Hello, just wondering if any of you have swapped out the big old plastic headlights from the late 80's, early 90's for IMO the much better looking quad's from the early 80's? Are there slight differences that cause it to be a real PITA like grill, hood, etc? Mine are yellowed, and I could pick up a set off of an 85. Thanks.
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Ugly and slow. God I love it!

I read over the other answers to date, and agree.

The pre-1986 quad squares or rounds are swappable between them, but not into a 1986+ 240. I have two of the aircraft lens types, and I feel your pain. Lenses of various clarity, some unglued and some not, some with water inside and some dry. Some with mount posts broken off. Ugh, I'm out of storage space.

The "new" ones differ -

Corner lights are mounted to the headlights and not to the fenders.

Grille is too wide, need mods to accept the wider quad-X brackets. The older grill is too tall to drop-in fit the space in a 1986+ body.

Obvous wiring differences, but that's small potatoes after the other mods.

If you combine cost and labor, putting in the E-codes is close to a wash with the quad-x mods. Plus, the E-codes keep your brick stock.

Good Luck,

Bob

:>)

There's this pretty slick page:

http://www.geocities.com/bloodyl/convquad.html

I imagine the quads are a variation on the above theme.

Other option, if it's simply better light ye be after, is to go with European 240 headlamps (E-codes) with are a direct swap and look mighty nice. I like the look of the Euro headlamps better than even the quad rounds, which were my favorite for a long time... but I'm biased. :-)

-Ryan
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Athens, Ohio
1990 245 DL 133k M47, Cibié E-codes, Now with working wipers!
1991 745 GL 290k (Girlfriend-mobile)
Buckeye Volvo Club

How handy are you? Give me a McMaster-Carr catalog an unlimited budget and a lot of time and I could build anything. Which means I'm confident that if I chose to do so, I could take the pre-86 quad headlights and swap them onto my '93 and make it look 100% stock. It may require however the custom fabrication of some brackets or surrounds, but...so what? If that's what you want, I say go for it!

Personally, I'd go for a quad or single round setup like a few Brickboarders have already done.

Still, it depends on your skills. If you're a tinkerer and a fabricator by nature then you should have no trouble making them fit. If you're an artist then you should have no trouble making them look like they belong there.

Good luck, let us know if you try it!

Yeah, I did a search and right now it's a little more than I have time for. I'll probably just get some replacement lenses for now. Perhaps in the fall when I'm finished with my monster S6 Wagon. Thanks for the feedback.
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Ugly and slow. God I love it!

Grill, Hood fenders and other front parts need to be swapped, but the big problem is the cowl. The cowl was changed and the older style hood does not match it. The older hood will fit but it will not look very good. Others have modified the older lights to fit in the newer front end. It can be done but I have not seen any yet that didn't look Frankenstiened.

You best bet is to get some glass ecode lamps for your year of car. If you can find some and want to spend the money the Volvo e-codes are great. I used dj-auto aftermarket ecodes and they are great for the price. Add some Bosch fog lamps and I think you end up with a pretty nice looking front end.