My good old ’86 Volvo 240 sedan has some rust on the wheel arches and sills. Since rust never will disappear by itself I decided to fix these bad spots. But I can’t weld myself, so Kevin the mechanic decided to weld the 240. So we started this partial restoration about one and a half week ago and after 1,5 weekends the Volvo 240 is almost another car, thanks to Kevin!

Check the video below to see the rust and other bad areas of my Volvo 240.

Since I can’t weld I grinded and put pully and filler on the areas that didn’t need welding and I fixed the headlight reflectors and taillights. I also resprayed the sill mouldings since they were painted white by the previous owner. Now they’re in the original black color which looks a lot better!

Stay tuned for part 2 (which will be the final part) of the transformation of the Volvo 240!

I also took a lot of pictures during the transformation. You can see these pictures below (click on the image for a larger version, it will open in a new window/tab).

The wheel arch has some rust	Also some little rust on the sill	After grinding the rust is gone!
Some rust on the front sill at the driver’s side	After grinding a lot of putty was coming off, but there wasn’t any rust left	The rear right wheel arch is in a very bad condition, just like the rear part of the sill
A strange hole at the upper part of the sill (again: the right / passenger side of the car)	Another strange hole and a lot of rust at the front passenger sill	During grinding the hole is getting bigger and more rust is appearing
A small metal part is coming off and has some welding spots. It means this part was used to get a (small) dent out of the sill	Another bad repair: after grinding a lot of putty was removed and the small hole was getting bigger	Even more rust is appearing during grinding. The rear sills are the weakest parts of the Volvo 240 series
The inner wheel arch has also a lot of rust	Another view of the rust at the wheel arch and sill	A lot of rusty debris is coming off the Volvo 240

The left front sill after grinding: no rust, so it doesn’t need any welding	After welding a new body sill part, it looks much better!	Another look after welding. But it isn’t ready yet: the inner wheel arch needs replacement
The sill trims are in bad condition and needs a respray	After grinding and some layers of primer	I repainted the moulding trims in the original black color
The taillights are in bad condition: pretty dull and some cracks in the plastic lenses	After I replaced it with a secondhand (but much better) taillight. Unfortunately the sedan taillights are new pretty hard to get	Before: dull, some cracks, holes and even parts missing! Time to replace it
After replacing the 240 taillight: shiny and as new. Much better!	The headlights of my 240 are pretty rusty, so it’s better to replace it	A close look on the headlamp: the lense is in good condition but the reflector is very rusty
The old reflector	The replaced headlight with new reflector. The used units had new reflectors in it when I bought it at a forum	One down, one to go!