Amazons

From all accounts perfect daily drivers..
big enough for day to day...(ridiculous boot compared to a modern...must be easily 2x as big an any modern saloon!)
Parts are cheap enough, although the usual metric/imperial bulls1t comes up sometimes (such is happening on mine atm!)
depending on your budget, overdrive is desired for motorway cruising...b18 is sensible (1.8L) although some have later 2.0L (b20) engines fitted at some time in their lives..

rust isnt a HUGE problem like many classics, although there are problem areas.. and the bumpers cost the world (but thankfully are in 3 pieces so sections can be replaced easily when funds allow!)

buying advice? check the usual classic spots.. but pay attention to below all the windows and especially the corners of the front and rear windscreens... engines are super reliable and will soldier on as long as any modern engine.. also alot of really nice people drive amazons.. (more than i have come across in my mini days!) so alot of help from them!...

ebay is your friend sometimes. or volvo-club.org (Or something like that...i can never get it right!)forums.

Amazons are great daily short and long distance drivers!IMHO!

Great feedback guys !

I've even managed to convince SWMBO that its a great idea !

I'm hoping to see it at the weekend. Its a 122s '66, some bubbling around tthe headlight, inner wing showing rust and some tiny bubbles on the bottom edge of the bootlid.




Hes looking for 2.5k

Sound fair?

Cheers
Gerry

inner wings still available??

Who does body panels??

Cheers
Gerry

Reporting for Duty! ;D

Not sure where to start really - imho Amazons are great cars, and extremely capable of everyday use & abuse provided it's in good shape.

Article from the Telegraph motoring section, along with loads of useful links: clicky, one of many which describes them as the most practical classic car for everyday use.

The Volvo Owners' Club Forum is also very useful for tech & tuning advice, and also for sourcing parts. There's also a buyers guide in the latest Classic Car Mart (has an Amazon on the cover).

Most desirable are the 123GTs, which was basically the GTi version, with both a more powerful engine and also loads of goodies like spotlamps, tacho, reclining front seats etc etc. Watch out for clones though - not a problem in itself, as long as you don't pay the genuine 123GT price....

However for normal use, a 122S with o/d is great. IMHO, a non o/d Amazon (esp an estate, which uses the o/d fitment lower geared diff even when without o/d) is best avoided if you want to do any motorway or even fast A road driving. With o/d, an Amazon will cruise very comfortably at 80, and the more powerful ones will have more in reserve. Early ones are drums all round but from the early '60s, they were discs on the front (very good, esp for the era) & the last ones are dual circuit. Later seats (post '65?) are great - very comfortable, but then they were the first car seats to be medically designed!

Avoid B16 (1.6) engines - only of interest to early Amazon perverts, & best used as a boat anchor / doorstop imho as they only have a three bearing crank..... The B18 (1.8) is reputedly the toughest but the B20 (2.0) has more torque. Single carb variants used a different cam to the twin carb ones. Standard exhaust is a pea shooter, and is bet binned in favour of a Simons big bore sports system (Archieboy & I both have these on our Amazons), and this matches very nicely with the factroy cast iron twin downpipe manifold fitted to some cars (others had a singlke downpipe, which doesn't breathe as well).

Bodywise, rust can be an issue, purely because there are so many unrestored cars out there which now require significant attention - almost all other cars of this age reached this point years ago! Watch out especially for rot anywhere in the windscreen surround / front bulkhead (due to a leaking screen) - check carefully especially from under the bonnet & behind the dashboard. Check the front floor, as this often rots through (again due to a leaking screen) above the front outriggers, and if left unchecked, will spread to the outrigger & also the front chassis rail.

Inner wing tops, where the front wings mount are also a weak spot but there is a good quality repair section (had mine done a few years ago) but alignment is critical as the front wings are mounted on them. If looking at an estate, examine the top tailgate very carefully - these rot like a child born out of wedlock & good ones are like poor quality wobbly children's play pony poo. Also check the metal work under the rear side windows.....

Many repair panels are available (sills, floor, inner wings, arches etc) but front wings & front panels are expensive new (genuine Volvo) but good second hand ones are available for much less if you're prepared to hunt around. Over the last few years, I've bought a set of front inner (complete, not just the repair section) & outer wings, three doors & a top tailgate (all NOS or vgc 2nd hand) for much less than Volvo would want just for the front outer wings!

Watch out for the bumpers these rot through from behind due to muck build-up around the irons & it's about £1K to replace them all with brand new genuine Volvo parts. Again, secondhand is the answer unless you're into concours.

As for the car you've seen, imho £2.5K is steep if it need the inner wings doing, but if it's otherwise excellent (good interior, excellent bumpers, good paint & no other rot etc, then it could be worth considering.

My estate is my everyday car & also the youngest that I've owned, and I find it makes an extremely practical workhorse. Excellent turning circle, volcanic heater, very reliable, safe & predictable handling, large boot & the split tailgate arrangement is brilliant for load lugging (rear number plate rotates when the lower half is down, so still road legal). All this in a surprisingly small package - only 4.45m long & 1.62m wide. With the twin carb B20 & o/d, it will cruise easily at 85 / 90 (I've seen 117 flat-out on an autobahn but needed a long runup!) and the brakes although heavy (the servo was binned years ago), stop the car easily. Always starts (except when the battery when south but hardly the cars fault) & has always got me home, even when it has misbehaved... Very easy to work on too, and the mechanicals are very long lived. My back axle lasted 250,000 miles before needing a rebuild, whilst engines & gearboxes have been known to go on for longer

If you have any questions etc, please ask!!! ;D

Much thanks for all the replies chaps and for Paul H for spending the time on the phone last night !

Won't be seeing the Amazon till next weekend, if anyone hears of a nice one for sale, please let me know !!

Cheers
gerry

Liking the moons Loon.

ger, I agree with what's been said about Amazon Cars. Rob Henchoz (not spoken to Emma yet) has been unfailingly polite and helpful whenever I've rung up to pick his brains, being a mine of information and even offering me test drives in his modified 122 to try out suspension mods!

Tony Barrett \ Braydon are a bit hit and miss IMHO. Tony himself is a very pleasant bloke, very knowledgeable and helpful. His second hand deputy (whose name I forget) is also spot on. His other staff who answer the phone leave a lot to be desired, especially when Tony is away.... how difficult can it be to reference a timing cover \ front crank oil seal from one computer to the other?!!!

One thing I would say on buying a 'zon from my limited experience is to get one with decent inner \ outer rear wings (as these are savagely expensive), non crinkly doors (embarassing) and with an engine with uprated (neoprene) front and rear crank oil seals. My 121 had felt items which failed spectacularly (I suspect they were original )

In short, buy the best car bodily you can afford. The mechanicals on Amazons are relatively cheap - I picked up a B18B block and head for £42 on eBay. The B18 engined cars are tolerable on the motorway without an overdrive, although I would look at a car with one OEM unless bodily a 121 comes up that you just can't overlook for the money.

Oh yeah, and the Zenith 36VN carbs are curse word. Basically, buy a 122S.

For £2500, your budget is far in excess of mine - I paid £600 for my 121 and a few people who 'know old cars' reckon I got a bit bummed. Nevertheless I drove it 300 miles back from Brighton and it didn't miss a beat, from my base in Chorlton it's been up to Sheffield twice, to Lancaster, Leeds, and into Manchester countless times and it's never failed to get me home.

well I've been driving mine for 6 months now and couldnt be much happier as a daily driver. she does about 200km per week and besides some tuning niggles (mostly to do with the chokes) she has been fantastic. reliable and comfortable and never fails to attract attention, to the extent that i have actually had oen accident caused by someone staring at my car and not paying attention to the car parked infront of him that he was trying to pull out around!