Just Can't Stay Away 1972 142S

[Coupid]

After a year or so since I sold my 780, I could no longer stand to be without a Volvo.

A few months ago I decided that if I got another it would have to be smog exempt (pre 75) so that I didn't have to deal with the one major drawback to being a car guy in California. I figured buying a project would help keep me from modifying my DD plus I missed all the associated volvo shens.

The initial search was for a 122 but it became pretty aparaent that they are a little too old and expensive for me. This led me to consider the 140. I have owned 240s, a 740 and the aforementioned 780 but I never owned anything that old or carb'd.

My DD is a wagon so I thought a 145 would be redundant and I really like the look of a two door. Since it would be a fun weekend cruiser, I wanted a manual transmission, preferably a M41. I searched all over TB, IPD and craigslist for a few months and looked at a few local cars. Since I wasn't finding what I was looking for I started expanding my search area to include ebay and various craigslists all the way up to Northern California.

Then one day after I got home from work I checked my phone and saw a "1972 Volvo Sedan" pop up in Santa Barbara. I texted the owner within about 2 hours of her post trying to see it that night. Due to scheduling conflicts we decided to meet on Sunday. The two blurry pictures didn't tell a lot about the car but she mentioned that she was the original owner and the engine had been rebuilt 25k ago (at 225k..)


The car did have some rust and the front half of the hood had been poorly resprayed at some point. The original owner was a high school teacher who had purchased the car before heading off to college herself.

After some negotiations the following day I rode my bike out to her house and purchased the car:

Here it is on the long way back home:



When I got it home I immediately took off the seat and steering wheel covers and opened up the trunk where I found about 5 damp towels:



Miraculously the car had been garaged until about 2 years ago. The butt cheeks are intact even though they were stuffed with damp rags:



Today I took it off non-op, put insurance on it and started taking stock of what I bought.

Driving back I could tell right away that it had a rather large exhaust leak. Today I confirmed that:



I see that simmons makes a sport exhaust but I will probably stick with a stock replacement to keep the noise reasonable since without overdrive it probably has to work a lot at highway speeds.

It is super straight:



The interior looks really immaculate....


from that side


First orders of business are getting the exhaust fixed and addressing the paint/rust. Here are some more photos

Before Degreaser:





After a little cleaning:



Some rust:




I am very excited to start this project. The goals are for a slightly sportier weekend driver. I would appreciate any thoughts on replacement exhaust systems. Although it sort of looks like "systems" might be discontinued and I just need to have something welded up.