- Joined
- Mar 31, 2003
- Location
- Portland, OR
Cameron's post in showroom to thank everyone for iPd's 50 years of Volvos inspired me to do this.
A hearty thank you to Cameron, and to the rest of iPd for planning this event. Dawn and I are grateful for allowing us to debut Blackie, our '67 122 in this event, and were happy to be recognized with the top honor in the Vintage Class!
Personally, this show was the culmination of 4 years of hard work, sweat, tears, blood, and a big bucket of money. I began working on Blackie about four years ago, but I officially started stripping her down on Jan. 22, 2010. Once I heard about the 50 Years of Volvos show, finishing her for the show became my singular goal. Lots of late nights and weekends, even working straight up to 2:30 a.m. the morning of the show.
My lovely wife Dawn was there with me step by step. To her I owe a debt of gratitude for her patience, understanding, and dipping into our collective finances in order to finish the project. There were a lot of days when I doubted myself, and emotions ranged from complete elation to utter failure. Giving up on the timeline crossed my mind many times. I'm glad I didn't give in... I'd say the goal of iPd's show kept me going.
For those of you who don't know the story of how Blackie came to be in our garage, after getting to know my girlfriend (who is now my wife), I realized she was a "car girl", and decided the best engagement ring was going to be a classic Volvo. She had remarked she liked the shape of the 122, so I set about looking for one. Found Blackie out in Yamhill... 5-6 out of 10, complete driver, with a little bit of rust and rough around the edges, but good bones. I hatched a plan to surprise Dawn with the car... I would give it to her on Valentine's Day.
I got Aaron Flaming to conspire with me on the plan, and we stashed the car at his house for a few days. Since Valentine's Day fell on a Friday, I told Dawn we'd do something on Saturday. Having taped the key in a Valentine's Day card, I laid it on the coffee table downstairs, and told Dawn I'd return shortly with Strabuck's, while she slept in. I quickly ran over to Aaron's house, swapped out my '89 245 for the 122, and drove down to Starbuck's, even got a few thumbs-up on the way! By the time I got home, Dawn was already up and around, and I told her let's go downstairs. I gave her the card and her coffee, and she gave me her card. We opened them up, but I could barely read what her card said because I as more interested in her reaction to mine. She had this confused look on her face, and pulled the key out from the card. I just shrugged my shoulders and said go look outside. She quickly opens the front door and just stands there with tears streaming down her face. She said she knew that the car was a sign that we would be together from that point on.
This project has brought us closer together, and given us something to work on together. Most of my car projects are complicated and for me alone, but this one has allowed Dawn to be fully involved and to learn things she never would have otherwise.
To everyone else who helped us along the way, with parts, advice, labor, and support, I tip my glass to your generosity, patience, understanding and help (excuse me if I've forgotten anyone)...
Cameron Lovre for your patience and advice on everything Amazon; Colin Roberts for all your help and advice, Chris Horn for a boatload of parts and help identifying "lost" parts and fasteners; David Burrows for all your help (including ongoing work) on the parcel shelf, kick panels, rear hat shelf and sun visors; Aaron Flaming for misc. 122 parts and letting me "hide" Blackie at your house for a few days after I first bought her; Sean Steinman for that incredible gray velour interior and really cool period-correct Blaupunkt rear speaker!; Kenneth Rogers for switches and other helping me figure out what 140 parts actually worked on a 122!; the Becker brothers for letting me raid that 142 for all the brake components; Harold Walton for the "old school" metal work, fabrication and paint; Yuri Virchenko for paint touch-up, repair of the damage to the roof caused by Bright Auto Upholstery, and catching all the stuff Harold missed!; Rob Gordon at Vol-Tech for "massaging" the B20 head and freshening up the motor's bottom end; Shayne Green for the lowering springs and rebuilding the M-41 (not to mention sourcing the original factory red for the trans case!); Teague Oviatt for the great condition windshield, trim pieces, GT doors, fenders and trunk lid; Mike Dudek at iRoll Motors for the countless new and used parts; Olof Malmberg at Vintage Import Parts for the OEM carpet kit, trunk interior panels and a list of other OEM items; Tracy at Mr. Powdercoat for your incredible powder-coating work, especially all those last-minute and custom requests!; Oregon Plating for doing a superb job on re-chroming the front and rear bumpers, windshield cowl and front turn signal bezels; Eastside Plating for zinc plating tons of OE fasteners, Tire Rack.com for the new tires; Kyle Eisenbach, Peter Linssen and the rest of the crew at the V Shop for assistance, advice and parts; Driveline Components for re-balancing the driveshaft; McGuire Bearing for helping me source replacement bearings for the transmission at a fraction of OE prices!; Six States for installing new bearings and seals on the 1800ES rear axle; Don & Tamara Brown at Oregonplates for the original reproduction 1967 Oregon registration decal; Robert from SwedishOps for assisting me with sourcing the all-aluminum radiator, and Mike at Mac's Radiator on SE Foster for his fabrication work on the temperature switch bung and drain port install; Dennis Helzer of Helzer machine for all the custom machined parts; American Metal Strippers for preparing all the steel replacement parts; Skip at Skip's Wheel Werks for mounting and balancing the tires (and thanks for keeping the wheel weights on the back side as I requested!); Portland Powdercoating for redoing all the suspension components in satin black, and to my in-laws, Doug and Darlene Paulsrude, for letting us stash Blackie in your barn for about a year or so! Most of all, thank you to my wife Dawn for her infinite patience, putting up with years of late nights, last minute parts runs to Chris Horn's house, running errands for me, and listening to my rants and expletives. You truly define the word "life partner".
Feb. 15, 2009:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/flynhwn7/8464447004/" title="1967 Black 122 Amazon 003 by flynhwn7, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8102/8464447004_447e406c46_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="1967 Black 122 Amazon 003"></a>
May 18, 2013:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/flynhwn7/8753283071/" title="DSCN5335 by flynhwn7, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2833/8753283071_14333aaa68_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="DSCN5335"></a>
To see more of the restoration, visit my Flickr pages:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flynhwn7/sets/72157629321223592/with/8464447004/
At the iPd show:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flynhwn7/sets/72157633533963966/
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/flynhwn7/8754396950/" title="DSCN5360 by flynhwn7, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2860/8754396950_0717bde5ea_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="DSCN5360"></a>
A hearty thank you to Cameron, and to the rest of iPd for planning this event. Dawn and I are grateful for allowing us to debut Blackie, our '67 122 in this event, and were happy to be recognized with the top honor in the Vintage Class!
Personally, this show was the culmination of 4 years of hard work, sweat, tears, blood, and a big bucket of money. I began working on Blackie about four years ago, but I officially started stripping her down on Jan. 22, 2010. Once I heard about the 50 Years of Volvos show, finishing her for the show became my singular goal. Lots of late nights and weekends, even working straight up to 2:30 a.m. the morning of the show.
My lovely wife Dawn was there with me step by step. To her I owe a debt of gratitude for her patience, understanding, and dipping into our collective finances in order to finish the project. There were a lot of days when I doubted myself, and emotions ranged from complete elation to utter failure. Giving up on the timeline crossed my mind many times. I'm glad I didn't give in... I'd say the goal of iPd's show kept me going.
For those of you who don't know the story of how Blackie came to be in our garage, after getting to know my girlfriend (who is now my wife), I realized she was a "car girl", and decided the best engagement ring was going to be a classic Volvo. She had remarked she liked the shape of the 122, so I set about looking for one. Found Blackie out in Yamhill... 5-6 out of 10, complete driver, with a little bit of rust and rough around the edges, but good bones. I hatched a plan to surprise Dawn with the car... I would give it to her on Valentine's Day.
I got Aaron Flaming to conspire with me on the plan, and we stashed the car at his house for a few days. Since Valentine's Day fell on a Friday, I told Dawn we'd do something on Saturday. Having taped the key in a Valentine's Day card, I laid it on the coffee table downstairs, and told Dawn I'd return shortly with Strabuck's, while she slept in. I quickly ran over to Aaron's house, swapped out my '89 245 for the 122, and drove down to Starbuck's, even got a few thumbs-up on the way! By the time I got home, Dawn was already up and around, and I told her let's go downstairs. I gave her the card and her coffee, and she gave me her card. We opened them up, but I could barely read what her card said because I as more interested in her reaction to mine. She had this confused look on her face, and pulled the key out from the card. I just shrugged my shoulders and said go look outside. She quickly opens the front door and just stands there with tears streaming down her face. She said she knew that the car was a sign that we would be together from that point on.
This project has brought us closer together, and given us something to work on together. Most of my car projects are complicated and for me alone, but this one has allowed Dawn to be fully involved and to learn things she never would have otherwise.
To everyone else who helped us along the way, with parts, advice, labor, and support, I tip my glass to your generosity, patience, understanding and help (excuse me if I've forgotten anyone)...
Cameron Lovre for your patience and advice on everything Amazon; Colin Roberts for all your help and advice, Chris Horn for a boatload of parts and help identifying "lost" parts and fasteners; David Burrows for all your help (including ongoing work) on the parcel shelf, kick panels, rear hat shelf and sun visors; Aaron Flaming for misc. 122 parts and letting me "hide" Blackie at your house for a few days after I first bought her; Sean Steinman for that incredible gray velour interior and really cool period-correct Blaupunkt rear speaker!; Kenneth Rogers for switches and other helping me figure out what 140 parts actually worked on a 122!; the Becker brothers for letting me raid that 142 for all the brake components; Harold Walton for the "old school" metal work, fabrication and paint; Yuri Virchenko for paint touch-up, repair of the damage to the roof caused by Bright Auto Upholstery, and catching all the stuff Harold missed!; Rob Gordon at Vol-Tech for "massaging" the B20 head and freshening up the motor's bottom end; Shayne Green for the lowering springs and rebuilding the M-41 (not to mention sourcing the original factory red for the trans case!); Teague Oviatt for the great condition windshield, trim pieces, GT doors, fenders and trunk lid; Mike Dudek at iRoll Motors for the countless new and used parts; Olof Malmberg at Vintage Import Parts for the OEM carpet kit, trunk interior panels and a list of other OEM items; Tracy at Mr. Powdercoat for your incredible powder-coating work, especially all those last-minute and custom requests!; Oregon Plating for doing a superb job on re-chroming the front and rear bumpers, windshield cowl and front turn signal bezels; Eastside Plating for zinc plating tons of OE fasteners, Tire Rack.com for the new tires; Kyle Eisenbach, Peter Linssen and the rest of the crew at the V Shop for assistance, advice and parts; Driveline Components for re-balancing the driveshaft; McGuire Bearing for helping me source replacement bearings for the transmission at a fraction of OE prices!; Six States for installing new bearings and seals on the 1800ES rear axle; Don & Tamara Brown at Oregonplates for the original reproduction 1967 Oregon registration decal; Robert from SwedishOps for assisting me with sourcing the all-aluminum radiator, and Mike at Mac's Radiator on SE Foster for his fabrication work on the temperature switch bung and drain port install; Dennis Helzer of Helzer machine for all the custom machined parts; American Metal Strippers for preparing all the steel replacement parts; Skip at Skip's Wheel Werks for mounting and balancing the tires (and thanks for keeping the wheel weights on the back side as I requested!); Portland Powdercoating for redoing all the suspension components in satin black, and to my in-laws, Doug and Darlene Paulsrude, for letting us stash Blackie in your barn for about a year or so! Most of all, thank you to my wife Dawn for her infinite patience, putting up with years of late nights, last minute parts runs to Chris Horn's house, running errands for me, and listening to my rants and expletives. You truly define the word "life partner".
Feb. 15, 2009:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/flynhwn7/8464447004/" title="1967 Black 122 Amazon 003 by flynhwn7, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8102/8464447004_447e406c46_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="1967 Black 122 Amazon 003"></a>
May 18, 2013:
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/flynhwn7/8753283071/" title="DSCN5335 by flynhwn7, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2833/8753283071_14333aaa68_z.jpg" width="640" height="480" alt="DSCN5335"></a>
To see more of the restoration, visit my Flickr pages:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flynhwn7/sets/72157629321223592/with/8464447004/
At the iPd show:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/flynhwn7/sets/72157633533963966/
<a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/flynhwn7/8754396950/" title="DSCN5360 by flynhwn7, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2860/8754396950_0717bde5ea_z.jpg" width="480" height="640" alt="DSCN5360"></a>
Last edited:
