Guys

If somebody would ask me right now what was the best investment I ever made on
a repair tool for my Old 240 I can only think of one and only thing. The "Hot Glue Gun". I am using Black matte "Glue Sticks" which resemble 100% the 240 Bumper material. Some of the repairs I have made using the "HGG" are the following.

1. Repaired a nasty cut In my front bumper after a guy backed off with his hitch. The repair is almost 100% Undetectable, you have to use your touch to feel the difference

2. I glued back one of my Reverse Lenses that fell off.

3. I performed numerous repairs in the Black trim above the bumpers. By using a razon and sanding down the material you get everything back to stock condition. If you paint it..you can't really tell the difference.

4. Glued the glovebox door cap and preventing it from rattling

5. Fixed a broken PCV Valve after a piple fell off.

6. Fixed a crack around the Fuel Sender unit exit port.

7. Fixed cracks on the Dashboard and Vinyl painted it saddle Brown. It almost looks like NEW. The Cracks are invisible.


The amount of possibilities are almost endless. There is nothing compared to the HGG and the sticks are DIRTY CHEAP compared to using other adhesives and you don't have to wait too long for it to dry.

Which is you favorite repair tool that you really find priceless when maintaining an older Volvo?

Thanks

Mike

=self-locking pliers. With 2 of them you can clamp the fuel lines for filter removal (don´t forget some soft board or similar for padding), or for fuel pump replacement. You can clamp the front brake hose when removing and replacing caliper. Useful also for work on the hand-brake unit (inside the rear brake "disks". You can use them to clamp rear muffler mount (in a 940) when reassembling (to get mounting nut in place on the welded-on bolt) etc etc...

=self-locking pliers. With 2 of them you can clamp the fuel lines for filter removal (don´t forget some soft board or similar for padding), you can clamp the front brake hose when removing and replacing caliper. Useful also for work on the hand-brake unit (inside the rear brake "disks". You can use them to clamp rear muffler mount when reassembling (to get mounting nut in place on the welded-on bolt) etc etc...

Gun with armor pearcing bullets....

Well it's got to be my Swiss Pocket Knife.I Carry it with me at work (Maintance Inspector) and it's allows me to do small repairs quickly.I also have it with me when I work on my 84 240 ti.It's my mini tool box. Charlie

Wire, clothes pins, and duckt tape...

Neodymium magnets. Sorry... can't help myself. But they do have endless uses... from temporarily holding parts on, holding your wrenches to the underside of the car when working upside down. Keeping bolts held next to their holes after you take them out to keep track of 'em. Holding your bic lighter to the dashboard or roof (that one easier with the earlier pushrod cars that have exposed steel) I never start a car project without a stack of 'em.

etc. etc...
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-Matt I ♥ my ♂

Now I'm interested. Where do you get these things?
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Simon 80 240 312k 18 years. 'White Lightning'

Um... well... There is a reason for my apology in my initial post.. I am in the magnet business. If you order magnets from us, drop me an email and I'll make an additional contribution to the Brickboard.

www.wondermagnet.com
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-Matt I ♥ my ♂

THE BRICKBOARD

Well the most important tool any of us own is a set of jackstands, they stop two tons of Volvo from falling on your face. I've got just enough room under the cargo floor that I can carry them in the car all the time.

If I had to nominate A favourite tool to work with, it would be my 1/2" drive breaker bar. For extra leverage, I'll slip a piece of pipe over the end. My 1/2 drive sockets go down to 10mm, so I can put a lot of leverage on just about any bolt on the car.
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Drive it like you hate it

Very curious how a van cargo floor differs from a wagon to allow this. Is the space where you store your stands where the rear seat of a wagon would be?

I store a stand in the rear right well (behind wheel).
--
1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

I don't have a decent picture of the underfloor storage, but you see here how the line of the cargo bay continues right till the bulkhead benind the seats.



This leaves the rear seat footwell free to keep your tools in. You can access the space by sliding a seat forward, or by opening a rear door. There's space in there for a set of jackstands and plenty of tools. I'll see if I can take a better picture of that space sometime.
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Drive it like you hate it

My Leatherman "Pulse." It's always with me (much to the amusement of my students-- I am a music teacher), and it has three sizes of flathead and one phillips head screwdrivers, a pair of needlenose pliers, three files (on one blade) and a knife. Plus, it has a bottle opener for when you're done fixing the car. I can't count the number of times I've been able to do a quick repair on the road without breaking out the tools from the back of the car.

-EdM.
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'90 240DL Wagon 'Lola' -- '72 1800ES 'Galadriel'

...they're deep enough to accomodate just about any nut, including manifold nuts, but shallow enough to actually fit into tighter spaces than a normal deep socket. I figured they'd be just a bad compromise between deep & shallow - until the Snap-On guy left me with a set to try for a week. Great tools. Overpriced, perhaps, but great.
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Chris, Dartmouth NS Canada 70 M-B 280SE, 83 245DL, 84 244 turbo, 90 780 turbo, 92 VW Golf, 90 740 Rex/Regina

Personally, my favorite tool is my 10mm deep socket with a 3/8" drive.

If the dash is cracked, or the bumper is nicked, it gets a lower priority. Keeping the car running is more important to me.

For this reason, a tool that deals with cosmetics could never be as important as a tool that deals with function.

Best thing for bonding body panels together when you have a 2in lap. Beats welding or rivets. HY500 sets in 20 minutes and cannot be pulled apart. Follow with undercoat or silicon seal and its waterproof.

Can be applied with spatula or gun and likes everything from aluminumk to galvanized.

You're not kidding, those professional body glues are nigh unshiftable. I've spent hours trying to clean out old sealant with a wire wheel where someone had done rust repair with a sikaflex gun. It was nigh impossible to find clean metal to mig proper patches onto.
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Drive it like you hate it

Best I ever did was epoxy a nasty person's BMW to the concrete pavement...
1 tube split among 4 tires (a serious glob under each tread contact area) and when the owner attempted to drive away, they separated the tread from the casing and left 4 nice 6"x6" patches of very expensive European bubber behind...

The "fwomp-fwomp-fwomp-fwomp" sound was sweet music to my ears!

Wow, what did they do to deserve that? You'd think that would be reserved for ex spouses (or their new partners), or even better, the guy who was making unwelcome advances to your daughter.
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Drive it like you hate it

Dang! The kid's learned how to weld and I still haven't.
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

No, I don't actually get trusted with a welder. I'm the officer in charge of scraping off the old paint, grinding out the rust, cutting a suitable patch to size, and then getting fingers burned holding smoking metal in place while someone skilled sizzles it in place.

I'm also good at sanding, and moving cars around the workshop. Once we start doing bodywork on the 245 again, I'll have mike teach me to use the Mig properly.
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Drive it like you hate it

You're still supposed to use a spot weld at either end of the seam, aren't you? As I recall from a friend's ICAR training a few years back the repair instructions were pretty specific about the need for that - reason being that although the bond won't push or pull apart, if the edge gets lifted during a collision the joint can peel apart (just like 2 pieces of paper held together with scotch tape). Maybe that's changed now though.
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Chris, Dartmouth NS Canada 70 M-B 280SE, 83 245DL, 84 244 turbo, 90 780 turbo, 92 VW Golf, 90 740 Rex/Regina

Yeah, it's a seam sealer, not a glue. You use the epoxy it to stop the weld seams from rusting out, but the join has to be structurally sound first.
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Drive it like you hate it

Where does one find the stuff?
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1980 245 Canadian B21A with SU carb and M46 trans in Brampton, Ont.

Home Despot or Hilti stores all over the USA. Go to http://www.us.hilti.com/

At the risk of sounding cynical, I've noticed that where we have used the clear hot glue to build kid's projects for school, they tend to fall apart after four or five years of being stored in the attic.

I am intrigued with the idea of flat black pliable glue, though. I have a few spots that need to be repaired.......

A healthy dose of cynicism is a good thing... Yes, the clear glue is pretty ineffective. It's usually described by the manufacturers as low-strength, hobby & craft grade. IMHO rarely even well-suited to that... Likewise, I'm intrigued by the black glue. Any retailers who carry it?
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Chris, Dartmouth NS Canada 70 M-B 280SE, 83 245DL, 84 244 turbo, 90 780 turbo, 92 VW Golf, 90 740 Rex/Regina

Zip ties, or Tye wraps - same thing. Half my car is held together with them.

Great post Mike , you have just given me endless ideas. going out to buy a glue gun today. Does the glue come in grey?
John
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90-740GL , 92-945Turbo

C'mon folks... glue guns? Too many Martha Stewart shows, ya think? What happens to the glue in the sun? Igive the glue on the bumper idea one onth tops beofre it becomes brittle and flaky. What will your buddies think anyhow? Interior Trim pieces sure, maybe, but lets not go overboard and get "creative" with this crap!

that could be my favorite too, sounds impressing. where do i find maate black glue like u used?

I do not remember the exast source I got them but the ones bellow could do the trick:

http://store.yahoo.com/hairz/fusglustic.html

I recommend you ask for the ones that do not "Shine" when dry. Those resemble very closely the Volvo black bumper material. I recommend using the Brown on Light Brown for the Dash. But you might have to re-paint with Vynil Paint to get a perfect match.