Volvo 122s Custom

Description for Volvo Other 1965

Ahhh so your reading about our Car. Exciting isn't it, o revisit the nostalgia of an era we still love and enjoy driving around.My 122s Came to me 6 years ago from Bakersfield California where it had been sitting for many years in a garage covered in garage stuff.I bought the car, hipped it home to Long Island, ot it running, rove it for a couple of weeks and then decided I wanted to do a little more work. Well, little more work turned into a 2 year project of replacing and rebuilding and customizing this ride.In the beginning like most of us I just wanted to clean it up. But like so many of us do we take something off or apart and next thing we know we have buckets and baskets and full shelves of parts off the car =)~ I figured why not do it right. I sent the car completely stripped out to the body shop. We had an easy enough project, o rot, o crashed up parts, ust a few dings and sctracthes.Well three weeks in and we got our car back, resh paint and we even painted the engine bay Black to contrast our new motor we were building. I then decided a little custom work should be done to the motor so, ff she went to John in up state NY who specializes in vintage Volvo performance.His company (Vintage Performance Developments) compliments a man passionate about improving what these motors can do. These motors from Volvo (B18 & B20) are notorious for being bullet proof and lasting forever. Anyway, ohn rebuilt our motor for street performance. I still have the original (completely and professionally rebuilt) SU carbs on the car. With my carbs we produce about 140HP.If you upgrade to one of Johns expert packages you can see a 15-20% increase in HP. But for me the 140 HP is just fine. The motor had the crank cut and balanced, onnecting rods balanced, istons over sized to .40 and balanced. Custom cam, ver sized valves on a ported and planed F head.The carbs are again the SU type original to the car. Other options are available. The exhaust is a header from IPD into a flow master with a resonator on the end, ice bubbly sound ripping down the road. Transmission, gain from Vintage performance we decided to upgrade to the Ford T-9 5 speed trans. What a great decision to do so too. We cruise easy at 70 MPH at only 3K RPM in fifth gear. The car originally had an automatic so our tunnel for the bell housing meant no cutting or fabrication, ust a good fit like a factory assembly. Suspension, ur suspension is stock and completely rebuilt from bushings to seals to hanger straps to hardware.Brakes, ront brakes are disc and in perfect working condition with new pads, ut rotors and new bearings on the spindles. Rear brakes are completely rebuilt with all new hardware, ads, prings and solenoid's. Chassis, erfect condition, o rot, o crushed rails just neat and clean front to back.Wheels, tock steel wheels with a powder coated finish and bias tires with plenty of tread. Trim, ost of the trim is perfect but there are a couple pieces that could use a good polishing.Glass, ew front windshield, ew rubber gaskets on front and rear glass as well as side glass except for the rear quarters which I still have not found being reproduced. Interior, otally custom from the Picasso carpet to the Scat seats from California. Our rear seat was re upholstered to match the front and nicely done.Dash board, ow what a project this was, un and worth the effort. The dash alone cost us Five Thousand Plus to fabricate finish and furnish the accessories. Basically I took a P 1800 dash gauge plate out and fitted into the 122S dash. I had an expert metal man do the assembly. The body work was so clean we left it bare instead of putting the padded dash back on, ooks awesome. Gauges are all new from Auto Meter, he Ultra Light series with green back lit lenses (can be changes to other colors too).All gauges work perfectly and all are electronically driven, o messy sending units full of fluid under the dash. Wiring/electrical. From a company called CVI in Sweden we bought a brand new wiring harness that fit so perfect we couldn't believe how simple it was. All wiring was put together using the utmost of care and all the accessories to keep it neat, rofessional and working as it should if not better. In the end we finished this car and have driven it very sparingly to shows and around town. What is great about this car is it is a nut and bolt application, o custom modifications of drilling or welding or cutting. Now, f you have read this far you might be wondering what else should you know. Like all older rides this car is not perfect. The things that are not perfect are basically what I have not finished. The center console is there, orks fine but still needs a bit of TLC. The rear dash, have it but it needs to be recovered and installed.At this point we are into this car for allot more than we are asking, he value is there in new parts (have all receipts) materials and professional labor. If you ask Ill share the value we have paid into our project ride. Driving the car is a blast, VERYONE wants to know what it is where it came from and an hour later they want to take it home lol.Me, 'm just a wrench head who loves older European cars. I don't believe in cranking on a bolt until it snaps but more so a torque wrench tells me where they should be. That's how I approached this project. I'm 50 years old now and have over 30 years of experience working on projects like this to know and be able to say this car was an absolute pleasure to build and if I were to keep it I know exactly what I would do to make it insanely cool. Ill share the ideas with anyone who might purchase the car. Please ask questions out of curiosity, nthusiasm or general knowledge. Feel free to share opinions too. Open to criticism of all types. Thank you for reading my add, njoy the ride my friend's. Bone