My 221 Amazon Estate project
 

I bought this car about three years ago from longstanding club member John Smith. I think he took the car off the road in about 1981 for some repairs to the front wing mounting rails. He got as far as removing the engine and gearbox, cut off the mounting rail "shotguns" but ran aground at that point. I was heavily vetted, and then eventually invited to purchase the car and an extensive stock of spare parts John had amassed over the years :tongwink:

My heart sank a little when I offered up the repair panels to find they didn't fit by a country mile. I think the passage of time sat on its wheels with the inner wings cut away had allowed the chassis rails to relax a bit. In a bit of a huff with it, I left the car on my spare two post lift for three long years to sulk. With all this terrible Corona business I have some time on my hands so decided to give the old Amazon another look. Turns out three years hanging has helped a lot, and the repair panels fit again!

I'm cutting and pasting in from another place, so some of this may seem disjointed. Sorry!

A bit of spare time this afternoon. I removed all the bushes from the rear suspension arms, sandblasted them and applied a coat of paint.

https://i.ibb.co/dcXfL9s/2-E06-AF8-A...20-CB22-E1.jpg

I picked the best of my front sub frames, blasted that, then a coat of red oxide primer...

https://i.ibb.co/KqyX9YF/93-AB5605-6...-BDF556156.jpg

These are finished originally in grey, although the colour varied a lot during production. The original on my car was a slightly darker grey than this, but I couldn't match it easily. The spare I used was a lighter grey, and I could match that so went with it.

https://i.ibb.co/GMh32sZ/DC80-C43-C-...829-AAB534.jpg

Also took a few shots of the underside, in no particular order...

https://i.ibb.co/2sN1dBG/A1-E676-CE-...-ABE612-AC.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/m8CzfYc/EF576-A88-B...FC3-B731-F.jpg

https://i.ibb.co/k9KtfWn/4-CDB7426-1...60-E34-F05.jpg

This car is in remarkable condition. The underside needed no welding at all. The front wing rails, already mentioned, had been removed, but I never saw how rusty they were. The only other place that needs repair is inside the rear wheel arches where there is a stiffener plate for the rear seat backrest hinge.

I had a bit of spare time this afternoon, got a bit more done. I fitted the other wing mounting rail. I had it mocked up with some self-tapping screws, but it's welded in now.

https://i.ibb.co/k9BjLjq/27-C22749-C...5-C1-F6280.jpg

The alignment with the other front panels and the doors is spot on. Ultimately it took a whole day's work on each side to get them this good.

https://i.ibb.co/nPTLxgC/29-E39145-D...615487-E40.jpg

The new suspension bushes arrived today. I had quite a few new-old-stock bushes in my stock of parts, but they were so old the cases were rusty and the rubbers had started to perish. I bought new ones. I fitted the rear ones to the freshly painted arms. All ready to fit

https://i.ibb.co/wBB2y4Y/21-F5-C844-...-DA508-FA6.jpg

I also fitted the handbrake linkage and new handbrake cables with brand new return spring.

https://i.ibb.co/9tsZBp9/97-B8-A10-B...DEF2962-B4.jpg

Started working on the engine bay paintwork...

https://i.ibb.co/xGkYCmr/4-CB03-BBF-...1-C933-C08.jpg

Coming on nice. Very pleased with it so far!

This looks to be a nice project. Keep us posted, please.

John will be very pleased and I hope he will comment. If you don't mind I will add your photos to the Estate database but strangely I can't find the reg number. Perhaps you could pm that to me. Don't want to go behind your back and ask John. 1981? Surely not. I can remember seeing it in the garage a few times but not that far back as far as I know.
Nice work. Keep it up!

Hi Derek, I can't PM you, I don't have enough posts yet. When I do I'll share the reg.
I am going from the stack of old tax discs that came with the car. The last expired in 1981, so I'm assuming that's when John took it off the road.

I am John Griffiths' stepson. I'm guessing if you know John Smith you probably know Griff as well.

The car nearly broke my heart when I discovered the front had sagged with the rails removed. It's a stroke of luck I managed to reverse the process!

221 estate
 

Gareth,thanks for posting progess on the Amazon estate the reg is JAA477E I purchased it 1989 - 1990 intending to run it for a few years then restore it after 1991 when I retired from Hantspol I think i used it up until around 1993 taking it off the road to restore, but family and voc commitments, register keeper and membership Sec took up most of my time. I thought it was in fairly good condition when purchased, had about 100K recorded and firbe glass wings. I am delighted that is going so well. I will dig out my diaries etc and post more if I find it.

It has taken me a long time to get going with it John. To be honest, if the Corona virus thing hadn't come along I don't think I would have ever got round to it! Projects can go a bit like that sometimes. :rolleyes: For the record, I think cutting both "shotguns" off and leaving it is probably not such a good idea. Luckily it has come good in the end! More pictures to follow...

Hello Gareth. John rang me to give me the details. Reason I thought that I didn't have it on the data base is because I thought that the car was blue, not green. The pics I have distinctly look like blue! See below.
120 Register meet Cadnam Hants 1992. Peter Ragg alert!
Car tax ran out 1/7/93 which indicates when it was last used.
John and myself agree that there was unlikely to have been any sag. It's just that the shotgun repair panels give a lot of lee way as to how to fit them. Volvo never supplied panels like this. The inner wing include the vertical part and that had the box section that the wing fits to as a seperate panel. Of course when you get the usual holes in the vertical section you don't fit a new inner wing. Aftermarket suppliers like Veng started to sell the shotguns to make the job easier. They can be fitted neatly to look original or poorly to give varying results.
Don't know how you are doing with the shims for fitting the crossmember. The original cross member would have been shimmed to match the small differences in the body but the main reason for them is to set the castor angle.