The Pine Needle Car

The car has a strange origin story. My previous 240 had a blown motor and a date with the crusher. I pulled everything valuable off it — including a 3-inch exhaust I'd bought as part of a Turbobricks group buy (SAM in Sweden). My coworker's friend wanted the exhaust, so I sold it to him. A few years later, the same coworker mentioned his friend was looking to sell his 240. So I bought my original exhaust back with a whole-ass car attached to it. My buddy drove me to go pick it up and we found it parked underneath a pine tree, covered in needles.

The previous owner had rattlecanned it flat black. The doorjambs were the only indication that it had also started its life as a black car. When I decided to go back to school, I was filling out the form to get my parking pass. It asked for the color of the car. I wrote "Primer" and they allowed it.

It was my daily driver for about three years. The front end came from my 79 242DL and the hood got sprayed black to match. Its seats are from a Toyota Celica. I bought them from a Turbobricker who adapted them to mount to the stock Volvo seat brackets. It has IPD's turbo performance camshaft and swaybars, cut springs, 3-inch exhaust, manual boost controller, wideband oxygen sensor and at least 3 sets of wheels that live behind my backyard shed.

For the last six years, it has been sitting on the side of my house under another thick layer of doug fir needles. Déjà vu.

Why Now

My first job after graduation was as a design engineer at a company that makes sawmill equipment. After a couple years, I moved on to a tech company where most of my days are spent running thermal simulations and testing network cards in a benchtop windtunnel. I like the job, but I've really missed designing.

My dad was a Volvo mechanic for over thirty years. The one year anniversary of his death was approaching and I was thinking about him a lot. Memories of working on my car with my dad, coupled with an urge to make something, brought me out to the side of my house staring at this old, neglected car.

It had sat long enough. I decided that I was going to use it as an outlet to scratch my design itch and also as a way to keep my dad around. I bought a Bambu Lab H2S and got to modeling. I started Ånyo four weeks later.

The Plan

• K-jet → LH2.2 conversion: I bought the fuel system conversion wiring harness from Dave Barton's website (240Turbo.com). The final parts were picked up at this year's IPD garage sale. I'm hoping to start on this sooner than later.
• 100 amp alternator purchased and waiting to be installed.
• In-tank fuel pump has been replaced and the tank was drained. Whatever was in there was not gasoline anymore.
• Intercooler: It was stolen out of the car at my last house. I rigged up a hose from the compressor to the intake to get it to my new house. Replacement TBD.
• Model and print every piece of broken plastic that I can. So far, I have made parts to fix the heater vents and gauge bezels.

More to come. Thanks for looking.