1967 Volvo Amazon Estate - Updated 10/01/2021

[Paul H]

My everyday car (the youngest I've ever owned):






Has twin carbs & overdrive. Originally a B18 (1.8), now fitted with a B20 (2.0) - exchange recon, ex Swedish Army snowmobile! Large bore dual downpipe exhaust and a more interesting cam. Think 1960s equivalent of a T5, and you get the idea. The total mileage is estimated at a minimum of 250,000 (don't know how many times it's been round the 5 didgit mileometer - in the last 11 years, it has covered 70,000).

Except for the front wings (replaced by a previous owner - years ago given that they are rusting through now), a few floor patches & an outrigger, it hasn't been welded or painted. Quite a bit of rust (door bottoms, upper tailgate, rear arches etc), but no filler other than parts of the rear arches (purely to keep the MOT man happy). Otherwise, the body is unmolested, but battered. However, it will need a new driver's side front inner wing top, rear end of the passenger side outer sill and some patching to the front passenger floor before the MOT in April. Prior to this, the only welding required since it was bought 11 years ago have been some small floor patches and an outrigger.

Overall, it is scruffy and battered, but mechanically in very good order. It's value is almost entirely sentimental, but it is an extremely practical everyday car, despite the lack of power steering or brakes (the later must have broken as it was removed by a previous owner).

If something were ever to happen to it, I'd certainly want to get another Amazon.

[Paul H]

Just found some old photos of my car - taken about four or five years ago (before I aquired it). When my girlfriend saw them, she couldn't believe that it was the same car, as it looks shiny!!


(The primered Moggy van behind it was my first car.)

[hairnet]

theres an E reg 67 restored one round here i see from time to time

they're just lovely

[tonycocacola]

had a good poke round it after i spoke to you at retro.
loved the gnarly front number plate. ;D

[Paul H]

tonycocacola said:

loved the gnarly front number plate. ;D

Thanks! I like it too, otherwise I'd have fitted a set of the old white on black plates - however, brand new ones would stick out like a sore thumb ;D

The MOT man doesn't seem to mind it, although at his request, the black lettering has been touched up a few times . Not sure that the feds would like it much, but I'm resisting the temptation to find out if the congestion charge (s)cameras can read it ;D

[Paul H]

Thought I'd resurrect this thread, as have some updates! First though are links to the other threads that should have been added to this one:

Dilemma

Alloys for my Amazon

Technical query

Amazon welding round 1

wheel trim rings

'Eadrested

Amazon 50th Rally

I HATE RUST!!!

Return of the Amazon

[Paul H]

Ah yes, the update.....


As can be seen the bumper is shot & the wings are pretty rough.... I'd been slowly accumulating a set of decent bumper sections (many thanks to Archieboy of this parish for the overriders ) & with the MOT due, it was finally time to do something about it, as well as sorting out various other things.

My aunt kindly lent me the use of her driveway for a few days and I set to work.

Firstly, had to sort out the exhaust for the MOT - I'd replaced the two centre sections recently but hadn't applied enough sealant so the joints were blowing badly. The exhaust had also shifted, & was knocking on the floor quite badly. Auntie's nice level driveway was ideal for jacking up the car (where I live, the road has very oronounced camber ) to get good access underneath. Wilst it was on the stands, I also took the opportunity to try out my Cosmic alloys, which are stored in my aunt's cellar ;D


;D ;D

I fitted each one to check the shape, as apparently one is buckled. with the car up on stands, I bolted the wheels one at a time to the rear axle & ran the engine at idle in first gear. Three were pretty much spot on, but the forth wasn't quite straight. Not hugely nasty, but definately noticable - see videos:

Amazon/IMGP4209.avi
Amazon/IMGP4210.avi

Off with the old bumper:



The outer bumper to bumper iron bolts had both rusted through completely, and the inner pair of bolts weren't much better, but needed to be ground out to release the irons. I also cleaned up the backs of the 'new' sections with a wire brush attachment for my angle grinder and also derusted the bumper irons before giving them a good coat of black smoothrite. Not mega exciting, so no pics

In the meantime, rain stopped play before I'd finished everything, so had to place everything in the boot so that the paint could dry & bolted the old number plate through the grille so that I could drive the car home.

A few evenings later, I got round to bolting up the bumper, which proved to be quite a pain, as it refused to align properly. I worked out that one of the irons is out of shape, so did the best I could.
One of the other things that needed doing was fitting new number plates, as the old ones barely passed the MOT last year, and since them the regs have been tightened up. They were ordered from here for about £25 delivered. These were fitted at the same time as the new bumper.

Seeing as I was on a roll, I thought it about time to sort out the jagged holes above the headlights, which are normally plastered with duck tape. I didn't fancy my chances of getting the car through a third MOT like that, so attacked the offending (& offensive) areas with a screwdriver, hammer and wire brush. Some ally mesh, P38 and a quick blow over with a spray can and doesn't look too bad until you look closely, at which stage my use of just a surform and 240 grade to finish it is rather obvious...... Yes, I know it's a bodge, but the wings are scrap anyway and only need to last until the new ones (gathering dust in my aunt's cellar) are ready to be fitted.

The poor finish will be sorted out soon, & was because I was in a rush - the paint was still wet when I delivered the car to the garage for the MOT & major service. Front pads & a brake pipe (had been clouted repeatedly by the exhaust so I wanted it replaced anyway - relevant bleed nipple on a wheel cylinder sheared so that cylinder was replaced too) & we had a pass ;D ;D

As part of the service, I had a neoprene rear crank seal conversion fitted in order to stop it marking its territory (in particular my parking space at work) so now it should hopefully be oil tight so I can now clean up the engine and engine bay

Oh, and here's what it now looks like - every time I see it, I can hardly beleive it's the same car!!! Don't worry though, I'm keeping the old number plates

[devilishdesigner]

good to see she's getting some tlc. definitely a fan of the cosmics, would be great to see them on.

[leigh]

Yeah the cosmics would transform this car, coupled with a bit of gravitational movement perhaps??

[Quarterless]

Hey Paul,
Cars looking good. Get those wheels on it!
Good job linking all the other threads in too. Most helpful.

[Seth]

Good work Paul and well done on the MOT The car looks quite weird without its gaffer tape!

That wheel doesn't look too bad. Looks more like a lump at one point rather than the whole wheel wobbling in and out. Maybe it could be skimmed true by a wheel re-furb place?

[chevazon]

Good to see the Amazon Appreciation Society is still going strong. Hopefully mine might be fettled by the weekend.

[Paul H]

Cheers guys! Hopefully be running the Cosmics by next year, but no stick action as it's my daily and also very much a workhorse.

Apr 30, 2008 9:47:33 GMT Seth said:

Good work Paul and well done on the MOT The car looks quite weird without its gaffer tape!

That wheel doesn't look too bad. Looks more like a lump at one point rather than the whole wheel wobbling in and out. Maybe it could be skimmed true by a wheel re-furb place?

Does indeed look strange without the gaffer tape! When i have time, the wag above the lights will be sorted out properly so that it looks more respectable (it is truly foul when viewed closeup).

The wheel has a slight buckle to several inches of an outer rim (is noticeable once you know it's there), but as can be seen is otherwise true. TBH, could probably be knocked back into shape by someone who knows what they're doing (ie not add extra damage / or stress the alloy etc), but I reckon it would still be ok if mounted on the back rather than being up front. Also some cracks in the rims of three of them also need welding up but sadly I don't have time to sort any of this out at the moment.

Next on the to-do list (after fixing the broken rear window mechanism) is getting the rear bumper mounting brackets sorted out ASAP as these are badly corroded & I want to use the towbar (which is also mounted from them) later this month!!!

[hairnet]

can you age the front plate slightly?

raised letter are cool on B&W

[benner]

Those cosmic wheels are super cool, are they a 114.5pcd or a 112? (Just read your post about the wheels) Have just been reading up about 'wobble bolts' and considering porsche fuchs for my wagon. Had not heard of cosmics before, guessing they're rarer than rare.

[Paul H]

They're 4.5" (114.3mm) - the real deal ;D

[Paul H]

Update time!!!

Now that my website is working again (webmaster, aka ickle bwuvver had changed a network card but not updated something..... ) I can now post up some piccies

First a teaser....








Trying out the wheels to see how they fitted - I'd collected them only earlier that day! Previously on a '63 Ford Galaxie & turned out that the wheel stud thread is the same, so I could use the same wheelnuts . As can be seen, they fill the arches quite nicely however a 3mm spacer was needed at the front to clear the brake callipers (apparently quite normal with American wheels originally designed for cars with drums all round). They're 15" diameter like the original steels but not sure of the exact width / offset. Width is either 7.5 or 8J, and I think that the offset is about 0. The backspace is near enough the same as the 4.5J wheels that they are replacing. In these pics, they're shod with 205/70s which are a bit larger in overall diameter than is correct for the gearing. Also caused quite a few scrubbing issues between the front tyres and the front half of the wheelarches but more on that later.....




By this time it started raining so I didn't have time to take it off the jack at the front as the steels needed to go back on. However the wheels are in the correct position in the arches as it was supported under the suspension.

A few days later, once I had the spacers, the wheels were fitted properly, at the Ace Cafe Classic Cars night, with help from Seth


(piccies are Seth's)

Sadly the tyre scrub issues were rather severe & had to roll the forward half of the front wheel arch lips completely back on themselves as otherwise they were scrubbing very badly even when going straight ahead, at the slightest hint of a bump Quite a few washers between the front bumper irons & the bumper itself on the passenger side shifted the bumper corner out of the way too. Sadly though by this stage & despite earlier attempts to solve the problem the front tyres were already trashed as the sides of the tread were ripped to shreds (not just scrubbing but large areas completely sliced away : but by this stage I'd completely eliminated the scrubbing so knew that I could buy new tyres without the risk of trashing them, as the Jupiters that came fitted to the wheels were about 6 years old so it would be silly to just replace the front tyres.

One set of Avon ZV5 205/65R15s later (the drop in profile also restored the correct diameter as well as giving about 5mm extra clearance on the radius) & all is well


The steering is a touch heavy especially at parking speeds and with the effect of the extra width on the steering geometry, there is a lot of 'feedback' / bumpsteer through the wheel (easy to cope with as the steering wheel is huge!), but on smooth roads & motorways this isn't at all noticeable.

And the wheels themselves? Despite what many people think, they're not Wolfraces. They're actually Ansen Sprints, which were apparently the first slot mag wheel available and are from California - more info here. The design dates from 1963 (not sure how old mine actually are, but they're not the recently reintroduced ones as the design was slightly altered then), so they are also period correct, despite looking very '70s! ;D

[The Doctor]

woah, that car looks AWESOME on those wheels ;D

[sangron]

Great looking car, the wheels look like mine. I want your side mirrors and the chrome around your rear window.

[Paul H]

Sept 28, 2008 5:07:47 GMT sangron said:

Great looking car, the wheels look like mine. I want your side mirrors and the chrome around your rear window.

Thanks! Do you know what your wheels are? They look a bit narrower than mine (which are stupidly wide...) & probably make it much easier to steer!

The mirrors are just generic european accessory ones from when the car was new. No idea on the make, but IIRC, says "Made in France" underneath. I think that the chrome around the windows is available, if not you should be able to get some from a later car.

Time for an update!

Look what I bought this weekend:

Some of you may remember a white estate on eBay being broken - this is what's left... It was rotten in all the usual places, except the rear side window surround, which is factory fresh:

(Apologies for the cr@p phone pics... - in the metal it looks amazing!)

compared to mine:

which is utterly vile Also bought some boot trims (mine have been killed by the water leaks through the rust holes) and a rear crossmember, as the top surface of mine has also suffered from the water leaks: