Kyle's orphan 220 amazon wagon

[cwdodson88]

I’ve got an 1800 smiths water/oil temp gauge. It’s one of the vertical ones and I played around with the idea of doing something like the full 1800 dash

 

[stick70]

I've seen a couple of the 1800 dash swaps that look really good. Vox is the obvious one, but there are many others who have done it. I really love the simplicity of the 122 dash personally.

 

[stick70]

Today work was done on the passenger rear corner of the car. This is really the only area that has difficult rust, and thats really only because there are so many panels coming together. The panel behind the quarter visually looked ok at first, but it was only about as thick as a piece of paper.

Got that a few patch panels in. I'm not really concerned about getting the welds in here show quality, its not visible.

One thing that should be expected with this car but is never ending. Since it was in a desert for so long everything is filthy and covered in dirt. Every hammer blow drops a pile, I bet I've swept up 20 lbs of dirt since this project started.

I finished by cleaning up behind the wheel arch. I'll have to make a panel here also, but it really isn't bad at all.

A quick test fit of the donor quarter is promising. I'll have to patch small places of it but for the most part once I finish the sub structure we're home free.

 

[matt b]

Gauges on the dash curved area is cool, I like that. Let me know when you hook up the tach I sent you, I went to hook mine up Friday and fried my coil in the process.

I'm removing the radio and using the space to mount 2-3 gauges in that area. I have spare dashes but even then, I'll just make a small plate to mount the gauges over the area without modifying the dash.

 

[stick70]

Yeah man it would be good for parts, idk if I'm going to use it though. Do you have a wiring diagram for them? My dad has one for his 122 we've been meaning to hook up forever as well. I could test this one at the same time.

 

[LloydDobler]

My plan was to have a tach on top of the dash but the rest of the gauges in a center console made out of sheet metal so it matches the lower dash.

Hate to see you making more progress than me, my damn wagons are sucking up all my free time and motivation!

 

[stick70]

Cool man that could look good!

I got my axles back from Dutchman today. The prices were mega reasonable, and they did a great job. I got them to weld fill the old holes, drill to a 5x4.5" bolt pattern to match the front, and install new studs.

Now all I need to do is get some rear wheel bearings on order before I line up the 4-link permanently. Stay tuned, trans rebuild coming up!

 

[stick70]

Still working...got the rear axles installed and test fit the rear wheels. I'd say they fit damn good. The rotors aren't on yet, so they will move out 5-10mm more once that happens.

I'm still working on the quarter panel and rust repair too, but I'm almost done. I got the lower panels in, and its almost ready to weld up the main section of the quarter. I'm by no means a body man, and this has very much been a learning process. I feel like it's taken forever, but I'm finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the major crash repair. Also Clecos rock. My dad had some he bought at an auction I was able to use, they've saved me lots of headache.

 

[moise]

good size the wheels!

 

[stick70]

I've only got ****ty pictures but I wanted to update this thing. I've been working heavily on the rear axle pushing to get it finished. I've got the triangulated 4-link kit installed after literal days of measuring, calculating, and double checking. I'm not a suspension guru, but I wanted to make sure the bar angles wouldn't kill me and the car would handle well. Here's it all tacked up, it has since been finish welded:

Really the only brackets I was able to use out of the ridetech kit were the lower ones. I had to cut all the rest myself, there is just no room for what their universal kit calls for. One time saver was that I was able to use the stock trailing arm pickup bracket, I just moved the pickup point to get my bar angle level at ride height.

From there I moved straight into rear shock mounts. I ended up going with bagover style shocks. This will save me some time and space in theory, both of which I'm short on. They are the universal slam air ones from Air Lift Performance, sleeves for the rear, bellows for the front.

You can choose what ends you want on them, for now I'm going to use bushings on both sides of the rear and a stud on the top of the front one. These are significantly lower cost that the ridetech equivalent, I'll see if they hold up.

The front will mount in the stock spring location, I just have to cut enough out to make it fit. This will allow me to run the stock sway bar pick up points, which is something that has been a struggle point for guys putting bags on 122s in the past.

Here's the initial fitting:

I was able to just squeeze it to the inside of the frame rail to get everything to clear. I may have to notch the cross member behind the axle for some breathing room but that's no big deal.

Everything will get it's final install after the axle gets new gears and bearings next week, hopefully I can then paint it and get some better pictures.

I made a decision on management for this as well. I'm going to be running the Air Lift Performance 3H system. It uses potentiometers at each corner to monitor ride height and adjusts accordingly. I thought this was important as I intend to use this car as a station wagon, and load leveling will be nice when putting stuff in the back.

For now I'm going to try a 4 gallon tank, 3/8" lines, and one VAIR 444c compressor. I may end up wanting more compressor and tank capacity, but there really isn't much room in this car for it. I want to keep the components out of the cargo area and I want to keep enough space in the tire well for a spare tire.

I'll try and get some more pictures, I always forget

 

[V-O-L-V-O]

Amazing work your doing there, I'm impressed!

 

[peterwgpa]

Loving the progress. Thanks for sharing

 

[MikeJr.]

hey Kyle check out this guys bag set up
http://www.caisse.com/classic-1966-amazon-volvo-122s-lowered-on-air-bags-photos-video-and-more/<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = "O" /><O></O>

I like the way he did his front bags and shocks

 

[stick70]

That's definitely a lot easier and cheaper than what I'm doing lol. I like the idea of running a coilover type setup mostly because its simpler packaging, but who knows. I'll forge ahead and keep that in mind if I have issues.

 

[stick70]

Small updates, I've been shorter on time that I'd like and the front end has taken longer than I'd hoped to get done. Pretty much have it finished now though, just have to figure out a bump stop setup and paint it up.

The control arm geometry is same as stock, I didn't feel like re-engineering the whole thing while keeping the rest of the cross member as is. I basically just cut the ends off of the stock setup and made new shock mounts, perches, etc. I also took the time to reinforce the eyelet for the shock as one side was already cracked. Anyways here it is:

The shock mount was moved up 2 inches as well. It fit before, but the car was stock ride height due to the shock length so I had to raise it up. The engine mounts are also finished on the cross member, so I went ahead and finish welded the rest of them.

Got my oil temp/oil pressure gauge in too from the UK, I'm really looking forward to get this thing working. Gauges are like my favorite part of a car lol.

I've also decided on a front brake setup as well. I've decided to switch to P1800 front hubs since the rotors are removable, but they have been redrilled for 5x4.5 bolt pattern. On those I'll be running FC RX7 Turbo rotors and calipers. They're really cheap and they fit inside of 16s. The offsets and all seem to work pretty well with the factory spindles, hubs, etc. I'm waiting on studs and wheel bearings and I'll get them started.

Right now I'm waiting on a clutch disk from California Custom Clutch, and rear gears from VP also. Hopefully after all of this stuff comes in and I spray some paint it'll look more like a car again.

 

[Vol242vo]

Love your updates, this is going to be a bitchin' wagon.

 

[stick70]

Thanks!

 

[stick70]

Got the P1800 hubs drilled and tapped for 5x4.5 tonight. The studs are Strange Engineering 1/2-20, 3" long. They are so long because I anticipate running a pretty thick spacer on the front, but worst case I'll just screw them out and get some shorter ones. I got the thread in type because the hub really doesn't have much meat left on the outer edge of the hole after the re-drill. Just using a thread in type let me have a smaller hole diameter than a press in stud would, thus more material on the outside of the hole.

 

[stick70]

Repainted the hubs today and got the brake rotors fit. I had to drill the lug holes in the rotors out from 12mm to 14mm to go over the 1/2" studs, but that was quick and easy. I did a quick test fit inside of the wheels and the initial results are promising. The caliper won't clear my wheel without a spacer but I intend on having to run one anyways so no worries there. The clearance of the outside of the caliper however is great, no worries on them hitting the 16s. I think this will be plenty of brakes for this thing, as it's pretty light and the vented rotors are a big upgrade over stock.

 

[Vol242vo]

Hell yeah, looks awesome!