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Restoring a 1959 (?) Volvo my mother used to drive when I was kid

T

trinialgod

New member
Joined
May 25, 2026
Some of my earliest memories is being in the back seat of this Volvo when we lived in Colorado.
https://imgur.com/CjK1yLk
(I'm the little one in yellow)

When we moved back to Oregon my mother sold it to a family friend (the same on she bought it from) and after he drove it for a couple years he pulled the gas tank and rolled it under a wooden enclosure. Where has spent the last 30 years or so sitting in a black berry bush.

https://imgur.com/9DXdHVw


https://imgur.com/OpCbzx4


https://imgur.com/vY2XgPX

and I'm going into this knowing that it has some problems, notably the rusted out floors

https://imgur.com/2KojQMv

Having spent most my life having this car living rent free in the back of my mind, when I was out visiting last time I was in Oregon, I asked if I could buy it to restore the old girl and get her back on the road, with a decade or so down the line having it fully restored.
Our family friend agreed to selling me the volvo and has clean it up a little while I get it trailered to be hauled out to Idaho where I live. It'll be here in around 3 weeks.

https://imgur.com/KEuQ1AR


https://imgur.com/8cfvuKV


When I was out last finalizing the sale (at the time I was unable to trailer it to bring with me) I was given some spare parts.


https://imgur.com/E6DpKET


A spare head, a dual carb SU HU, along with a 12v starter and alternator. Which I have already started breaking down to to do a full rebuilds on.


https://imgur.com/LBvxCxo


https://imgur.com/FOpMBt6


Anyone have any advice about it issues I should expect to run into while rebuilding and restoring this Volvo back to its former glory?
 
Last edited:
I wonder if it was an imported Swedish Traktor.

Pretty cool. The main issue you'll run into is probably rust. Sitting on dirt for decades makes them rust just from ground moisture. And PV's aren't the overbuilt things that later Volvos (even the 122) are, they're lighter and have less structure to them, when they rust (and they like to rust) they have structural issues sooner. So get it up on a lift and look at it underneath. The floorboards are not major concerns, they're fairly easy to replace. The areas I'd look over the hardest:
- front frame spars. There's no crumple zone on a car designed in the late 40's - there are two straight subframe structures that come forward form the firewall that hold the front sheetmetal (which is completely non-structural) and the front suspension/crossmember. These will rust out near the bottom and fail and let the front of the car sag and wiggle around.
- front portion of the frame spars - in addition to failing back at the firewall, they also tend to rust on the front end. First the bumper falls off, then the steering box and idler arm, which is.. worse.
- rear spring perch subframe - the subframe that wraps under the rear seat, and up and over the rear axle. It can rust enough to allow the springs to pop into the trunk area
- rear suspension mounts - the PV has a weird rear suspension with 4 arms all attached in a fairly small area to the rear end of the trans/driveshaft tunnel (and a panhard bar). That area can suffer from rust and.. the rear axle falls off.

Less important, but easier to see and judge how rusty the rest is:
- floorboards - they were equipped with rubber floor coverings which held water underneath them when it got in (it always gets in somehow), soaked into the fiber sound deadening material. And then the floorboards rust out
- sills - an important structural part on a 2100 lb unibody car
- rear-most dropped section of the trunk. Like the floorboards, it lives under a rubber mat that holds water in

I sincerely hope it's solid enough to save without heroic levels of time, money and labor. It's a neat pickup conversion and the story to go with it means a lot.
 
PS - I've got a '63 PV that I've had for... almost 30 years?Too rusty to bother restoring, but I've managed to keep it in one piece and drive it as a rat rod the whole time.
 
JohnMc said:
I wonder if it was an imported Swedish Traktor.

Pretty cool. The main issue you'll run into is probably rust. Sitting on dirt for decades makes them rust just from ground moisture. And PV's aren't the overbuilt things that later Volvos (even the 122) are, they're lighter and have less structure to them, when they rust (and they like to rust) they have structural issues sooner. So get it up on a lift and look at it underneath. The floorboards are not major concerns, they're fairly easy to replace. The areas I'd look over the hardest:
- front frame spars. There's no crumple zone on a car designed in the late 40's - there are two straight subframe structures that come forward form the firewall that hold the front sheetmetal (which is completely non-structural) and the front suspension/crossmember. These will rust out near the bottom and fail and let the front of the car sag and wiggle around.
- front portion of the frame spars - in addition to failing back at the firewall, they also tend to rust on the front end. First the bumper falls off, then the steering box and idler arm, which is.. worse.
- rear spring perch subframe - the subframe that wraps under the rear seat, and up and over the rear axle. It can rust enough to allow the springs to pop into the trunk area
- rear suspension mounts - the PV has a weird rear suspension with 4 arms all attached in a fairly small area to the rear end of the trans/driveshaft tunnel (and a panhard bar). That area can suffer from rust and.. the rear axle falls off.

Less important, but easier to see and judge how rusty the rest is:
- floorboards - they were equipped with rubber floor coverings which held water underneath them when it got in (it always gets in somehow), soaked into the fiber sound deadening material. And then the floorboards rust out
- sills - an important structural part on a 2100 lb unibody car
- rear-most dropped section of the trunk. Like the floorboards, it lives under a rubber mat that holds water in

I sincerely hope it's solid enough to save without heroic levels of time, money and labor. It's a neat pickup conversion and the story to go with it means a lot.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this advice. I planned to slide under it to inspect it when i got it. Knowing where to pay close attention to is such a big help
 
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