Building a Volvo Amazon rally car.

[impfected]

Hi All,
I've been lurking on here for years. . Very active with Imps and other vintage cars.
I've been tasked with building a 122 rally car to run La Carrera Panamerica for '08. The original car we planned to use was a Alfa Gullia Sprint Super Ti (something er other), but after the head had to be pulled in 2 seperate track sessions, we decided to bag it in favor of a slower, more reliable car.
So I picked up a '66 122s 2 door. Solid with exception of the front fenders (easy fix) and some floor rot in the front floors due to a leaking windscreen (fixed already). It has a engine with a rebuild that's 50K old. Came with spares of every vital component.
I plan on doing a mod to the rear end where the tapered axles get ditched in favor of Ford style (as in F150 truck) rear drums as the Volvo setup tended to shear the castled nuts off in competition. I'm also rebuilding a second engine to mild race spec for the race.

Anyhow, I see there are a few fans of the Amazon on here, adn the pics you guys dig up are great. Any good ones of rally Volvos? I'd like to see pics of interiors and light bars adn such. I need ideas to get my creative juices going.

Thanks,
Alan Petersen
Seattle WA. USA

[Ether]

Wow, that sounds amazing! Need a co-driver?

Good luck with the build, it sounds like it's going to be a really exciting car.

[Oldbus]

Sounds good Alan.

Welcome aboard, any chance of a few pics?

[impfected]

I knew I was going to have to document it. I have taken some of the floor repair. I'll keep at it and get them posted soon.

Sorry... Co-driver/Support/Chim Chim is me

[bstardchild]

Saw an Amazon based rally car last year at South Mimms - owner never appeared at the car while I was there so didn't get chance to talk about it

[Seth]

Interesting sounding project

The black car here is a rally one but unfortunately I have no photos of its interior. It was part of a feature in Classics magazine on modified Amazons a year or so ago. The dash was modified to house round gauges and the rally clocks over on the passenger side. It still has its rear seat too as required by regulations though there's a proper roll cage. Cosy bucket seats were fitted and the harnesses mounted on from the rear parcel shelf.



Here's what a quick Google has picked up...







Lots more here: luiscezar.blogspot.com/2006/10/radiografia-do-volvo-amazon.html

[deathgaytothemax]

got a 69 gt in the garage,possibly building it for clasic road rallying.

[impfected]

I almost picked up a 123 GT back in 1999, but the owner failed to find the keys for it after I drove from Seattle to Vancouver BC to see it!
Nice witht he exception of a small hole in the passenger floor.
Strangly they haven't gained in value over the years as I would have expected.

We've got the first package of goodies to be installed. 4 large driving lights, 2 small fogs and a couple of loud horns. (I forgot to mention the first shakdown is in Feb. during the Thunderbird TSD rally in B.C. , Thus the big lights... )http://rallybc.com/

Also got a Terratrip 303+ (terror-trip ) rally computer with some speedo pickups and stuff.
Still waiting on all the gauges.
Also a 22 gallon JAZ products fuel cell to keep up in gas.

Now I need to push out some of the other customers cars to make time to work on this fun stuff!

If all goes well, the next schedualed event is - El Expreso de Chihuahua 2007 www.chihuahuaexpress.com/
My first taste of Mexico that isn't from a local Taco stand!

[bbq]

There's an engineer in Seattle called John Vanlandingham who could be very helpful to you. He's a rally guy too (although he's a pervert for Saab V4's and Cosworth YB's) and makes some very nice Bilstein suspension parts as well as some "sooper bitchin" engine parts for the OHC motors.

Give him a ring on 206 431 9696 and tell him Mark Shepherd send you. Be prepared to be on the phone for a very long time.

[Team Blitz]

John is tops for friendly advice. Please do call him, as he's right round the corner from you, and his shops are open for visits.

Give him a "hi" from Norm at Team Blitz, with the rally Capri.

[bazzateer]

Good to see you're keeping busy Al, have a good Christmas mate, hope to see you again next year sometime.

Baz

[Lankytim]

Love the idea of an Amazon rally car. I think the heavy duty construction would make them idea for the role. Good luck!

[impfected]

Funny, I have met John before. I spent the better part of 2 hours talking to him in front of the local machine shop tooling supply! Nice guy. I've been meaning to call him up.

Anyhow, here are a few before shots of the 122

farm3.static.flickr.com/2039/2144273848_2c85b0bba1.jpg?v=0

farm3.static.flickr.com/2219/2144273962_975200e928.jpg?v=0

And here is one of the dash so far. Nothing is wired in or glued down. Still fiddling with the dash pad to make it fit correctly.

farm3.static.flickr.com/2197/2144274128_5ac8bd9baa.jpg?v=0

Today I'm adding the rally computer and a few other items. Then on to the fuel cell and relocation of the battery.

Woo hoo!

Hmmm... I can't seem to get the pics to load up

[archieboy]

Loving your dash! i want round dails in mine one day, if you get the time make me one ;D

[bazzateer]

Looking good Al But don't neglect the Imps

[impfected]

Baz,
I'm up to my ears in Imp race cars! I have to shuffle them outside so I can work on other stuff!
They keep teasing us with threats of snow here so I keep driving the Imp as the daily driver (my green one, the Pickle ) hoping to get some tail happy driving in the slush. No joy so far...

I just sent off a Imp I brought back to life for a guy in Portland OR. Rebuilt the engine and sorted the trans and brakes. Now he needs to invest in some new springs and shocks and a respray.

The round gauges were needed as all the originals were dead! They pop up a little higher than the original (cracked up) dash pad allows. A little work with a heat gun seems to be bringing it to the desired shape.... still going to need a few long screws to keep it down.

[Paul H]

impfected said:

The round gauges were needed as all the originals were dead! They pop up a little higher than the original (cracked up) dash pad allows. A little work with a heat gun seems to be bringing it to the desired shape.... still going to need a few long screws to keep it down.

Here's a pic of a Ruddspeed dash, which might be of interest:



;D

Something else to bear in mind is bodyshell reinforcement. Not in my area of knowledge but I've been told that the front chassis rails / bulkhead / innerwing area shown in the pic below needs reinforcing in some way, to triangulate the chassis rails & bulkhead better.



Volvo themselves had a secondary plate spotwelded in but this rots out due to rainwater running down the inside of the enginebay and into the seam. The edge shown in the photo is due to thicker guage steel having been used to repair rust in this area, combining near original appearance (& possibly greater strength?) without the problem of it rotting out again.

[Rev]

Into Imps and RWD Volvos? I think I have a long lost twin! ;D I suspect I'm the rambling, incoherent evil twin. ;D

Seriously though, welcome to the site, can't fault your taste in cars cause it's fairly similar to mine, it's just you seem to have the talent to match, whearas I mostly have fairly daft daydreams and hairbrained efforts, as my unfinished sort-of-rally, sort-of-road car Imp can testify and my misdemeanours with the less desireable end of the RWD Volvo spectrum, 2 7 and 9 Series, can testify. ;D

Best of luck with your projects, remember to keep us posted so I can turn literally green with envy. ;D

[impfected]

Rambling and Incoherence must run inthe family of lost twins ;D

My first car was given to me, and I wish I still had it as it was given as I beat the s**t out of it in a feild behind my house. It was a 74 Capri 2.8 adn that was in california. So no rust, just bad paint.
Second car was a grad present. a 77 VW Rabbit 4dr auto. Couldn't stand the auto so swapped it with a 4 speed. That one eventually went to the scrapper. #rd car, another rabbit. This time a diesel without a head. Silver, paid $100. Swapped a 1.8 GTI engine and trans into it plus loads of otehr 2nd hand goodies. True sleeper. I rolled that one in the winter of 90. Scrapper....

Then a 63 Volvo 122 wagon, then a 77 Scirocco, then 71 Dodge 3/4 ton Pick-em-up truck, then another rabbit (hit a rock on the oil pan breaking the oil pump but managed to drive it 50 miles from the middle of no-where to civilization before it siezed. Then after I left to get it later it was shot then rolled by the local toothless bastards. I was warned by the young girl that saved me in her 65 Mustang ). After that run of luck I took up bicycles adn raced Mtn bikes till 96 then got a Volvo 145 (72, the best year), decided I didn't like the ticky engine so shoe horned a 83 B23F into it after rebuilding in in my apartment kitchen. Picked up a 67 Volvo 122 during the swap to get around in. Managed to stuff CIS fuel injection into it, but was never happy with the results so a weber conversion went on. Around that time I collected a few more 140 series volvos, adn one ruuuuusty 240 that we gave to my wifes brother. Then came the Imps...
And that leads to a whole new chapter in car ownership...

Anyhow, back to Volvo content.
First shot shows the stainless light bar I made from cutting the tops of the overriders off and welding. 2nd shot, diff angle, 3rd lights installed, 4th diff angle. Wiring it done. Rally computer installed, map light etc... just no pics.






More soon.

[headlamp123]

HI there!

I'm new on this forum, so please bear with me!
I am currently building a model AMAZON 122s out of cardboard and paper mache, it's about a foot long, and I'm scaling it up from a CORGI die-cast model.
The model I'm making is exactly the same colour as your rally car, and it matches a 122s my Brother had back in 1982.
I'm making it for him as a surprise, and I'm building it from memory!
Can you help me remember the colour scheme of the interior, please?
It would be of great help if you can describe the colour of the seats and the rear parcel shelf. Also the interior roof lining.
Is that cream, white or blue?
I know the dashboard top is black, and the instrument panel is in a glossy blue hue.

Any help on this matter would be gratefully received.