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The Atom Design “Shop Truck” ‘99 V70XC

8K views 53 replies 13 participants last post by  Adam.Nonis 
#1 ·
Back when my New-To-Me V70R got hit I needed something to drive in the meantime. I wanted something that could be a potential donor chassis for everything from the V70R. After looking around for a bit a found a 99 V70XC and was really smitten with the red. I typically don't like red, but I do on this car for some reason.

Driving home after a standardly awkward Craigslist car purchase.




The first steps were to do some maintenance and clean up the car. I can't believe how dirty it was. The doors would NOT come clean. Until I found the the magic goods!








After driving it for a while, I had trouble with the saggy butt and an easier fix (for me) was to bring the front down to match. Also, some of it was preparation for either fixing the VR or making this into a XCR. So....I found sleeves that would fit the P80 strut tubes. Found out that a 2.5" coilover spring just about seats in the inner pocket on iPd HD spring seats.








That got me to here


 
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#2 ·
Next thing I did was delete the cat. It was rattling. Also changed out a really bad couple of motor mounts.







By this time, the insurance decided not to total out the VR, so I convinced my awesome wife to let me keep this P80 as well and it will be the "shop truck". So, since I had one lowered P80, I figured I might as well have one lifted too. After some research, I decided to start out with some suspension spacer type lift stuff.







For the fronts, I spun the coilovers up almost all the way and put 1.3" UHMWPE spacers about the top mounts



For the rears, I made a 1" spacer for above the spring top mount and 1.3" spacer to go under the rear spring. I also relocated the rear shock lower mount to the top of the control arm









That gets me to here. I have plans to change out the springs front and rear to taller pieces. Also going to make subframe spacers front and rear



Next will be a custom roof rack and skid plates. Then on to some bigger changes. All of this will be slower progressing than the VR did.
 
#12 ·
This is great. Yeah you don't see many p80s sitting higher on all terrains. I've been wanting to go this direction with my '99 V70R daily.

So in the front...that's the coil spring sleeves adjusted upwards all the way?

Are they 10-in springs or...?

And lastly, Did you have to remove a material from the IPD spring seat?

Looking to do this and appreciate you leading the way. I'm just hoping my fabrication skills can rise towards yours to get it done.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
 
#3 ·
Nice work.

I'm amazed that the seller would leave all the garbage in the car when selling it.

Every car I've ever sold has gotten the best detail I can give it before the sale, to entice as many buyers as possible.
 
#4 ·
Ive never heard of anyone lifting a V70 XC (I also haven't looked very hard, so maybe it is more common than I realize)

How does it drive after the modification? I would be worried it might be less confident on the road.
 
#5 ·
Not super common, but definitely a group of people who do it. More P2s than P80s though. So far, so good, but I've had lots of lowered cars in my life, this is just the other way.

Nice work.

I'm amazed that the seller would leave all the garbage in the car when selling it.

Every car I've ever sold has gotten the best detail I can give it before the sale, to entice as many buyers as possible.
Far more people out there consider Volvos disposable than the other way. There was soooo much wrong with this car that the previous owner hid. Check engine and ETM bulbs were removed from the cluster. The cluster is out of a 50k mile lower S70. The thermostat had the center removed. And the rear has one Nivomat and one non-Nivomat




 
#11 ·
Been in the same boat, thought I was getting a 157k car for $400.

SIKE, 216k lol. With the check engine bulb out.
 
#14 ·
This is great. Yeah you don't see many p80s sitting higher on all terrains. I've been wanting to go this direction with my '99 V70R daily.

So in the front...that's the coil spring sleeves adjusted upwards all the way?

Are they 10-in springs or...?

And lastly, Did you have to remove a material from the IPD spring seat?

Looking to do this and appreciate you leading the way. I'm just hoping my fabrication skills can rise towards yours to get it done.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk
Exactly. These sleeves:

Coil Over Kit, 5 Sleeve, 2 Body for QA1 Shock https://www.amazon.com/dp/B075NQHB6Z/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_u6XPEbWRMP1T3

And these springs (10" 275lb 2.5" coilover spring)

Eibach 1000-250-0275 (2.5" ID) 10" Coil Over Spring https://www.amazon.com/dp/B003TPJDLA/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_W6XPEb1TRKMBM

300lb is a good rate too, but a little stiffer and I wanted these soft-ish.

Plus the 1.3" top plate spacers. I am going to buy some 12" springs though. I'd like a little more adjustment available up front. Before long I'll be swapping the back out to 14" 300lb 3" coilover springs. And deleting all the spacer stuff I have going on.
 
#16 ·
Got some new tires and different wheels. I'm gonna put 302s on this weekend.



Then I had an idea. With a set of really low mile P2 front struts hanging out and the set of OE struts from the XC kicking around, soooooo....




Waiting on some laser cut reinforcement plates to show up next week and I'll pop these in. I actually might wait until I have some taller front springs. I'm mostly doing this so I can pull the top mount spacers out. I wasn't thrilled about the fact that the upper strut mount isn't flat, but I'm just tightening down everything as if it was.
 
#17 ·
Upgrading the brakes with the parts I pulled off of the New-to-me V70R. 302mm fronts and vented rears. This car is the gift that keeps on giving though. I knew the parking brake cable was broken from when I first swapped different wheels on (well, from the first time I tried to use the parking brake).





But I didn't know that when I pulled this rear rotor off...



That I would find this.....



Or, more to the point, the lack of this...



So, now I gotta round up a bunch of parking brake stuff.
 
#19 ·
It's like you can see my Volvo daydreams and make them reality.

Have you done the subframe spacers on this?

Does the AWD work on this car? In considering raising my car, I had concerns that radical suspension changes could wreak havoc on the bevel gear with these cars.
 
#20 ·
It's like you can see my Volvo daydreams and make them reality.

Have you done the subframe spacers on this?

Does the AWD work on this car? In considering raising my car, I had concerns that radical suspension changes could wreak havoc on the bevel gear with these cars.
I'm working on the subframe stuff next. Here's the thing to note though, lowering the front subframe is ONLY to help control arm and axle angles. Since the strut upper mount is attached to the body, it doesn't increase lift at all, while lowering the rear subframe (on a P80) ONLY adds lift and DOESN'T help control arm and axle angles. This is because the upper spring mount is built into the rear subframe. You would want to lower both the same amount though (in my opinion) to maintain the alignment of the AWD driveshaft. When I was doing the brakes, I lowered the front subframe to take measurements of everything I could and I found that I couldn't even lower the front subframe an inch before the steering shaft bound on the firewall opening.



Whereas everything I've heard about P2s is that you don't run into this issue until about 2" of subframe drop. So, my plan is to lower the subframe 1" and raise the steering rack on the subframe 1/2". I know it'll technically change the bumpsteer, but I'm willing to give it a shot and test drive it a bit to see.

As far as I know the AWD works and I wouldn't think anything I did would change that. I've had a few really lowered AWD Volvos with no issues and these axle angles are similar, just the other direction. Nothing angular has changed between the bevel gear and the rear differential.
 
#29 ·
It took you a whole 6 hours and 18 minutes to stack pennies? What about coinstar? :D
Excited to see this result, Adam.
New springs ordered today. Pretty excited. Need to set a definable goal for the lift though.
 
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#28 ·
Playing around with some graphics ideas.
Your shop is in the wrong neighborhood. If you worked in Ballard, this would be done already.

Do eeet.
 
#25 ·
Short bed pickup is interesting but honestly I think that would be less useful than it is as an estate.
 
#30 ·
I knew I'd seen a similar paint scheme before. Once you get it raised, I think this would be cool. A Swedish tribute to Ivan Ironman Stewart.
Go loaded for bear if you're going that far.

 
#31 ·
I'm all about the pickup conversion, but I feel like it should be done if a tree falls on the back or something.. Seems a waste to cut up a perfectly good wagon.. Also, the "bed" should be extended out the back further to help with proportions and give more room.
 
#32 ·
Well, A) “waste” seems a bit extreme. If it still has utility it doesn’t seem ruined. B) more than once I’ve had to haul stuff that smelled harsh enough that I wished it was outside. Having it have a small bed actually makes it MORE useful for me. C) it’s not a gullwing Benz, there’s plenty out there if someone wants to “save” something D) it’ll more than likely never happen, just an interesting thought exercise.

If I do ever do it, the back of the “cab” will still open and be built out of the hatch. Barely similar to an Avalanche. The tailgate will be the bottom half of a hatch and flop down.
 
#47 ·
Well, A) "waste" seems a bit extreme. If it still has utility it doesn't seem ruined. B) more than once I've had to haul stuff that smelled harsh enough that I wished it was outside. Having it have a small bed actually makes it MORE useful for me. C) it's not a gullwing Benz, there's plenty out there if someone wants to "save" something D) it'll more than likely never happen, just an interesting thought exercise.

If I do ever do it, the back of the "cab" will still open and be built out of the hatch. Barely similar to an Avalanche. The tailgate will be the bottom half of a hatch and flop down.
I think it would be pretty interesting, as long as you can maintain structural rigidity. With the unibody on these things, I don't know how much of the rigidity of the thing is in the roof.
 
#33 ·
Yeah I gotta say "saving" an XC didn't even come to mind as a potential issue when I first saw this. Last I checked, Volvo paid $18k for a minty red 99 XC to put in their museum so I think preserving history really isn't a huge issue here lol.
 
#34 ·
I love this build!

Starting to gather parts for my own creation but this old xc is awesome!

I also like utes but would be hard pressed to spend my $ on that conversion, i picked up a cheap aluminum hitch basket from harbor freight for taking gross things to the dump with my last S60, will so hook it up to my xc60 when needed.
 
#35 ·
Woke up thinking about this today. Then I showered & put on my limited edition Atom Design & Development t-shirt on because it's Friday, and I haven't worked at the office since 3-13...

I think your skills on the past cars have been so stellar, and challenge you to this: Yes - it's a work car/shop truck. Why not have it do what you're thinking of by having it be more like an open cap truck? Hear me out...

Looks like a wagon, and can continue to do so. Mimic the wagon look as closely as possible by using panels that look like it's a wagon with hinged red and black wrapped panels that let you open it up. Inside it could be metal fab with rhino liner to handle whatever crap. The back could be like a small truck rear glass. This way you can haul long crap on top still with the rails and maybe inside it can handle stuff that's less aerodynamic.

 
#40 ·
Can everyone keep an eye out for this truck? Last seen in the Portland/Vancouver area. Was stolen a couple nights ago. Nothing is worse than someone taking all your hard work. Besides the livery, it's got a Volvo five cylinder in it. Please let me know if you see it.



 
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