Any interest in another Amazonian rescue? Head off

[Ronkey]

I am always a bit suspicious of barn finds. They seem to be everywhere and usually have been left to rot outside then dragged inside for a few months before being offered for sale. Add to that that it was on Ebay and I was doubly suspicious. But curiosity got the better of me and I decided to have a look.

On arrival I was met by a 1965 122s which hadn't moved from a dry garage in 30 years. Yes, there was rust and a poor respray but this car had been loved so much that the previous owner couldn't bring himself to part with it. Unfortunately the car has outlasted him and his widow reluctantly decided to sell it.

This appealed to me and a bid was placed. And I won. Oh heck. That was back in September. 

Now that @juular has succeeded to get his 122s on the road, is there any interest in the story?

[jim89]

Yersss

[320touring]

113% interest in Volvo content here😁

[alcyonecorporation]

please, aye. 

[ETCHY]

Yep

[juular]

[High Jetter]

Defnitely!

[eddyramrod]

You even have to ask?

[juular]

 

And that's before the thread even starts!

[sasquar]

i love an amazon, prefer an estate, but cant be fussy when it comes to following the thread!!

[Ronkey]

Righto - message received! Let's see what we have got then.

A few general shots. They really are a smart looking beggar. The interior is very good and I even have the original radio blanking plate! I found some great stuff from when the car last put in the garage too: last fuel receipt dated Sept 1993.

I can't figure out how to put text after photos so I'll carry on below.

[Ronkey]

First puzzle - V5 says this is a 1.6. Errr - nope. That'll be a B18 in there mate. Not a clue what spec though.

Right, best have a look at the bad bits. The passenger sill looks crusty and the rear arch not much better. The front inner wings have been replaced too. Badly. Shouldn't complain about the work though: it was good enough to keep an old car on the road. 

I bought this as a project to get better at welding. Not brave enough to take these repairs on yet. I'll start in the boot.

[Ronkey]

Bonus - genuine new fuel tank. That'll do. Spare wheel well doesn't look too bad but the inner wheel arch looks rough and so does the boot floor. 

We'll start here then. 

[High Jetter]

This should be good...

[juular]

1 hour ago, Ronkey said:

That'll be a B18 in there mate. Not a clue what spec though.

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 !

[Ronkey]

Right, let's see if I can remember how to weld. My welder is a Clarker 100EN with 0.6mm wire and CO2 gas shield. The highest setting seems ok for plug welds with a setting down for an attempt at a run of spot welds. I picked up some pre-galv steel sheets locally and plan to use them, but getting the galv off prior to welding takes ages. Ah well, they were cheap. 

Well, it is a start. Welder is ok. The rear valance and the floor attached to the panel has had it. Add that to the list.

[Ronkey]

Time to cut out the rust above the rear shock. Hope my skills with a grinder match those with a welder: that is a lot of missing metal. Getting a bit worried here. What a crap detail Volvo - talk about a rust trap.

Well pleased with my metal fab skills here - made the new inner wing in one piece . Didn't take one with the welding complete but you get the idea. 

[juular]

That's some neat and strong welding going on there. 

[Ronkey]

Let's keep going. I'm catching up now - this was about last November. I started to have a good look at the passenger outer arch.  The corrosion noted to the inner wing and arch is down to a corroded inner arch. If only someone had dealt with that at the time eh? 

Repairing the inner wing is going to be a bit of a problem as the repair panels are not available. Best try and make one myself them. I read somewhere that you could use the outer arch and then shape to suit. This is going to be a nightmare. 

Best get the sill done first. Man, that is a bit of a mess. Maybes I can get away with cutting back part of the outer sill to start the repair.

Nar - reckon that is scrap. Take the outer off then and order new :-(. The inner and intermediate are salvageable so decided to fix the intermediate/inner in a couple of stages. First bit:

Now inner inner sill and jacking point. Bit tricky this as didn't have much to compare it too.

Couple of gussets

Then a little test (wheel was off the ground honest)

Yay! That'll do. Finish the intermediate off:

Weld up and outer on. This was a bugger. I struggled to get heat into the spot welds underneath with my little welder and had to redo a load. Why does this happen in the most difficult spot?? Anyway, end result is sound.

 

 

 

 

[Ronkey]

The rear wing comes in two sections. The front section fits quite easily, however I had to think hard about fitting the rear. I had a look at @juular's post and saw the fight he had. I decided to try another approach and trim the repair panels down, keeping as much of the original as I could. This is one benefit of a small welder: it is hard to get too much heat into it.

The repair panel for the inner arch is flipping expensive if you can find one. So I decided to make it some from some cheaper rear wing panels. This were a pig as they are double curved and then I didn't take any photos of the panels I made!! You get the idea from the below though

And the final result

[Ronkey]

Need a bit of help here though. I dropped on some genuine Volvo mirrors cheap! When they arrived I've only got one wing fixing and it is bust. Arse. Reckon I can fix it though and the seller gave me some money back. Anyone got another base or can tell me where I might find another/matching pair?

[Ronkey]

I've been a bit distracted by a misbehaving Honda but now that is (hopefully) sorted back to the Amazon. The end of this thread brings things bang up to date. 

Why is there always more rot than you first think? Good job you can get decent repair panels for the key bits. New inner wings needed very little trimming and have a hole at the front that aligned with an existing fixing hole: well thought out. The wings sit nicely now. 

There is so much of the original colour visible to the underside it seems a shame to cover it up. I was going to spray with stonechip but now I'm not sure. Perhaps I'm being a bit precious.

When I started this lot had been covered up with large welded patches hiding the fact that the A pillars had gone on the front face together the the end of the intermediate sill on the drivers side. Just look at the state of it

I'd welded in a patch repair to the floor under the pedals here before the photo was taken. Was very happy with my fabrication for the sill end

The front of the car hasn't clean up too badly at all. I've used Milkstone remover to convert the rust and will overcoat with rust-anode. 

And just when I thought I had finished there is always more. A job for tomorrow I guess. And that Hammerite is everywhere. Great, just great. I'll strip that when the engine is out.

I was very pleased with the condition of the radiator. The drain tap even opened! Would be nice to give it a clean inside - have I seen someone using cheap cola for this?

Bet they are not still going. 

[Ronkey]

Last panel at front done but it didn't half fight me until I worked out that the earth wasn't very good. Anyways, that'll do.

[Rocket88]

20 hours ago, Ronkey said:

I've been a bit distracted by a misbehaving Honda but now that is (hopefully) sorted back to the Amazon. The end of this thread brings things bang up to date. 

Why is there always more rot than you first think? Good job you can get decent repair panels for the key bits. New inner wings needed very little trimming and have a hole at the front that aligned with an existing fixing hole: well thought out. The wings sit nicely now. 

There is so much of the original colour visible to the underside it seems a shame to cover it up. I was going to spray with stonechip but now I'm not sure. Perhaps I'm being a bit precious.

When I started this lot had been covered up with large welded patches hiding the fact that the A pillars had gone on the front face together the the end of the intermediate sill on the drivers side. Just look at the state of it

I'd welded in a patch repair to the floor under the pedals here before the photo was taken. Was very happy with my fabrication for the sill end

The front of the car hasn't clean up too badly at all. I've used Milkstone remover to convert the rust and will overcoat with rust-anode. 

And just when I thought I had finished there is always more. A job for tomorrow I guess. And that Hammerite is everywhere. Great, just great. I'll strip that when the engine is out.

I was very pleased with the condition of the radiator. The drain tap even opened! Would be nice to give it a clean inside - have I seen someone using cheap cola for this?

Bet they are not still going. 

Ref rad…. Daz !

[sutty2006]

Loving this already. 
 

tip I learned not long ago. If you have some thick metal to weld to and struggle to get good penetration, warm the surface up first. I’ve just bought a Map Gas burner off Amazon. Works a treat. 
 

I need to do the wheel arch on my Manta at some point, I might look to this for some pointers. 

[jim89]

28 minutes ago, sutty2006 said:

Loving this already. 
 

tip I learned not long ago. If you have some thick metal to weld to and struggle to get good penetration, warm the surface up first. I’ve just bought a Map Gas burner off Amazon. Works a treat. 
 

👍🏼 Decades ago I had to bodge a pitman arm for a dumper steering box bodge. I tried a few times to mig it but couldn't get enough heat/penetration into it as it was a big chunk (cut in half & reversed to change the angle)...

Success came after I preheated the halves in the oven as high as it went - 230deg C ?

Then outside with gauntlets & weld the fecker.

Still on & in one piece decades later 👍🏼

Thinking back it could well have been the attempted welds & grinder action to clean off the failed welds that helped the temperature up too 👍🏼

[DodgeRover]

On 04/02/2024 at 20:32, Ronkey said:

The rear wing comes in two sections. The front section fits quite easily, however I had to think hard about fitting the rear. I had a look at @juular's post and saw the fight he had. I decided to try another approach and trim the repair panels down, keeping as much of the original as I could. This is one benefit of a small welder: it is hard to get too much heat into it.

This is good practise, it always makes me cringe when I see people fitting a full arch repair panel, I usually assume they have been stuck on with silicon or pop rivets....

[warninglight]

Fantastic! Nice to see another one saved properly. My own red 4 door (121) had all the same rot in all the same places when I got it in 2015.

Looking forward to seeing this progress!

[5speedracer]

On 17/02/2024 at 22:12, Ronkey said:

I've been a bit distracted by a misbehaving Honda but now that is (hopefully) sorted back to the Amazon. The end of this thread brings things bang up to date. 

Why is there always more rot than you first think? Good job you can get decent repair panels for the key bits. New inner wings needed very little trimming and have a hole at the front that aligned with an existing fixing hole: well thought out. The wings sit nicely now. 

There is so much of the original colour visible to the underside it seems a shame to cover it up. I was going to spray with stonechip but now I'm not sure. Perhaps I'm being a bit precious.

When I started this lot had been covered up with large welded patches hiding the fact that the A pillars had gone on the front face together the the end of the intermediate sill on the drivers side. Just look at the state of it

I'd welded in a patch repair to the floor under the pedals here before the photo was taken. Was very happy with my fabrication for the sill end

The front of the car hasn't clean up too badly at all. I've used Milkstone remover to convert the rust and will overcoat with rust-anode. 

And just when I thought I had finished there is always more. A job for tomorrow I guess. And that Hammerite is everywhere. Great, just great. I'll strip that when the engine is out.

I was very pleased with the condition of the radiator. The drain tap even opened! Would be nice to give it a clean inside - have I seen someone using cheap cola for this?

Bet they are not still going. 

Don't see why cola wouldn't work or at least do something given how it cleans coins.

[Ronkey]

On 19/02/2024 at 10:10, warninglight said:

Fantastic! Nice to see another one saved properly. My own red 4 door (121) had all the same rot in all the same places when I got it in 2015.

Looking forward to seeing this progress!

They are fabulous. What colour code is that red?