About Project Volvo

Hello and welcome to 'Project Volvo'. By way of introduction I thought I should give some background regarding the car, its history and my intentions. Here goes...

The Car

My car is a 1970 Volvo 122s 2door saloon powered by a B20 2 litre, four cylinder engine. I have owned the car since 1983 and it was my daily transport up until the mid 1990s when engine issues combined with some quite frankly appallingly badly botched bodywork repairs by a couple of chancers/cowboys/idiots (yes, I am still bitter) along with lack of funds forced me to take the car off the road. The Volvo has covered almost a quarter of a million miles and I have personally driven more than 100,000 of them, including a tour around Scandinavia in 1985.

The Restoration

I have always intended to restore the car, in fact I began working on it shortly after taking it off the road. It was partially stripped and after learning to MIG weld I tackled the near side 'A' pillar and footwell, and replaced the front offside outrigger. Then 'stuff' got in the way.

After a hiatus of more than twenty years I have finally exhumed the car and resumed the restoration. I have a limited budget, limited knowledge and limited skills, but I don't see why that should stop me.

The Blog

I started this blog to record and illustrate my progress in undertaking what many of my friends consider to be a near impossible task. I don't claim to be an expert, I'm not suggesting that my way is the right way and I am certainly not offering instruction. I have no doubt that some of you will find much to criticise in my methods; if so, tell me, I'm not precious. I would be very pleased to receive your advice/wisdom. I simply wish to share my experiences and I hope that this blog offers something of interest and encouragement to anyone else out there thinking of attempting a similarly ambitious restoration.

If you find this site to be of interest or value, please spread the word and subscribe via email/RSS to be notified of future posts as they are published. If at any point you have any views, feedback or questions please add a comment, I would be very happy to here from you.

Comments

Tooling Up: DIY Sheet Metal Brake

My new 1mm sheet steel has arrived, along with some additional angle and flat bar... but more of that in a moment. Using the refined ply forms , I have now made the boot floor rear edge piece again and I am much happier with it. Going for the extra gauge steel was definitely the right decision and this new panel feels much more substantial. I have had a full test fitting with all panels, which is looking pretty good. The next issue concerns the rear inner arch to which spare wheel well side and floor is to be attached. There is some rust here and so this will need to be repaired before the really serious welding/reconstruction of the boot floor can begin. Although only a relatively small area, complex curves and profiles need to be created. I realised then that I had need of more fabrication tools. Here then is a description of how I fashioned a DIY sheet metal brake; a means by which I can easily and precisely create folds in sheet metal of up to around 90˚or so. This constructio...

Volvo Amazon Inner wing Repair - Part 2

As indicated in the previous post , the intention was to work on to the rear offside arch next, but the inner arch repair sections still haven't arrived. It seems that they are out of stock with the wholesalers in Sweden, and that there is no indication of when, or even if they will be delivered. I am now beginning too think that I will be lucky to see them before Christmas. Change of plan then. I have re-jigged the garage and I have turned the car round to create space to start on the nearside inner wing. There is also the windscreen corner and battery box to sort out, so this should keep me busy for a while. Just like with the offside repair panel, I noticed that there was a problem with the wing bolt hole alignment, although in this case it appeared to be less pronounced. I judged that it would still necessitate removing of the box section from the rest of the repair panel. The existing inner wing was in a poorer condition on this side and so I need to replace at least some of ...

Volvo Amazon Speedometer Facia Restoration

Back in May last year I started a process of refurbishing the speedometer unit from my Amazon. The speedometer itself was working fine, it was simply a matter of appearance; just like probably every other Volvo Amazon out there, the grey crackle coating on the facia had deteriorated and was peeling off. Many owners remove the coating completely and simply leave the brass finish, but quite frankly I don't like this look. I took the plunge and experimented with disassembling the binnacle (details in this earlier post ). I can now report that I have finished the task. The first challenge prior to painting the was what to do about the plastic warning lamp lenses (high beam, indicators, oil pressure and charge/amps). I wanted to remove them as I thought they would be difficult to mask effectively. They are fixed originally by being melted from the back. They also each have a rubber shroud which being 50+ years old and subjected to heat cycles from the lamps, are somewhat discoloured an...

PROJECT VOLVO

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