Photo's of my Volvo 770 Interior Makeover. Take a look.

[lacofdfireman]

I just wanted to share some photo's of what a Volvo 770 looks like after a complete, well almost complete interior makeover. First off let me tell you a little about the truck we are talking about here. This is a 2000 Volvo 770 with 904k miles and a Detroit 60 series with an Eaton 10 Speed Autoshift Transmission. I purchased the Truck to pull my 40ft fifth wheel Toyhauler after going through an 03 Ford F350 and a 04 Ford F350. Found out the one ton pickups were under powered and way underbraked and wanted to step up to a real pulling rig. I owned a 2000 Kenworth T2000 before this but wanted the Workstation that the Volvo offered and also the quieter cab and better ride than the KW. So I sold the KW and started searching for a Volvo 770. Well ended up buying one off of Ebay for $19k. I knew going into this that it was gonna need some work so I had a little extra money set aside to do a few things on it that I wanted done. After flying out to pick up the truck I drove it home and decided immediately I was going to redo the interior cause the previous driver was a serious smoke and didn't take to good of care of the interior of the truck. Here are a few photo's of what the interior looked like when I bought the truck:





Notice the stains on the cloth on the walls in this picture. Disgusting:




Ok, Now you should have a feel of how gross and nasty the inside of this truck was. So I decided the best way to get rid of the smoke smell was tearing down the whole inside of the truck and cleaning it with hospital grade cleaner and then reupholstering everything and repainting all the plastic, and cabinets. Here are a few photo's that show how far I tore it down:







Well you can see I took it all the way down to the bare walls and floor. I spent hours upon hours wahing the inside down, used an ozone machine every night for 2 weeks and sterilized the heck out of it.

Now that all the cleaning was done it was time to have the upholstery redone. I have 3 children so I wanted to put in vinyl upholstery as apposed to cloth for a few reasons. First cloth absorbs odors more than vinyl will and second vinyl cleans WAY better than cloth for spills etc. So while the upholster was doing his work I had all the cabinets out and repainted all of them from Grey to Black. They turned out awesome and look sharp in the truck I think. I also took out the workstation table and had the top refinished into a nicer finish that would match the interior better. I also replaced the Steering wheel and Seats. I bought Atlas Elite 80's with Ultra Leather. They are the same seats I had in my KW and I have never found a more comfortable seat. I then decided to also carpet instead of just rubber flooring. It adds some extra sound deadning to the truck and looks better also.

Here is a link to all the photo's of the interior. I will post a few up just to give you an idea of what it looks like.

http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y27...man/?start=all











The X's you see in the walls are where the stereo speakers will go. Haven't gotten around to that yet.


Well there is a sneak peak of what it looks like. Hope you enjoy.

Very very nice. We always love to see pictures!!!!

[i40shortie]

hmmmm....using ebay to purchase a rig? You say you paid 19k, how far was that from retail? Anyway, looks to me that you did a very good job.

[cclarke1268]

Nice job !!! I know of a Fireman excavation company in my area, they do jobs on there off time. Looks like you might have found a way to suplement your income as well, buying and selling truck you have refurbished.

[tweety bird]

hmmmm....using ebay to purchase a rig? You say you paid 19k, how far was that from retail? Anyway, looks to me that you did a very good job.

Dude, eBay IS retail. Sometimes you get a deal. Sometimes you merely find what you're looking for that you couldn't find somewhere else... my $.02. I have paid more than retail for items I couldn't find elsewhere. $19k doesn't sound too off the mark to me. Our 2000 Volvo with (if I recall correctly- it's been a while) 600k miles traded in for $55k I believe? That was 3 years ago. I'm not in the market for a used truck so I don't know what the going rates are.

[tweety bird]

lacofdfireman, do you do service calls... lol!

That interior is awesome- did you do the upholstery yourself? We need to get some upholstery work done and I'd love to know who did that. That is art. Okay, okay, maybe that's a little strong. But it looks nice. I imagine you put a lot of time and hard work into this- I would never have considered redoing it to that extent! FANTASTIC!

[silvan]

It looks nice, but I don't think it looked that bad to start with. "Disgusting," you said. It's probably good for both of us that you've never been inside any truck I've ever driven. I've done my best to clean them up, but I'm there to do a job, not get graded on how well I keep the walls of the sleeper looking spotless.

I don't think you and I should ever team together.

[Smokeeater]

It looks nice, but I don't think it looked that bad to start with. "Disgusting," you said. It's probably good for both of us that you've never been inside any truck I've ever driven. I've done my best to clean them up, but I'm there to do a job, not get graded on how well I keep the walls of the sleeper looking spotless.

I don't think you and I should ever team together.

Silvan in lacofdfireman's defense, the way they have us spit shining our rigs(inside and out) . He is bound to feel that way. Thats looks good enough to pass a TMC inspection ! :wink:

[geomon]

Really nice job!!

In the bare interior shots, is the "black areas" the insulation? Was that all there was or did you remove quite a bit with the other panels?

Did you simply remove and reupholster the interior panels or did you have to make them from scratch?

Looking back, what was the worst aspect of redoing it? What would you have done differently?

[allan5oh]

Did you add any extra insulation? I've done a lot of that on my 99 770. It really helps.

Also, these volvo interiors are so cheap! small screws that strip/break and cause squeeking. I find the cabinet to be a huge problem.

Every 6 months I spend 2-3 hours tightening down all the screws, etc..

[brian griffin]

Good job!

Now, could you list the hospital grade cleaner? And, describe the process of using the ozone machine.

[flood]

lacofdfireman you did a great job i love color the only thng i would have done is check with volvo to see if the newer (06-07 780) push botton shifter would have worked... it mounts on the side of the seat and it would give you a little more room on the floor. again you did a great job

[Phantom433a]

IMHO, you did a helluva job......thats what ya oughta do for a living, custom interiors on big trucks