So now that Davis 2026 is in the books I think it’s about time I get around to making a build thread for the newest Volvo in the fleet. After 3+ years of consistent searching I have acquired the final vehicle in the trifecta of impracticality that is now my driveway. A 1975 Volvo C304
Little backstory just for the fun of writing it and context on why one would purchase such a silly thing. In 2022 I acquired a Toyota Chinook camper truck and absolutely loved it, super fun project, filled in some gaps in housing after college and allowed me to access the vagabond lifestyle without having to sleep in a 245 anymore.
Only issue (besides the fact it was a massive POS) is that it wasn’t a Volvo. I had pipe dreams of cab swapping it with a cut up 240 but never had the space or time to tear it apart so naturally replacing it with a Volvo camper option was always in my mind.
Fast forward to September 2025, I’m sleeping under a tarp taped to an S54 swapped E30 on a forest service road in Wyoming and checking for any available C303,C304,C306 listings as I do every night and what do you know there is a longbody up for sale in Washington.
At this point I had just moved to Oregon, spent about two years saving every cent and could swing my portion of the downpayment on a starter home if staying for at least 6 years was likely. Then if I keep working every day for the next 30 years I’d own the home my broken body would reside in, maybe a decade or so later I could have saved enough to buy an RV to finally hobble around what’s left of the natural world by the 2060’s…
Nah fuck that, bought the C304 and now I have a studio apartment that can be parked anywhere.
Picked up at the Burlington Airporter Shuttle depot and drove back to Bend, one of the few vehicles I’ve had that didn’t need dragged home. This thing is SLOW, a 7.5 hour drive took 2 days, but obviously I also fucked around the whole time.
The original plan was to register it in Oregon and immediately drive it to SLORolling, yeah DMV said no. Long story short 8 trips to 5 agencies in 3 states and it’s got plates. Since then it’s done about 8000km of idiotic stuff and only ever overheated like 7 times!
Little backstory just for the fun of writing it and context on why one would purchase such a silly thing. In 2022 I acquired a Toyota Chinook camper truck and absolutely loved it, super fun project, filled in some gaps in housing after college and allowed me to access the vagabond lifestyle without having to sleep in a 245 anymore.
Only issue (besides the fact it was a massive POS) is that it wasn’t a Volvo. I had pipe dreams of cab swapping it with a cut up 240 but never had the space or time to tear it apart so naturally replacing it with a Volvo camper option was always in my mind.
Fast forward to September 2025, I’m sleeping under a tarp taped to an S54 swapped E30 on a forest service road in Wyoming and checking for any available C303,C304,C306 listings as I do every night and what do you know there is a longbody up for sale in Washington.
At this point I had just moved to Oregon, spent about two years saving every cent and could swing my portion of the downpayment on a starter home if staying for at least 6 years was likely. Then if I keep working every day for the next 30 years I’d own the home my broken body would reside in, maybe a decade or so later I could have saved enough to buy an RV to finally hobble around what’s left of the natural world by the 2060’s…
Nah fuck that, bought the C304 and now I have a studio apartment that can be parked anywhere.
Picked up at the Burlington Airporter Shuttle depot and drove back to Bend, one of the few vehicles I’ve had that didn’t need dragged home. This thing is SLOW, a 7.5 hour drive took 2 days, but obviously I also fucked around the whole time.
The original plan was to register it in Oregon and immediately drive it to SLORolling, yeah DMV said no. Long story short 8 trips to 5 agencies in 3 states and it’s got plates. Since then it’s done about 8000km of idiotic stuff and only ever overheated like 7 times!
