By now it was 2015 and I was a sophomore at the University of Arkansas. I had just released the yellow peril 145 wagon from my hands, and let it go back to its original owner. I still had my 07 XC90 V8, but was wanting something that I could spend sometime on during the weekends, as if school wasn’t enough.
My friend David had mentioned that years ago he saw a 1800es sitting at a boat repair shop near him. I was automatically intrigued, because I thought maybe I could get it for a reasonable price, since 1800’s in general were creeping up in price at that time. David still lived in Clinton, Arkansas, and the car was in Heber Springs, or about an hour drive. So one Saturday I came down from northwest Arkansas, and helped David with a few things on one of his Volvos, and we took a trip to Heber Springs to see if it was still there.
When we arrived, it was getting dark, but we pulled in to find a number of boats, but no Volvo. I was bummed at first, but knew in the back of my mind that someone probably came and picked it up as these cars were gaining popularity even in non-Volvo crowds. We went back home, and I honestly never gave it another thought the rest of the weekend.
When I returned home that following Monday, I went on my normal day, classes, lab, and work. When I got to my part-time teller job, I jumped onto Craigslist to see what was out there. As I am sure many do, I would check surrounding cities to see if there is anything I couldn’t live without. When I got to Little Rock, low and behold there it was. A white 1972 1800es with a ton of boats in the background. I immediately sent it to David to see if this is the one that we went to see, and it was.
The posting picture
I reached out to the owner, who told me they had been doing some work on it inside the shop, so that is why we could not see it when we went by the previous weekend. The owner said that it was his father-in-law’s, and he took ownership of it when he passed on. They could not get the car running, and had given up on it as most do with the complicated D-jet fuel injection system Volvo used. The owner explained that they decided to cut their potential gain and try to sell it as is.
Now, you would think that maybe, just maybe it would be a reasonable price with it being in Arkansas, and it sitting so long not even running. But of course not. The sellers were asking $3,200 for it. Somewhere I still have the original listing for it with the few pictures they had to go along with it. Looking at the car today, that might not be a bad price given the values of ES’s now, but back then prices were just starting to rise, and that was high.
Try as I might I could not get the seller to go much lower. I was pretty stuck at $2,500 for which I thought was a fair price, but he was not having it. I decided that if I really wanted the car I was going to have to wait it out, and see if maybe he would get desperate and sell it to me for what I was offering. I would check back in every week just to see if they were willing to negotiate a little more. Every week it might go down $100, but that was about it. The seller even did the “we have someone coming to pick it up in an hour”, and sure enough no one came to get it. Eventually he came down to $2,800, and I decided that it was now or never. At the time I did not tell my dad that I was buying another car, or about the yellow peril as I feared he might tell me to start doing something else with my money, like help pay for college. When I did eventually tell him that I got the ES, I may have fudged the number I bought it for.
The next weekend I went back down to Heber Springs, and grabbed David and his trailer. We made it to the boat shop, and took a final look under the car as they already had it on the lift. I was even more excited about my find because nothing under the car was rusted. I was truly amazed. Most ES’s have a rusted jack support at least, but nothing on this car. This car was as solid as it comes. We loaded it up, and took it back to Clinton where we immediately started on getting it to run.
This car had the traditional B20 4 cylinder engine that all ES’s came with. As I mentioned before it had D-jet fuel injection which was designed by Bosch, used in a few other European cars. It is not known for its reliability or easy ability to work on. Mine also had the not so common, and not so loved automatic transmission. I did not really care either way, but this drives values down quite a bit. Most people complain about the B20 being under powered, and pair that with an automatic, it makes it worse.
We drained the gas tank, and put new gas in it along with a new battery. It would crank, but that is about all it wanted to do. We cleaned the injectors, hoses threw in new spark plugs, wires, and distributor cap, but still nothing. We continued to fight it for several weekends until one day it just decided to fire right up. Both David and I looked at each other in excitement as it idled smooth. I backed it out of the garage, and drove it around the yard a few times, but it just felt really under powered. I could give it all the gas I wanted to, but it wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry. We took it back in to find the fuel hoses full of crud, so we opened up the gas tank to find it full of rust.
Sorry for the bad photo. This is one from the original listing.
This is where the story gets interesting. David and I decided we could clean the tank ourselves and re-seal it. Seems like a good idea right? Well we had to separate the top from the bottom so we could get inside the gas tank. Cutting it open went fine, and even sealing it with a seal went ok. It was when David was welding it back shut. Now, I know what you are thinking, duh its flammable how could you be so stupid. Well, we had let the tank sit for weeks opened up to let it air up before we went to welding. We even went as far as putting a leaf blower to the holes to circulate air through it. Well, I had just walked away from watching David weld, and I heard the loudest boom you ever heard. I turned around to see the gas tank shoot all the way up to the 12ft high ceiling in David’s garage, bounce off the top, and slam back down to the cement floor. I run over to David who is standing looking at the gas tank, and ask him if he is ok. All he could really say is “what” because he was suffering from temporary deafness. David was fine, and the gas tank was a blown up like a puffer fish, but still repairable.
That poor gas tank had been through the ringer, but it was clean, and didn’t leak, so we went ahead and installed it. That seemed to fix the problem for the most part, so we went on to sanding it down for paint. Once we got off all the trim and bumpers, and sanded it we still could not find much rust other than a hole about the size of a quarter. By this time it was going on several months with this car, and I was losing interest. It seemed like every step we took there was yet another setback.
I had decided to throw it up on Ebay, just to see if anyone was interested for more than I paid for it. This listing was a hit, I got tons of messages and calls on the car. One person in particular was from Sweden, and offered me a little over $5,000 for the car. I immediately said yes, trying not to show all my cards. The only catch was I had to take the car to Orlando where he had a shipping container waiting for the car. My spring break was just around the corner, and I also had an aunt that lived there, so what better time to make a trip out of it. I loaded it up on the trailer, and off to Florida I went.
The ES was a really cool car to own, but at the time I did not have the time or the resources to spend actually rebuilding the engine, and doing a full restoration on it. It won’t be the last you will hear of the 1800es from me, don’t worry.
They go for mad money in Europe as you found out by doubling your money for even an automatic. Remember Roger Moore in the original “Saint”.?. The show wanted an XKE but Jaguar didn’t want to lend them one so whilst walking past a London show room Roger spotted the Volvo and got the shower to buy it which he used as his daily driver. The car has been restored.
A braver man than I, you. Good outcome from it, too.
These have got a lot pricier than $3K for a rust-free one, at least hereabouts. Closer to $30K USD (pre-COVID) now for a P1800 wagon if the paint had got done.
The D-Jet was actually highly reliable when it was newer, as used across an entire swag of Euro makers including Benz. It was a system that required practically no maintenance. Ofcourse, trouble came a-marching as parts eventually wore out years later, and a lot of mechs didn’t understand it (either that, or refused to touch it). Knowledeable players charged big money, but even they having retired, I think it’s more in its dotage that the system gets a bad name.
I once removed a petrol tank from a car that had had a little accident – it may or may not have involved me leaving off the handbrake and a slope and some rocks – and was told in no uncertain terms not to try welding it. Now, not having any such skills, I wouldn’t have anyway, but that’s where I learned that to weld even the driest fuel tank, you must fill it with water. My guess, especially from your story, is that somehow the petrol is soaked into the very metal.
Yes these Volvo ES sell for stupid money now if you can find one, and welding fuel tanks just no.
You remind me a lot of me during my college years. Well, except that I never doubled my money on anything I ever owned in that period of life. 🙂
Enthusiasm abounded with each new find, but never the time or resources to keep it for the long haul. But the experience lasts a lifetime, and this car looks to have offered plenty of that.
The exploding gas tank was for sure a good memory. Its good that no one got hurt, but something we still laugh about today!
I bought mine last year. Some rust bubbling through the paint, and some issues with idle (as a result of the D-jet and auxiliary air valve), but I absolutely love looking at it and driving around town!
They are really cool cars. Lots of people ask “what is that?” and when you tell them its a Volvo, they just look at you like hmm.
Well done, on several levels. And I will remember not to weld a gas tank.
Thank you Paul!
Adventures with cars! I too had a gas tank go oomph on me. It was a ’77 Honda Civic and there were pin holes around the filler neck on the tank. I drained it and removed it from the car. I tilted and moved it around and poured every last drop from it, blew air into all the hoses and left it in the sun for a couple of hours. Next I put the garden hose in it and let it run for half an hour or so then propped it up with the filler neck at the highest point. Plugging all the hose connections I then filled it with water up to an inch below the neck. To repair it I fired up the torch and flowed solder over all the pin holes. Success. Tipped it over and while the water ran out I noticed that I missed a spot, dropped it down flat and fired up the torch for a quick touch up. It was still half full of water at this point. You would think, and I did too, that after all the preparation there couldn’t possibly be any fumes or gas whatsoever in that tank and then OOMPH, It doubled in size right before my eyes while water shot from the neck. The repair was a success and I jumped up and down on the tank until it resembled what it used to be and was able to bolt it back under the car. It held an extra gallon of gas and we joked that it was the “Long range option”.
In my younger days I though Volvos looked rather sturdy and well built. The only experience with them was a couple of short rides in other people’s cars so I never actually drove one. I still had the V8 bias and thought the cars were just too big for the small looking 4 bangers under the hood. In Amsterdam five years ago I booked a “compact car, Kia Rio or similar” On the morning when I picked it up they pulled a car from the lot and it was a Volvo with 115km on it and offered a no charge upgrade since they were out of Kia Rios I would be the first customer to rent this car. I absolutely loved it. Tiny little 1.6l engine with six speed manual. I had no problem whatsoever at 140km/hr on the highway. Getting it around some of the tight corners Garmin asked me to take in the small villages was the only issue. I wanted so bad to take this car home with me since that model was not available in Canada. I checked.
You can weld gas tanks by defuming the tank first, run a hose from an exhaust pipe to the tank inlet, I’m not sure how long and common sense would exclude doing this in an enclosed space.
I’d be loathe to do this on any tank bigger than a small motorcycle.
I’d also avoid any fuel injected car from the 70’s or 80’s that isn’t running especially if its european, if you do own one, run it at least once a month, left more than a year I doubt if it will ever run again.
The 1800es is a neat car even not running, but if I’d be entertaining the idea of purchasing such a car I’d consider running a modern aftermarket stand alone ecu like a Haltech or Link as well as suitable injectors.
Now it is called a “gap year” but for me from sumer ’72 to fall ’74 it was a time to make money to proceed after college on to the next level of my education. I sold cars at a Volvo/Mercedes dealership.
Mostly I sold used cars and never a new Mercedes but I did sell several new Volvos – cars I liked a lot.
I sold exactly one 1800ES. It was a yellow with brown interior ’73 with manual transmission. I remember being jealous of the buyer; I wanted one for myself. At the time a real Volvo wagon, the 145, cost about $4,500. The 1800ES went for about $6,000. I think it was more expensive than even the six cylinder 164 sedan. It was a big deal to sell one of those at the dealership – the most expensive Volvo one could buy.
I don’t think I’d be interested in one now but at the time these were, to me, very special cars.
I think the 164 was just slightly above $6,000, or at least my 75 was. You had to have some money back then to drop on a 164. You also had to really love Volvo’s for that kind of money, as that was approaching Mercedes money
I always thought of these as a Reliant Scimitar with build quality.