Amazon: Freebie Amazon project

[Gordon Hunter]

Well I have a plan together now.
Looking at the rear of the car with the boot lid open, you can see that the accident damage has lowered the RHS by about 5mm. This is particularly evident if you let your eye follow the bottom of the open boot lid along from left to right...

002.jpg

Removing the underseal from the chassis on the right hand side reveals an area of compression just before the wheel arch at the panhard rod mounting bracket.Because of the light, you can't see the creasing in the metal, but this is the area that will need straightening...

001.jpg

My plan is to remove the rear panel from the car for repair.
Detach the RHS wing from the boot floor and inner wheel arch panels.
Work from the rear scuttle panel and bootlid downwards fixing the panel gaps.
(I will cut and straighten the chasssis with porta power / ratchet straps to acheive what the dozer would usually do. I think this is best as the car was repaired with a new wing without straightening the chassis!)
Replace rear panel, front inner wheel arch and boot floor.
right, time to get on with it!...

[Gordon Hunter]

Well, by chance when looking inside the car I happened to notice a line of seam sealer running down the inside of the RHS rear wing. On digging out nearly 8mm of filler on the outside I discovered this...

001.jpg

Dr Frankenstein has been at work here! I just wish he'd done a basic car restoration course at Leeds college! What a very bad repair job has been done on this poor Amazon! It was supposed to have been professionally repaired in the past. I won't say who by as I'd need to check the paperwork that came with the car, but I'm shocked if it was done by who I think it was...
No wonder the back end sits lower on the RHS! The repair section hasn't been lined up properly. The welding looks like nothing on earth.
This will make or break the project.
What is really needed is a new wing.
Either that or I take the old one off and spend weeks trying to sort it out.

Does anyone have a 2 door Amazon RHS (off side) rear wing? even a 4 door one could be adapted. New or used, not bothered about rust! Just need to get this car finished or scrapped...

[Tail]

You could try Simon at Brookhouse he did have on e-bay two complete nos rear wings for a two door one for each side but that was a month or two ago and they were around £175 which i thought was a good price really.

[Gordon Hunter]

Thanks John,

I saw those when they were listed and remember thinking "great price, pity I don't need one"!!!
I spoke to Simon today and sadly they are long gone...

[Tail]

Allways the case, i had to try and think of a reason not to buy them and store them just in case....

[DJS]

Man, that looks like a bodge Gordon.

I assume that it was a Volvo “expert” from the forum who has repaired the car in the past.

Don’t give up on the car. Carefully remove the wing and straighten the car / rear longitudinal. Somebody will come up with a rear wing, either new or from a scrap car.

[Gordon Hunter]

Hi Darren,

Thanks for your encouragement. Yesterday really was this project's darkest hour!
Don't worry, I've decided to 'keep calm and weld on'.
I've managed to source a NOS OS Volvo rear wing (just waiting for the go ahead from the finance department!), so it will actually save a lot of time on a wheel arch repair section and a rear sill repair panel and a lot of other faffing as it's still out of shape from the accident.

As to the company who obviously bought out Isopon, I won't name names, but suspect that you're not far off in your thinking...

I'd better go and buy me a new wing before someone else nabs it! Mind you, the mortage application might be enough to put others off (still not as bad as an 1800 one)!

Gordon

[Burdekin]

Good stuff Gordon. Nothing like doing a good job to be proud of... The sad thing is we soon forget how much hard work goes into these sort of things.

I thought Isopon was the name of the company, doh. Doing dodgy unsafe repairs certainly does nothing for a person's reputation. Imagine if due to that dodgy repair someone was hurt...

[Gordon Hunter]

Wow. Well I had a look through the cars history this morning and found a very interesting invoice dated 23/07/01.
Under the list of work completed it states:

"Remove:- O/S/R wing, Rear Bumper, Bootlid & hinge
Replace:- O/S/R damaged rear wing, bootlid & hinge"

Under parts the old owner has been billed for 1 X rear wing £200.00.

Maybe that should have been £100 as actually only half the new wing is on there! But then the company could probably justify spending the extra £100 on all the filler they used!

The Volvo Owners Club has been through some real nightmares on this forum with accusations and aspertions flying backwards and forwards, so please don't ask me to reveal the name of the company who carried out this work. However, I can say for certain that they certainly operate / operated from down SOUTH...

File.jpg

Please let me know if you think I am in any way out of order...

[Burdekin]

By not mentioning the name innocent people could wrongly be associated with this repair. I however think you are correct in not naming them, but I know who did it and wouldn't use them, however some people think highly of them.