My 221 Amazon Estate project

[Uncle Benz]

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

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!

[Uncle Benz]

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.



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



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.



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

[Uncle Benz]

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.

[Uncle Benz]

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.



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.



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



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



Started working on the engine bay paintwork...



Coming on nice. Very pleased with it so far!

[Wagon Sailor]

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

[Derek UK]

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!

[tdz840]

Originally Posted by Uncle Benz

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

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!

Nice work!