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ctagg's 1965 Volvo Amazon 130 (two-door)

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Bought this in 1988, from the second owner. He'd had it since the Seventies, and had kept it garaged -- hence it was very solid, though superficially a little tatty in places.

Sadly, he had worsening arthritis and the car was getting a little heavy for him to handle. It also meant he was havening difficulty twisting round when reversing -- hence the dent in the rear bumper (fender) where he had reversed too far (into the garage wall, I think).

After keeping on the streets of London for many years and seeing it get increasingly battered and rusty, I decided to have a complete bare-metal restoration/mild customization done.

Carburettor prob: found, solved, reappeared, solved again

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This particular saga started when on the journey back from the always enjoyable Goodwood Revival, the engine started to die at idle, both when coming to a stop at junctions and lights (and there are a fair few of both on the journey), and when going around roundabouts. Liberal doses of heel-and-toeing got us home and it wasn't until a couple of weeks later that I got a chance to take a look at it. A tweak of the idle setting stopped the engine dying, but on opening up the bonnet, after driving to Romance of Rust, it became clear ...read more

- posted Dec 27, 2009 (8 months ago)
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Fuel gauge kaputt

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Hadn't done a lot of driving in the past few weeks, so decided to take the Amazon down to the south coast for the Brighton Speed Trials, which I'd never been to before, but heard good things about.Brighton's only a little over an hour away, so didn't feel I needed to start at the crack of dawn, and headed south out of London about 9.30.No sooner had we got into those south London suburbs south of Modern that seem to have no name, that a women in a people carrier wound pulled up alongside me at some lights to tell ...read more

- posted Sep 13, 2009 (11 months ago)
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Back from Enfield Pageant

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Highly enjoyable morning at the Enfield Pageant of Motoring. Got up early to clean off the hundreds of dead flies the front of the Amazon (which I'd got on the drive up to Duxford), beat the traffic and was there by 9.15. The weather couldn't have been more of contrast to Wheels Day -- hot and sunny. I parked with the punters -- hadn't got myself organized to exhibit, and to be honest I kind of like parking off site. Despite the weather, the show seemed pretty quiet as far as the numbers of visitors go (at least until lunchtime, ...read more

- posted May 24, 2009 (about 1 year ago)
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Imperial War Museum at Duxford

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After the rain of Wheels Day, today's good weather prompted me to take the Amazon for the day to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford. Great driving weather, traffic was pretty good, and Duxford was amazingly quiet (and highly recommended).The Amazon was great, though there was a slight brake squeak that started just as we were nearly home, and the positioning of the windscreen wipers (a little high in their resting position) made the wind noise a little worse than it should have been.Am also thinking of putting it on a rolling road -- power at higher revs seems a ...read more

- posted Apr 26, 2009 (about 1 year ago)
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Rain and traffic at Wheels Day 2009

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Having seen the weather forecast (showers broken up by heavy downpours), I'd pretty much decided not to do Wheels Day, the traditional start of the classic car show in the south of England. However, having been stuck in front of the computer all week and not driven the Amazon for a couple of weeks, I decided we both needed to get out. Any the Amazon is supposed to be a daily driver after all. The weather was true to forecast -- and the traffic too was pretty much up to the usual standard (the last mile took half-an-hour). Still glad ...read more

- posted Apr 10, 2009 (about 1 year ago)
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Brakes fixed at last

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The saga of the problem brake disc has finally been sorted. The third disc we tried was, fortunately fine, and Simon at Brookhouse Volvo is picking up the other two tomorrow. It's been a bit of a trial, and none of us could believe that we'd have two warped discs, but that's what happened. Along with that the stainless seat frame bolts and stainless step-plate screws arrived, and those were fitted, meaning most of the teething/niggling little jobs are now done. There's a little tidying in the engine bay, the headliner needs a little work, and I will probably get ...read more

- posted Mar 10, 2009 (about 1 year ago)
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