Spring Cleaning
4/13/23
I'll keep this entry fairly short, as it's not super exciting, but hey, it's a Volvo adventure, so it earns it's spot!
The following day after purchase, I decided it would be a good time to vacuum the car out. The car was power washed the day before, so it seemed appropriate to give the inside a good "spring" cleaning.
The car wasn't super dirty, but it still could use some solid TLC. After about a good twos hour of vacuuming and detailing the interior, the car cleaned up very well. For an unprofessional detailing job, with novice tools at my disposal, I think my cleaning came out well.
This all took place while my mother went to register the car. She came back with the new plates just as I had finished cleaning the car, which was very convenient. I still had to have the car inspected before I could truly drive it, and I did have a few things that needed to be fixed professionally, such as a disconnected license plate illuminator, new brakes, and spark plug change.
The Volvo awaits its spring cleaning
Shot of the front dashboard
The rear seats also cleaned up nice!
The front dash; The aftermarket radio will get replaced at some point
Shot of the interior via the rear trunk
Now came the hassle of installing the license plates. The rear plate went on fine, but the front plate decided it wasn't its day to be installed. Unfortunately, for the front plate, we had differing opinions, and I wanted to drive my car, so that plate was going on the front whether it liked it or not!
The big issue was that the screw holes in the bumper didn't align with the screw holes in the subframe. I found this issue to be caused by loose bumper mounts. This was an easy fix, or so it seemed. The bolts that had come loose had become frozen to the nuts they were attached to. I had to have my dad come help me on this one. I tried my best to undo them, but they wouldn't budge. My dad finally got them loose after some solid persuasion and elbow grease.
Now that the bumper issue was resolved, I could put my plates on, right? Not yet! I had to get some screws, and the screws we had at our house didn't fit all the way through the frame and bumper to tighten the plate to the bumper.
I went down to the local hardware store, where I found myself searching the equivalent of the wearhouse from the Indiana Jones movies. There were rows and rows of screws, and I was looking for one specific tiny screw that .07 of an inch. Thankfully, I was able to find it with not too much time taken up, and I went back to install the plates.
So, the next time you need to install plates on your own car, just prepare yourself mentally, it may not always be that easy!
The "Michael Jordan" plates, dubbed by the DMV employee