Customer Feature - Jared Bateman
Back in 2006 I graduated high school. Yeah I'm a youngster. My dad and I wanted a father son project so I looked at everything from 1960's Chevys to 1990 BMW e30's and nothing interested me or my father.
I was visiting a buddy at his cabinet shop one day where I saw this old black car sitting outside of the cabinet shop. I snapped a photo and took it back home to my dad. He told me what it was (1968 122S) and that he wanted to see it. I was a young country boy so all I cared about was big trucks and loud pipes. So he bought this 4cyl slow piece of junk for $500.
My dad ordered parts and books and miscellaneous things but I had moved out by the time we got things together for It. Needless to say it got put on the back burner and forgotten for a few years.
Times got tough and I moved back home. I was a little older and a lot smarter (real world sucked) I bugged my dad for months and months to pull the Volvo out of the weeds. No go again. Motor homes and retirement outweighed the old Volvo. Off into the real world I went again.
I got a call one day from my dad and he informed me he had cancer. So I talked to my landlord and got out of my lease and moved back home to help out around the house. My mom and I took care of my dad till he passed. I was selling his cars and motor home and other things to help my mom pay for funeral and stuff. I came up to the Volvo and I had to keep it. I had This was a little over a year ago.
I did all kinds of reading and research on the old Volvo. I was hooked. I knew the motor was shot so I found a place in Carlisle, PA called Susquehanna Spares and got a 2.0 FI motor and some brake components. Ordered a bushing kit and fuel sending unit and a few extras from you guys (IPD) and more to come. I work at AutoZone so I got seals for the motor and front brake pads from there.
So one year to the day since my dad died I drove the Volvo. Yeah 24yrs old and I cried when I drove it for the first time. It was awesome I looked at the empty passenger seat and I could just see my dad sitting there smiling as I ran thru the gears for the first time. It was pretty awesome. It's been a work in progress ever since. I'll never get rid of it. And that's my Volvo story.
-Jared
Winchester, VA
