juular

I am surprised that subframe bends to be honest, it looks similar to the 240 one in that it would survive a nuclear blast. I did shim it when I put it back on, but who knows how it was shimmed when it came off because inevitable chaos. Anyway I'm quite happy with how it drives now. Seems to be dead straight and doesn't seem overly keen on following the ruts, so it must at least be fairly close.

Plopsies. Got sick of this leaking everywhere and had the seals lying around, so cracked on at the first lull in the weather. I found 5 leaks. Front seal. Shifter and reverse switch housing. Rear seal and Speedo drive. Pulled the output flange off and replaced the seal. Reverse switch sealed up with rtv. Front bearing housing removed, seal changed and new gasket made. There's a top hat seal for the speedo that I'll replace when the cable goes back on. The shifter leak was probably from the oil being slightly overfilled wile the gearstick wasn't bolted in fully. Ready to go back in, but have lost the motivation.

The twin carbs are normally found in the higher compression B18B, so probably 90 odd bhp. I think there's part of the chassis plate that denotes which engine was originally fitted. The B16 was mostly in very early cars so won't have been in a '65 122S. Interesting to see all the small differences already. All of the heads I've seen have been painted red from factory. The dash pad looks saveable !

Probably some value still in that going by the crates of brightwork and instrument panels, grille trims, windscreen etc, all expensive bits now.

Oh man... Look away now @MrsJuular

And that's before the thread even starts!

Having some more fun in the Amazon. This post could not be completed because a weather occurred.

Have they all been processed? I booked in reasonably early but still haven't had an email.

This is so close to being pushed into the canal. Thats with the new valve installed. There's almost nothing left except taking that piston out.

I feel a 240 is begging for an OM605 putting out 300bhp run on straight veg.

I really want a Volvo P1800 with a T5 engine. Am I allowed to buy a rotten base car? I reckon £10k would cover a poor condition P1800 shell and a working b5254t. Edit:

FX4.

Ordered track rod ends from Brookhouse as it was clear Classicswede were just taking the piss and they were never going to arrive. Less than 24 hours after ordering from Brookhouse they turned up, with free sweets. A bit more expensive but at least if you need something you can rely on it turning up fast. Easiest car in the world to do track rod ends on. Don't even need to jack it up. Just pull the split pins, undo the nuts, couple of smacks with a pickle fork and the bar comes off ready for the ends to be swapped. Keeping the bar the same length means no alignment needs to be done after. Dreaded nylocs on these, but the difference is they're so stiff I had to jam the tapers in using a trolley jack to get the nuts on otherwise they'd just spin. Clearly good quality fasteners for a change and quite reassuring. Next niggle. The boot wouldn't lock so I was wary of leaving the car anywhere. In the process of removing the latch and handle I broke the linkage. Once again the spares car has saved the day! Linkage pilfered. Last job. Noticed a rather significant ice cube in the spare wheel well. I guess there's a leak! Ran a drill through this to make a drain hole. Test drive time. Massive improvement with the new track rod ends. Steering is tight as a drum, steering wheel dead straight. This is how I like cars to drive as nothing pisses me off more than crap steering and suspension. The next and possibly final job to do for a long time is to pull the gearbox off and replace the front and rear seals as I've got a significant trail of oil. That can wait till it's not minus bloody seven outside though!

The delay would be tolerable if there was some communication. The complete silence coupled with not answering the phone and emails being bounced back means it rings every scammer alarm bell. I've tried to cancel the order and I'm getting ignored. What's the betting they now turn up making it even harder to get a refund?

Damn, I wish I'd seen that before ordering. I'm not on Facebook so I can't reach that page without being given a direct link like you have done. Going through past Volvo owners club forum posts it sounds like he has been unreliable for a very long time. I'm swaying between keeping the patina and trying to make it look smart. I'd like to keep it as is but I'm worried about panels beginning to rot through if I don't deal with the rust and paint it.

Took the Amazon a couple of short drives. Wheel alignment was awful, so I spent ages setting up my alignment rig and trying to adjust the left and right independently as you do on a normal rack and pinion setup. I then realised what an idiot I was and that it can't be done this way. Looking below, once the steering box is centred the offside toe is fixed and you have to adjust everything from the centre bar (#12 below) which moves the nearside wheel in and out. So I abandoned all science and just wound the bar, went for a drive, wound it again, drove, until it started to feel right, using the patented method of letting go of the steering wheel at speed and seeing what happened. It took quite a lot of winding the front toe inwards but got it close enough. Went a drive with @Talbot at the weekend to pick up a tarp for the Ami, and noted that the steering was quite wandery. Sounds a bit like too much toe-out to me as that normally manifests in the wheels wanting to follow every single dip in the surface. Gave it another good wad of toe-in, bunged some rad sealer in, and went for another drive today. So, the steering feels a lot less nervous now and will hold its path even on a bumpy road. The final piece in that puzzle is to take the steering wheel off and put it back on straight. Unfortunately the rad is still dripping a little bit from one corner despite the rad sealer being put in. I'm still quite nervous about driving this car because of what happened, which is just silly after all the work that I put into it. For that reason I'm considering taking it down to Rustival in March. Hopefully 600 miles will help my daft brain deal with it. Oh.. and when I was doing the suspension repairs after the ball joint incident I ordered a pair of track rod ends from Classic Swede. The money was taken but then complete radio silence from them, and now their email address is refusing emails. The Volvo owners club seem to think this is normal behaviour but frankly I disagree and is a shit state of affairs. One for the avoid list!

Wall calendar please.

Scotch French Corner

@Talbotis a hero and has earned his munchy box.

Car collection is hard

Guinea pig.

Simultaneously mega excited about this car but also glad it isn't mine. What a time to be alive.