns heads. This car has a 4 speed manual gearbox which is quite rare and very desireable. The synchros could use refreshing as she will sometimes pop out of third gear, but the box is small and manageable for rebuild if necessary.
The car was restored in 1992 by an old volvo expert at PEACO towing in Richmond. This place has since changed hands and I don’t think the folks there deal with volvos as a specialty anymore though they may have a few cars on hand as a parts resource. at the time the car was stripped to bare metal and painted, the motor was replaced, and the interior swapped out. The seats are red vinyl (from a period 144) and are servicable to excellent. The carpet (grey) has faded but is clean and not torn. the headliner is white and in good shape.
The body has rust spots at the base of each rear wheelarch where it meets the rocker panel. Otherwise it is in terrific shape. The floorpans are perfect and the sheetmetal elsewhere is with out bondo or BS. The rust/peeling paint in the photo is only superficial. The front valence on these cars is an alloy which requires a certain primer for proper paint adhesion. This was not used and therfore has peeled over the last 15 years. The car would look really sweet with new paint but is clean from a distance (a 20 footer, as the fella on the lot says)
