Gearing Up the Volvo
If Duct Tape or Gorilla Tape ever needed to sponsor a starving artist, I believe I’d be the classic case. I’ve used both of these products countless times to “repair” my Volvo with much success. One piece of Gorilla Tape in particular has held the plastic cover for my headlights in place for more than two years…and counting.
In anticipation of the upcoming cross-country drive, Dad and spent the afternoon doing some super-fab detailing on my 22 year-old Volvo station wagon. It started, of course, with looking for the right fixtures and dealer designed screws and bolts to deal with some of the interior that, more and more, seems to be wiggling around the car like a loose tooth.
Without much luck there, we had to decide: Do we let this piece keep dangling and risk breaking it (which would cost even more to repair, since the car is so old), or do we come up with a quick fix that will protect the loose part and still allow it to function? Judging by the way we rigged the dome light (above)—which incidentally requires 4 custom-made hooks and rivets in order to be properly reinstalled—it’s probably quite clear we chose the latter.
Of course, some of the finer details of the interior also needed to be dealt with, such as using appropriately colored upholstery tape (also made by Duct Tape) in Volvo’s patented puke-brown to patch up nicks and snags in the door handles.
And perhaps our greatest success was using Gorilla Tape to literally seal the sunroof shut, thus preventing snow from leaking inside (only when it melts, interestingly enough) and to prevent the constant chilly wind that creeps its way in when I drive over 35 mph.
Last but not least, I used a trusty Sharpie pen to re-do the “2010-2012 Word” banner across my roof rack. Here’s the midpoint shot, showing the before and after of what a second-coat of Sharpie pen can do:
