Atom's two door Volvo Amazon wagon
Atom D&D
New Wagonist
Previous to getting my RT4WD I was getting pretty deep into Volvos and my current "project" car is a 1966 Volvo wagon. I won't get super deep into the build on here cause I'm not sure anyone will care, but I've always been a wagon guy and decided I wanted to build my "ultimate" wagon. Old, low, fast and classic.
I bought a basket case of an Amazon sight unseen to take on and when I finally took possession it was just a bit too far gone. Rust and missing parts (the wagon was actually headed to the scrapper) kind of made the wagon a lost cause.
I sourced a parts car to try and get all the misc bits I needed and that's when I decided to pull the trigger and recreate an Amazon wagon two door. Volvo never made a two door wagon, but being a "barrel chested" kind of guy the 4" longer doors from a two door appealed to me, so I got started. The first thing I did was repair a bunch of rust on the frame passenger side firewall/frame horn. Then I cut out the B pillar and welded in the B pillar and a portion of the quarter panel from the coupe. All the work I did in a little two car garage I rented for a few months.
I added a custom brake combo using Mitsubishi Evo rotors and Volvo S60R Brembo calipers.
I wanted independent rear suspension and LSD and disk brakes. Not much to ask for. I wound up deciding on a Nissan S13 rear subframe complete and fabricated mounts to add it to the Amazon rear frame. This is with no rear springs showing full camber.
Wanting to keep it mostly Volvo I built a hybrid motor combo using a marine Volvo Penta 2.5l bottom end and a 16 valve Volvo head. Of course it had to be turbo as well!
I wanted a vintage feel to the car with upgraded performance so I painted the engine dark, kind of military color and I kind of like the "steampunk" feel so I added a copper plated valve cover, copper hardlines for the wastegate and for a little added flare I ran the spark plug wires through copper tubing.
Again, to keep the vintage Volvo feel I used a color available for a Volvo in the '60 and painted it with a single stage paint instead of using base coat/clear coat.
I reassembled it to get some exterior shots for a photographer that did a small write up on the car.
I wound up putting a Toyota supra 5 speed trans behind the motor and stuffed it in the engine bay. It doesn't run quite yet and doesn't have a completed interior yet, but I keep playing with it little by little. Hopefully I can have it on the road for this summer.
If you guys are interested I have about a zillion more pics of every step of the process and I'll update here with new work as I get time.
Adam
I bought a basket case of an Amazon sight unseen to take on and when I finally took possession it was just a bit too far gone. Rust and missing parts (the wagon was actually headed to the scrapper) kind of made the wagon a lost cause.
I sourced a parts car to try and get all the misc bits I needed and that's when I decided to pull the trigger and recreate an Amazon wagon two door. Volvo never made a two door wagon, but being a "barrel chested" kind of guy the 4" longer doors from a two door appealed to me, so I got started. The first thing I did was repair a bunch of rust on the frame passenger side firewall/frame horn. Then I cut out the B pillar and welded in the B pillar and a portion of the quarter panel from the coupe. All the work I did in a little two car garage I rented for a few months.
I added a custom brake combo using Mitsubishi Evo rotors and Volvo S60R Brembo calipers.
I wanted independent rear suspension and LSD and disk brakes. Not much to ask for. I wound up deciding on a Nissan S13 rear subframe complete and fabricated mounts to add it to the Amazon rear frame. This is with no rear springs showing full camber.
Wanting to keep it mostly Volvo I built a hybrid motor combo using a marine Volvo Penta 2.5l bottom end and a 16 valve Volvo head. Of course it had to be turbo as well!
I wanted a vintage feel to the car with upgraded performance so I painted the engine dark, kind of military color and I kind of like the "steampunk" feel so I added a copper plated valve cover, copper hardlines for the wastegate and for a little added flare I ran the spark plug wires through copper tubing.
Again, to keep the vintage Volvo feel I used a color available for a Volvo in the '60 and painted it with a single stage paint instead of using base coat/clear coat.
I reassembled it to get some exterior shots for a photographer that did a small write up on the car.
I wound up putting a Toyota supra 5 speed trans behind the motor and stuffed it in the engine bay. It doesn't run quite yet and doesn't have a completed interior yet, but I keep playing with it little by little. Hopefully I can have it on the road for this summer.
If you guys are interested I have about a zillion more pics of every step of the process and I'll update here with new work as I get time.
Adam
Comments
Thanks for sharing!
Beautiful work, absolutely beautiful.
The first rendering:
After I decided to do it as a two door I had him change the rendering to be a two door:
Then once I was set on the code #90 Volvo paint he found a correct colored car to PS:
Here's a couple pics of the rust repair:
The day I got most of the bodywork done I threw on some SE37s that were on my boss' Skyline:
Then another PS:
Inside the custom intake manifold a friend of mine made for me (complete with my name welded in the back):
My own pics when we did the photo shoot:
I like hard lines and needed to make room for the engine so I did a triple Wilwood reverse swing pedal assembly with remote reservoirs:
Some detail stuff
I really wanted a "vintage" feel, so I came up with a cloth covering for all my EFI wiring.
I built my own aluminum adapter for the Toyota Supra R154 transmission
Hydraulic e-brake assembly using an OEM handle I grabbed from the wrecking yard.
I designed some fender emblems (I still need to have them cut) as a sort of play on the Volvo 123GT, but with the 220 chassis
Those plus the type 2 squarebacks.
This wagon has all sorts of badass in it.
I'd drive the ever living crap out of that car.