Volvo Sugga Restoration underway

[rodbargee]

Been cold here recently but not in my Sugga

 

[bbftx]

Ready to Register

Well, the Volvo Sugga is moving under her own power. Just need to get her registered and inspected. Then, there is a lot of interior work left to do. I have a pair of the MasterCraft Defense seats I may want to put in the front.
Also, I may have to get a set of the new Camo license plates that Texas just released today.

BBFTX

 

[rodbargee]

Looking good, the finish is immaculate but still refers to its heritage. I particularly like the instruments very much in keeping. I'm the proud owner of an original bike rack for mine, which I bough from Sweden! I am also still searching for original bits! let me know if you want to offload any! Here is my bike rack, Not quite as finished as yours!!

 

[bbftx]

You need two original Swedish army bikes to put on that rack, Rodbargee!

It might not be totally obvious, but my reconfigured rear end now has a spare tire holder occupying the space where the bike rack used to reside.

 

[Karl kostman]

Concerning the Sugga BBFTX, I am sure that your realize by now that there are some VERY talented folks on this site and some of the levels of restoration work done by some of these individuals is more ART work than restoration, I have been watching your Sugga resto from the beginning and although it not original and for what you want to do with I understand how that would not work the best. I will say that I know how much work you have put into this rig and it looks really da-n beautiful, I have alway really admired the Sugga and yours is going to be a traffic stopper! Your work is ranking you right up there with some of the best on this site, THANKS for sharing BBFTX!
KK

 

[bbftx]

Sugga Becomes Official Texas Citizen

Big day for the Sugga. She visited the Safety Inspector to get the thumbs up (photo1). Then she had a nice (informal) chat with a State Trooper interceptor (photo 2), while I was inside making her a naturalized citizen of the Republic of Texas. She's all legal....

 

[M813rc]

She is a beauty!

Hopefully we will see her at an event of two? The local MVPA club are not purists, so you'd be welcomed. It would also be nice to have another vehicle in the "foreign" category to keep my Mog company.

http://www.lonestar-mvpa.org/

Cheers

 

[bbftx]

She is a beauty!

Hopefully we will see her at an event of two? The local MVPA club are not purists, so you'd be welcomed. It would also be nice to have another vehicle in the "foreign" category to keep my Mog company.

Thanks. Yes, I do hope to make a Lonestar MVPA event or two. Glad to hear they welcome "modifieds". While much of her innards might be Ford now, her soul is still Swedish.

 

[rodbargee]

You need two original Swedish army bikes to put on that rack, Rodbargee!

It might not be totally obvious, but my reconfigured rear end now has a spare tire holder occupying the space where the bike rack used to reside.

Well here's my preferred Bike (I have now fabbed the missing hoop)



and here's one made in the fifties....

 

[bbftx]

and here's one made in the fifties....

View attachment 435834

Nice! Always cool to see a Sugga with her bikes on board.

You might prefer the nice, newer, shinier one, but I think your Volvo likes the one from the fifties....
The bike from the fifties is closer to your old girl's age, and won't show her up in the "beauty" category! They look good together!
B B

 

[bbftx]

Beauty and the Beast

I notice this Ferrari didn't pull up too close behind the Sugga...




Cheers,
B B

 

[bbftx]

Passenger Seat in Place

I've started more work on the interior of the Sugga. First up is to take out the temporary Kia seats that had been installed in the front and replace them with Mastercraft Defense seats. I had to fabricate new mounting brackets. The passenger side went in with no problems. On to the driver's seat!

I've also started insulating the roof with Low-E foil. I'll probably get outside help to make the headliner. I'll also be insulating the floor and firewall with the Low-E foil and use elephant bark for the floor covering.
B B

 

[rodbargee]

Bin a while so here's a quick catch up... BBftx hope you don't mind!? If you want I'll nuke the post but I thought you guys on this side of the pond might like to see this.......trying work out why I cant link to the photo's!!!

Finally the time has come to change the front springs, so here's part one. The easy way to jack up the whole vehicle, so you can juggle the axel around to remove the spring.







The whole construction of this vehicle is big and solid. It makes Landrover running gear look like a toy. U bolt nuts were 1'' UNF and mighty tight but with a 1" drive socket and a scaffold bar they did finally submit. I couldn't photo that bit cos it needed both of us to do it, but once loosened they came off pretty well. The chap before had painted everything up really well and under the paint everything is in great nick. You can see the massive drop link from the front of the chassis locating the Axel to stop it being ripped off....off road.






Spring delivered to Owen springs in Gateshead. We now have to sort out uprating them a bit to cope with the big lump that is the Perkins engine. (currently too soggy)


Well the springs are here. Uprated, same number of leaves but thicker metal to beef up the front. They are beautifully made and match the original unit well with chamfered ends.




I have also got new U bolts to allow for the extra thickness.




On first sight they look almost perfect but I do think they are a tiny bit shorter "eye to eye" but the swinging shackle I hope will allow for this....


So I set to and offered the spring up tp the front mounting point to find that the width is 2.5 mm wider than the original spring (the thicker leaves) so first job was to grind down the ends equally so they could be located. Little anoying but there we are.





So once angle ground and painted (yes its a different black) I fitted them....




The more observant will notice that the axel is not bolted up, in fact its about 1/4" off the locating bolt on the spring. The problem is trying to move the axel forward. It has a huge drop link locating it and on my own I couldn't persuade it to move forward at all. You can see the swivel shackle is well forward and if it was a landie you could lever the axel into place. Not on this one i can't. So I took the front mounting bolt off the chassis and managed to locate the axel properly and nipped everything up...Hoping that with judicious force I can with a mixture compressing the spring and forcing the axel forward a little finally get to put the final bolt in.







So far I have tried a bottle jack to bend the spring (putting wood between the jack and the chassis)




Its really a two person job one on the lifts/jacks and one with a carefully placed sca-fold pole, easing the bolted up spring and axel forward the final little bit....I hope. I do think its just a tiny bit shorter

So finally its stopped raining and the suns out and there are no more excuses to be made so yesterday I finished off fitting the springs. My theory in the above post about why the axel wouldn't locate on the spring was the case. The other side once unbolted and with the wheel removed now allowed some movement of the axel...enough for it to locate properly!! I had to use a lorry ratchet tie down, wrapped round the axel and the bumper, thus dragging the axel forward 1/4 inch and it then dropped onto the locating pin (which goes through the spring)
Here they are fitted




You can get an idea of how heavy duty it all is look at the bulk of the diff! it really is a monster. The difference in it moving or not was hardly noticeable I was though shattered after I had fitted the second spring. The effort of moving such heavy stuff around lying down is considerable!








Now this is more like the ride height! nice and level.... the back looks like they might need a freshen up next. You can see how the front was low on some of the earlier posts in this thread, it now looks intimidating!!




Rather annoyingly since my last visit to the shed one of the other Shedders (must be a better collective noun....)has started to dismantle a Jeep almost in-front of the Sugga, with that and two other cars parked in the way I couldn't take it out for a drive, it could have driven over the tarped up MG but I don't suppose he'd have been too happy.






Still its ready to go!.....My only slight concern is that the springs might be too stiff, I cant suss that out without giving it a go off road...me jumping up and down on the bumper didn't really compress them much....

 

[bbftx]

Bin a while so here's a quick catch up... BBftx hope you don't mind!? If you want I'll nuke the post but I thought you guys on this side of the pond might like to see this.......trying work out why I cant link to the photo's!!!

Hi Rodbargee,
Love seeing your updates -- no worries on my part putting them here. Makes me realize I haven't posted any updated photos recently.
Those springs are massive. Pretty cool.

To insert images inline with your post, try clicking on "Go Advanced" beneath the "Quick Reply" box you can normally type in. Once in Advanced mode, you'll see an icon with a tree in the middle row of icons. Click on that, and a popup window will appear, allowing you to choose picture files from your computer to upload and insert directly in your message.

Cheers,
B B

 

[rodbargee]

Excellent! Very good of you! I'll try and up-load the photos....I was trying to link to my photo-bucket album directly....has

links been disabled??

 

[Flat Black]

Tried to fix links but it does not appear that it worked...

Oh well, Sugga's are cool. I have only seen one in the states.

Guess it fits right in there in Austin

 

[mp_tx]

I have been keeping my eyes peeled for your Sugga around Austin, but no sightings yet!

Where did your source the new military looking gauges for the dash?

 

[bbftx]

Hi MP
The gauges were a custom job from New Vintage. They had to cast the bomber-style bezels for me, as they hadn't had much interest in the style up to that point.

Work has really taken away time from driving and working on the Sugga. But I have started some more of the interior work. I'm fabricating door panels and will try to create a headliner. Also, I just picked up a couple of Mastercraft Defense jump seats to put in the back. I've had the rear bench seat from an old Lincoln in there up to this point. It fits well, but I want to lean more to the military look.

Keep your eyes open, and hopefully you'll see me around town someday.
B B

 

[M813rc]

I keep looking! And at the club meetings...

Cheers

 

[Another Ahab]

Better Late than Never:

- Subscribed.

Very cool item.