Valve Bounce

1961 Volvo Amazon vs. 2005 Lotus Exige

Great bit of footage here from a stage of the Targa Tasmania in 2008. A 1961 Volvo 122S closes on 2005 Lotus Exige putting the Lotus under pressure until the Lotus leaves the road, rolls through a fence, up the paddock on its roof and disappears into the farm shed.

An incredible demonstration of the power of a full house B20 engine and the Amazon chassis.

Volvo Amazon Winter

There's a car in there somewhere...

Techno Classica Essen 2008

Where do you start with a show like Techno Classica Essen? Well it's gigantic for a start. This was our first time and we weren't sure what to expect. Everyone who I'd spoken to about it said it needed a good two days to go round all of it, and they were right.

If you imagine the NEC Classic Car show and multiply by 5 or 6 then you are getting close. Mercedes-Benz take on a whole hall with all their stands and exhibits; it's truly mind boggling! We spent two and a half days looking round and I still felt there was stuff that I missed.

The W111 coupe lover in me was well catered for, there were around 7 or 8 3.5 coupes for sale ranging from 35k Euros up to an incredible 87k for a concours example. There were 300s, 220s and quite a few cabriolets as well. The interest in English cars was quite high with Jaguar and Triumph seeming to take the prize for enthusiasm. Volvo also had a big stand, they are really getting into the nostalgia thing nowadays, they have even had their own web site revamp. The PV831 Schienwagen from 1953 was an incredible sight it ran on rails to clear the track in winter and had a bogie rather than wheels and no steering wheel! Volvo also had a very striking Swedish 121 police car, black and white of course, and PV544 used by the Swedish military - a great stand.

There were far too many French and German exotics to mention but one worrying thing was to see that my much dreamed about Lancia B20 GT is getting out of my reach and Facel Vega HK 500s are on the up as well.

Oh and there were 911s by the dozen if you like that sort of thing!

There was a giant Autojumble which is usually my favorite bit of a car show. Lots of tempting chrome bits but they were all quite expensive (the exchage rate is not favouable at the moment). It was all interesting just because of all the different companies not usually seen in the UK (although their were quite a few of the usual English companies their).

A few traders that caught my eye were;

• Bruno Wenner W111 parts
• Bosch parts they have really gone to town on their web site now,  if you need parts numbers it's unbeatable.
• Lederzentrum leather care and repair products which I intend to try on the Coupes seats at sometime soon.
• Another good find was a bargain parts book covering W111 Coupe/Cabriolet 250SE/280SE/280SE 3.5 from vdo Mercedes Club Germany for 20 Euros (MBZ want 70 for their complete version)

Without doubt it's got to be the most impressive show in Europe. If you have a Mercedes or Porsche it's unbeatable. Next year I think I'll be heading back to Retromobile in Paris but only because I like the train trip and I fancy some good French food!

An Amazon in its natural habitat

Today in London we awoke to find the whole place covered in snow...

Amazon Still Life

I came across the Wagonised blog the other day, it features the drawings of Frances Belleville and she seems particularly fond of Volvo Amazons and other European cars from the sixties. Really quite spectacularly good...

Volvo Amazon brake drum removal

Today it was the Volvo's chance to fight back.

I decided it was time to changed the brake shoes - one of the trickier jobs on the car. You need to use a heavy-weight puller to get the drum off the tapered axle. It is absolutely impossible to get the drum off any other way.

It is possible to get a special tool from Volvo but it is very expensive. As you can see in the pictures below l have a universal puller that can be used on many cars. This has proved a very worthwhile investment, and allows the drums to be pulled for cleaning and checking.

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1. Jack up the rear of the car and remove the wheels, then put the handbrake on.
2. Remove the axle split pin and remove centre nut (with a 1 1/16in socket).
3. Position the puller on wheel nut studs and fix it in position with the five wheel nuts (a speed-brace makes this much quicker and easier).
4. Release the handbrake, and tighten down center of the puller by hand against axle.
5. I then use a copper mallet to tighten the puller onto the axle and knock off drum. Just hit the puller to tighten it!
6. As the drum is pulled from the axle it may get jammed on the brake shoes, if this happens slacken the brake adjuster and try again.
7. You can now clean the drum and shoes, replace and adjust as necessary
8. To replace the drum, slacken brake adjuster, position the key on axle and push drum into position.
9. Hand tighten the axle nut and position the split pin hole on axle so you know where it is. Pull on handbrake again.
10. Tighten nut by hand then use mallet against the spanner/socket to tighten the castellated nut and position it so that hole in axle and castallations line up. Fit a new split pin.
11. Refit wheels and lower to ground.
12. Relax... 

Volvo Amazon goes wrong - shock!

I know it's amazing but after a few years of faultless service my Amazon refused to idle last week. It was running OK at above 2000 revs but at idle it was very rough like it was down a cylinder.

I had to leave it until the weekend to investigate, but in my mind I was thinking it was the points closing up. So I went through the ignition; dwell angle was fine, one of the plugs needed opening up a bit but nothing serious was wrong. I moved on to have a look at the carbs and noticed that one of the SU jets was stuck half way open on the choke. Phew, I just realigned the choke cable and everything was fine, we have idle again! I shut the bonnet and am hoping for another few years to go by before the next fault finding procedure is needed...

NEC Classic & Volvo Amazon Coune Cabriolet

At the NEC Classic Car Show this week I was very surprised (and delighted) to see a Volvo stand. They seem to have taken the decision to get more involved in promoting their heritage and keeping the history of Volvo alive. I think this is great news, although I'm not quite sure how this will translate to helping the classic car enthusiast. Volvo have always provided great back-up for their older models. I've had no problems getting parts for the Amazon.

It is unusual to see a manufactures funded stand at a British classic car show. At Retromobile or Essen their are many stands funded by these corporations. I think having a mixture of the clubs and the bigger companies interested in maintaining their heritage is great. But it would be nice it the long suffering owners got some benefit from this! I'm not quite sure how this could be done. But in the case of Mercedes-Benz parts prices do seem to go up in relation to the age of the car. I can see why but surely the fact that I keep a piece of their heritage on the road and visible to many people is of some value to them, and this could translate to lower prices?? OK maybe that's a little fanciful, but there's some truth there.

Here's a few snaps of the rather good looking Amazon cabriolet by Jacques Coune that was on the Volvo stand, one of only four or five made apparently....

Volvo Amazon 121 (1966)

Last but not least is not the prettiest thing in the world but it has my respect! It's the Volvo 121 which I've had for 9ish years. What a brilliant bit of over-engineering, since they are built to deal with Swedish winters a bit of London rain is no problem. These days these cars are winning all kinds of historic rallying events, which must prove the ruggedness and inherent reliability of the tough 4 cylinder B18 engine.

My car has had 3 previous owners and had about 80k on the clock when I bought it. It now had about 180k. I've made very few mods. It came with a twin carb conversion but only had a standard cam so I changed that to the proper 122 cam. I also put in an alternator conversion after getting stranded on a gridlocked NCR one night with a flat battery...

It has only let me down that time. otherwise and I used it daily for many years, until recently, going up and down the M1 to Hemel Hempstead for work.

I throughly recommend Charlie Garrett at Amazon Repairs who has help me out on a few occasions when people have driven into it and I've needed a bit of welding, a new panel or two and paint. That's why it's at least four shades of red! It's always a pleasure to go down to his workshop to have a mill about looking at his collection of 1970's bikes and guitars that he keeps there. Oh and his Mercedes-Benz 220 SEb Coupe that he's been restoring for years...