Rebelscum
Sr Member
Nice to hear. I was very lucky running into Wayne for sure.
HIC Side Panel Discovery
- Thread starter Rebelscum
- Start date
Nice to hear. I was very lucky running into Wayne for sure.
WayneVenomous
New Member
If anyone in the UK is looking in scrapyards for these cars, there's often a few Volvo 300-series cars around but it has to be a 1979-81 car so the numberplate could end with T, V, W, or possibly X. As Philip has mentioned, I struggled to find one in the UK (I'm Wayne from England by the way, hello!)
You can tell the post-1982 versions as they have different headlights, larger bumpers, plastic wing mirrors and no chrome trim around the windows:
Here's the early one again for comparison:
For anyone in mainland Europe, complete cars do occasionally show up for sale as there seems to be a lot more earlier models around.
On mobile.de there's currently one for sale and one of the photos clearly shows this has the correct dash panel:
Full advert here:
Volvo 343 DL 1,4 Automatik - Cars: Detail View
Bit pricey but as far as I know the later dash panels fit no problem.
One Volvo enthusiast told me that Volvo started using VDO dash panels because the earlier Smiths type was so unreliable (as an Auto electrician, I can confirm how bad Smiths gauges are!) As The Empire Strikes Back was made in 1980, these cars would've been new at the time so it's doubtful the original prop parts were taken from actual vehicles. As Philip says, the manufacturer has no information on this so I guess we'll never know for sure......
You can tell the post-1982 versions as they have different headlights, larger bumpers, plastic wing mirrors and no chrome trim around the windows:
Here's the early one again for comparison:
For anyone in mainland Europe, complete cars do occasionally show up for sale as there seems to be a lot more earlier models around.
On mobile.de there's currently one for sale and one of the photos clearly shows this has the correct dash panel:
Full advert here:
Volvo 343 DL 1,4 Automatik - Cars: Detail View
Bit pricey but as far as I know the later dash panels fit no problem.
One Volvo enthusiast told me that Volvo started using VDO dash panels because the earlier Smiths type was so unreliable (as an Auto electrician, I can confirm how bad Smiths gauges are!) As The Empire Strikes Back was made in 1980, these cars would've been new at the time so it's doubtful the original prop parts were taken from actual vehicles. As Philip says, the manufacturer has no information on this so I guess we'll never know for sure......
Last edited:
Vaderman
Sr Member
THANK YOU Wayne and Philip!
Great find and fantastic that you are sharing the information and actual parts.
I wonder if people were swapping out panels for the VDO panels even back then and there were some surplus at the time?
When I was into Volkswagens, we were always watching the new models and retrofitting new stuff into our older cars and especially European parts, which were typically a year or two ahead of what we got in the States.
Anyway, great stuff.
Was the car sold in the US?
My wife has a Volvo and I had planned to go looks for some replacement parts anyway - simple enough to add to that list!
I hope they are sitting in junkyards by the thousands, like the old BMW 2002s were and we can get parts without having to buy cars and remove them!
Can you see the market in these used?
For Sale: 79 Volvo 300 DX 1.2
New paint, tires, carpet, battry
auto, AM/FM, slight upholstery wr,
Runs Great, No gauges in dash.
$675 obo LA area (323) 5679899
For Sale: 80 Volvo 340 1.4 DL
vin#00479312697XBR
Drives great, stick, new flr mats,
clutch has lss thn 200 miles.
nds paint No dashbrd.
$375 OBO call nights only pls
6195679899
Even funnier will be the sellers' reactions when the market for these suddenly skyrockets!
"Hey, I sold my old Volvo" "Yeah? What'd ya get for it?"
"$500 over asking price, I had four people interested the first day!" "WTF?"
Well, it's not a big collector's car, thank goodness!
I would be happy with castings too.
Thanks again fellas!
Great find and fantastic that you are sharing the information and actual parts.
I wonder if people were swapping out panels for the VDO panels even back then and there were some surplus at the time?
When I was into Volkswagens, we were always watching the new models and retrofitting new stuff into our older cars and especially European parts, which were typically a year or two ahead of what we got in the States.
Anyway, great stuff.
Was the car sold in the US?
My wife has a Volvo and I had planned to go looks for some replacement parts anyway - simple enough to add to that list!
I hope they are sitting in junkyards by the thousands, like the old BMW 2002s were and we can get parts without having to buy cars and remove them!
Can you see the market in these used?
For Sale: 79 Volvo 300 DX 1.2
New paint, tires, carpet, battry
auto, AM/FM, slight upholstery wr,
Runs Great, No gauges in dash.
$675 obo LA area (323) 5679899
For Sale: 80 Volvo 340 1.4 DL
vin#00479312697XBR
Drives great, stick, new flr mats,
clutch has lss thn 200 miles.
nds paint No dashbrd.
$375 OBO call nights only pls
6195679899
Even funnier will be the sellers' reactions when the market for these suddenly skyrockets!
"Hey, I sold my old Volvo" "Yeah? What'd ya get for it?"
"$500 over asking price, I had four people interested the first day!" "WTF?"
Well, it's not a big collector's car, thank goodness!
I would be happy with castings too.
Thanks again fellas!
LZeitgeist
Sr Member
Wow. Amazing find. GREAT JOB!
WayneVenomous
New Member
It's possible. One theory is that Volvo cancelled the order when they planned to use VDO gauges so the manufacturer had a load of surplus panels. One Volvo enthusiast seems to believe that they were recalled and swapped for VDO gauges. Again, we'll probably never know for sure.
Both myself and Adoo on here are aircooled Volkswagen enthusiasts too (must be a sci-fi thing?) The irony is in Europe now we like US-spec parts like all red tail lights, towel rail bumpers and things like retro coolers!
Sadly never sold in the US. I do know at least one has been imported to the US by a rich Volvo enthusiast though.
There's plenty of later VDO gauges around as apparently they were designed to be a drop-in replacement for the old Smiths panels. I even bought one as I was told it was an earlier type. Still, it was cheap enough and it's on standby if I ever find an early Volvo 300-series!
Yeah, as Philip and a few others have stated, it's not really considered a "classic" car as such. Even a lot of Volvo enthusiasts don't like them as they were actually designed by Dutch firm DAF, who then ran out of money so Volvo bought their passenger car division from them.
Yes, the dashboard theory has been in circulation for some time but nobody knew from which car.
I just noticed that the ESB block has two hero panels. One on each side at the top of the block and they don't appear to be exactly identical, but very similar. Going to check ROTJ now.
I just noticed that the ESB block has two hero panels. One on each side at the top of the block and they don't appear to be exactly identical, but very similar. Going to check ROTJ now.
Darthmiller
Well-Known Member
awesome!!
jedivigneri
Well-Known Member
I am a proud happy owner of one real volvo 300 dash panel!!! Thank so much for this awesome discovery to fit on my illusive han hero panel 
Organic Mechanic
Sr Member
Also, could you check to see if it has these panel fasteners.
They are black plastic and were used on the forehead of the TIE pilots.
.
Dude, I've seen that exact clip holding the "dirt skirt" in the wheel hubs of virtually every car I've ever worked on. In fact, I just tossed two snapped ones I found in my tool box from the last car I fixed.
Got mine the other day! Thanks Philip!
This is awesome news! I'll have to give my wife's uncle a call in England and have him do a search for me so I can make myself a set of panels!
So cool...
So cool...
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