This Is Such A Nicely Done Volvo 242-Based Pickup I Just Had To Make Sure You Saw It

Is there ever a case where someone turning a car into a small El Camino/Ranchero/Ute-style pickup truck isn’t welcomed? Think about it a moment. A Rolls-Royce Silver Shadowamino? Fantastic. Volkswagen Type 3 Squareback Ute? Delightful. Nissan GT-Ranchero? Also great. If you don’t find yourself smiling at least a little at a well-executed conversion of a car into a truck, then perhaps you should confirm you have a functioning metabolism. If you still somehow don’t believe me, take a look at this fantastic little truck made from a 1980 Volvo 242.

This is currently for sale on Marketplace for a mere $5,500, and that’s for a car with a shockingly low 71,000 miles! If you’re wondering what possessed someone to take a perfectly fine Volvo 242 – the two door that is the more uncommon of these famous Swedish bricks – and transform it into a truck, the answer is cruel fate.

A truck smacked into the rear of the car, which, according to the ad, “dented up the rear trunk lid and tail light area,” providing the justification for all of the custom bodywork that went into transforming the car into a truck. Which appears to be quite a lot. Just look:

Here’s what the seller has to say about the truck:

Selling my 1980 Volvo 242 Flathood Ute conversion. It’s a m45 manual transmission and legendarily reliable redblock b21f engine with crazy low miles. A bunch of recent maintenance and work has gone into it. Super fun little truck to rip around in and gets tons of looks and waves!

It runs, drives, and shifts pretty dang smooth for an almost 50 year old vehicle! The rear window is electric opening! (4th gen 4runner parts) Wiring has all been gone through and cleaned up and thinned out for ute conversion.

This started life as a 242 coupe, had a rear end fender bender with a tall truck that dented up the rear trunk lid and tail light area, hence a rebuilt/salvage title, but made for a great ute opportunity. A lot of custom work went into making this a daily drivable and well put together conversion. Cab space is very good (im 6’3″) and dont even have the seat all the way back, its basically an extended cab with all the room behind the seats.

I think what impresses me the most, at least upon initial glance, is this:

That tailgate with the big VOLVO lettering. At first, I thought it was actually stamped into the metal, but then I saw it appears to be a separate piece riveted over that tailgate. Speaking of tailgates, that one looks sort of familiar, right? I think –and I’m guessing here, there are a number of tailgates from small trucks of the late 1970s and early 1980s that could fit this – that it’s from a first-gen Ford Courier:

Maybe? It looks like it. It’s a full-width tailgate, which is why both the Courier and this El 242amino have small oblong taillights mounted below the tailgate. The 242’s look like LED taillights I’ve seen on truck stop and auto part store shelves, so even if they’re a bit vulnerable there on the bumper, they’re cheap and easy to replace.

I’m amazed there’s only 71,000 miles on this engine; these Volvo inline-fours are very robust, conventionally-designed engines, and I’d expect you could double the current mileage pretty easily, if you take care of the engine.

It’s a stick, which is especially nice, and not all that common on the 240-series Volvos you usually encounter for sale. Maybe the two-doors were more likely to have these than the ubiquitous wagons, given their traditionally sportier body style. The interior looks pretty clean, but not unusually clean, so it feels honest. That royal blue seat upholstery looks familiar enough that I get sense-memories in my hand when I look at it, but I think what I appreciate most is that the cab build includes a nice amount of interior storage behind the seats:

This area is an under-appreciated part of a pickup truck; no one wants to throw their laptop bag in the open bed of a truck, after all. Even better is the fact that the rear window rolls down! The rear window and bulkhead seem to be sourced from the tailgate of a fourth-gen Toyota 4Runner, which had a power drop-down rear window.

This just feels like a nice conversion, and when you look at it, it feels like something that may have actually come out of the works in Gothenburg. This is what a Volvo 240-series pickup truck would have looked like: simple, straightforward, and quietly both useful and charming.

It’s not perfect, which I feel like is a huge plus for a truck like this; you’d actually feel comfortable loading it up with crap to take to the dump or gravel or whatever, and not give it a second thought. It’s an ideal size for a daily driver pickup, I think at least.

That bed actually looks like it’s a useful size. The spare wheel location is clever and out of the way, and I think that’s the gas tank opposite it? Is this whole bed from a Courier? It’s from something.

Wherever the parts came from, the whole that they all eventually agreed to make is, I think, a great little truck. Someone should snap this thing up!

(all pics Facebook Marketplace, except the Courier, which is Wikimedia Commons)