Sadly it was at this time that winter arrived last year, and so the Volvo remained trapped in a workshop on a remote Highland estate. Then, last month, just under 15 months since it had been recovered from a layby on a Motorway in the North of England, myself and some friends finished the job. After fabbing up a timing tool (not pretty, but it works!) and getting the new belts on, we proceeded to fit everything else back into the car, and finally filled it with oil and water once more.
After fitting the battery, the time had come, and we turned the car over. Nothing, it turned, but wouldn't start. After checking our work over a few times, we finally opened the fuse box - and found the fuel pump fuse missing completely. At this point one of my friends (whose workshop we were in) finally remembered he had 'borrowed' a fuse while the car was sitting there.
Fuse replaced, we tried again, and it fired up first time! 169k on the clock, 8 previous owners, no rust, and seems totally sound. Very happy indeed, now covered 1700 miles since then and has already saved me hiring a van to collect a sofa! We have dubbed him Voltan (after Brian Blessed's character in Flash Gordon, as we reckon a Volvo would probably talk like Brian Blessed).
Anyway, here he is after a clean:
hehe
I'll keep you all posted, but I'm quietly confident ... I think.
