Description
Rare opportunity to get your hands on a working, ultra-reliable Volvo 164 with all the desirable features people want on these cars - 1970 pre-facelift model, twin stromberg carburettors, 4 speed manual with overdrive, optional extras such as heated rear windscreen and a very rare floor mounted clock and coin tray console dealer option.
Very regretfully selling my beloved 164, Would love to keep it if I had the space. I bought this car at an auction over 3 years ago with the long term goal of eventually fully restoring it and it arrived on the back of a trailer with seized brakes and an engine that refused to start. I got it back to roadworthy condition and even though it hadn't run in decades, the engine still has brilliant compression, loses absolutely no oil, and the gearbox and overdrive works perfectly every time. It has also had over £2500 of structural weld repairs carried out to the sills and undercarriage and is now solid as a rock underneath and protected with underseal. I can provide lots of photographs of these repairs.
This car has been my daily driver for the past year and has never let me down with its solid reliability that Volvo were once famous for, and apart from replacing the distributor and the usual service parts such as spark plugs, oil and filters I have never had to touch the engine, and all I've ever done with the gearbox and rear axle is change the oil! It also has power steering which I believe was standard on all 164s and I was just as amazed as I was with every other bit of this car at how it just came to life and worked perfectly even after sitting for decades.
This car leaks no fluids. The cooling system works beyond brilliantly also, almost too well. You can sit this car in traffic on a hot day all day long and the temperature needle will not budge past halfway, the fan works so well that if you hold a rag anywhere near the front grille it will stick to it. The distributor has been replaced with a 123Tune distributor and the carburettors have been rebuilt and fitted with the earlier style adjustable jets.
Moving onto the interior, it's all original and all complete. The leather seats have some cracks in the leather and burst seams but are still adequate. The carpet is good in some places but very deteriorated in others. The door cards and handles are in good original condition. The best part of the interior has to be the dashboard, all switches, lights, and instruments work exactly as they should and the beautiful horizontal speedometer is nice and steady when driving and accurate also. All doors do not sag at all and shut with a very satisfying click.
I won't pretend however that this car is perfect and it has more than it's fair share of problems, the biggest of which is rust which can be found along the bottom of all the doors, under the front bumper on the drivers side, where the drivers side bonnet hinge meets the inner wing, behind the rear wheels, and around the bottom corners of the windscreen. The windscreen rust is not allowing water into the cabin but it still needs addressing. There has been a poor quality repair in the past at some point to the spare wheel well and now it is actually too narrow to properly fit the spare wheel in there! The interior bits I mentioned would need going over, and the paintwork is so faded I feel as though it's beyond saving but perhaps I'm wrong.
While the cabin does not allow any water in, you can sometimes find rainwater has gotten into the boot, this is most likely just down to a deteriorated boot seal but I never got round to investigating it properly. The rear door window on the drivers side appears to have detached from its holder and will need reattaching.
There is some documentation, invoices from my ownership and from the early 90s but anything from before then has been lost, interestingly though with the exception of a cash book from the original owner logging all expenses including petrol all the way from 1970. Also included is the original owners manual and a radio operating manual although it's not for the radio that's fitted.
Two sets of original keys are included for the doors, ignition, fuel cap and boot, also with the original leather keyring and rear window sticker from the supplying dealer - Strathmore cars in Perth.
I'll be really sad to see this car go and if I had the time and space to keep it and restore it fully I absolutely would. I think this car is a perfect candidate for a full restoration and I'd love to see it gleaming again like it deserves, but at the same time it has been a fantastic honest daily classic for me and will run forever in this condition if maintained the way it is.
Looking for £5000 and I'm located in Yeadon, Leeds.
