Managed to make some pretty good progress last week before heading out to Florida for a quick meeting....

I wanted a finished look all in and around the rear fenders, so I built some 1.25" tubing to take place of the 2x4's for a little extra support and welded those in. Also seam sealed all of the joints inside and out, was very impressed with the SEM seam sealer in tan too =).

Inner fenders got seam sealed, primed, painted and then undercoated.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pskvjubduo.jpg

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Just some close rattle can but it all got nice etching primer and most of it will be covered up still trying to pay attention to details for whoever is the next guy to work back there. To the untrained eye you would have no idea that its as modified as it actually is.

Got the exhaust hung after having a buddy weld it all out for me......its the second thing on the car that I have not done myself, he is however a far more experienced welder and it turned out amazing. Only hang up installing was the rear hanger moved and I didnt open the hole for the wideband sensor enough to fit so it had to come back out, get a couple things dialed in and then final install.

Pretty sure its going to hit on the axle tube but I can deal with that a little later.

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Got to work on the carpet for the car. I dont love the color, but I love the contrast it has with the seats and the dark brown so Ill run it for now and see if I grow more in love with it as time goes on. What a pain in the ass to install too.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psbvk2s4ga.jpg

Worked on salvaging the rear deck and some old seatbelt covers I snagged from the twins. Doesnt look terrible.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psn7oc1pzf.jpg

I finally got around to trying this out and it worked better than imagined. Think it will give me a nice finished look for the rear seat area. Plan is for the seats to get carved up more bucket like and have the same material and pattern as the front seats have on them, just no logos.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psh83wbkvz.jpg

Wheels are going to be my stumbling block though, CCW's are 10 weeks out plus shipping. Chatting with Fifteen52 to see if they can get me some quicker, I like both.

I also think I can come up with some work wheels in a reasonable timeframe.

Going to try and get a bunch of little stuff knocked out this week, its almost ready for a test drive and some tuning.

Sean

I picked up a reasonably nice dash Friday night and got to work on Saturday, disassembling the dash vents, vin, speaker grille.

I have used this process in the past with excellent results. Wash first with purple power, scrub with a red scotch brite pad and purple power, dry part and heat it up, heat up the can and spray several very light coats. It keeps the part from getting glossy and keeps the texture in the plastic part.

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And here is where I started on Saturday morning.

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Once I got the dash in I got to work on getting that bad ass cluster all built and put together. For those that have not seen it, this thing is seriously a work of art.

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Getting there, First look of the dash bolted in.

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By the end of the day I had a fully installed dash and console. There is a lot of little detail work to make highly modified look simple and tasteful.

This is the inside of the glovebox,

Pic is hard to tell but the OBDII port is mounted on the exterior of the box and just pokes through, the connector is for OBDII can bus interface for the race pak setup. The white wire is for data logging the AFR's. Behind that is a flush mounted USB port for programming the Race Pak dash configuration.

MIL Light is flush mounted in the top corner of the glovebox opening.

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All assembled and functioning.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...pstkh2lytk.jpg

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I also spent a bunch of time fighting with the stupid TCM controller. Long story short, the e38 ecu and OS I am running doesnt like having the VSS input straight into it, so we are having to run a TCM controller, send the VSS into the TCM controller and from there over can bus into the ECU but when I hook it up it corrupts the Can Bus so working with Jolt to see if he has a different solution.

If all goes well this thing should be ready for some tuning in the next few weeks.

Sean

Looking great!! That dash is SICK!!

Cool build, Sean! Even with the wheels, tires and lowered stance, this should be quite the sleeper! Excellent execution.

Thanks my friend!!

Yeah should be nicely understated. Thanks for the props.

Kind of a **** show of a week, sometimes you win sometimes you loose. Bought a new steering wheel and the dish that I thought would work great is just not enough and the wheel is too close to the turn signal and windshield wiper lever.

Managed to work on the can bus issue and pretty sure I made it worse.

I did manage to get the rear seat and door cards picked up from the upholstery guy. Have a little spot on the top of the seat back that needs redone but can do that down the road. Other than that turned out great. Pretty much what I had in my little pee brain.

Pretty sure nobody needs this many pics of a volvo rear seat but I am excited about how its turning out.

Not sure about the black handle yet, but all brown seemed to be a little bit too much.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...ps7u6sgphl.jpg

Isnt this how you are supposed to put a seat in?

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And the whole thing together.

http://i1133.photobucket.com/albums/...psmvtmrrlx.jpg

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Just incredible... so killer. :bigun2:

I love that you went thru all the effort and expense to put a rear seat back onto the car that is 100% impossible for anyone to ever sit in. :D

Makes my sheet metal and carpet rear seat delete kit seem ametuerish. ;)

Looks great. When is first test drive around the block?

The black arm rest contrasts just fine against that brown. And, possibly allows swapping to black carpet in the future as well.... (I get the lighter color attempt but feel the black would be better + tie other things in as well).

Black Carpet
 

Now you just need black carpet! The rear speaker shelf looks much better in black... love everything but the yellow carpet.

Thanks dude, appreciate the support.

Yeah, its a ton of work but it made for a complete interior, something I really wanted. Should net me some good D&E points =)

I am not too far away from test drive to be honest. I need to get the clutch and brakes all bled then a few more hoses and I could spin around the block......after we get it to actually run. Still needs lots of tuning.

Its funny, I hated the carpet when I first put it in too. but my fear is that all of the detail work I have been working so hard on will just be meh with black carpet. Time will tell, for now though its staying.

Thanks for the compliments. Its personal preference at this point. I didnt like the rear shelf in the lighter color either, but now that its black I dont like it black. I am thinking of building a new one out of sheetmetal and having my upholstery guy stitch a pattern on it and doing it to match the seats. I think that would be the most finished look.

My goal is a european inspired look to the car, not a typical camaro or mustang interior. Some of the best looking Porsche and Ferrari interiors have a contrasting color combo, maybe I am out on a limb here but it might just come together nicely a few more bits and we will know.

:thumbsup:

Sean