It's been a while since I have been around. I have been happily driving my '96 850R for about a year now, and am hooked. I'm slowly converting my entire family to Volvos. As an car enthusiast, mechanical engineer, and someone who does all my own work on my cars I really do think they are a great feat of design.

I love my R wagon, with a few exceptions:
1. It's black. I hate black cars.
2. Always has seemed under powered. It has run great, but I always thought it should do better.
3. Some body damage which I have not had time or money to address.



Anyways, I have been watching Craigslist daily for an R, and have passed up on many others that were not a super great deal. Saw this one pop up for less then Blue Book. I talked them down to $2400 out the door, that includes taxes and fees.

Clean CarFAX which notes a minor accident, Airbags didn't deploy. Couldn't find any sign of frame damage. Two owners before me, first had it 17 years.

Right off the bat I am making a list of things it needs.

1. Cut, buffed and waxed. Badly.
2. Fine detailing
3. Odometer gear
4. Dye bumpers and trim
5. New stereo
6. Key fob
7. Trunk key
8. Heater core
9. Move over Volan Wheels.

To address a couple of things listed... Cut and buff / detailing should be straight forward. I do it for every car I own. I didn't start tonight because I wanted to get come before and after pictures.

I have done the Odometer gear before. No big deal there. This time I will not start the car unless the airbag is reconnected.

New stereo. I'm getting the impression that the stock stereos in these were not the best. The stock desk is just loud buzzing. A nice should do the trick just fine.

I have dyed the bumpers before on my 850 Wagon with Showroom New. Stuff is magic.

Key fob.... the car didn't come with one. I assume it is capable of using one. Up for suggestions in this arena. Not too keen on paying a ton of money to have a dealership do it for me. Can these be purchased and programmed al le carte?

Heater core. First drive home tonight, the temp gauge was in the middle, but very little heat coming out. I did have a bit of heat on the L vent, but not much coming out of the center. Also smelled the slightest hint of the sweet smell. I think I better just replace it.

Volan wheels. Unfortunately, this car didn't come with them. It did, however, come with one Volan in the back for the spare! I can't believe someone took them off and forgot the spare. Anyways, the Black Wagon is going to get the ugly stamped wheels, which actually have decent tires on them.

That seem to be it for now. Stay tuned for more.




edit*Mods, can you please edit the title for me to say 850R at the end?

 

Well, I'm feeling super good about this. Spend some time today with a 6" orbital buffer (Porter Cable, $119 on Amazon. Worth every penny) and McGuire's Ultimate Compound. Wow I love this stuff. Gotta say I am SUPER impressed. I used the cutting compound and then followed up with Zymbols wax by hand.

Here are some more pics, as promised.

Before:







During:





After:





Super happy. I will do a bit more work but thats all I have in me for now. I can only wax for so long.

 

Nice.

Don't you dare touch those wheels on that wagon. Not sure how you can imagine doing that. LOL

I think the premium stereo in the R cars has an awesome sound. I actually pulled a newer Pioneer out of my car and installed a SC-816 in my '95 T-5R.

Deal with the heater core ASAP. Some company sells them on eBay now for $39 shipped. To cheap and easy to risk Russian roulette.

Glad that paint popped for you. Great color.

The remote can be had on eBay and self programmed. You need to find the box to check the FCC code and get a remote to match it. The '96 cars had 2 systems.

 

Almost forgot about your power issue (down side of putting multiple issues in one thread). You likely have a boosting issue. Your stock boost gauge should go 3/4th of the way across the white area. If it is not reaching there, you have an issue(s) that need to be repaired.

 

As for the radio- Bluetooth is a must for me, as well as USB music / iPod control. I have used the stock R stereo for the last year in my black wagon, and have not been super impressed with it. The AM works great, but FM has always been spotty. CD's don't always eject, and the tape deck doesn't work.

I think the amp is faulty in the new red sedan. When you turn on the radio you get loud buzzing. I swapped out head units with the one from my black wagon, and it behaved just the same. Loud buzzing.

I have been researching this, and now have a pretty good idea on how the amp is wired. Basically Volvo made these cars so they could either have the amp or go without, but no other wiring needs to be changed. There are two connectors that connect the stereo to the cars wiring harness. One has power, antenna control, ground, and the front two tweeters. The other connector has 8 wires, two for each speaker.

If you are not using an amp, then these two harnesses plug directly into the back of your deck. However, if you are using an amp, these connectors plug into a pigtail that comes from the amp, and two connectors that look like the ones from the car go from the amp to the head unit. So basically, you can plug the car harness directly to the head unit, or the amp can go between the head unit and cars harness, and no splicing needs to be done. Very brilliant by Volvo IMHO.

Here is the problem: With the help of a special adapter made for Volvo's, the Pioneer deck works in my black wagon, but NOT in the red sedan. The unit powers up, I can access settings, browse stations, see the musing on my USB drive, just no sound. If I turn off the key to the car and turn it back on my settings are all saved.

Here is what is interesting. If I only hook up the connector that has the power, ground, and tweeters the tweeters work, and I hear music. If I connect the other connector which has all my speaker outputs, then there is nothing. Using a signal injector, I can put a tone to all 4 speakers. Using a test meter, I can see that the stereo it making output when it is disconnected. Just not when it is hooked up to the speakers, then it goes dark.

Like I said- works right out of the box in the black wagon which is same year, make, and model. The only difference is that car is a black wagon and this car is a red sedan.

Any thoughts on this?

 

Someone likely hacked up the red car's harness.

 

Ok, I found the source of the problem on the stereo issue. As it turns out, one of the speakers (or possibly the speaker wire) is bad. Unfortunately the one that was bad was the one I hooked up first, so I had a 25% of missing it. Anyways, I am only running on 3 speakers right now (plus tweeters) but it sounds great.

I am not running the amp at this point. It sounds good enough I will probably just remove the bad one and not replace. Or I can throw the HU back into my wagon with the good amp and see if it sounds any better.

 

This car is polishing up nicely. I took it to the detailers today for an interior detail. $99 out the door got me looking SO much better. Also....against strict warning from Robert I did indeed swap out the Volans. I felt quite guilty, almost like I was sticking it to an old friend. My faithful wagon looks very sad indeed now.

However, the Red Rocket is looking really good now. My heart will move on.



Going in for a full tint tomorrow.

 

It does look good. Please do NOT post pics of the wagon. Lol

After the tint, hit her with some Showroom New or Forever Black exterior trim dye and she will look like the million bucks she is worth.

 

Well Robert you might be pleased to hear that the Wagon got a lot of very good love today.

She got a new heater core, a thorough cleaning, cut, buffed, polished, and waxed.

Thanks Robert for your heater core video. I am absolutely amazed how smooth and easy it was. Quick and easy job. If anyone is having issues....just do it! It's not hard, and for $38 you can't go wrong. I plan to do my Red Sedan tomorrow. I can probably be in and out in 45 minutes.

Here is the old core...gross. I hate to thing of all that antifreeze I have been breathing from out of the vents...



Here you go, Robert, this should make it bearable!





Also spent some time dying the trim. I am using Showroom New, great stuff, in case you are wondering. It is truly a permanent solution.



Also got my tint put on! I am really excited about this, it makes the car look so much more classy.

 

There you go. That red car is HOT.

Thank for taking the sting out of the black one. LOL

 

NICE!! Just read everything and just sounds like my past two months in a day.. I was going to chime in and tell you about the heater core issues I had and Pioneer stereo I added with a change out of 6 of the 8 speakers in my white sedan.. but obviously you don't need any help.. I will definitely be ordering the Showroom black and still have not had the time to get a buff, compound, clay bar, wax, and sealant for the winter.

I have had aftermarket rims similar to the 5 spoke R rims but in a six spoke design and seem to like them more than the Volans (don't kill me)

Seams like the rubber on the metal door trim on the A pillar you had removed or is straight metal.. mine is starting to peal.. should I just remove it all the way? How is your interiors Suede holding up?

 

Very nice man, Looking good!

I am doing the exact same thing but in reversed. I have already dyed all trim with forever black and it looks so awesome. Even did the door handles, side mirrors, and all top trim. Everything is nice and black!!

I will within a week be cutting and waxing the paint. I own a yellow T-5r and the doors are much lighter then the body of the car. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

 

Got my prancing moose stickers! I got them installed but don't have any pictures installed yet. It looks snappy. I am proud to say my volvo has finally taken it's "look."



For those of you who do not know, you can read the story here:

https://volvoforums.com/forum/genera...5/moose-28887/

For those of you who were wondering what my process was for restoring the paint, here is the line up:


First I used a foam cutting pad on speed "5" with this:
Used medium pressure and moved back and forth. Did one panel at a time. After this step I like to just hose off the slurry instead of rubbing off with a towel. It takes much less time.

Next I switch to a polishing pad. Then I go over everything with Meguairs Ultimate compound. Same story, again washing off with the hose and then drying.

Finally I use Meguiars Next Gen wax by hand.

Don't wash off this with the hose, just wipe off with a micro fiber.

 

That's funny, I am using almost the same stuff. I have the medium cut compound, and I will be using the tech 2.0 wax. I am using a bigger orbital though.