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

Volvo Amazon Rear Arch Repairs: Update

This post is a short update and will not feature much in the way of photographic documentation I'm afraid. I have not been as diligent with my camera as I should be. Following the O/S rear chassis and inner wheel tub repairs ( see previous post ), I turned my attention to the new inner arch panels. These pressings look great and come highly recommended. It has been my plan for a good while to use these as the structure from which to rebuild the whole of the rear quarters, but (surprise, surprise) I have hit some problems. The first issue seems to be with the fit to the outer arches. I have new repair sections for these and so I thought that the best way to start would be to offer these up together, expecting them to clip together precisely; if only. I spent an entire day measuring, making card templates and trying to work out how they might marry up. I can tell you that the radius of the inner repair is not by default the same as the outer. This threw me completely....

Volvo P120: O/S Boot (Trunk) Floor Pt. 2

Picking up from where we left off, I had decided that I needed to create a controlled curve in the panel that I was creating for the front part of the O/S boot floor. I felt I needed a slip roller, or something similar. Researching available tools it soon became apparent that cost was disproportionate, given that it was entirely possible that I would never need this tool again, and so a 'DIY' solution was required. A couple of hours on YouTube and a root through the scarp metal bin... I came up with a plan. I used a couple of scrap bearings salvaged from Mazda Bongo idler pullys, two Ikea desk legs and an old HiFi speaker stand. The bearings fitted perfectly into the ends of the desk legs, great, so I then fitted some bolts and washers through the centre go the bearings as spindles. On the other end of the legs I found a couple more bolts that fitted snuggly into the plastic feet. Obviously not a robust solution, but I figured strong enough to last the short time required. I ...

Volvo 120 Side Cowl and Bulkhead Repair

Well, the weather has finally caught up with me and I have run out of time to finish that boot (trunk) floor and spare wheel well repairs before the winter so I have decided to leave it to the spring (see previous post). I have now turned the car around so as to work on the off side issues, including the side cowl, bulkhead, front floor pan and rear inner sill. I have made a start on the cowl. Another typical amazon rot issue is the side cowl. I think that this is a consequence of all that muck that gets thrown up and trapped behind the front wing, and the notorious leaking windscreen corners. The side cowl is under attack from inside and out. I had two areas to repair on the offside (having already repaired the nearside some time ago), the lower quarter, and the join between the cowl, the bulkhead (firewall) and the inner wing. To begin, I used a heat gun and a scraper to remove as much of the old underseal as I could, finishing off with some panel wipe. I...

PROJECT VOLVO

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