Some busy times with the latest move to Albury – entertaining family for Easter, still hunting down a replacement turbo for the Stagea and recently trying to find a mower for cheap. Amazingly I ended up with three for the budget I was planning to spend (and got them all working!) but when picking them up, I didn’t spare a minute to properly look at what was parked out back. A few days later thanks to Facebook I see that like the mowers, it’s also for sale.

There’s probably more than just a new spark plug and fresh petrol to get this up to scratch like my new mowers though..

Volvo 164

(One of 46008 ever built)

While this is for sale here in Australia, it isn’t one of the limited edition Volvo 164TE which only turned up in three countries according to wikipedia.

A limited edition of the 164, the 164TE was made only in 1974 and only for 3 markets, Great Britain, Germany and Australia. The 164TE had extra accessories fitted as standard, being air conditioning, 4 speaker 8 track player with radio, headlight wipe/wash system, rear head rests, rear reading lamps and a fully carpeted boot with lighting. This more upmarket version was only available in 3 colours, being metallic light blue (colour 111), metallic copper (colour 105) and metallic teal (colour 115).

While the family seems to be reclaiming their backyard space one sale at at time (I mean I ended up with four catchers for three mowers for some reason, not that I’m complaining) there’s more than a fair chance that the cat does not come with the car.

Given the straight six in there there is a bit of space to annoy the purists and swap it out for something non Sweede. Hilariously, I’m not the only one thinking there’s more than enough room for a 1JZ-GTE out of a Soarer. Or for general reliability, why not shoehorn in a far newer and more powerful Volvo powerplant? This guy did and it’s quite impressive!

(Or keep it the way it is. On the one hand, there’s a bit of work involved in cleaning this up inside and out. On the other though, you’ve got plenty of room to work in with that engine bay currently. No getting your arms stuck trying to acrobatically get some bolts out of this thing!)

 

Maybe it’s the angle, maybe it’s a trick of the light but the roof almost looks like they’ve unearthed some of the finest leftover leather from the 1970s, ready to be sewn into glorious jackets and instead covered the top of this Volvo 164 with it. It may just be the best part of the bodywork.

I’ve been calling this thing brown but technically you’re actually looking at Volvo Gold Metallic. Which when it hasn’t been battered by the elements over the last 52 years, is a pretty pretty dark gold color:

 

Is it still available?

At the time of this article (April 2021) yes is it. $1200 and comes with plenty of spares. Easy enough to find on Facebook if you’re keen.

Also anyone want to buy a mower?