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)
THANK YOU! I absolutely did have to see this. Just cleared some ahem snow (more like dislodge and deadlift boulders of ice, not kidding), and this cheered me up. I’d have loved to have this.
Glad it is as far away from me as it is because very tempting. I do not need it.
I wonder why this car has 2 ignition coils mounted under the hood on opposite sides when there should be only 1.
If I had one less car and this was 1000 miles closer I would make a move here. This thing rules. Smart move would be to leave the drivetrain as-is, but the heart wants a warmed-up B230 Turbo.
Just a reminder that there actually was a VW Golf pickup at one time.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Volkswagen/comments/udmcwl/the_1982_volkswagen_pickup_lx_will_be_coming_to/
The Caddy. Slower than cold molasses and FWD.
Not if you got the gasoline version with the 5 speed. Mine ran just fine.
I might only be familiar with the diesels.
Now they’re popular for restomodding with modern powertrains.
The Caddy morphed into a van, and is still going, although I think it’s on a Ford chassis now? I know several people who own one, and they all love them.
So wait, they took some truck bed that goes on a frame but they somehow grafted it onto a car that was unibody? They used a coupe and not a wagon? The back window is lower than the top of the bed? Where does that big window go when it rolls down, does it just hang out underneath the truck, it’s not that tall?
I feel confused in the same way that Keith David did in There’s Something About Mary when somehow the beans got over the frank…?
I like it, but just so many questions.
I promise to be careful with the back window when I load it. Can I have it now? 🙂
The truck bed is grafted on to the unibody structure underneath the body panels. This is common for ute conversions.
As stated in the article, they used a coupe because it was already damaged. It’s a better choice for a ute conversion anyway because the longer doors create a useful cab area without having to add on additional side windows or pillar structure like you would with the smaller sedan and wagon doors. Not to mention no need to cover up rear doors that aren’t there.
The rear window and frame structure is taken from a 4Runner so it should fit within the frame.
I’m guessing they grafted the sheetmetal of the INSIDE of the bed to the outer sheetmetal of the 242 coupe.
The 4Runner tailgate is basically the rear bulkhead – the window rolls down into it.
Yes, please.
The size, 9 out 10 pick ups in the world, should actually be.
(come to think of it, outside the US they mostly are)
I live in the UK, and I used to walk past a street parked F250 (which were never sold here). It was so big, that with one side touching the kerb, the outside wheels were about an inch over the edge of the parking space, and into the road. It was literally as wide as a bus.
I still wonder why they imported it, I guess they had a very specific need, that required a pickup truck the size of a small lorry.
It seems well put together but I have a pickup and my preferred Volvo Amino uses the rear part of a four door sedan for a coupe utility effect.
Anyway I sent it to my son who lives on the correct side of the Cascades and doesn’t currently have a pickup
Has Hardibird bought a Volvo yet? I feel like we need to start asking this until it happens.
Is that bed single wall construction? Better be easy with loading it or every mistake will show from the outside.
Well put-together, everybody knows
This is how the story goes
She’s mighty-mighty, just lettin’ it all hang out
Ain’t holding nothing back
Ow, she’s a brick hooooouse!
Call Smyth and tell them we have a new idea for a Pickup Conversion!
Does Galpin need a little utility truck?
Wow this is really well executed!
The spare tire is in the same position it would’ve occupied in the trunk of a 240 series Volvo. At least that’s where my ‘88 244 spare was located. These cars had such deep trunks, maybe the car’s trunk sidewalls and wells were worked into the bed conversion?
Yes, based on my 164E these actually had two spare tire wells although one was usually a storage box with a wooden lid, although Volvo did make a gas can insert. The factory gas tank is over the rear axle so it may have been reworked.
I noticed the fuel filler door is still in its standard location, too. Overall, that’s some pretty slick fabrication work, however it was accomplished.
I saw that ad last night and was thinking of going to look at it!
Do it! (And hopefully buy it)
You didn’t mention the little wing on the trailing edge of the cab! What a neat detail!
I love it and while I’m not usually one to be interested in “someone else’s project” this is actually worth the 5500$, if only because that powertrain should last another decade or two.
It’s rad and I genuinely want it.
That’s pretty dang sweet Volvo, and there’s some Autopians up near Ferndale.
Meantime here’s a Honda Accord Ute up for auction in Portland: https://www.proxibid.com/2004-HONDA-ACCORD-CUSTOM-TRUCK-CONVERSION/lotInformation/98691581
The arches over the rear wheels imply it has huuuuuge tires…when it is really probably just hiding the suspension. Kinda neat, though.
Honestly, that Accordamino looks better than this Volvo and I love the Volvo.
Tailgate looks more like a Datsun 620 to me, though the bed floor doesn’t seem to match up to the 620. Ribs seem different widths.
Cool conversion.
I was thinking 520.
I’m thinking Mk2 Hilux:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/97/1977_Toyota_Hilux_2200_rear_%282%29.jpg