1973 Volvo P1800ES

While I was driving the R5, I entered into my first "project car" experience. While I was out exploring in the Finger Lakes one day, I found a Volvo P1800ES for sale outside Seneca Falls. When I was a kid, my friend's sister had a P1800, and I was really taken with it. At one point I made a pledge to myself that if I ever had the opportunity to buy one I would not turn it down. This, in particular, was the ES model, with the station wagon rear end, making it particularly desirable to me. Having disposable income for time in my life, I decided to honor my pledge, despite the fact that I knew this would not be a runner until I'd done some serious restoration.

I paid the guy $750 for the car and then an additional $150 (or so) to have it flat-bedded back to Syracuse. I parked it outside my apartment and waited until I had enough extra money to start working on the car. During that time I found a Volvo specialist named Otar who gave me a lot of advice. I told him that the car had a totally rusted frame. He said that this was a common condition for P1800's. It was completely reparable, but it was difficult to find a welding shop that would take on the job, and that it would probably cost more to have the work done than the car would be worth. I wasn't sure what to do, so I wound up doing nothing.

When it came time to move to a new apartment, I had to get the car towed somewhere else. My friend Ross was also a car guy, and was sympathetic to my situation. He had two parking spaces in his apartment complex, but he was only using one, so he let me use the other. There the car sat for many more months. In that time I wasn't developing a plan. I wasn't really waiting for anything, or saving up money. I just continued to sit on the situation.

Eventually Ross got a second car and needed the space back. I had the car towed to Otar's place where he said I could keep it for a while. I went back and forth over whether I should fix it or sell it, never really making up my mind. Weeks turned to months, and the months began to pile up. Eventually I made plans to move out of the Syracuse area. I told Otar I was going to try to sell the car, but he got pissed at me. He was starting to get tired of having the car laying around his lot, and I think he'd already assumed I was going to just give it to him. I wanted this whole chapter to be over with, so that's exactly what I did. I left the car and Syracuse behind, and I didn't look back.

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