Junkyard Find: 1968 Volvo 142
After seeing this 1969 Volvo 145 wagon a couple of weeks back, I figured I wouldn’t be seeing any more 140s for quite a while. Not so!
It’s a not-completely-rusty 44-year-old Swede with four-on-the-floor and a clean-looking engine. You’d think that 140 coupes would be worth something, but this one couldn’t find anyone to save it from The Crusher.
Once again, the “thermometer” speedo reminds me of my ’68 Volvo 144.
Those SU carbs look to be in good shape. In fact, the entire B18 engine looks good.
Perhaps it will yield some of its parts for surviving 140s before being shredded and shipped to a Chinese steel plant.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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One little correction, Murilee: most of that shredded steel is going to U.S. recyclers who produce more steel than the primary producers, not China. Bertel will correct me, but I believe MOST steel made in China is primary steel, made from ore, not scrap. Japan used to be the primary destination for scrap steel, but China never took over that business - unlike Japan, China has large iron ore deposits, and prefers to augment it by buying high grade ore from places like Brazil. That Volvo is more likely to be turned into a Kenmore washer or dryer.
I need those fenders for my car... So badly.