Volvo 242 Turbo - Oregon Trail Super Regional Rally 2025

This is going to be long running build trying a bunch of things I've not done before. So here we go! 

The first thing is creating custom decals which I've never tried before. 

I found this slide deck on the guidelines for the ARA logo usage. Including colours, fonts and number placards details, which was really helpful. 

 

 

I struggled to find any decent views of the rear window stickers so these are a bit abstract but given the size I don't think it will be noticeable. 

Technically these wheels are not quite right but I think they are close enough. I could maybe chip off the middle and drill holes for the 5 nut fitting. I'll see how I feel when I get to that point. Ideally the tyres would be have tread on them rather than slicks but again I don't think that will be too noticeable. 

The brakes are not quite right but once I get the right logo on them I think they will look fine. I'm not going to obsess over every detail, the project being fun is more important than being accurate to me. 

The dash is going to take a bit of work to match this version but I think it should be doable. I'm going to get some more suitable seats but I was just checking the size of the decals. 

These are the final decals I created. There is a lot of white details here so even if I had a colour printer I wouldn't be able to print white. So now I need to find somewhere that will print these for me. I'm open to recommendations if anyone knows any decent UK based decal printers. 

Look what arrived in the post today. The place I ordered them from charged a fixed price for an A4 page. So I put 3 copies down the middle to be well clear of any print margins. Then they squeezed an extra 2 copies down the side which was nice. So I have loads of copies if anything goes wrong. 

The orange and yellow is not quite as vibrant as I'd like but I think its fine. 

The white print looks nice and crisp. And everything looks to be the right scale. I might give a couple of these a test over the weekend. 

I tried out one of the decals. I decided to try one of the tyre decals since I have so many spares. It looks decent enough. The backing is quite obvious so I will have to remember to cut these as close as I can and the hopefully a coat of clear on top will help blend them in. So that means I am good to go on the decal front. I will next need to pick up some bits and bobs to make the necessary adjustments to the kit. 

The next thing to look at is the exhaust. The touring car had this funky side pipe but that is not true of the rally car. Unfortunately it also has big tank at the back. I guess it is a fuel cell to to keep the centre of mass low but it has to go to make space for the exhaust. 

And it's gone. 

I'm not sure this is entirely correct from the limited views I could see but it is good enough for me. 

And the exhaust is starting to take shape. The tight curve round the axel was a bit of a pain. 

I'd have liked it a bit smoother but it kept breaking as I sanded it. I've also filled in few holes that I won't be needing and removed the touring car integrated jacks. 

Next was to tackle the suspension as I had a sneaking suspicion that it would be too low for rally. I used some masking tape to replicate the covers protecting the springs. 

And the rear suspension. 

And yeah sure enough this would have trouble negotiating a speed bump without scraping the wheel arches never mind a rally stage. 

My first idea was to squidge a bit of putty in to raise up the car. Which worked but... 

It looked like utter garbage. So that got all ripped off and back to the drawing board. 

Attempt number 2, extend the suspension struts. 

That was looking nicer. 

I had a much better feeling about this approach at this point. 

I wanted to get the chassis painted before I went any further as it would be a pain once the suspension was attached. 

Added a few more details. 

That's the suspension raised. It is probably a bit on the high side but I think it looks really cool. 

It's a bit wonky if you look closely but I'm not fussed. 

Over all I'm happy with the result. 

Almost forgot I missed a piece at the front. This project will go on hold again until I get the seats, then I will have a crack at the interior. 

Just to reassure you all I have not forgotten about this project. This arrived in time but the other parts I needed didn't so this is going to have to wait until my next week off. 

It occurred to me that I don't need to wait till I have all the parts before I continue, there is still lots to do. So first off popping on the brake discs from the the detail set. 

Next challenge sorting out the door interior. 

I scraped off all the raised parts and cut some new flat panels. 

I kept the window winders an added the fabric loops to close the doors. I also add a few rivets after taking this picture. 

Now the dash is going to take some serious reworking. 

Getting there 

That is close enough for me. 

After looking through my bag of bits the steering wheels from the kit was actually the closest match. 

The roll cage is not quite right and will need beefing up a bit. 

That's more like it. 

 

 

The interior's coming together. This is not glues so I should be able to pull it apart when I get the seats. 

The black body work looks pretty cool. 

 

I painted the bumpers flat black rather than semi-gloss black to accentuate the difference between the body work. 

 

The rally car has a big hole in the bumper where the number plate would be. So this took a good bit of drilling and sanding. 

The wing mirrors were all wrong in the kit. These were the closest I could find in my bag of bits. No idea where they came from. Even so they needed a lot of hacking down. One before and on after is shown here. 

Now the next task was the make up a windows tint. I wish I had measured things so I would have a reference if I ever need to do this again. But my final mix was approximately 0.5ml of X-22 (Clear), 1 drop of X-23 (Clear Blue) and 2 drops of X-11 (Chrome Silver). 

Looking good. 

The window tint end up looking far better than I expected. I'm not sure how well it shows up in the photos but it reflects all the light in some angles of light but you can still see through it from others. 

 

 

Bringing it all together now 

 

 

 

And the decals on. I'm a bit disappointed withe the colour on the sun visor. If you look back at the image file it should be grey. Everything else looks good though. 

 

 

 

Almost forgot I needed to add the roof vents. 

 

 

 

 

The only thing I'm not sure about is the ride height. Comparing it to a Kenya spec car it is way higher so I think I may have take it too far. I wonder if part of the problem is the wheel size. Does the touring car just have bigger wheels than the rally car? 

I have not forgotten about this project. Due to a set of convoluted circumstances I still don't have the parts I need to finish the build but I can fix the suspension whilst waiting on the paint on the cursed Evo project to dry. This is the rear suspension fixed. 

And the front suspension fixed. 

At Christmas I ran out of clear coat (because I used it all mixing the window tint) and the decals went a bit cracked as they dried. I've added the clear coat now and it is looking good again. I have the remaining parts on order now. Fingers crossed I'll get them by the next time I have a week off and I can finally finish this. 

Look what turned up just as I was packing up my modelling stuff at the end of my week off. 

So I quickly knocked together a light pod. I think this is going to look good with a bit of refinement. 

That's where I'm going to have to leave it for now. Hopefully nothing should stop me finishing next time I get some time off. 

Finally I have time to finish this project off. I've been doing a bit of renovation work and I hadn't realised how dusty things had gotten until I picked this up again. 

All cleaned up. I'm not sure what th mark on the bonnet is but it will be covered by the light pod so no worries there. 

A bit of careful disassembly later. 

The seats are ready to go now. 

 

 

And that's the interior finished. 

The light pod painted and in position. 

I found that the Lancia light pod kit I bought only had 3 lenses. I managed to find 4 matching ones that fitted in my box of bits. 

Added the Hella logos and a few rivets 

And the body reassembled. 

Last touch to add some mudflaps and we are all done.