So, you may have seen in another thread that I'm going to Canada to get a Volvo soon. Here's the story:
In 1970 my Aunt's mother buys a brand new Volvo 142 in good 'ol Canada. She drives it until about 15 years ago when she decides she doesn't want to drive anymore, so she gives it to my aunt and uncle to take care of. She passed away a few years after that, but my aunt and uncle held on to the car as a memento and occasional driver. I've been up there a few times over the past 10 years or so and always expressed my admiration for it, mentioning on more than a few occasions that if they ever consider getting rid of it to let me know first. Well, a few weeks ago my uncle was talking to my mom and basically mentioned to her that if I really wanted the Volvo, it was mine whenever I wanted to come get it. Score.
So here's the stupid part: There's a racing trade show in Toronto the third weekend in January. So I can kind of justify flying up there kind of for work, so aftr I hit the show I'm heading down to Burford to pick up my new ride and drive it home. Because, you know, the weather is awesome between here and Canada the third week in January.
The Volvo has about 56,000 original miles, and has been an occasional driver it's whole life, so it's never sat for extended periods. The tires are relatively new (6-7 months) and a lot of the underhood soft parts like wires and hoses were recently replaced after it was parked on some dry grass that caught fire. Apparently the fire didn't do much more damage than melt a few ignition wires. It's been driven quite a bit since the fire, so everything that was damaged in that incident seems to be in running order.
I got a nice box of stuff from IPD from the UPS man a few days ago, so I'm going up there with a water pump, fuel pump, all the ignition goodies, thermostat, all the hoses, drive belt, shop manual and a decent set of tools. The plan is to fly in Saturday, hit the show, spend Sunday looking the car over and doing any last minute wrenching it might need (which is hopefully very little), then hitting the DMV Monday morning for a temp tag and title transfer and heading for the border. 1300 or so miles later I should be getting home just in time to pull up to our big top at The Rolex 24.
So what am I missing? Anything else that should be in the survival kit? I checked online for other common parts like alternators,and those seem to be readily available at most parts places, so I don't see a real advantage to taking something like that with me? I'm not real Volvo smart, but Per is, and I figure as long as I have his phone number and I haven't done anything to tick him off too bad recently I should be able to figure most stuff out.
Here's a few pix:
jg
