Words: Todd Wylie Photos: Jackson Francis
Featured in Issue No. 227 — Grab Yours Here
Working as an orthopaedic surgeon at Auckland’s Starship Children’s hospital, it would be fair to say that having attention to detail is a job requirement, rather than a personality trait for Richard. And with such a stressful job, he needed a good chance to clear his head outside of work hours. That supposed relief came in 2008 when his son Rob and partner Felicity found a Volvo P1800 coupe for sale. Although Richard had initially thought about purchasing an E-Type Jag, or perhaps even a Porsche, the P1800’s rarity appealed to him. With Rob and Felicity living in the UK at the time, they were able to check it out in person, and found that the vehicle was part of a deceased estate. The owner had had it from new and was apparently the first female commercial pilot in the UK.
With the help of work colleague Sally Ross, the car was shipped to Auckland where Sally’s husband Peter, a keen Morgan owner, suggested getting Derek Atkinson of Atkinson’s Restoration Services to help get it ready for compliance. It was suggested that the car actually needed a full sandblast and restoration before it could go near the road, and so began what would turn into a 17-year ordeal. Richard states, “Derek was very honest and indicated that restoration was uneconomic given the amount of rust in the vehicle and the poor standard of previous repairs that were unearthed.”
With that news, followed by a family tragedy in quick succession, the car was pushed into storage until April 2009 when a plan B was formulated. With restoration off the table, the plan shifted to customisation, and with Ed Junior Kustom Rides & Classics in Wellington being involved with plenty of charity work at the time, Richard was happy to return the support by giving them the job.
With so much of the vehicle’s original floor structure rusted out, and mechanical componentry all needing replacing, the decision was made to build a custom box-section chassis for it. Graeme Kidd was the head fabricator on the job, and would later on become instrumental in the car’s completion. Although Juniors went into receivership in 2013, plenty of work was performed on the car under their watch, including completion of the chassis with custom tubular A-arm front suspension on both ends.
There was also some progress on the panel side, including new doors sourced from America, and the fabrication of a custom firewall. Richard’s records of the build are so thorough that he can give the exact dates for each stage of the build, although little did he know at the time how much would need to be re-done over the coming years before he would be able to drive it for the first time. With a build of this magnitude, spread across so many years, that’s not at all surprising, as in essence the car is a scratch-built hot rod with a Volvo body placed on top. Everything else such as the air conditioning, cooling system, and the complete floor of the vehicle needed to be fabricated.
With the custom approach, the Volvo’s original 1800cc four-cylinder engine and four-speed gearbox were never going to be refitted. Instead, at Junior’s recommendation, a 5.7-litre LS1 V8 was sourced, along with a GM 4L60E automatic transmission, both from a Commodore. In fact, even the car’s independent diff was sourced from the donor Commodore, although custom axles were made to suit the car’s much narrower track.
Before sending the car off for paint, the team at Juniors worked to design custom front and rear lights, Frenching both sets into the body work. In fact, there were plenty of custom touches like this that were performed before the car was painted, although with the P1800s being so rare, not many people know what they actually should look like.
Unfortunately, it was around this stage in the build when Juniors went into receivership, and the car had to be shifted around a few different workshops before someone could be found who was up to the task of working on it. Thanks to Reon Madden at Supreme Auto Refinish, Richard was put on to Kurt Schwitzer at Gateway Autobody in Masterton. “Kurt saved this project,” says Richard. “Kurt was straight up and said he was not happy with the body work, even though it had already been painted.” As heartbreaking as that news was, Richard was far too invested to let a setback such as this put an end to the project, and instead had Kiwi Metal polishers acid dip the car back to bare metal so that the body work could be exposed once more.
“Visiting Doug [Kiwi Metal Polishers] in Rotorua was very educational with his setup almost having a medieval atmosphere, yet producing amazing results, and with him being delightfully informative about what was going on,” says Richard. “Without prompting he confirmed our opinion of Kurt, which was very reassuring.”
With that confirmation, Kurt set about bringing the quality of the body work up to the level of the fabrication side of things before sending it off to be painted once more. Sadly, there were more delays though, as Richard recounts, “Despite Kurt’s best efforts with the upholsterer, the car spent many months making no progress, and then the progress that was made was unsatisfactory.” A decision was made to move the build closer to home in February 2019, and the car would be completed once and for all by the incredibly talented team at Racelab in Auckland. While they may be known for high-end circuit cars, they have the ability and contacts to see custom street cars like the Volvo through to completion.
Once the car arrived at Racelab, it was reassessed and the wiring needed upgrading. Matthew Jones of Elite Motors Mechanical and Auto Electric at Snell’s Beach took on the job and the rewire helped to bring the car up to date, including the installation of an Apple carplay capable head unit, along with dash camera and tracking systems. Richard continues, “Matthew also had a designer friend, Design by CCC, design a Volvo P1800e logo for the upholstery and car key. His father, Gregory Jones, now a retired jeweller, also manufactured a very special key for the car. Matt’s interest in the car and willingness to go the extra mile in spontaneously arranging these things was special, with others during this journey being very helpful wherever they could assist.”
The team at Racelab were very complimentary about Kurt’s work and knew exactly who to turn to to bring the interior up to the same level — Grant Hannah of Bays Collision Repairs. Grant’s role included modifying the previously-fitted Honda CRX seats to ensure there was adequate headroom, given the car is channelled over the chassis.
Fabricator Jono Climo, who was working at Racelab at the time, created one of the parts of the build that Richard is most happy with, a Volvo-inspired engine cover. Created out of aluminium, the cover leaves no visible clues of the engine that lies beneath, and is a true work of art in its own right.
Racelab was also able to sort out the flush glass and electric windows for the car after Richard was given the run around by the initial glazier that took on the task. Understandably, Richard can’t speak highly enough of the team at Racelab for their dedication to quality and delivering on what they promised. During the aforementioned rewire, the Racelab team also changed out the gauges, as the black-faced items that had been fitted earlier in the build were now out of place in a build with no black on it… well, almost none. “Jono customised a jack-holding bracket and coated it in black — it is such a piece of art that we did not have the heart to take it out and re-colour. It is only seen if the jack needs to be removed,” says Richard.
The final hurdle in the epic ordeal was the LVV Certification process, but as the chassis had been previously displayed at LVVTA as an example of a chassis that was built right, it didn’t cause too much grief for LVV Certifier Scott Tristram.
Obviously, the build took much longer than was originally anticipated, and the car was transformed along the way from a restoration into perhaps one of the most well executed custom Volvos in the world. With so few of the P1800s around, it’s hard for most people to comprehend exactly how different Richard’s one is, but the attention to detail and build quality are obvious throughout. While it has understandably been a testing experience for Richard and family, now that it’s completed, we’re sure he will be reaping the rewards of his efforts.
Vehicle: 1971 Volvo P1800
Engine: 5.7-litre LS1, custom fuel tank, in-tank fuel pump, twin 2-inch exhaust, Adrenalin R mufflers, custom alloy radiator
Driveline: GM 4L60E automatic transmission, Holden diff, custom driveshaft, custom axles
Suspension: Custom A-arms front and rear, QA1 coilovers, custom sway bars
Brakes: Ford discs and callipers
Wheels/Tyres: 18×9.5-inch Budnik Muroc III wheels, 235/40R18 Pirelli tyres
Exterior: Removed trim, flush screens, Frenched front lights, custom tail lights, custom bumper position and number plate, custom one-piece side glass, custom mirrors, Pearl Cream paint, custom box section chassis
Interior: Full custom retrim, Honda seats, custom shifter, Billet Specialities steering wheel,
Autometer gauges, custom dash, JVC audio, reverse camera
Performance: 212kW at the wheels
Driver: Richard
Age: 58 at start of project and 75 at end
Occupation: Retired orthopaedic surgeon
Previously owned cars: Impossible to list fully but none like this
Dream car: Porsche 356
Why the Volvo? The shape of the car spoke of the artistry of the design of the time with it being less obvious/popular than the E-type or Porsche. The decision to customise not restore was largely initially made on the basis of the state of the bodywork and the need for a chassis. Then the realisation that driving needed to be easy and comfortable led to decisions made
Build time: 6933 hours
Length of ownership: 15 years
Richard thanks: Neil Garner (CEO), Jono Climo (fabricator), Graeme Pope (senior panel beater), Brad Boyer (number 1 mechanic), Ethan Linton (head fabricator) at Racelab for the project supervision and completion; Grant Hannah at Bays Collision Repairs Auckland for the upholstery and trimming; Scott Tristram at Fraser Cars for certification; Matthew Jones at Elite Motors Mechanical and Auto Electric for the electrical work; Reon Madden at Supreme Automotive Refinishers for the paint; Graeme Kidd at Graeme Kidd Engineering for the chassis; Doug Green at Kiwi Metal Polishers, Rotorua; Kurt Schwitzer at Gateway Autobody Ltd Masterton for the project management body work and rescue