My pride and joy.  When I was a kid, I watched episodes of "The Saint" on re-runs and besides enjoying Roger Moore's deering do, I admired the sporty little white car he zipped around in.  There were many episodes, including the one with the Loch Ness Monster ("The Convenient Monster"), where the car not only is featured prominently, but it seems every character in the episode wants a ride from Simon at some point or other.

 

Flash ahead many years and after a few flirtations with buying an 1800, I came across a local Los Angeles auto restorer who makes it his hobby to fix up all sorts of collector's cars, the Volvo P1800 being one of his pet projects.  The guy owned something like 16 or so 1800's, in various states of waiting for a good home, and so we got to talking and soon a restoration project was in my life.

 

The adventure took longer than expected, but when I got the car, while some things were not the way I anticipated, I was happy - to finally own my own Volvo 1800s (I chose a 1966 since that was the year I was born, I thought it nice that my car and I be the same age).But I wasn't completely satisfied with the car - the paint was nice (I had seen the car down to bare metal and was happy rust wasn't a problem, and chose original color code 79 Pearl White to go along with the black interior - the car was originally light blue), and many other things, but I went wild pampering the car like most 1800 owners will tell you is all too common a sickness among us.

 

I put many thousands more into repairs and upgrades - all new interior (black), door panels, Don T's carpeting kit (grey), dash (done in the restoration), modern CD/MP3-ready stereo and speaker set-up, replaced a few gauges, mud flaps, sound/heat insulation throughout, modern water temp gauge, new rear seat light coverings, new floor mats (original style), reupholstered/re-webbed seats, new headliner, new tires, new clutch, new water pump, a few new/better hub caps, some new chrome, new "cage style" '66 grill, 3rd brake light, new exhaust system (the car not only runs great, it sounds great - a nice throaty vrmmm), repaired exhaust leaks that made their way into the cabin, fixed the horn, added new Bilstein shocks, new IPD anti-sway bar, new rubber moldings all around and I found a local mechanic who specializes in Volvos and he did wonders under the bonnet - rewiring, tuning, fixing (Mark's Volvo in Chatsworth - Mark is a highly recommended Volvo genius).

 

The car has been a challenge, but a fun one and when I take it out, I always get compliments as it certainly turns heads.  Enjoy the photos!