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.

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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 ...

Boot (Trunk) Excavation

As I suspect you are aware, issues with rot in the boot (trunk) of the Volvo 120 series are common and my Amazon is no exception. Over the years it has been 'repaired' a number of times and not always sympathetically. I have made a start removing the filler and the patchwork of metal plates that make up the n/s and the floor next to the spare wheel well. I've ground off some of the welds, chiselled and bent back the non-original metal. As I have already reported the lower rear quarter replacement panels are definitely not correctly positioned but I have successfully managed to uncover the original boot floor which although is in a very poor condition, does give me some points of reference for the rebuild. Incidentally, a word of warning. I had to remove a lot of seam sealer and I really should have been wearing gloves. A slip with the scraper brought the session to a rapid conclusion. I was lucky not to end up in A&E. Now that I have investigated more tho...

Removing the Headliner - Volvo 120

Removing the headliner in my Volvo 120 is a job that I have been meaning to tackle for a while and with an enforced hiatus in the boot floor fabrications (awaiting delivery of a sheet of 19 gauge steel), today seemed as good a time as any. My plan was to try and rescue it. It is not that I think it is in the best condition, obvious it has discoloured, but it isn't ripped. It is an item that I think I might need to have in the car to meet the 'road going saloon' class spec, but not something that I am particularly bothered about aesthetically. At £100 for a new headliner, I though it might be worth go at saving. However the Volvo service/workshop manual suggests that is not the norm, simply instructing to cut away the old lining. After removal of sun visors, grab handles and the interior light, I started on the headliner at the rear of the car. I had already removed the parcel shelf trim some time ago and so the lower corners were already revealed. There is a small fibre ...

PROJECT VOLVO

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