Rusting Rainforest. Volvo 121 - A Potted History.

[Wilko220]

Some of the photographs in this thread are works of art.

[dugong]

Still remember starting this up with no problems whatsoever. It was GOOD.

 

 

[dollywobbler]

Incidentally, do you remember your times/terminal speed from Santa Pod? Just want to see if the 2CV can make it a hat-trick.

[chaseracer]

Top story, top motah. 

 

Thanks for sharing, Jon 

[purplebargeken]

Great tale. Nice to see another one on here.

 

Here's mine:

 

 

Mechanically spot on after Keith M spent a lot of money sorting it all out. Body is ok apart from a couple of bits, worst being a section of the O/S rear arch. If you ever come across one of those rubbery/plastic coathanger things that screw into the top of the B post I'd be uber keen to have it. One is missing in mine and it bugs me. A lot.

 

Cheers

 

Ken

[Spiny Norman]

Amazons are GR9. One of the few 50s cars you can easily use as everyday transport, as I did for a while with mine when some far newer machinery failed to proceed. 

 

[Mr Lobster]

Bloody ace thread, really enjoyed reading that.

 

I should get around to doing something similar for my R4 adventures.

[drum]

Top write up. Always wanted an amazon as not only are they ace but I was brought up on volvos and land rovers. I've got land rovers.

 

Local scrappy has made an arse of spraying an amazon estate (are they called 122s in estate form?). He's a hungry bas but might do a deal with Christmas approaching.

[trigger]

I went to look at Amazon 122S a few years back, It was up for £1800 and from the description it sounded lovely, I drove up to Diss in this horrific downpour were I had to pull over as I couldn't see, when I got to the ladies house I was a bit disappointed really.

 

The car was very rotten, It has a big hole in the boot, the chrome work was gone, no carpets, the engine leaked oil, wings were rotten and it needed a lot of money spent on it, even though it came with a shed load of spares including a bonnet, new bumpers and another engine I still didn't fancy taking it on as It was too much work for me.

 

The next day the lady emailed me to say I could have the car for £800, It was moted at the time too, I rang Brookhouse to get a idea on prices, I got told the wings were £500 each alone so I sacked the whole idea off, Shame really as I'd still love one.

 

 

[drum]

G reg must have been the last of them because my dad had a G reg 145.

[dugong]

The Amazon estates were known as the 220 series to differentiate them from the saloons. A basic B18A non O\D estate was a 221, a B18D engined wagon was a 222S (122S as a saloon - the mid spec, in effect). No '223GTs' exist although it wouldn't surprise me if someone had made one by throwing some GT bits at an estate and making a badge up.

The B18C was a special purpose version of the B18 and used in military vehicles like the Hagglunds Snowcat. You could also buy a B18 as a Volvo Penta inbound marine engine called the AQ-120. 

Confusingly there are also 131s and 133s, although I'm buggered if I can make sense of Volvo's numbering system if I'm honest. Even Claes Rydholm gets them muddled sometimes. 

 

G reg must have been the last of them because my dad had a G reg 145.

 

 

The 120-Series wasn't deleted from Volvo's catalogue until 1970 - and they were building them in South Africa in CKD form after that. Not bad for a design that was pottering around as a prototype in 1956 and went on sale in Scandinavia in 1957. There are a few 1959 \ 60 cars known to the VOC, and it's amazing how two tone paint and a different nose makes them look ancient. 

 

I went to look at Amazon 122S a few years back, It was up for £1800......

 

No carpets, the engine leaked oil, wings were rotten and it needed a lot of money spent on it, even though it came with a shed load of spares including a bonnet, new bumpers and another engine I still didn't fancy taking it on as It was too much work for me.

 

I rang Brookhouse to get a idea on prices, I got told the wings were £500 each alone so I sacked the whole idea off, Shame really as I'd still love one.

 

 

Good second-hand wings aren't £500 if you know where to look - that's specialist tripe. I got a pair in an eBay job lot for £120 a few years ago. Several stores at the Eskilstuna Vederandag had very good \ NOS wings in the SEK 3000 ballpark. They're not cheap, but they're bolt on, and cheaper than the OSF equivalent. 

 

Wings, overdrives and brake discs are probably the most expensive spares out there for Amazons - although basic engine prices are slowly creeping up you can still score a knackered B18 core for £150 and a B20 for upwards of £300. You can tune them to an amusing degree as well although it does get expensive if you start hammering the till at KG Trimining or V Performance in Long Island. 

There's also the scene taxed bits that came with the 123GT. That had a B18B with 115 bhp was the most powerful engine offered by the factory (although the later B20E and F lumps were closing on 130 thanks to D-Jetronic fuel injection. These were fitted to P1800ESs and certain 140s, and lots of Amazon owners swap over to B20s and run them on carbs because of the increase in torque). 

The 123GT had spot lights with bumper brackets than can go for silly sums (although you can buy new ones via VP \ Brookhouse), a different dashtop and a pod revcounter and a 3 spoke steering wheel. Some GTs also had wing mirrors which are crazily dear. People confuse them with the similar estate wing mirrors which have a pointed mounting base - the GT variants are rounded (SAD FUCKER).  

 

A mint version of the latter can tip £200 or more on eBay but they're not really my thing. My car has a 123GT dashtop and rev counter, possibly because I'm a hopless scene whore. If you find a working GT mercury bootlight switch, you could pretty much name your price, too. 

You can also get wider 5.5" steels that were offered as an option abroad - UK 123GTs never had them. Again, you can pay billions of Euro for them off German eBay (the Lemmerz and Kronprinz originals were a TUV approved modification and so can be fitted to modified Amazons aus Deutschland) or get a set from Brookhouse for about £400. Somehow I managed to get a pair off eBay for £63 on my birthday - I just need another pair. Standard 120 steels were 4", and certain estates came with 4.5" rims if you specified them. 

[drum]

I foolishly put a set of 121 hub caps on eBay during a clear out about 4 years ago and they sold for 99p to a German. Had to post them to a London address.

 

Sorry for the drift ..

[dugong]

I foolishly put a set of 121 hub caps on eBay during a clear out about 4 years ago and they sold for 99p to a German. Had to post them to a London address.

 

Sorry for the drift ..

Harsh. I hate eBay sometimes. 

[Spiny Norman]

Confusingly there are also 131s and 133s, although I'm buggered if I can make sense of Volvo's numbering system if I'm honest. Even Claes Rydholm gets them muddled sometimes. 

 

The 130 was the 2 door version. 131 for the single carb version, 133 for the twin SU job. Mine was down as a 133 on the V5 document.

 

The reason there were so many Amazons registered after the introduction of the new 140 was supposedly that the new car was so poorly received at first that the Volvo faithful who had traded in their beloved Amazons (and in some cases probably PV544s too) traded them back again and kept Amazon production going for another year or two.

[purplebargeken]

Mine has OD fitted, twin carb, cam to match, bilsteins, lowered springs, some sort of fancy manifold, sports exhaust, rev counter pod, oil pressure and volmeter gauges. Oh and spots (obviously). Cheers Keith. So sounds like a fake 123GT then without the dashiness......... fake winnah!!!!

[purplebargeken]

Oh and a 'lecky distributer, fan and probably something else that I've forgotten.

[dugong]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[dugong]

This is possibly the worst photo ever taken of the Amazon's interior. This was some time in 2007 when I decided to drive through the night to a small village in Somerset called Nether Stowey.
It was my friend's birthday, and instead of taking my [fully fuelled] C4 or John's [feel the quality] Mk5 Golf, I spent £42 filling the Volvo up. The heater was jammed on solid but it was freezing anyway. The radio wouldn't work so we listened to taped episodes of John Peel that I'd then converted to MP3 and transferred to my W810i. It took about six hours because we had to stop on the M5 after brimming the tank at Mere Services on the A556. I blagged a massive orange of the bloke behind the till as I fancied some fruit and couldn't find any. I think I chipped him down to 35p in the end.

Despite being opaque in places, the boot lid sealed perfectly, The boot floor filled the luggage compartment with water and dirt because of a distinct lack of metal. I had a grey sports bag directly over the largest hole, partially as it reduced road noise. When we eventually arrived in Stowey it had enlarged the rust port by 2" and my bag had a nice black racing stripe on its underside.

 

 

 

Here one can see the dark side of the moon, employing extensive gaffer tape in an unusual formation to keep the bloody windows from falling down. Also the American rear lenses [set 1] that gave a miserable GMP biker cause to pull me over one afternoon.

 

Great times.

[dugong]

In 2009 I went on a tour o'th'moors with some of the lads from No Skool Just Cool (no, I didn't choose the name).



NICK BERRY IS A SHEEP AND I STILL HATE HIM.
 

Everyone else was far quicker on the gradients. One knuckle clenching bounce-fest across Rishworth Moor stands out in particular. Having cracked an [indicated] 80 mph on the flat, I was feeling particularly pleased with myself.
SCTSH_ANDY blasted past in his 9000 Carlsson about five seconds later, barely breaking a sweat until the Saab ran out of wheel travel on a crest and looked like it was going to invert itself.

Despite a lot of engine braking, I cooked the pads and rotors getting to the pub rest stop as well. It really doesn't like hills. Or cross winds for that matter - travelling back,  I think the sheep near the Little House On The Prarie heard my cursing from the M62 westbound.

[dugong]

I did one BKV. It was at Sherborne Hall in Dorset. The trip down took FOREVER.



The former owner took a picture of me with it, in all my sartorial elegance.
Not pictured - braying toffs, gunshots, falling p[h]easants.

 

At least you can avoid me at shows now.

[dugong]

Cholmondeley, 2008 [?]



SHOUT TO BILLY AT CAVETTE PHOTOS LTD. NOT MIKE BURROUGHS SHOW FIELD IS THAT A 122S SHUT UP SON I DID MY APPRENTICESHIP ON THESE YOU KNOW.

[scruff]

Great thread, an awesome car and totally get where you are at not only spending the cash but enjoying TEH HOLE PACKAGE, the history of the car, period mods etc and actually using it. I doff my cap to you sir.

[dugong]

Great thread, an awesome car and totally get where you are at not only spending the cash but enjoying TEH HOLE PACKAGE, the history of the car, period mods etc and actually using it. I doff my cap to you sir.

Massive 35p oranges are the best modification ever.

[dugong]

A few more from the drive that we did across the Pennines.

 

 

 

 

[dugong]

Shortly before MM5 disappeared off the face of the planet he had a crack at fixing the passenger door window. The regulator mechanism had broken AGAIN. It's a common fault on Amazons - there's only a flimsy bit of Bowden cable tensioning the whole thing. The bottom pullies normally call it a day too causing the chain to go slack, but that was fine on my car.

 

 

Santa Pod race number still in situ for extra NHRA compliance.



Someone had clearly tried to repair it in the past and lost the will to live. That's another window winder inside the door cavity for some unknown reason. Given that there was already a window winder on the pinion, I have no idea why there's a winder inside there. I thought that I'd fished it out, but Dave at PMB informs me that it's 'still there'. I should probably extract it.



I went to get MM5 a cup of tea and when I came back he'd made this for me - a random rope \ steering wheel sculpture out of the spares I had laying around. One way or another, the tiller will be replaced, as the original had deteriorated to the point of leaving residue on your hands below a certain temperature. Some fast manoeuvres would also see your skin scraped raw. I'll give the Nardi a go and see how I get on.

MM5 also had a crack at sealing up the leaks around the A pillar. Ironically the original screen (complete with 40 yo rubber) sealed perfectly but was gouged to buggery because of a knackered windscreen wiper. The new glass was MOT friendly but leaked like a sieve from both sides.
It took me six months to realise this because I'd never taken it out in the rain until that point. I got caught it a shower coming home from the BKV (I literally crashed through B&Q's wet room) and the rain ended up trickling on to my knees on the M5.

Captain Tolley's, the darling of the Frost catalogue, failed to plug the holes plaguing the cabin. MM5 extolled the virtues of Tiger Seal, claiming it was 'fuckn brillynt' and that it would 'propeh werk, noh messn'.

It didn't work.

The screen's coming out as part of the current renovation programme (IN UR FACE WHEELER DEALERS) so I'll get to see how much damage the water's caused in the past.

[KruJoe]

Thank you for building this thread Jon, I'm enjoying it very much.

 

They're not officially called Amazons, are they? Just the puzzling number system. If you've nowt better to do, could you save us the indignity of Google and tell us how they came to be named after a South American river?

[dugong]

Thank you for building this thread Jon, I'm enjoying it very much.

 

They're not officially called Amazons, are they? Just the puzzling number system. If you've nowt better to do, could you save us the indignity of Google and tell us how they came to be named after a South American river?

 

 

A German moped manufacturer called Kriedler took Volvo court around this time - it had launched a model of the same name a few months before the first 120s broke cover. Eventually an agreement was reached - Volvo could call its new car the 'Amazon' in Sweden, but another name plate was needed elsewhere lest any confusion occur.

 

Why they chose that name initially I've no idea. It was a pointless lawsuit anyway, as Walter Wolf points out in his book. The Amason moped was a disaster and only sold in the hundreds before being discontinued.

As per the judgement, Volvo alluded to the PV's successor as 'Amazon'.

 

http://youtu.be/cDXbNB49IwU

 

Some excellent early 120 goodness in there - you can see how the first cars differed from later iterations like mine. The two tone paintwork, whitewall tyres and differently-shaped nose somehow make it look far more like a product of the 50s. Plus you also get to enjoy spoken Swedish and its bizarre vowel and glottal stops.

 

 

Here's a piece of pre-litgation literature from late 1956. The first 120s had an 'Amazon' wing badge on both sides - you can just about make this out on the photo.

 

 

The very early car I photographed at the Eskilstuna Vederandag also had one. You can buy reproductions of these now from VP and Brookhouse - presumably the original judgement has expired.

 

 

This is the 1958 Amazon 122S in the Volvo Museum in Arlanda. It doesn't have a wing badge - but it does have a dashboard clock, a different boot lid handle and all red tail light lenses on a different screw fitting to the later cars.

[dugong]

We're about up to the point in 2010 when I decided the Volvo needed to come off the road.



MM5 applying the Tiger Seal that didn't stop the screen from leaking. Not his fault, I imagine the A pillars and seal were fashed.



Then Mark had a look at the extent of the grot that I knew about under the mats:



You can just about the see the stack of plates welded on top of each other that in turn rusted through. That and the brake situation led me to SORN it. This is under the passenger's front footwell where the floor pan joins the inner sill.



There was also this work of unalloyed genius. Earlier in the car's life, some tube had stuck a trolley jack up the chassis leg and bent it. Both the floor and the leg have now been repaired.

 

 

I have a contact in the US who breaks early Amazons, and he sent me a pair of door caps that the original Amazons had which extends the dashboard trims on to the door. The bottom strips continues round too. I'm having these caps resprayed in my car's 80-Grey so I can fit them to the interior. It'll be a bit of a mismash of eras - early door caps and clock, a Nardi steering wheel, 123GT revcounter and dashboard and later seats with headrests.

Currently, I'm after a set of the stainless steel plate adjusters that went on the 123GTs. They go for a pretty penny.

[Mr Livered]

Absolutely blimmin fabulous.

 

I'd love an Amazon estate instead of my W124. The plan is to keep the Merc until I can find a decent one (or more likely until I find a shit one and then fettle it).

[chaseracer]

 

At least you can avoid me at shows now.

For this fine public service, much thanks...