Ferrari Mailing List: Re: A little OT - car projects

[Rick Moseley (ramosel]

Hmmm...

Back in the early 2000s there was a running gag within the Northern California "car guy" sect that the official car of San Francisco was the Boxster.  There was a time when I swear you could have walked from one end of the financial district to the other on the bonnets of Boxsters.

I live near and spend some time occasionally in Davis, CA. (Home of UC Davis).  It is known as the Bicycle capitol of the world...  It should be renamed Liberalville (spell that with a capital Socialist!).  At one time the same could have been said about crossing Davis on the roof tops of Volvos with an occasional Saab thrown in.   Today, you could absolutely cross town without ever touching the ground or stepping on anything other than a Prius or a Leaf.  But be careful if you are walking, some college kid on a bike will probably run you over.

Perhaps its regional, but I never perceived Volvos or Volvo owners as straightlaced... most of them were "ivory tower" stoners.  While I never found Volvos terribly exciting I've always viewed them as very durable automobiles.  Most that I personally was around had huge miles on them and owners who barely washed them... heaven forbid do any maintenance.  I know one that went over 10 years without even an oil change.... she was told by the previous owner the car used no oil...  take it from there.

Davis has a park in the center of town where they have a great farmer's market on Saturday mornings (I'll refrain from the organic, gluten free, fair trade rhetoric).  I happened to be there a few months ago on a Sunday when a regional Volvo Club was having a car show.  Yep, there were some oldies restored withing an inch of their lives and some wonderful old 40s and 50s survivors.   But for me the surprise were some of the later Turbo sedans and wagons.   Many had been tweeked and tuned into serious road weapons... I don't remember what model it was that had "THE" desired engine but there were about 6 of them there and the guys were going nuts over them.  There was also a very sweet twin turbo LS swap... some serious fabrication there.  For me the hit of the show was this strange 4 wheel drive box that had a military look to it... probably 70s???  Kind of a Unimog or Pinzgauer vibe to it.  Anybody have a clue what that is based on my lame description?

So my opinions of Volvos has definitely elevated since then.   Now if I can just get my friends that own them to buy a pair of closed toed shoes...

Rick

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From: Fellippe Galletta <fellippe.galletta [at] gmail.com>
To: Rick Moseley <ramosel [at] pacbell.net>
Cc: The FerrariList <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
Sent: Thursday, December 4, 2014 6:15 AM
Subject: Re: [Ferrari] A little OT - car projects

Volvos still have the straitlaced, boring stereotype.......even the new ones I'm sure. 

It reminds me that there are very few truly invisible cars in the world today, which is sometimes nice in the world we live in full of idiots.

Your Volvos and Saabs have that boring/eccentric stereotype......corvettes, mustangs, their own.....bmw/audi/benz their own.....exotics have good and bad.....

People are idiots.....shouldn't let them affect you, but it does.

On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 7:44 PM, Rick Moseley <ramosel [at] pacbell.net> wrote:

I don't know what stereotype you feel you are being cast into, but everyone...  Every one of my friends who owns a Volvo(5) wears Birkenstocks (every day), is balding but has a ponytail and works in academia... No shit.  All good guys but it's like they're part of some club or something?!?!???

Rick

On Dec 4, 2014, at 5:08 AM, Fellippe Galletta <fellippe.galletta [at] gmail.com> wrote:

I'll always pay attention.....family had a 740 wagon growing up and I had an 850 for a little while.

I do find the bulletrproofness of an old 240 (or 300D diesel benz) intriguing....

It's a shame we live in a society that judges people too much for the cars we drive -- the Ferrari list has known me as a real car guy, but own a Volvo and the outside world will stereotype the shit out of you in a not so cool way. True story.

FG

On Thu, Dec 4, 2014 at 1:49 AM, Matt Boyd <ferrari308driver [at] gmail.com> wrote:

+1, this happened just last year in my 91 Volvo 940 Turbo.....keeping it just because my son is about to get his license and might as well keep one 'disposable' car. Bought it in 95 with 17k miles, now sitting mostly unused at 247k miles and still going strong. That said, build quality on interior components on that vintage Volvo pretty much suck, at least for long-term ownership like we've had. But mechanically it is pretty rock solid.

 

Not that anyone cares about my 91 Volvo. :)

 

-matt

On Wed, Dec 3, 2014 at 2:46 PM, Rick Lindsay <richardolindsay [at] gmail.com> wrote:

Good call. I had a failed hydraulic hose on my Triumph TR3b's clutch slave cylinder. The lining stripped away forming sort of a one-way valve. Fluid under pedal pressure went through. Not enough reverse pressure to overcome the blockage. Thanks for the reminder.

-rick

-------- Original message --------

From: Doug & Terri

Date:12/03/2014 9:15 AM (GMT-06:00)

To: 'Rick Lindsay'

Cc: 'The FerrariList'

Subject: RE: [Ferrari] A little OT - car projects

-rick notes “I suspect a stuck left front caliper cylinder but we'll see.”



Hmmmm – I found a similar problem.  Turned out to be the rubber flex hose from chassis to caliper.  Like Little Lord Fauntleroy – good on the outside, rotten on the inside.  It had swollen and broken up to the extent that it wouldn’t let the caliper’s normal operating methods retract the caliper piston.  The little square distorted piston rubber bands were not strong enough to overcome the pressure needed to return the pistons.  Ergo – not only one side drag a bit but it had a ‘head start’ when brakes were applied.



I hate cars – a lesson learned way to late in the game - - I am committed to my own repairs with known results for the first try - - ever since I ‘fixed’ my Schwinn’s coaster brakes lo those many years ago.



Onward



DOUG

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