I was longing for a Volvo at this point. I had a 4Runner, and a Subaru that I daily drove, and for the first time ever did not have a Volvo to daily drive. Even though I was not needing a daily driver, I still was longing for a Volvo. This car however, found me. I was on social media, and happened to stumble onto an ad for a 142 for sale. Obviously the color caught my eye, but also the fact it was a one owner.
I reached out to the seller, and he had an interesting story to go with this car. He said that he bought the car brand new when he was 23. He went to the Volvo dealer in Louisville, Kentucky and picked out a cheap Volvo. He said he had originally wanted a blue 142, but the only blue ones they had on the lot were with power steering, and he could not afford that. He went with this stripped down orange one. He said he drove the car for years all throughout his 20’s but eventually sold it to his cousin who kept it for a few years, but let it get repossessed for not making payments. The seller said he never thought of the car again for 30 years. Until one day he was driving around downtown Louisville, and a glimpse of orange caught his eye. He said it was sitting in a lot with a bunch of other random cars. He stopped and thought there was no way that it was his old Volvo. He said he looked inside, and the thing that gave it away was the driver seat had a burn from a certain type of cigarette that was popular back then, if you know what I mean. He also looked at the faded front fender that he had to repaint in the 70’s from when someone hit him in a parking lot. He went home and found the old VIN to verify it was his, and it was. He talked to the owner who said it had been in storage for a long time from a bank auction. After looking at the miles it is about what would have been on it from when his cousin drove it.
After the seller I bought it from bought the car, he had to do extensive work for it to be roadworthy. All the fuel injection system had to be gone through. If I thought D-jet was hard to work on, you can just forget the one year only for 140 series, K-jet. It has a constant injection pump that works in mysterious ways. To this day I don’t really understand how it works, and honestly I don’t care to. All I know is that other Volvo guys hate K-Jet more than D-jet. Once the car had been gone through completely, the seller had lost interest. It could also be the fact that his wife did not know that he had the car, and kept it parked at his mother’s.
The car presented well. The seller had the fender repainted to match the rest of the car, and he also did some modifications to it. The exhaust was larger, and gave it a bit of a rumble. He added wider Volvo turbo wheels, as well as a bunch of IPD suspension goodies. The thing that made me fall in love with the car was that interior! Would doesn’t love some orange stripe goodness. That was an original option back in 1974, and I think one of the best interior options Volvo has yet to offer. The car does not have a lot of options as I said before. He was going for cheap, so it has a 4 speed no overdrive, no power steering, but it does have power brakes which I think were standard at the time. It also had AC, which I don’t I think at the time was common in the 140 series.
I bought the car for $2500, but had to drive to Kentucky to get it. That was a long day driving to Louisville, and back in one day. The 140 series was Volvo’s entry level car, replacing the 120 series. As people scooped up all the 1800’s and 122’s, the 142’s are increasing in value quite a bit. Once I got the car back, I had noticed something that was a little concerning, a tick. Now, Volvos, especially B20’s, are known to have a tick because of the way the engine is made. This however sounded almost like a knock. I had David check it out, as well as numerous mechanics, and no one could figure it out. Even the previous owner had it taken to mechanics and they all said the same thing, it’s not a knock, but it is something. The headers were wrapped by the previous owner to cut down on the sound, but you could still hear it a little. It could have been a slow developing knock, but it went on like this for years.
The only issue that I had with it was a weird charging issue. At some point in time there was an electric fan added to help with the cooling, and somewhere in that wiring it caused some weird things to happen. David and I took out the electric fan, and replaced the alternator and voltage regulator for good measure. After that there were no more issues with a dead battery.
I only kept the car for a few months, because I traded it with a fellow Volvo enthusiast for something he had. Plus at this time, I had way too many cars in my parents’ driveway. Since I traded it on something, the amount I sold it for gets a little hairy, but it was somewhere near $3500. The seller I sold it to liked the interior as much as me, but did not keep it long either. Last I knew he sold it to someone in North Carolina, and I hope it is being loved. This was truly a one of a kind Volvo, as you don’t see many with this interior. I would love the chance to own it again if it came back up for sale. I do miss it, but the car I traded it for was very special too.
I remember when the 140 series was all the rage. My boss wanted one, but be backed off once he realized how much they depreciated from their initial lofty price.
B18/B20s often had a sound that resembled a rod knock but wasn’t. The real culprit was the camshaft timing gear. A very common failure especially at 100K plus.
Knockenwellenrod wooden gear
I had one of these, bought new. Biggest POS I ever had, and that’s saying something, Typical problem, and there were many, many, many, was the VDO instrument cluster didn’t work in really cold weather. Imagine that, a Swedish car affected by cold weather. Awful, absolutely awful. Dealer was a short walk from where I worked, I made that walk many time.
I am very familiar with the “ticking” sound a B18/B20 makes. This however sounded a little louder almost like a knock thats why we were slightly worried.
“It could also be the fact that his wife did not know that he had the car and kept it parked at his mother’s”.
Ooof, been there and it worked well until Mum forgot my wife didn’t know and talked about it. Busted.
Since then, I’ve noticed my lovely, brilliant, highly educated bride identifies cars just by color. She does not notice the difference between a silver 2000 Volvo S70 (that she knows about) and a 1989 silver Deville (that she doesn’t). She can see both and I’m safe so long as they aren’t together.
If I ever have a divorce hearing, it will be interesting.
Yup, those K-Jet fuel distributors can not be allowed to lie fallow for too long. They’re full of tiny fuel passages that get gummed up in seemingly the blink of an eye. And quite fiddly to rebuild. I used to dump a triple dose of Techron in the tank to clear them up.
Aside from the fuel injection and big bumpers, I think these final year 140’s are very nice, with the short shifter, updated dash etc. The exterior color stuck around through the early 240 years, if I’m not mistaken, but that interior is a gem. Nice car!
I never knew about this optional Volvo interior until today but I now know where the designer of the Houston Astros’ 1975-1986 “tequila sunrise” uniforms got the inspiration.
My mom used to drive a 1972 144 base model. Indestructible it was. She kept it for 15 years and added 250.000 km. Never broke down once but finally rusted out.
About two months back a fellow pulled up next to me at a light in a 1974 142 in light blue. I rolled down my window and asked what year? That is how I know it was a 74. We bantered back and forth at the light. Me telling how how cool the car was and him telling me how nice it runs. He did say to only buy the 74 because the earlier K-jets were bad.
Hahaha, my dad had a 356b that he kept in a self storage unit in the 70s. Found out years later that my mom didn’t know about it. He’d paid nearly as much for it as our house a few years earlier.
Yep, definitely a 74 model – can tell by the big bumpers, side mirrors and the lack of vent windows in the front doors, distinguished from the 1973s (grew up driving a 73 144).
My sister’s ‘75 Volvo had the same seats, but in blue. The original owner had put seat covers on them, and when she took them off (she bought the car in 1990) the original upholstery was still in great shape.
I had a ’74 144 in the same color scheme. It was amazing the amount of stuff one could put in the trunk.
Mine had a habit of snapping clutch cables due to a bad trans mount
Gosh I would absolutely love to find that car with the color combo!!! or the blue with blue cloth striped seats… but orange/orange is my dream! I live in NC.
just in case someone has or knows of a nice one, my name is Mike, my cell 910-512-4852
I stumbled across this because I just bought a 74 Orange/Orange 142, looking closer I realized it must have been this 142!
It has the exhaust, IPD sway bars, stereo… all the details, right down to that tear on the corner of the white sticker in the engine bay. And of course the “cigarette” mark.
I’m thrilled to learn the story of the car! I can shed some light on its life during the two owners before me, and i’d love to learn any additional stories/info on it.