The Volvo P1900 is a Swedish fiberglass-bodied roadster of which sixty eight units were built between 1956 and 1957 by Volvo Cars.

Assar Gabrielsson, the president and founder of Volvo, got the idea for the car when he saw a Chevrolet Corvette in the United States and wanted to make something similar. He asked Bill Tritt of Glasspar, an American boatbuilder, to design and tool a fibreglass/reinforced polyester body, which was later produced in Sweden.

The total production was sixty-eight cars, plus four or five prototypes. Forty-four were built in 1956, mostly for the Swedish market, and most still survive. The bulk of the 1957 production went to the U.S. and elsewhere, and fewer of these are still in existence.

After a somewhat fumbling start the serious coachbuilding began in 1923 in the former brickworks and the tar producing factory in Valbo outside Gävle, Sweden. When World War II began in 1939 there were about 80 employees with the founders son Gunnar Åhlénius in the managerial post. Customers were the Swedish army, the Swedish Mail authority, the department for telecommunications and the electricity power company Vattenfall. After the ending of World War II the activity prospered following the growing need for vehicles. In the beginning of the 1950's the production was put on conveyor belt. At this state 1-1/2 cars were produced per shift. The commercial advertising for the van built on the PV 445 chassis said: "Van for workdays - estate wagon for Sundays."

In 1960 figures according to the production from the start in 1923 were presented. 10 000 vehicles overall, of which 4 000 were vans, firetrucks, ambulances and other larger units. After some 40 years of activities the company went into liquidation. With new owners the company AB Gävle Motorfabrik was started in 1962. In 1985 the company had 25 employees and an annual turnover presenting 6 million Swedish kronor. The production in big followed the former company structure in the old localities. Now there were cars produced for the Swedish Television network, prisoner transporting vans and vehicles for car shows.

Information about Valbo karosserifabrik is fetched from the book "Motormän i Gävleborg" written by Allan Synnemark and published by Winbergs in 1985. The book has ISBN nr. 91 970445-8-x. A big thanks to Jan Carlsson who gave the tip about the book.
(text published 2001-11-22)

The Volvo 164 was a step up for Volvo. Offering an official 165 estate would have made the 164 less prestigious and it would have made the production of further body forms §way more complicated. The production was based on the wheelbase length and the 164 was roughly 100 mm longer as the 140/145 so that the long straight six cylinder would fit. 
Around 1970-71 an engineer at Volvo Annes Sture Levin who worked with special cars had an 165 ambulance produced by a coach builder. In February 1972 the assembly plant in Australia which built Volvo's had a few knock down kits (CKD-kits) left and they took a 145 and a 164 and built both into a 165. That is the only 165 that has been built in a Volvo factory. It does even have is specific Volvo VIN number. According to a Volvo designer I know one or two were built in Gothenburg, but I don't have any hard evidence of that. Then in July 1972 Sture Levin wanted to build a special car for himself and gets a brand new 164 US spec from Torslanda and drove it to Yngve Nilssons Karosserifabrik in Laholm (SE). The coach builder then built the car according to Stures ideas. 
Further 165's have been built ever since by private persons and car shops all over the world.

Volvo 165 – drömmen om lyxkombin
av Fredrik Nyblad

Volvo 165 är modellen som aldrig serietillverkats men som ändå byggts av Volvo i Australien, karosserifirmor och inte minst som hembyggen. Fredrik Nyblad på tidningen Klassiker hittade en bild från 1972 i ett arkiv och blev fascinerad av fenomenet Volvo 165.
Fotografiet han fann ledde till att han blev ägare av den enda Volvo 165 som Yngve Nilssons karosserifabrik byggt. Det här är boken om drömmen om en Volvo som är mer. En Volvo som lastar mer, är snabbare och har mer lyxutrustning. Här finns historierna om Volvo 165-hembyggen från hela världen. I ”Volvo 165 - drömmen om lyxkombin” berättas också historien om bilarna som är förutsättningen för en 165: Volvo 145 och 164. Slutligen landar historien i två av de lyxkombibilar som Volvo verkligen serietillverkade.
Format: 260 x 240 mm
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