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...

Right, I've done my homework. I have found an exploded view diagram of the late amazon steering column and I have figured out the steering lock removal. The bolts do have to be drilled out, but I felt that doing this in the car with a cordless was a risk I couldn't afford to take as damaging the threads in the lower half of the ignition block would be disastrous. (As I mentioned in the previous post , replacement units are simply not available). I read on a forum (non Volvo) that one method was to slacken off the bolts by working them round with a punch. I considered this for a while and after weighing up all my options I finally summoned up the courage to give it a go... It worked! I managed to turn the bolts enough to loosen the lock and slide it off the column. I then moved over to the bench drill and carefully drilled into the centre of each of the two security bolts. Finally, I used a reverse screw extracted to draw out the bolts.    Flushed with success, I then tackled t...

Having completed the repairs to the bulkhead and upper cowl (see previous post) , the next task was to sort the lower cowl area and the damage to the A pillar. I managed to find a couple of hours to start on this one afternoon just before Christmas.  I began by drilling out the spot welds to separate the panels (once again this repair is complicated by the fact that multiple sections meet in this area), I then cut off the rotten end from the inner door pillar, where it overlaps the cowl panel. Inspecting from inside the footwell, I could see that some of the welds to the pillar's box section had 'blown' and therefore needed be cut away. With these areas cleaned and prepped, I ran out of time and so had to finish for the day. A month past before I was able to resume as the weather turned distinctly cold and wet. With no heating in my garage,  I was not inclined to do much in January, and of course there was also the small matter of work to deal with.  Now in early February...