Well I thought I'd quit messing around with old european cars, but it seems to be a bit like getting off heroin, you get clean, you move to another city, then 6 months down the track an old friends rings calls you up, and before you know it you're going through all the same old motions.

I moved back down to Sydney about 6 months ago, and left the 245, which at the time had been unregistered for almost a year, in my former housemate's garage in Armidale. But then he got given a company car, so the Volvo had to go. My car had to be shipped somewhere, or it would have to make its way to the wreckers.

So with no idea what I'm going to do with an unregistered Volvo, I took delivery of one 1977 245 van off the back of a truck at 4AM wednesday morning. It's being stored at my cousin's place where we'll have the space to work on it.

Despite having been off the road since February last year, I jumped it tonight on a cold night in the rain, and it did run. Pretty well once it warmed up actually, I took it for a bit of a run around the carpark and had it up to second, seemed to want to go on 18 month old fuel. Battery won't hold charge, but that's to be expected.

So that was pretty exiting, being briefly back behind the wheel of the old fridge. I don't really need this car, I got a new car for work last year, but I could use a manual vehicle to teach my brother to drive on. And I like the idea of being able to work on it as a restoration without the pressures of having to use it as a daily driver. After some of the adventures this car's had, I think it's earned a bit of TLC.

I digress, what should I be checking on a car that's been in mothballs for over a year? It was in pretty good running order when it was put away, apart from a few quirks. I did notice a lot of steam out the exhaust, but I only ran it for a few minutes, so hopefully that's just a cold motor on a wet night. This car is on it's third head gasket, so I am a little concerned. If I have blown another head I'll have the whole motor recoed, but that will set the project back by a few months. I didn't get the all too familiar smell of coolant in the exhaust though, so here's hoping.

I do feel like a recovering addict tempted by old demons.
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A smart bomb. The bomb teaches Shakespearean sonnets, ancient cuneiform, relativity, and the Tibetan language. It may know other things. It has no tolerance for rudeness, so ask nicely.