The Saint's Volvo

When I bought the car in February 1988 it needed some love, in fact that is exactly what the advertisement said: "needs love". None of the gauges worked, the seats were very worn and badly recovered in brown vinyl, and the rest of the interior was a little rough--the back shelf was completely missing! But the engine was strong, and the body was in pretty good shape, so I knew that it was worthy of some repairs.

Over the next few years I did a full-scale restoration of the car. I purchased a couple of parts cars, and had a professional uphostery show redo the red interior to match the original patterns.

My 1964 1800 was put into storage in 1992 when I purchased a 1972 Volvo 1800E. In 1995 I finally decided that it would be best to sell it so that it wouldn't just sit in storage. I wanted someone to drive it, and keep it rolling. I posted a number of advertisements in usenet, and I also added a description and picture on my web site (http://www.saint.org/). I received a number of e-mail inquiries, but being as the Internet has a global audience, many of them were from people miles and miles away. I even received an offer from a chap in Norway, but wasn't sure how to sell a full-sized automobile to someone on the other side of the world.

Well, as it turns out, the gentleman in Norway was serious. He wire-transferred payment directly to my bank, paid for new tires and some repairs with his Visa card, and made arrangements with a shipping company. I delivered the car to the shipping company in Oakland, California, on March 29, 1996. They ship cars in a container, sending them first by rail to New York where they are transferred to a ship bound for Gothenburg, Sweden (where the car was made!).