PROJECT VOLVO

Right, I've done my homework. I have found an exploded view diagram of the late amazon steering column and I have figured out the steering lock removal. The bolts do have to be drilled out, but I felt that doing this in the car with a cordless was a risk I couldn't afford to take as damaging the threads in the lower half of the ignition block would be disastrous. (As I mentioned in the previous post , replacement units are simply not available). I read on a forum (non Volvo) that one method was to slacken off the bolts by working them round with a punch. I considered this for a while and after weighing up all my options I finally summoned up the courage to give it a go... It worked! I managed to turn the bolts enough to loosen the lock and slide it off the column. I then moved over to the bench drill and carefully drilled into the centre of each of the two security bolts. Finally, I used a reverse screw extracted to draw out the bolts.    Flushed with success, I then tackled t...

Having completed the repairs to the bulkhead and upper cowl (see previous post) , the next task was to sort the lower cowl area and the damage to the A pillar. I managed to find a couple of hours to start on this one afternoon just before Christmas.  I began by drilling out the spot welds to separate the panels (once again this repair is complicated by the fact that multiple sections meet in this area), I then cut off the rotten end from the inner door pillar, where it overlaps the cowl panel. Inspecting from inside the footwell, I could see that some of the welds to the pillar's box section had 'blown' and therefore needed be cut away. With these areas cleaned and prepped, I ran out of time and so had to finish for the day. A month past before I was able to resume as the weather turned distinctly cold and wet. With no heating in my garage,  I was not inclined to do much in January, and of course there was also the small matter of work to deal with.  Now in early February...