Odd Finds at the Junkyard...

[neonsport]

I went to the pick-n-pull today (actually 2 of them), looking for Tercel stuff and parts to sell. At the first one, I found a 16 valve Volvo 740. I knew they built them, but in all the time I've been crawling through junkyards, I'd never run across one. Still, that wasn't the strangest Volvo find of the day. At the second yard, I walked up on a 740 with the e-code repeater lights on the fenders. All Volvo 740s, and late 240s, have the holes for the repeater lights, but in the US they're covered up by a Volvo emblem. All of the ones I've ever seen on US Volvos were either modified Audi lights, or universal ones, These were factory, and it threw me. I immediately popped them out (they don't take tools to remove), and started tracing the harnesses so I could pull them as well. That's when I noticed the Volvo ID plate in Japanese on the passenger inner fender,a nd the Japanese stickers on the firewall.

It appears this was a US car that was shipped to Japan by a serviceman, and modified by Volvo Japan to conform to their standards. It still has the US bumpers and lighting arrangement (I forgot to look to see if it had H4/H3s), and I didn't have time to thoroughly look it over. The Volvo plate has a contract number on it, apparently the number for the conversion job. The car also had an owner's manual packet that said "Volvo Japan Corporation". Interesting stuff. Now if only I could find a Tercel with the same treatment.