benson0021
New member
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2014
- Location
- Bay Area, CA, USA
Follow this build on Instagram: @rallybenson
So, I picked up a new 240 a couple weeks ago. It's a 1979 242GT that lived in San Diego its whole life (meaning there's no rust ).
It made the entire drive home without a hiccup. The drive did leave me wanting more... a lot more. The car handled like crap. It felt like the shocks were diagonally mismatched, and it was disturbingly floaty over bumps.
Damn does it look good though:
Anyway, I drove to work a couple days, and made a mental log of all of the problems I wanted to address. I then proceeded to put it up on jack stands in my garage and started to go to town on it.
The first thing I did was removed the crappy Volvo 240 seats. I don't care what anyone says, but I find the Volvo 240 seats to be very uncomfortable. They're too squishy and unsupportive.
The previous owner got covers made for a set of Supra seats that match the interior of the GT. He was nice enough to include them with the car. I welded up some brackets that adapted the Supra seats to the Volvo rails. Now I have firm, supportive seats with bolsters!
Next, I got rid of the commando bumpers and the GT air dam. I know the air dam is unique, but I prefer the regular 240 air dam. I scored a big one when I went to the local junkyard and there was a silver 1984 240 with both 'slim' bumpers and the air dam (that matched my car's color)!
Popped those bumpers on and painted my grille and light bezels black.
(I fixed the rubber trim after I took this photo)
As all of this was happening, I was slowly taking the suspension apart and cutting things up and making a general mess of things...
Taking measurements...
And cutting things up
And then, one day, a bunch of new parts showed up.
I took care of my trans mount and propshaft bearing and support first because those scared me the most from a 'it's making scary noises when I accelerate' standpoint. I initially though the banging from the tunnel on a spirited start was from propshaft slap, but I later concluded that it was from the trans mount being mushy and the transmission was banging into the tunnel...
So I replaced all that stuff.
Then I cut the bump stops in the rear down a notch (before and after)
Finished procrastinating, I made the strut housings shorter
Basically, I chopped 1.5 inch out of the length of the strut housing. Why? I dunno... Maybe you'll find out later. I kept them straight by fixturing them up like so when I welded:
and voila! 2 shortened struts:
Then I turned some stuff.
And then these showed up. 2 weeks earlier than expected!!!
They're a little shorter than the old bilsteins that were in there...
And then yesterday, mysteriously, a LS6 and a T56 out of a CTS-V found their way into the bed of my truck...
My Plan is simple:
LS6, T56, IRS.
So, I picked up a new 240 a couple weeks ago. It's a 1979 242GT that lived in San Diego its whole life (meaning there's no rust ).
It made the entire drive home without a hiccup. The drive did leave me wanting more... a lot more. The car handled like crap. It felt like the shocks were diagonally mismatched, and it was disturbingly floaty over bumps.
Damn does it look good though:
Anyway, I drove to work a couple days, and made a mental log of all of the problems I wanted to address. I then proceeded to put it up on jack stands in my garage and started to go to town on it.
The first thing I did was removed the crappy Volvo 240 seats. I don't care what anyone says, but I find the Volvo 240 seats to be very uncomfortable. They're too squishy and unsupportive.
The previous owner got covers made for a set of Supra seats that match the interior of the GT. He was nice enough to include them with the car. I welded up some brackets that adapted the Supra seats to the Volvo rails. Now I have firm, supportive seats with bolsters!
Next, I got rid of the commando bumpers and the GT air dam. I know the air dam is unique, but I prefer the regular 240 air dam. I scored a big one when I went to the local junkyard and there was a silver 1984 240 with both 'slim' bumpers and the air dam (that matched my car's color)!
Popped those bumpers on and painted my grille and light bezels black.
As all of this was happening, I was slowly taking the suspension apart and cutting things up and making a general mess of things...
Taking measurements...
And cutting things up
And then, one day, a bunch of new parts showed up.
I took care of my trans mount and propshaft bearing and support first because those scared me the most from a 'it's making scary noises when I accelerate' standpoint. I initially though the banging from the tunnel on a spirited start was from propshaft slap, but I later concluded that it was from the trans mount being mushy and the transmission was banging into the tunnel...
So I replaced all that stuff.
Then I cut the bump stops in the rear down a notch (before and after)
Finished procrastinating, I made the strut housings shorter
Basically, I chopped 1.5 inch out of the length of the strut housing. Why? I dunno... Maybe you'll find out later. I kept them straight by fixturing them up like so when I welded:
and voila! 2 shortened struts:
Then I turned some stuff.
And then these showed up. 2 weeks earlier than expected!!!
They're a little shorter than the old bilsteins that were in there...
And then yesterday, mysteriously, a LS6 and a T56 out of a CTS-V found their way into the bed of my truck...
My Plan is simple:
LS6, T56, IRS.
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