Where it all started

Were it all started,

Me, my Dad and his old business partner Joe left for Washington D.C. We had rented a car hauling trailer and were using Joe's truck to pull it. The Volvo was located on a large farm property just outside of Washington, it was stored in an old barn so it was somewhat well protected from the elements.

Pictured above was the car as soon as we got it out of the barn which is shown behind.

The cars owner before us was a well known American furniture restorer named Don Williams. He worked at the Smithsonian museum for a long time and is now retired. This Volvo P1800 was his second P1800 that he had owned in his lifetime, he originally had the intention to restore it himself but he never got around to actually starting the project. Some of the stuff he had done before we got the car was remove all the chrome off the body to preserve it from damage. 

Pictured above is the cars original interior

The cars interior was in fairly rough shape, it had acted as a house for many small animals over the years that it had been stored for. (Me and my dad ended up tearing the whole interior of the car out soon after we got the car home.)

Pictured above, the car is now on the trailer. 

People from left to right (Me, My Dad, Don Williams, Joe)

It was pretty hard to get the car on the trailer since it didn't run and also had a seized wheel. We ended up getting another truck and creating a pulley system, using the extra truck to pull the car onto the trailer. Once we got the car onto the trailer we secured it with a mix of chains and axel straps.

Pictured above. We stopped on the way home to check that the car was secure

On our way back we stopped in many places for food. Wherever we stopped there were always people commenting on the car and guessing what kind of car it was. Many guesses were that the car was either an old Aston Martin or a Ferrari, all of those people were very surprised to know that it was a Volvo. Only one person guessed Volvo. 

Once we got to the boarder everything went smoothly until the boarder agent needed to see the sticker on the car that proved that it was older than 15 years. The car has been repainted twice now and that sticker was buried under 2 layers of paint. Eventually the agent just let us go because it was fairly obvious the car was older than 15 years.

Getting the car home we had to find a new home for the car until we could move it into the shop at school. My Grandpa ended up taking the car in his garage until the winter when he needed to put his car in his garage. During the winter we needed yet another new home for the car, so we moved it into a big storage facility owned my a friend of my teacher. During the time that the car was at my Grandpas house me and my dad tore the interior out and also freed up the stuck wheel. 

Now the car is in the shop at school and we have started working.