welding project Juular's Scandi Noir. Volvo C70, 240 &122. An explosion of small parts.

[juular]

My thinking about finishing off the rest of the car is that it ends up being a limitless project, and I need somewhere to stop.

The brightwork on this car is tired. The bumpers are dented and rusty, the chrome trim is all worn and faded, the boot handle is a majestic level of pot metal decay. The panel gaps are laughable due to the hinges and catches all being varying states of knackered. The windscreen rubbers are ancient and cracked.

If I did finish off the roof, bonnet and boot lid I feel like it would really highlight how tired everything else is. Like a car that was trying too hard but was never going to be right.

Plus, I'm a bit of a sucker for ratty looking old cars with mismatched panels- there's plenty of well finished Amazons out there for everyone to enjoy. The new paint will dull down eventually and at that point it'll start to look right I feel. If I could have got away with it staying like this, I really would!

Plus I want to start driving it!

[Westbay]

My opinion and only mine is .... this is never going to be 'pristine' whatever that means, so I'd do the roof, bonnet and boot and drive it ! displaying/showing  a 'work in progress' rather , can't be ar*ed , you have put some much work in already ! 

[captain_70s]

If you decide you don't like the weathered panels you can always go back and do them later anyway.

[juular]

Onto some less exciting stuff that needs to be done to finish this off.

Boot lid. The beige one on the car is mostly filler and not really worth saving. I picked this one up at an auto jumble for £50. While a lot better it still has a bit of rust.

I also picked up a bonnet locally as my beige one is similarly knackered.

Firstly a good wash.

Off with the handle. As nice as the condition is I want to fit my nice early flying wing one instead. This was a fight as the boot was still locked, meaning I had to damage the linkage to remove it.

Rust.

Flattened out.

Some of the worst bits cut out.

Acid.

Primer.

Some filler, paint and sound deadening.

I used a tin of 'taxi black' coach enamel for this. Interestingly this one is much more runny..

Front grille panel.

I thought I'd just need to clean and polish this but sadly not, it's starting to rust as well.

These are impossible to come by so it's worth putting in the effort now rather than when it's too late.

It's easy to see why they rot - it's such a complex panel and the entire thing is a water and rust trap.  Even just cleaning it I had a hard time removing all the water.

Cleaned up with some 400 grit and the rust stripped away.

At the same time I thought I'd clean up the last interior door cap.

Rust removed and primed.

And with a coat of enamel.

That just leaves the bonnet. It has a tiny bit of surface rust but just needs a quick clean up and some soundproofing.

Now if only the weather would stop being so utterly grim I could actually bolt this stuff to the car.

I don't think I have enough paint to do the bonnet, boot lid and roof, so if I do want to eventually paint them, those are battles that will saved for another year.

[juular]

Starting to feel like progress now.

Wee coat of clear on the boot lid.

Swapping the boot handles over.

And the badges and number plate.

On to the bonnet. 

My old bonnet started to twist due to the strengthening ribs coming apart at the edges.

This one is much better but it's clearly on its way out.

So I added some weld seams to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Trying to add the same sound deadening as the old bonnet but ran out of foil backed padding. Still it's an enormous improvement.

Slam panel painted.

An annoyance dealt with. One of the headlight retaining bezels had lost one of its lugs. Welded a new one on.

Finally I fitted all the panels to the car. One last annoyance fixed. The driver's headlight connector had been replaced with spades at one point.

I converted it back to the proper plug.

Looks like a car again.

It's nice to have the bonnet line up and shut properly.

New boot lid seal.

And boot lid.

I will probably paint the bonnet as the blue paint is in worse condition then I thought. However I don't have enough paint left so it'll have to do for now.

The roof and boot lid, I don't know, I kind of like it.

Next steps are to fit new door seals, rebuild the interior and stick the rear bumper, lower rear panels and lights back on.

[320touring]

This is a stupendous volume of work done at a rapid rate, and only making the car even better.

 

Top graft!

[mercedade]

I love this car, and the thread, so much. Genuinely inspiring stuff.

[junkyarddog]

Personally I'd paint the bonnet,roof and boot-lid too.

It looks really decent with it's fresh paint.

[juular]

11 hours ago, junkyarddog said:

Personally I'd paint the bonnet,roof and boot-lid too.

It looks really decent with it's fresh paint.

I get it.

But my paint efforts are pretty shite.  It looks nice in photos or from a distance, but get closer and you can see the roller stipple, brush marks and all the other flaws such as the bits I've filled over welds, or the sags and edges where I've picked flies and pine needles out of the wet paint.  The rear quarters have a tide line where I've tried to fill the border between bare metal and previous repairs but failed completely.

I'd like for the car not to be just another white Amazon, because it would be like putting lipstick on a pig.  I'm ok with it just being an honest pig.

To make this a nice car I will need an indoor space to work and probably another four months and two grand. Then, the first time I park it somewhere someone will open their door straight into it.

Not saying I won't paint it all eventually, but that isn't the current mission.

I would rather spend that money on seals for the leaky quarter lights, or having the head skimmed for a bit more compression, or converting to an electronic dizzy.

[juular]

Some updates, hoping to have this back on the road in days rather than weeks.

The weather has been shit. Every time the sun comes out, it starts raining again by the time I've put my shoes on.

I also have a new, very Scottish obstacle to contend with.

Or more accurately, about ten trillion small nippy obstacles.

Nevertheless efforts have been made.  

New door seals have been refitted.  These aren't original, firstly because the original ones are about nine hundred quid, and secondly the rails on the doors that hold the seals are all either damaged or rusted away.

In this case I've bonded on the absolute cheapest rubber D trim with some contact adhesive.

This works really well and the doors shut with that pleasing 'whomp' you get off a newly aligned and sealed door.

The filler neck got a new seal too as that was cracked to hell and letting water in.

As you can see the bumper is back on too.

Then the rear lower valance panels and rear lights.

Time to put the chrome side strips back on.

I hate these things. They constantly rattle and destroy the paint. The original trim clips are brutal and scratch the paint, then leave rust stains down the car. They also don't seal the trim holes which lets water in and rots the doors / floor.

I'm trying a new approach by trapping M6 bolts and washers in them and bolting them on from inside. Roofing washers provide a seal.

This worked pretty well.

No more rattles either, as a bonus.

Here you can see how wibbly my door bottoms are. This car will never be perfect.

Getting into details now, one of the wipers was awful and just flopped around in the arm. 

Turned out this was due to the internal spring on the wiper bracket having long fucked off into the atmosphere. I made up a new spring from a folded paper clip based on the one tiny remaining bit of spring. Seems to work.

I really want to convert these to J hook wipers, originality be damned. These original ones are utter trash and a safety concern.

Another detail. Picked up these rear reflector bezels at an auto jumble. They just need a bit of paint and then I can use them to replace the bicycle reflectors that were fitted to the car.

[AnnoyingPentium]

9 minutes ago, juular said:

Or more accurately, about ten trillion small nippy obstacles.

Avon Skin-So-Soft used to be the go-to when dealing with the little bastards. I love this time of year... the look of terrified midgie-bitten tourists coming into my work looking for repellent (that we don't sell) is something that cannot be rivalled.

[juular]

9 minutes ago, AnnoyingPentium said:

Avon Skin-So-Soft used to be the go-to when dealing with the little bastards. I love this time of year... the look of terrified midgie-bitten tourists coming into my work looking for repellent (that we don't sell) is something that cannot be rivalled.

I used that a lot back when I did a lot of mountain climbing and wild camping and the smell is permanently etched in my nostrils.

It does work quite well but I believe it's because the oil suffocates them as soon as they land on you.  For some reason the blue one works and the pink one doesn't.

Smidge works really well at actually repelling them from a distance. We don't get massive clouds of them here but as soon as I put it on I can forget there are any midges at all.

The smell is also pretty nice. I think it has bog myrtle in it, which is a tremendous thing. Smells like chewy cola bottles.

[Supernaut]

Fuck the haters.

This looks absolutely amazing as-is with the mismatched panels!

 

What sort of sound deadening is under the bonnet there? I might try some on the Land Rover (as if it'll help much on that!)

 

I'm also really curious about the off-white coach enamel details. The Land Rover's hardtop roof will need restored next, and I reckon it would look good in a nice off-white.

 

[warninglight]

This is looking great! Good idea on the bolts to hold the side trims on, those sprung steel clips are the devil. 

@Supernaut I'm sure Craftmaster do a nice coach enamel in 'limestone' which I think is the 'right' colour for a Land Rover roof. 

[juular]

1 hour ago, Supernaut said:

Fuck the haters.

This looks absolutely amazing as-is with the mismatched panels!

 

What sort of sound deadening is under the bonnet there? I might try some on the Land Rover (as if it'll help much on that!)

 

I'm also really curious about the off-white coach enamel details. The Land Rover's hardtop roof will need restored next, and I reckon it would look good in a nice off-white.

 

This one is a matched Volvo colour:

https://paintman.co.uk/shop/volvo-pearl-white/

As you don't need the colour match I would be tempted to just get a generic one from TA or Palatine Paints (or indeed eBay).

As much as paintman stuff is regarded as top quality and has a price accordingly, I struggled with it. It's too thick and goes draggy almost immediately.

I've ended up dumping a load of white spirits into it which has improved things a lot.

[juular]

Just a minor addendum.

Chucked the rear ARB back on. I wasn't sure whether to or not, but it was that or sell it. And I never sell anything because that means dealing with people.

Look at how nice that is underneath despite being driven through two winters and nearly 3 years of being on the road.

I should do a comparison with the 240 which cost me a fortune in Bilt Hamber products and lasted about seven seconds before looking like a shipwreck.

[juular]

Getting to the last details now. Essentially everything left is in this photo, plus the door cards.

An issue was identified. One of the rear reflector bezels was actually for the wrong side, plus it was for an estate. 

However since I have one good one I can copy it and invert it.

Duct tape used as a net.

Transferred onto two metal halves.

Tacked together.

Offered up to the car and repeatedly trimmed and adjusted.

Front attached.

Then cut out for the reflector itself.

Seems ok. Not perfect but definitely close enough.

Bit of paint.

The stud on the reflector itself was all chewed up so I cut it off and welded on a bolt.

And fitted to the car.

I'm really chuffed with these. My car has never had proper reflectors, someone had attached bicycle ones at one point. I think these really finish off the look.

If you couldn't tell, the one on the right is the one made from scratch.

Continuing to tick off the list. The wings are supposed to have rubber buffers to stop the bonnet vibrating against them but these had long ended up as road debris.

I've added some bits of closed cell foam in their place.

Another job waiting over a year to be done, swapping the cracked dome light for a good one.

And finally, a nightmarish job : removing the masking tape.

This took me over two hours. The sun had baked it hard into the chrome and I had to slowly remove it with a heat gun and white spirits.

Then a celebratory scraping of all the paint and detritus off the windows and a good clean.

The next job will be to make windlace trim from scratch because I'm not paying £25 per metre, thanks.

[captain_70s]

Looks ace, nice work with the reflector housing.

Kudos for braving the best of the Scottish summer, the persistent 14C and pissing rain has put me right off going outside...

[danthecapriman]

That really is looking absolutely fantastic👍 you should be well proud of that.

You did a lovely job of that reflector housing too, you can’t tell it’s home made at all.

[Andyrew]

Top effort as always, That reflector housing is spot on. 

Look forward to checking this out in person.

[artdjones]

12 hours ago, juular said:

Getting to the last details now. Essentially everything left is in this photo, plus the door cards.

An issue was identified. One of the rear reflector bezels was actually for the wrong side, plus it was for an estate. 

However since I have one good one I can copy it and invert it.

Duct tape used as a net.

Transferred onto two metal halves.

Tacked together.

Offered up to the car and repeatedly trimmed and adjusted.

Front attached.

Then cut out for the reflector itself.

Seems ok. Not perfect but definitely close enough.

Bit of paint.

The stud on the reflector itself was all chewed up so I cut it off and welded on a bolt.

And fitted to the car.

I'm really chuffed with these. My car has never had proper reflectors, someone had attached bicycle ones at one point. I think these really finish off the look.

If you couldn't tell, the one on the right is the one made from scratch.

Continuing to tick off the list. The wings are supposed to have rubber buffers to stop the bonnet vibrating against them but these had long ended up as road debris.

I've added some bits of closed cell foam in their place.

Another job waiting over a year to be done, swapping the cracked dome light for a good one.

And finally, a nightmarish job : removing the masking tape.

This took me over two hours. The sun had baked it hard into the chrome and I had to slowly remove it with a heat gun and white spirits.

Then a celebratory scraping of all the paint and detritus off the windows and a good clean.

The next job will be to make windlace trim from scratch because I'm not paying £25 per metre, thanks.

Those bonnet buffers could be 3D printed out of TPU.

[warninglight]

Great job on that reflector housing!

It often seems to be an overlooked part of Amazons but an important part of the look. 

That Amazon estate I had arrived like this. That attention to detail was evident throughout. Even the wheel trims were on backwards.

[juular]

Some jobs that are supposed to be simple take entire days.

Yesterday I ended up here and questioning life.

That's the passenger front quarter light. 

It had so many problems that I bought a replacement on eBay. That one just needed a seal so I ordered a new seal from Brookhouse and thought I'd just fit it and off I go.

Then the seller of the window got in touch with the news that it had fallen to bits before he managed to pack it. Refreshing honesty like that is welcome.

But it did leave me with my own broken window and a new seal.

I set about trying to repair each part in turn and fit the new seal.

The first problem is that the hinge had torn itself away from the frame leaving a pair of sheared rivets. 

This left the window to flap in the wind, and if you opened it, in danger of falling off.

It was also a security problem as you could just bend open the window and unlock the door.

The seal was also shot and would let in cold air and rain.

I tried to weld the hinge to the frame but it turns out it's not steel.

The only answer here is to completely strip the window down to the glass and try a new way of fixing the hinge from inside the frame.

My attempt here was to file an edge onto a couple of screws then file the heads flat. Tada.. captive bolts.

Next I stuck a couple of small nyloc nuts on.

Turns out these were too thick and caught on the seal, so I ended up filing the screw studs flat and welding them on.

Next problem is the bottom pivot of the window which had also sheared out the frame.

I couldn't find anything long enough to replace it so that got a washer welded on top.

Then filed to fit the frame.

Next problem is the glass seal inside the frame which turned to dust as I removed the window.

Amazingly the same U-channel that I found mysteriously lying around fit perfectly. Still no idea how I got it. I think I got sent it by mistake with another order.

The glass and frame then gets installed into an outer frame. The bottom pivot has a spring presumably to tension the window and stop it flopping around in the wind.

In this case I'd shortened the pivot slightly by welding a new top on, so the original spring and double nut would no longer fit.

Solution was just to single nut it, then drill and split pin it to prevent it falling off.

I could then do the original job of fitting the outer frame seal. Brand new Volvo part!

Then to finish it off, the rivet joining the hinge was replaced with a screw and nyloc nut.

A pain in the arse but worth it.

[Sunny Jim]

You truly are a remarkable man. The ingenuity, skill and patience on display here is something many of us aspire to but few will achieve.

[Doffs flat cap in your direction + recognises embarrassment and discomfort such fulsome praise might cause but decides that is 100% deserved so hopes you will forgive me on this occasion \]

[beko1987]

That's a proper job! 

[juular]

So close, but no drive in the Amazon today.

Spent the day refitting the door cards and all the carpets and interior trim.

I'd hoped to use the spare black interior I have, as it has newer seats which are foam and elastic rather than the coil springs of the red interior.

It seems counter productive to spend so much time upgrading the suspension and then be bouncing across the car at every roundabout.

Unfortunately it wasn't to be. The black door cards have the positions of the winders, door handle and grab handle in slightly the wrong places. Who would have thought they'd have moved these things during their production run?

So it's in with the red interior. It's a bit tired, but it is pretty.

I'm enjoying having a non rusty windscreen surround and nice fresh door caps.

@MrsJuular has done an amazing job knocking together some really nice looking windlace that has cost very little. It's made out of a small length of upholstery fabric and some foam garden twine.

This is a small sample to test that it works.

 

I really wanted to take this a drive but the one thing I wasn't expecting to put up a fight put me in a really shit mood.

In February I fitted new seatbelts, and I'd paid a decent amount extra for E8 rated good quality ones from a belt specialist.

 Today both sides failed completely. They wouldn't retract or release even a millimetre, absolutely jammed.

I spent forever trying all sorts of angles with them in and out of the car - no joy. Eventually one of them actually started falling apart - the plastic guide around the belt is so brittle and cheap it fell off and got jammed into the reel, then one of the reel sides fell off.

Absolute shite!

I think I got a total of 5 miles out of these.

On the other belt I dismantled the ratchet mechanism and found this little gadget inside that looks like something from a kinder egg. It's so flimsy and shit.

This has a little balance mechanism that triggers the inertia lock.

I noticed that when this gadget isn't sitting perfectly upright it locks the reel.

Free spool:

Tilted a bit : reel locked. Note the downwards hook has dropped.

It doesn't help that my car is currently parked on a slope - surely that isn't enough to make the belts not work?

I put the mechanism back together with that gadget at the most vertical position (looks like it originally was put in wrong) and the belt started working again.

Still not sure if I should trust it. I think I will write it off as a learning experience and order another pair from somewhere else.

Since I couldn't go a drive I thought I'd spend the time tuning the car again and making it run properly.

It didn't begin well.

Turns out one of the pistons in the carb was seized solid due to sitting so long in damp weather.

A good clean up and some tweaks of the mix and timing got it running better.

 

 

[Zelandeth]

On 11/06/2026 at 12:29, warninglight said:

This is looking great! Good idea on the bolts to hold the side trims on, those sprung steel clips are the devil. 

@Supernaut I'm sure Craftmaster do a nice coach enamel in 'limestone' which I think is the 'right' colour for a Land Rover roof. 

Aye, I'm going to try something like that when I get to that stage with the P4 as the chrome strips on the doors on that similarly rattle endlessly.

[jonathan_dyane]

As ever superb work.

Those seatbelts are proper shit, who was the manufacturer?

I recently fitted Securon belts to my P4 which have been great so far and may be worth a look. Looks like you would need the 500/15 ones https://www.securon.co.uk/aftermarket-products/volvo/ about £75 for a pair on ebay.

[Dyslexic Viking]

The seat belts that were installed in Mercedes 3 years ago have worked without any problems so I'll see if I can find out what brand they are.

[Dyslexic Viking]

It seems that Mercedes has German Stahl seat belts. They have been very good no problems so far.