Im new here and have been lurking for a while, thought I might stop in and say Hi. Ive always loved the PV body style and after twntyfive years I have just purchaced one. Its a 1964 544. Its a little rough but I did drive it home. Plan on doing a resto back to mostly original except for a few things. Maybe wheels and tires, loose the front bumper{its bent up anyways}The engine has been upgaded to a B20 fuel injected by the PO. Ive been a Porsche and VW tech for 30 years so Djetronic does not scare me. Though I am thinking of converting the electrics over to megasquirt. I was looking at 544's on the net and I saw one with virgo wheels and it looked better than I would have thought. Wouldnt one need to put adapters on for these wheels? bolt pattern is differnt I think and I havent a clue as to te back spacing of the virgo wheel. What are some other custom wheel options that look good on a PV? maybe slotted mags for that retro look? I would love to find a set of Roto wheels but seem impossible to find anymore in the 5on 4.5 pattern. Any thoughts welcome.

These are Recaro seats that came out of a two-door BMW of the seventies - don't remember the model designation, nor the exact year. The subframe was welded up from some flatbar I had lying around, attached to the slides from the original PV seats. The seats had been sitting exposed to the weather for years and were in bad shape. I did some re-padding and then re-upholstered them, using the pictured Singer. The seats are exceptionally comfortable for long hauls. I put some into my 142E as well. In fact, I like to go for a drive in them when my back is bothering me.


(142E)

What you should be aware of when adapting seats to a PV is that the driver's seat is not centered on the steering wheel, so you want to avoid broad seats that move the driver even further to the left. To get as close to the tunnel as possible, the replacement seats usually need to be raised, which means that it puts the driver's thighs unconfortably close to the steering wheel. My solution was a smaller steering wheel.


--
‘62 PV544 (B20, M41), '71 142E, '93 240 Classic Wagon.

Oops, this was supposed to be a reply to Duett_1958's question about seats. I'll repeat there. Sorry. :-(

Welcome to the world of PV's.

Seattle is lucky to have good clubs, both the psvsa and the local chapter of vcoa have a number of PV's active in club events. Matt at XRay Autos in Ballard is the mechanic I use, and there is Phil Singher up on Whitbey Island for engine rebuilding. Also, the Oregon Volvo Tuners forum is a good place to ask questions about wheels and tires.

John in Seattle
'67 144S
'58 445

I didn't think there was enough room to put FI on a PV.

Could you please post some pictures?

Welcome to the PV world! - Stu

Here are some pix of the 544 that I just purchased:







Stu - you were right. The F/I manifold normally does not fit in a 544, however, this manifold was sawed off at the flanges, shortened, re-angled, and tig welded back together with a little port work cleaning it back up again to make it all work.

Hmmm, Makes me re-think the whole FI thing.
How's it run (with the altered runners)? - Stu

Well , Who knows what performance diff it makes without doing a dyno run with the same engine on the same day swaping between the 2 intakes. I would think not much. It does seem to run very well though. By the way Im in Snoqualmie. Are you in the Seattle area as well? If so give me a call and we could get together some time if you would like.

Lived all around the Seattle area for 25 years but now I'm in the deep south. - Stu

BTW, where in Seattle are you?

Under the Virgos in the front are disc brakes from a 140
Under the Virgos in the rear is an axle from an 1800ES with Discs

Thanks

Christopher