Hey guys,
Sorry to keep comming in here posting messages about my indecisiveness with my '84 Volvo but unfortunately this car has left me with some tough descisions to make. Long story short for you people who have no idea what I'm talking about here; I've been obsessed with Volvos for about the past 8 months in which I've spent over $2500 between an '84 DL and an '86 240DL....I bought my '84 for $350, and ditched it a couple of months later for an '86 because the all the brakes were sticking horribly. (Oh god I just should've replaced the brakes)..Anyways, I furthered my "Volvoitis" by buying this '86 for $300, but I ended up sinking $520 into a whole new fuel system, which still wasn't that bad. But then the '86 decided it had enough of me or whatever, and decided to run quite inconsitantly (Towed 4 times-25 miles each tow), and with that wonderful inconsistantcy and smoke billowing out of my speedometer cluster (Oh yes, I said smoke billowing out-this car was an electrial nightmare)I gave up with my '86 since it was a 5spd. and my '84 was an auto.( I like the autos better). I decided about a month and 1/2 ago I was to revive the '84. I put $450 into making the car run, and yet all of the brakes need to be replaced, and now it needs a fuel sender. I normally wouldn't care about replacing these things, but this car is covered with rust. There's a nice big 'ol rot hole in the rear passanger side door, and some nice rot comming along all around the wheel wells, the nose of the hood, and rust just about everywhere else. I'm really worried that perhaps taking this next step to replace the brakes and fuel sender (In which I would have to take some more money out of my student loan, not that $50 a month to pay back is a lot.) is just a bad descision. I live in Rhode Island and we get a lot of snow, so body rot is a big problem over here-it's not like I can do a botchjob and get away with it for a couple of years. I'm worried that I'm going to invest more money into this car for its brakes and fuel sending unit, and it's just going to need so much in cosmetic repair that I would have just flung that money out the window to make this car run ok for a couple of months. It's not that I don't want to do the work on the brakes, I'm a college student and I don't have time, or a warm enough environment where I would be able to do a brakejob. So I was just wondering would it be a better idea to save up a couple of bucks and buy a better Volvo a couple of months down the road? Or should I go for it and fix this car up? I figured if the major problems stop (such as the fuel sending unit and brakes) that the car would be OK to drive for a while with all of the rust on it...Please guys, I need your help! I have a severe case of Volvoitis, and I miss driving my baby!!
Thanks!
-Eric.