Well, I got it back to the auto repair shop. I'm convinced they messed something up as my mechanic looked at it - .6 amp drain when it was shut off. Alternator fine. Battery okay. Just a big short somewhere.
They will fix it, though - so all's well. Car is still a blast to drive in tight city traffic thanks to the tiny turning radius and stick. My Buick beater has nothing on it :)
Just wondering - what could cause such a large drain? The radio on drew .6 amps. The interior bulbs - .1. All I can figure is when they blended the door to match the fender, they as is normal, removed all of the door hardware. (fairly normal for most shops, I hear)
They must have shorted out or broken the door lock mechanism as the door locks are not working.
Q: if all four door locks were jammed or the servos were on all the time - would it draw this much current? I hope they didn't mess it up and all of the door lock servos fried themselves. I can hear a relay in the dash going off when I pull the knob up, but I get no activity from the doors. The sound is exactly like what you get when you push it down and they are already down - a click but no real movement.
Q: if the servos are on all the time - will it fry them after a few hours? I'd hope not. Half an amp drain would get it below their triggering voltage in a few hours, so it's not like they would have been on for 40 hours straight.
Morale - I told them to mask the area off and not touch the door lock. They said it would be fine - they do it all the time. I should have insisted as the door lock on Volvos is a known tempermantal area.
Not to mention getting a new insurance company - refused to even let me pay the difference for a new fender. Went with a used one that saved them $15. No more AAA for me, thank you. State Farm was more expensive, but they had no qualms about something like that or me paying the difference. Nice body work, though - the place was top-notch, just someone messed up I guess.