Volvo Amazon

[Burdekin]

Painting (and a few wee weld repairs) of the underneath of my 1966 Volvo Amazon Estate. Doing from the bulkhead back at the moment and then the front next winter.

A friend is helping with this and so far we've stripped the undersell, stripped the paint and treated the rust around the rear axle, I've done a few weld repairs and painted the axle and rear suspension.

 

[Springerdinger]

Stunning car and great work.
Thanks for sharing
Chris

 

[Burdekin]

Thanks.

 

[ian f]

excellent work, really like the look of these

 

[robwizard]

Amazons are the one! Mine needs some serious welding haha.. hopefully it turns out as nice as yours!

 

[Burdekin]

Cheers guys.

There will always be something to do on these old Amazons Rob. They are cool old cars and a pleasure to own and drive.

 

[Burdekin]

Well we were scuppered by the wrong bushes for the trailing arm and one of the panhard rod's bush tonight as they were too wide. I think the ones we have are for 67 & 68 models. I didn't measure the difference but probably about 5/16" too wide, so will give my supplier Simon a call tomorrow. If they are the wrong ones then this is a little bit of history for me, can't ever remember Simon sending me the wrong part before so I certainly can't complain. So we cracked on with as much as we could with the suspension, even have the wheels back on for now which was a nice feeling. I just used the old shocks for now.

 

[Burdekin]

We managed to roll the car over tonight. Our first efforts of lifting the car last night to mount on the roller were a bit precarious as we lifted the car too high on the roller last night so had to lower it tonight and then it was safe to lift the back up. I wasn't anywhere near as nervous rolling the car as I was lifting it high one end and then high at the other. It does look weird on the side though but will make it much easier to work on.

Thanks to Nick, Dad and my lovely wife Karen for their help....

 

[Burdekin]

Nick and I have been putting in a lot of effort getting the old girl ready for paint and finally she has some new paint on her. I masked her up last weekend before I went away for the week for work. I gave her the first coat of Jotamastic 80 on Friday night after giving the floor the final rub down with steel wool, then sealed all seams with Tiger Seal (mongrel job as it's sticky and takes a bit of effort to get a nice finish but it's good stuff) yesterday and then the final coats of Jotamastic today. Very happy how it's turned out and I have surprised myself how well I'm getting on with the spraypainting. I couldn't get all the areas around the axle so Nick and I will turn the car back over on Tuesday night and I'll see if I can get the remaining areas then.

I'm only a novice spay painter but I feel the Jotamastic 80 sprays really nicely. I thin it 15% and it goes on a treat. Some folk say it can be a pain to spray but seems fine to me.

 

[Flapdisk]

Excellent mate, looking really good, where did you get that frame thing that you are turning the car over with? what a wonderful gizzmo, will it fit any car?

 

[Burdekin]

Thanks. Bought the roller from here: http://www.cjautosheywood.co.uk/autovip.shtml not cheap and I put off buying one for a few years but I am so glad I finally bought one as makes it so much easier to work on the car. Should fit any car but check with the company if unsure.

 

[galooph]

Looks very handy! Do you have to drain all the fluids before before you roll it?

How're you getting on with your English wheel?

 

[Burdekin]

I dropped all the fluids apart from the clutch which I just sealed with cling film in the cap and then taped and bagged.

Not used the wheel much yet to be honest as need to get the Amazon back on the road.

 

[Flapdisk]

Excellent thanks mate, Seems a little expensive for a few bent bits of metal, I would love one but couldn't merit paying that much just to work on my car now and then, it would be years between use.

 

[Burdekin]

Excellent thanks mate, Seems a little expensive for a few bent bits of metal, I would love one but couldn't merit paying that much just to work on my car now and then, it would be years between use.

No worries, totally understand but I wish I bought one years ago due to the huge amount of hours I've spent scrapping underseal and welding on my projects.

 

[Flapdisk]

Ahh now then I can relate to that, I got hit by bowel cancer two years ago and grovelling around under cars after having half my guts ripped out is not much fun anymore, I wish I had bought one years ago so it was there now, but at 61 and with above problem I don't suppose I will be doing much more on the underneath of cars in the coming years so I would be hard pushed to justify it. I noticed there is a basic roller for half the price, I am tempted I have nearly completed my latest re furbish of one of the family cars and I think if I bought it, it would sit in the workshop for a few years before it was next needed and the question then would be would I be capable by then life's a beach aint it

 

[Burdekin]

That's a ******. I've seen other nice and basic designs and even a wooden one that worked a treat which for a one off job do the job.

 

[Flapdisk]

Yeah I thought of knocking one up, but the question has to be would I trust being beside a one ton car on it's side being held up by something I made
When I was in my 20's I laid some blankets on a lawn and bit by bit jacked my Humber sceptre m2 up onto it's side to weld a bit in the chassis, propped it up with bits of 4x2 I'm not that much of a daredevil anymore!

 

[Burdekin]

More progress with the painting. Nick and I rolled her back over, seam sealed the rear arches, couple of coats of epoxy mastic and then I gave her a couple of coats of Gravitex anti-stonechip tonight. The gravitex is nice and easy to apply and came out pretty good I think.

Topcoat tomorrow morning but then unfortunately probably working on my wife's back garden project for the rest of the weekend....

 

[Flapdisk]

Superb job lads, what's that gravitex then? when it's dry is it like rubber, like seam sealer or is it more like tar like underseal?