The second restoration 
Translation of the story "Den andra renoveringen" in PV-Entusiasten # 4 1999, page 4.

By Bengt Andersson

If you have attended any of the PV-klubben meetings you have probably seen Ulrik Wänersten´s beautiful PV 444 K from 1956. Now Ulrik has his new car on the road - a car ten years younger. Ulrik has made a fine restoration of a PV 544 Sport from 1966.
The car is a pearl white P11234G from 1966. It was in miserable condition when Ulrik took charge of it. A PV Sport from the last year of production was high on the wish list, so all he had to do was to start the tedious job.
The first job was to find all the rusted metal and weld in new sheet metal. The frame legs, trunk, wheel wells, shock absorber towers and more were in rather bad condition after all the years.
When the work with the welder was completed, the body was put on a trailer and driven to a sand blasting firm. The body was blasted internally and externally and primed all over. All loose details from the car were also blasted and primed in the same colour.
The next step was to paint the body in its pearl white colour. All detached parts were pre-painted before reassembly which is a guarantee for a good result. All black details on the car were painted with a powder coat paint.
As Ulrik is somewhat perfectionist many details have been galvanised.

Competition style
The car has been rebuilt in the fashion competition cars were made in the 1960´s. This means that the front drum brakes have been replaced by discs from the P122.
The engine is a B18 with C cam and a converted cylinder head for non leaded fuel. The exhaust is an extractor (header) manifold. The rest of the exhaust is 2 inch stainless tubes. Ferrita of Köping custom fit this to the car.
The engine block is a 02 block from a PV Sport of earlier model. Ulrik´s car should have a block with digits 20 in the end of the forging number to make everything perfect. This means that Ulrik will put a new power source in the car when he finds a correct block.

Road behaviour
In order to improve road capabilities, the car has been equipped with adjustable Koni shocks. On the Nyköping market Ulrik bought a set of safari bolts. During the winter Ulrik will install couple of extra shocks on the front suspension.
The rally theme is visible on the inside to. A steering wheel from a 123GT has been fitted. A tachometer is also a mandatory accessory in a car like this. When I took pictures of the car during the summer meet in Ulricehamn, the original seats were in the car, but during the summer the drivers seat has been replaced by a Paddy Hopkirk seat. This is a rally seat from the 60:s. It has been upholstered with red cloth and looks exactly like the seats in the Volvo factory rally PV 544´s.

Good for towing
With this restoration Ulrik once again has showed a first class job. The old ´56 has now been sold. It was, as many know, a very nice car. It won the Peoples Choice award at the Summer Meet in Söderhamn in 1996.
I can imagine that the new car is more comfortable for travelling long distance, especially when towing a caravan. The Wänersten family is often seen with a caravan behind their car at the meetings, and as far as I have heard, it will be like that in the future too.