SwedeSpeed - Volvo Performance Forum banner

I guess I'll be posting in here more often...

149K views 286 replies 54 participants last post by  Csm22 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi everyone, I'm Lloyd. You may know me from subforums such as "C70-1998-2005" or "V70-2001-2007". I have also posted in the 960 forum as that's the main car(s) I drove from '99-'09.

My very first car was a '65 Amazon, purchased in 1987. I picked it out when I was about 14, and I considered myself lucky to have my dream car as my first car. There's just something about the way they look that just sets me off. Anyway, I butchered that car. Over 6 years of ownership I frankensteined it like you wouldn't believe. I installed D-jetronic from a '72 140, I installed a 4-speed OD from an 80s 240, I cut the springs to lower it, I drove it for about 15,000 miles with no oil in the rear axle - the gears howled BAD and the pinion was so worn out that I sliced my thumb open on the tip of a gear tooth, and last but not least I hacksawed the roof off to make it a hardtop convertible. In Oregon. As my daily driver. Needless to say, it died a terrible death. The entire thing rusted out, and it was so low that the wheels constantly hit the front fenders, and eventually ripped off every mounting bolt except the ones close to the firewall. It banged loud over every bump, and you could grab the grille and lift all the sheetmetal up off the car about 2 inches. In 1995 I took all the remaining decent parts off of it and sent it to the crusher. I did have some great times in it though:



I then bought a flawless '67 that was a two-owner car and had been absolutely babied its entire life. No rust, no repaint, no rebuild, it had two patches very professionally done to the interior and that was it. Literally flawless outside of a few rock chips on the front. It was so nice that I couldn't bring myself to even cut a hole for a speaker. And I just about had a heart attack when a piece of plastic fell off a truck and punched a hole in one of the grilles. I decided that I was not the right owner for it, and sold it less than a year later. I have regretted it ever since. So I spotted RoachCoach's for sale ad here last October and talked to him, and decided that it wasn't the right time, due to how hard it would have been for me to go look at the car. Then in November I got laid off, and spent 6 months unemployed. Then in June I got a new job, and he re-posted the car for sale two weeks later. Then, a friend happened to be road-tripping within an hour of his house, and was willing to stop and look at the car for me, and take high res photos. 204 pictures later and I decided it was meant to be. I haven't even washed it yet!













The specs: 1966, was a one owner car from '66 to '04, with 160k on it, when it was sold to the 2nd owner in Virginia. That owner proceeded to put another 45k miles on it, and spent a boatload of money on refreshing a lot of the car. Unfortunately he hit a deer, and had to have the front end repainted. At that point he sold it to RoachCoach, who put very few miles on it before offloading it to me. But it's in great shape and is 100% documented. It's not perfect, but it's very nice, which is exactly what I was looking for. My short term plans are to get it on the road as is, and do a full "stage 0". After that I'll lower it and put custom wheels on it, do a disc brake swap from an 1800, put in an aftermarket stereo, and enjoy it like that for quite a while. Then long term, like a few years from now, I want to put in a whiteblock turbo motor and make it scream. But we'll get to that later. I took delivery 2 weeks ago. The first issue cropped up when it wouldn't pass emissions. Fortunately the car came with a ton of parts, among which was a full carb rebuild kit. I started with the dash wiring though, as you can see in the above picture, things aren't quite where they need to be. The wiper assembly had died and there was a new one waiting to be put in. Ta-daa! The dash metal is in spectacularly good shape, I'm really glad nobody hacked a hole in it for a modern stereo. It had one mounted below the dash, which I may or may not reinstall.



Then I redid some of the engine bay wiring, I didn't like the way the alternator had been converted. Before:



After:



Then I fixed the driver's window, the cable had come off the track. I believe the lower pulley was misaligned due to the axle loosening over the years. I pulled it out and re-swaged it with a hammer, and reassembled everything. No pictures though, that was really greasy. But it works great! Next I started on the carbs. You could say they were worn out:





Elbow grease goes a long way:



Then I ordered a reamer to re-bush the carb bodies, and set about finishing the last problem with the interior. Besides the seam split you can see above, there is also this:



I stripped the cover, turned it inside out, and sewed it back up.







Then my reamer came in, and I re-bushed the carbs.



Ah, so pretty!



I tried to tune it and it ran like absolute garbage. My front carb was running lean no matter what I did. Turns out I got a little overzealous with the tightening of the jet tube:



So I fixed that and it finally fired up and runs really smooth! I spent an hour dialing it in really fine, thanks to the flow meter that was included with all the parts! I even was able to get the throttle linkage to keep the carbs synced after only 3 adjustments. Anyway, that's 2 weeks worth of work summed up in one post. Gonna try to get it smogged tomorrow, and I'll update as I do more.
 
See less See more
20
#4 ·
Re: I guess I'll be posting in here more often... (Walrus3)

Quote, originally posted by Walrus3 »
Nice work!
Where do you live that they require smog testing for an over-40 car??
Maybe you should move to Oklahoma! (probably lower taxes too!)

http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/r....html

http://www.cdphe.state.co.us/r...s.pdf

From above...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On or after October 1, 1989, no used vehicle which is required to be registered in the program area shall be registered, unless such vehicle has a Certification of Emissions Control, or of Emissions Exemption. The seller of a used vehicle is required to obtain a Certification of Emissions Control for the new owner at the time of sale. This paragraph (3) does not apply to the sale of a motor vehicle that is inoperable or otherwise cannot be tested in accordance with this regulation if the seller of the motor vehicle provides a written notice to the purchaser pursuant to Section 42-4-310(4), C.R.S. If a motor vehicle is being registered for the first time in the program area, the owner shall obtain the certification and submit it with the application for registration to the Department of Revenue or an authorized agent of the Department of Revenue.

For a 1981 or earlier motor vehicle, the vehicle has a valid certification of emission compliance and the dealer has had the vehicle inspected since acquiring it. Such a vehicle purchased from a licensed motor vehicle dealer may be registered in the program area without an inspection if, on the date of vehicle registration, at least nine months remain before the expiration of such certification.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

George Dill
 
#5 · (Edited)
Re: I guess I'll be posting in here more often... (gdill2)

Quote, originally posted by gdill2

1966 - my very favorite year for the USA Amazon - congrats! If you are Lloyd who is Chris?...
I am also Chris! Heh. I didn't know the real name thing was public. I try to stay relatively anonymous online, so I'm Lloyd on the internets.

And yeah, I live in a Denver suburb smog control county, so the only cars exempt from testing are '59 and older. And I failed again today, because I'm an idiot. I set the mixture in a cool garage doing nothing but idling, and today it was hot, I drove it, and the car heatsoaked pretty good while waiting for the test. So I ran rich. First thing I did when I failed was lift the pistons and sure enough, speed increase! I turned them lean another two full flats to get it right. I'm going to take it to a shop with an exhaust gas analyzer and set it to make sure I'll pass next time though.
 
#6 · (Edited)
Re: I guess I'll be posting in here more often... (LloydDobler)

Passed emissions yesterday! Yay! I spent the last two days trying to find a shop with an exhaust gas analyzer to set me up. One guy said he didn't know they made adjustable carburetors. I kind of went ???? over that one. I even called one Volvo shop that said yes, they have an exhaust analyzer, and no, they won't help me tune my car. Apparently everyone with an old beater Volvo expects them to do a miracle and get their car to pass emissions, so they've simply stopped working on anything older than a 240 series. I was really disappointed, as this is neither a beater nor needing a miracle. And I've been a good customer to them for the rare instances when I can't or don't want to do the work. I finally realized I was going to have to go out of marque for help, and started looking at British car shops, since as you all know, the SU carbs are on a ton of british cars also. The first Jag shop I called, the conversation went like this:

"Hi I'm wondering if you guys are familiar with SU carbs"
-"I only have 40 years or so experience tuning those"
"Have you ever worked on 60's Volvos?"
-"Did a full rebuild of a P1800 last week for one of my best customers. He's a Jag guy but also has this Volvo."
"I just rebuilt my SUs and I failed emissions so I want to make sure they're right. Do you have an exhaust gas analyzer?"
-"Sure, but you really don't need it. To pass emissions with SU carbs, just lean it out till it starts to miss, then richen it enough to make it smooth again. Then after the test, richen it up again so you don't burn your valves, and bring it in to me and I'll set it right with the exhaust analyzer."
"Ah, see I was doing the piston lift test and thought I had it mixed right..."
-"Nah, the piston test is worthless. Just do what I said."

Dudeman knew his stuff. I would have just taken it to him this afternoon but he's semi retired and quits at 11:30 every day. So I set an appointment for this morning that I'd use if I failed again. I didn't. So I went ahead and paid for the 5 year registration on collector plates. I also found out that in Colorado it IS still the rule that on a car with collector plates, you only have to get it emission tested once for as long as you own the car. So unless they change the law, I'm done! They just don't list that on the website for some reason.
 
#9 · (Edited)
Brake time! I haven't touched this car for a full month, I've been super busy. The next thing in line is the brakes. They shudder like crazy, and yet I don't feel it in the steering so I've suspected it's the rears. Fortunately, new rear shoes, springs, and adjusters were included with the car, but I'm sure I'll have to spend some money on something. Anyway, I brought my little buddy home yesterday.



I took the wheel off. Uh oh, what's this red dust?



Oh fantastic, it's rusty metal particles because whoever put the drums on last didn't tighten the nut all the way. I can spin the washer on the axle. I took out the cotter pin and the nut was finger tight. It appears whoever touched these brakes last tightened them down with the e-brake on, or they tightened them down and then backed them off until the cotter pin lined up. either way, it was the very wrong way to do it.



The previous owner saw fit to include a brake drum puller. I was glad to have it, but this is probably the first time in the history of the 122 that it wasn't needed. The drum didn't come off by hand, but it would have if I pulled a little harder, I simply put this on and spun it and the drum slid off.



Definitely too much red powder in here, I hope the taper isn't all ruined.



Ewww.



Okay, these shoes are about half worn out, so I'll go ahead and replace them when I put this thing back together.



The cylinder looks a bit nasty. Fortunately, it slides back and forth easily and isn't leaking, so I'm gonna use it for now.



On to the passenger side. Someone has definitely been in here fairly recently, the shoes are newer, and the parts are cleaner. Same situation as the driver side though, the nut was finger tight and it all just came apart far too easily.



Shiny keys are not a good thing. It could be worse, none of the keyways in the axles or drums are sharp at the corners, which would indicate heavy wear.



But, I wiped down the sealing surfaces, and noticed this.



Looks like this is very likely my vibrating brake, as this clearly wobbled all over and ruined itself. It also ruined the seal, as can be seen above.



Excessive camber like the VW guys!



So anyway, I stopped there to take the drums in and see what's up. I didn't realize that sealing surface is what it is, and on the extra drum that came with the car, that surface is all rusted out. I'm hoping the machine shop I go to can make the surfaces all clean again. Then I'm going to have my buddy at work sandblast them and I'll paint them up with high temp paint. I also discovered that my driver's side e-brake cable is frozen. So now I have that to deal with. See? Even when you have the parts, on an old car there's always something extra to cost you. Ah well, time to shop for a few parts. On the one hand, I hate to spend too much energy and/or money fixing up this axle, as I'm planning to do a disc brake conversion as soon as I can afford it. On the other hand, if I do everything up right, I can sell this axle to someone who needs it. Although who wants a 209k axle? We'll see.
 
#10 ·
A "speedi sleeve" will fix up the bad seal surface just dandy.
My "free" 122s also had drums that "fell off" when I started on the refurb of the rear-end.

Unfortunately, I mis-assembled the first side I did but not before I had tightened down the nut enough to make them truely stuck on there. Pause a week for the puller to arrive by mail!

Other side has the shims to set axle end-play and those were corroded, too. Luckily, they cleaned up real good-like and when reassembled were still the appropriate thickness so rear-end stopped clunking!

Really fortunate was that the improper assembly of the rear axles appeared to be the very last thing done on the car before it was parked for the ensuing several years so it didn't have enough miles on them to damage anything.

Can't speak for the rust or the totally clapped out motor that "needs a head-job."

HAH!
 
#11 · (Edited)
Just a quick update, not much to report. A friend tried to sandblast the drums for me, and his sandblaster died on him, but not before he waited two weeks to give it a try. No worries, beggars can't be choosers. So I took the drums in to a machine shop where they told me that they'd been machined out numerous times and were too far out for them to re-machine them. So basically my options were to buy new drums or reassemble what I have as-is and hope for the best. I opted for #2, with the justification that I'll just bump up the schedule for the disc brake conversion. Anyway, I did just that and the good news is that a majority of my braking vibrations were definitely due to the drums being loose. I took a quick test drive with some 50-0 stops and they were very smooth, although not 100%. At least I can't visibly see the hood shake like I could before. Good enough to get me through the next 1000 miles or so.
 
#12 · (Edited)
Here's a little teaser for everyone.

 
#13 · (Edited)
Tonight I went back to my storage and actually took the wheels off and played with the ride height. While the pictures are terrible due to the warehouse lighting, and the fact that the car is tilted over to the driver's side, I think I got all I needed. Basically this is the stance I'm going for. Low in the front, with a slight rake.





I'm trying to decide now just howmuch energy to put in to actually getting the wheels on the car. I could re-drill the hubs and drums with the 108mm bolt pattern, so I can use same-pattern spacers to put the wheels right where they need to be, or I can just wait until I get the P1800 hubs and rear axle, and put the wheels and spacers on then. Which will be a while, because I'm trying to figure out the cheapest way to ship the parts car here. Decisions, decisions. Anyway, what's the general consensus on the wheels? I think they fit the car really, really well.
 
#15 ·
Re: (gdill2)

Very awesome set of wheels. Everyone on Turbobricks gives me hell when I talk about modern wheels on these old cars.

I also like these:


Don't forget about the Torque Thrust, or the American Racing Outlaw. both good wheels for the Amazon.

I think I might go with Outlaws, but it will get complicated as I am picking up an 1800 disc rear end from a guy in Houston.
 
#17 ·
Re: 122 S 1966

¨Hi, thats a very nice car you found there, love the original radio http://********************/smile/emthup.gif
A good solution to remove dirt from old carbs, is alloy wheel cleaner
it restores the original "factory look" on the alloy, looks real good, if you also get the metal screws/washers zink plated, a guy here in Denmark did this, and it looked just like the one at the museum, with 25 mp on the clock.
your car is VERY original, and unmolested, I noticed that the original water hose clamps are still there
very nice

My car is also a 66 S, it was sold new by Impire Sports car centre in Boulder / Colorado, and when the owner moved to Denmark in 1969, the car followed, it has the same Volvo by Bendix radio.
I took a different route, to bigger wheels, I had a set made, that is 7" at the front, and 8.5" at the back, they are made from original steel rims, that is cut in two pieces, and a new center is then welded in, I then had new tyres send from US, with the thin whitewall.
 
#19 · (Edited)
JC T ONE said:
your car is VERY original, and unmolested
Thanks for the advice on the carbs but I won't be keeping them long term. I sort of disagree on the unmolested part of this car. It's high mileage, has had many pieces of the interior replaced, and not original, it's had the transmission and clutch cylinders replaced and still gushes fluid out of both as well as the engine, it's been repainted all over once, painted on the front end twice, with not great quality work on the front. I see it as the perfect candidate for modding, as it's a very nearly rust-free body.

zombie_stomp said:
Have a look at my less spectacular (but fully lovable) 122 4-door project.
Don't worry, I'll be watching. You are a more courageous man than I.

Update time! I decided since I don't have the money to do real big mods to the car yet, I better start on the cheaper stuff. So the first project is killing the rust from the poor body repair on the front of the car. Keep in mind the 2nd owner paid about $2300 or so for this repair in 2007 after hitting a deer. I dragged my helper out for a Saturday of wrenching. She loves this car so she got into it pretty well. Also I promised her ice cream if she was good.



She insisted that she needed a glove, her hand was getting dirty.



All the areas behind the grilles will be rustproofed and painted black when I'm done.



I hate how Volvo decided to snap the headlight terminals into the plug after running the wires through the body of the car. The plug doesn't fit through the hole. So I have to use a pick or something (something small that I did not have handy) to remove the terminals and risk messing up where they go now. I guess that's what digital cameras are for.



Looking through the headlight hole, this is some of the damage that they didn't rust protect. Basically the damage and/or repair knocked the undercoating off. As you all know, there are no fender liners, this is exposed to rock and water spray from the tire. And at the time this was the guy's daily driver. This just infuriates me that a body shop wouldn't take care of this on a really nice vintage car.



Hah! Look at the silly kid. She thinks this will be her car someday.



I got the grille section out, here is more un-prevented rust.



And while they do appear to have very decently painted the back side of the grille section, again those side areas are directly exposed to water and debris flying off the tires and should be undercoated.



And all of this should have been prepped and repainted.



As should this.



So after as much time as a 7 year old has patience for, this is how far I got today. I will take a pick down to remove the headlight wiring and then the fenders will have to come off too, there's rust under their bolts as well. Note the nice beefy IPD sway bar under the front. Woot.


And while I was there my co-worker whipped this out of his parts stash and we set it up for laughs. Someday...


Of course this is intended to be a low cost repair, mostly labor, but it's not going to work out that way. All the screws are badly rusted so I'm going to replace those, with stainless where possible. And all the rubber that the hood rests on is either deteriorated or missing, so it sits paint on paint in some places. One of the high school jerks at the emissions station slammed the hood instead of lowering it, knocking a 1/4" chip or so off the grille section. In addition to that, the turn signal boots are cracked and deteriorating, so I'll want to replace those. And the front hood seal that goes across the top of the radiator support was completely shot, and I had to remove it anyway if I'm going to repaint that piece. So yeah, I'm holding out for a good christmas bonus but I need to drop about $300 in parts and POR-15/undercoat to get this thing properly protected. I've seen ads for someone selling plastic fender liners, I might spring for some of those too. More to come.
 
#20 ·
Re: 122 S 1966 (LloydDobler)

Great pics!

When the young lady speaks of her future car does she give it a name?

Given that you have the nose removed maybe the next step would be to pull the mud guards (fenders) and redo everything from the firewall forward.

George Dill
 
#21 · (Edited)
She hasn't given it a name yet. I've taken to calling it my little buddy, and I think that name's gonna stick, as dorky as it is. Remove the fenders you say? Tonight I went back and finished removing the fenders. The headlight wires were surprisingly easy to remove, just stuck a tiny screwdriver in a slot next to the terminal and it popped right out. Almost like they made it to do that. So out came the headlight buckets. They look pretty good overall, but are starting to rust due to poor care in the past. My co-worker has a sandblaster so I'll clean them all up and repaint with POR-15 so they last forever. And they need new screws all around.



The mud flaps are in great condition for their age. Still quite soft.



Looks like there's no paint under the washers. I'll remedy that when I reassemble.



Here's the rust that was under the front corner. Not terrible, should be easy to clean up.



This kind of bothers me, a little surface rust under the rear of the fender. Back by the windshield. But it doesn't look too bad either.


I expected worse down here, there were leaves packed behind the fender at the bottom.



The nice thing about taking it all apart like this is that I can pretty much confirm that there was no serious damage from the deer. It was all confined to the grille and maybe some of the fenders.



So here we are, I guess this isn't really rust repair as much as it is re-rust proofing the front.



Other side.



Someone on another forum told me I might have clearance problems with the bigger tires. I don't think so.


So anyway, I'll remove the goo that went in the fender joints, clean up the metal, hit it with POR 15, find some modern version of the joint putty they used, as it seems thicker than seam sealer. What I can't decide is whether or not to leave the factory undercoat inside the fender and just touch it up, or remove it all and redo it. It's incredibly thick, and it's plenty tough and stuck on well. But it comes off if you pull on it. I think maybe I'll leave well enough alone and just touch it up, and then whenever I decide to repaint the car fully, see if it makes sense to redo it all then. The really good news though is that the rest of the car is very, very rust free. Nothing underneath or in the trunk except a tiny spot in the spare tire well, some spots in the corners of the rear windows, and the bottom of the driver's door has some just beginning to show on the inside. I should be fine with the car until it's time to repaint it. I'm thinking around a 5 year timeline, pretty much the last thing I do to the car to complete it.
 
#23 · (Edited)
Thanks George. I'm a pretty proud dad.

Alright, I got a christmas bonus so it's time to get back to work on this beast. Poor thing is just sitting, battery dead, cold, and alone. I still go say hi every day or two. Anyway, I did a shopping list yesterday to see what all I need. Swedish treasures has complete hardware kits for the front end of this car, and very cheaply. I just can't decide if I want to go with new plated hardware or go and hand pick stainless hardware myself. Regardless, every single piece is available, all the sheet metal stamped nuts for the fenders (all mine are rusty), the weird headlight adjustment screws (one of mine is broken and the rest are rusty) all the little screws for the headlight assembly, all of it. And reasonably priced too, like 20 bucks a fender for a complete hardware kit including gasket for the edge by the door. Anyway, with a few other things like hood bumpers, turn signal boots and lenses, a new wing window frame rubber, and cylinder rebuild kits for the clutch and brakes (not sure if the brake master cylinder needs it but better safe than sorry) the total came out to just under $400. But I do have a "mandatory" list that is only $220. I'll wait till I get back from visiting family to choose what all to buy I think, just in case I have some extra expense like last year - Portland got a twice-in-a-century blizzard that forced me into a hotel for 4 days. But that means getting back to work prepping the car for reassembly. I decided on one of my little visits to the car that the bent sheetmetal would just not do:



So I drained coolant, and pulled the radiator to get access. A top down shot:



I started on the passenger side, because it was just pooched out a little so the radiator mount was out of position, and the grommet holes through it were all folded. Before:



After: Paint is rough but the holes are flat again.



Then I set to work on the driver's side, and really after only about 10 minutes with a hammer and dolly it was like this:







I worked on both sides for another 20 minutes or so just to make sure everything was really close to where it ought to be. Then I wanted to check the alignment with the upper core support:





Everything looks hunky dory. Now it's time for sanding all this crappy broken paint and rust off of these things and picking up a can of rust converter. The interesting thing about all this tonight is that I've never had luck with a hammer and dolly, ever. I think in my old age I've developed patience, in the past I would have wanted more results faster, and just hit the metal way too hard and made it worse. I couldn't actually see the metal moving when I hit it, but once I stopped and took my hands off it was a definite improvement. And then out of nowhere it was all straight again. And it didn't take really any time at all, a very satisfying evening.
 
#25 · (Edited)
Just a quick update. No new pictures, but I dropped $200 on front end hardware and rubber. New hood seal, turn signal boots, headlight screws, fender screws, all new speed nuts, etc. Also, my dad started stripping my 1800 parts car and will be shipping me the suspension sometime this month so I can get started on the disc brake conversion. Also did you all see the LeCarra steering wheel I'm selling in the classifieds? It bolts right in to a 122 and looks/feels awesome.
 
#26 · (Edited)
Does this look like $200 to you guys?



Nice to see that the turn signal boots are actually OEM Volvo! I'm very impressed with the quality of the rest of the rubber parts, they definitely don't look like they're made from decades-old worn out molds. I got everything from Swedish Treasures, so far the service and quality is good and I recommend them. The only thing that bugs me about this order is that the fender hardware kits include the rubber hood bumpers, and so does the hood rubber kit. So I have extra bumpers that snap into the fenders, if any of the rest of you guys might be interested I'll sell 'em once I figure out how much extra they cost me. I've had another project interrupt this one so it'll be another month or so before I make any more progress.
 
Top