PROJECT VOLVO

Repairing the inner wings of my Volvo Amazon has been a job that I have been mulling over for quite some time and now having finished the repairs to the off side windscreen surround (see previous post ), it seemed that the time was right. I began by removing under-seal, using a scraper and a heat gun; a messy job, but it came away without too much fuss. I have also found that the last remnants can be wiped off using a rag soaked in panel wipe. Once the area was clean, I proceeded to carefully remove the previous repairs and then drilled out the spot welds to remove the box section. I have some repair sections which I bought many years ago at the Beaulieu Autojumble, however I felt that I didn't want to remove the entire inner wing from this side of the car as the wall itself was pretty good. My plan was to use just the top and box section of the repair panel. Of course, nothing ever goes that smoothly. Offering up the panel, I discovered that things didn't line up correctly. If...

I have been busy attacking the offside windscreen surround on my 1970 Volvo Amazon. There is significant corrosion here, as illustrated above and in a  previous post , and it has proved tricky to sort out. It’s not that there is a great deal of metal to replace, or that it has any structural issues, it is simple that the repair pieces are fiddly to make and fiddly to fit. I started with what looked like the easiest bit, a straight section about half way up the roof pillar. The first issue I encountered was how to remove the rot. This is a tight, intricate area and there is not enough room to cut with a grinder or disc cutter. In the end I used a combination of drilling, filing and sawing with shortened piece of hacksaw blade.  I worked out that it was probably going to be difficult to make this tiny double folded section accurately in one piece, so I decided to do it in two pieces . I made the first one and offered it up; It fitted well, but then I promptly dropped it inside t...