Howdy all,I just purchased this 1985 245 DL on eBay, and despite what I thought was an extensive knowledge of the 240, I have so many questions about what this car was, is, and how it got that way.

No US market 240 in 1985--to my knowledge--came with this car's flat hood, matching grille and two-tone corner lamps. And while I can (and should) shoot some non-auction images (weather sucks here), EVERYTHING about this says either it left the factory this way or was revamped as a flat hood so exactly that every nut, bolt, sticker, etc. is perfectly placed and fitted (except the right hood hinge leaves a little fender-to-hood gap as you can see in pics--I'm about to fix that) that it seems cost-prohibitive.

When I searched its VIN on VINCheck.info something interesting popped up that wasn't on the AutoCheck report: It says "Made In: Sweden" AND "Made In City: Halifax". But while it may explain the lights, Canadian '85s don't have flat hoods, either. I can't go back any further than the apparent date of importation, 5/16/1988 when--with just 55,779 miles [yeah, should've mentioned it's got 'Murrican gauges not metric] on the clock. Curiouser--as the saying goes--is the fact that its first registration was 9/05/97, both of which happened in Goldsboro, NC.

I know flat hoods are prized by many--I'm not one of them--but even with this being the last year that you didn't have to swap bodywork and whatever else to perform the conversion, this still must have taken some doing. [Also, it has a Volvo-branded steering wheel I've never seen, headrest covers that aren't Volvo-branded and a center armrest (ditto).]

She's a beautiful time capsule despite her 300k-plus miles that I want to know as much as I can about. Was there a secret flat hood cult in Canada or North Carolina I don't know about? Was this conversion not the bear everyone says it would be? Did Volvo build special "Halifax Edition" flat hood '85s? So many questions!

Thanks in advance... AWD