Volvo Amazon Saloon Boot (Trunk) Floor: Progress

I have been able to dedicate some time to the Volvo recently, continuing the work on the boot (trunk) floor, and I am making progress.

You may remember from a previous post that a while ago I bought some repair sections including the spare wheel well; you may also recall that I was not especially impressed with the quality off that pressing. Well, since then an alternative has become available, one which allegedly is closer to the original Volvo panels as it comes as two sections and incorporates some of the boot floor itself. Irritating though this is (having already spent money), I have now purchased these new pressings, along with the inner rear panel. They do seem to be of a higher quality.

To the boot floor then. My task today was to remove the spare wheel well. This has been plated over numerous times but I wanted to uncover as much of the original metal as I could, and to remove it sympathetically. This would help with points of reference when fitting the new panels. With a combination of grinding off old welds and chiselling with an air hammer/chisel* I managed to uncover what was left of the original panels.

This archeology did reveal an unexpected problem. It looks like water was getting trapped in the chassis end that the wheel well sits on and there is some corrosion. I don't see this a a huge issue, just another job to add to the list.

Having located all the factory spot welds I drilled them out, using my spot weld drill kit.

Most of the welds can be dealt with from inside the boot/trunk but you will need to drill out a few on the rear panel and most awkward of all, the seam to the rear wheel arch. These are accessed from within the arch itself, so car up on axle stands and wheel off. It can be a bit tight to get the drill in there as well.

I decided that I would try to keep the bumper mount in place and just detach it from the wheel well. This was to enable me to keep the alignment and once the new well is in situ, I will can place the replacement the mount accurately (in theory). There are numerous spot welds with some tricky to get at and so this can take quite some time to complete.

Eventually, with all the welds removed, the well came away cleanly.

Spare wheel well removed P130 122s

That's as far as I have got today. The next thing to look at is that chassis corrosion and then a test fitting of the new panels.

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