I am a pretty restless type, meaning I walk around a lot. It is the main reason I got Lola the Big White Dog to walk with me. I am often out strolling at some pretty weird hours, but I digress. Today I shot this beautiful Volvo 264GL. By the way it looked, I appears someone spent some big money restoring this car. The paint is flawless and is too good to be 40+ years old.
Well, what’s that? A manual transmission, and yes, it has overdrive. I didn’t have a look at the odometer, which I should have but it looks like the upholstery has been redone in period fabric. That in itself is rather odd, because every other 264GL I have ever seen had leather.
The seats look great in this colour and would be a lot more comfortable on a cold morning than leather. Look at the visibility from those large windows.
What year is it? I am not sure but I’d hazard to guess around 1975. This car is on collector plates, meaning its someone’s baby. By the looks of it, a good $30,000 was spent on a car that easily fetch $20,000!
Nice catch! The cloth-upholstered seats were transplanted from a later Volvo 240; the shape of the headrests is the clue here.
My brother had one of these in a metallic black and the grey cloth interior was identical to this car….except grey.
Here is a shot I have of a Volvo 240, it seems to be from the early nineties. It is still used as a DD.
I’d go with a bit later – early ‘80s perhaps, judging by the headlights in this brochure.
https://www.veikl.com/d/Volvo-200-Series-US-Brochure-1981-EN-39891/9
It really cheered me up seeing it – thank you for sharing it. It looks as though it’s being used, too, which is good.
The 264 got cloth upholstery in the base DL version. The GL always came with leather. And the stick shift version always got the electric overdrive (an option on the 240 series).
The taillights are not wrap around, which means it is pre-1979.
This is a 1978 model, by my reckoning. 1976-1977 260 models had quad-round headlights, and starting in ’79 the rear end entirely changed with a new trunk lid and taillights.
Or it could be a 76-7 with a retrofit of the quad-200mm headlights. Volvos of the era were pretty much Lego. NCSteve is correct that the seats are later.
And I’d bet money that it has a “redblock” I-4 engine. The early B27 “PRV-6” engines were quite troublesome.
Quad-165mm, you mean. The 200mm is the large 1-per-side item.
Yup. Oops.
Are there any lights just below the quad rectangular headlamps, or is that just a clear lens to take up space that the original rest-of-world flush headlamps used? It looks to me like a reflector, but I can’t think of any other car with clear reflectors up front (or anywhere else). Are there no legal issues with clear reflectors in the US or Canada? If not, why doesn’t anyone else use them?
I don’t see the usual amber reflector on the front fender either.
They are white (colourless) retroreflectors. South Africa required white front reflectors on all vehicles for many decades; I don’t know when or if this requirement was dropped. Everywhere else, white front reflectors are allowed but not required.
The amber side retroreflectors and front side marker lights on the 240-260 cars are built into the corner park/turn lamp. They’re missing from this car, and there’s a window-clear area in the side of the park/turn lens, which means this car’s owner put on a set of the noncompliant aftermarket ones without the reflector.
The alloy wheels and the grille appear to be from the 240 Turbo model. The 264 didn’t get rectangular headlights until 1978 IIRC.
The paint may be a respray, but I’ll bet that the owner started with a very solid, well preserved, original example. That’s always the best starting point, a lesson that the car enthusiast learns over time. I remember reading that a well preserved, low mileage example of a vintage car was referred to as an “Uncle Daniel.” I guess that was a reference to a family member that didn’t get out much. This is a nice looking car.
Those head restraints are the later (’86-up) type, versus the ’75-’85 type in the picture I’m attaching here. Neither the early nor the late type can be removed from the seat with the upholstery in place, so I think later seats—reupholstered ones or really nice originals—were swapped in.
These ’75 164 + ’76-’78 262/264 taillights are seldom seen in condition anywhere near this good, with the amber turn signal compartment still amber; usually they’re faded to nearly or perfectly clear (and conscientious owners then install an amber bulb), because the transparent amber paint used on that section of the lens was not very colourfast.
IIRC, the 6-panel lights, as with the 4-panel version used on 4-cylinder cars, were sourced from both Hella and Cibie. I don’t know why Volvo used two sources, but I bet you do, Daniel.
When I was “restoring” my ’73 142, I seem to remember that one brand or the other was better at color retention in the lenses, but I can’t remember which.
The 4-panel ’73-’78 lamps were definitely sourced from both Hella (amber plastic stayed amber) and Cibié (amber paint faded away). The lenses don’t interchange across brands, but complete assemblies do interchange. No idea why Volvo bought from both companies; either surely could’ve supplied however much volume Volvo might’ve needed.
I could be wrong, but I think the 6-panel ’75-’78 lamps were made only by Cibié.
Very tidy and I do like the interior cloth is so much nicer than used cow for seating I’d bet it has had a respray but was already a good solid car before hand.
What a nice car! I’ve always liked cloth upholstery, and this interior looks amazing – and very comfortable. Based on a little internet sleuthing I think it’s most likely a 1978.
I think Jim Klein is right on the headlights. According to Wikipedia, the 264 appeared for the first time in 1976, but for the first two model years it had quad round sealed beams (in the US at least). Quad rectangular sealed beams were adopted in 1978. Then in 1979, the taillights were changed from a flat to a wraparound design.
So if Canadian cars had the same headlight spec, this is likely a ’78.
If I see this one on the street, I’m definitely looking at the odometer. I think I can tell from the photos where it is. 🙂
This is one of those cars that suddenly makes me feel old, like when I saw a car I used to own now on historic registration. Restore a 264 Volvo? Well, I guess you could….. 🙂
Not a lot of restored Volvos out there. Especially from the late Seventies.
Volvos were driven, driven, driven until they died on the street. Attached is a pic of a Canadian market, 84 242 GT restored with no expense spared which I appraised a few years ago. The owner had the means to do the job right.
Not earlier than 78, with those headlights.
The interior is in excellent shape, and is likely original. No one reupholsters those seats in that original fabric (that’s original fabric), but there are survivors out there. Generally estate cars that sat well-preserved and seldom driven in someone’s garage for years. Volvos seem to have a knack for that sort of thing. Nice find!
Those seats are not original to the car, no. They are from an ’86 or newer car, as pointed out by myself and by NCSteve.
Agree with the earlier posters that the car has to be a ’78 model, the first year the GL had rectangular sealed beams and the last year for the flat panel rear end (no wraparound taillights). Daniel and others are correct that the seats are from an ’86 or later car with the more rounded head restraints.
I had an ’80 242DL, and my interior was the same dark blue color, but the upholstery looked more like terry cloth. 1980 was the last year for bright trim around the side windows and the first for the black remote-control (manual) outside rearview mirrors.
This photo shows a car identical to to mine (when it was newer that is):
I had a 1979 264GL this is a 1978 with those taillights. Great car. I think of my ’79 almost daily I loved it.
Always liked the 240 and wanted to obtain one. Only didn’t know much about them and what years were best and what years were best to avoid. As for the seats cloth is always better than leather.
I bought a set of those “Turbo” alloys for my ‘83 244. Went with some subframe connectors, sway bars, nice tires, etc. Just as soon as it was “done,” someone totaled it @ 4am while parked on my parents’ suburban street. (A Pontiac, judging from the abandoned body parts at the scene.)
I also suspect that it has a 4-cylinder engine underhood. Partly due to the car having a shorter shift lever than the 1976-78 style, and it also has the 1981-on overdrive switch and knob setup (attached a pic showing the pre-1981 overdrive switch setup in my personal 1982 242 Turbo). A fairly nice looking restomod, which I think Allvo Automotive had a few years back.