1968 Volvo Amazon Wagon

[thedefenderofawesome]

Hey guys,

I got this car as my first car in November from a guy near me (Seattle area), who had also bought it as a first car from the first owner. The guy I bought it from drove it up and down the west coast going to Grateful Dead concerts for 20+ years. He daily drove it for a while and then I think he just got tired of having to tinker with it all the time. But that's where I come in!

Since I got the car I have

-Replaced the rear drums and wheel cylinders
-Painted the stock steelies
-Replaced the flexible front brake lines

I have some idling issues which is probably something to do with the carburetor and some funky electrical stuff that I have to get to but other than that it is running really well.

Things I want to do

-Lower it, final method tbd
-American Racing Salt Flats in 17 if possible.
-215 size tires
-Wood slat roof rack(maybe off of a VW bus??)
-Rebuilt B18 or B20
-IPD Front air dam
-New paint job
-Rear wagon spoiler
-Possible woody interior
-T5 transmission
-Fog lights behind grill

Here are some pictures of it as it is now more or less.

[thedefenderofawesome]

On Saturday I got my front air dam from IPD, so I spent some time last night taking the bumper off so I could test fit it. One of the bolts stripped so I have to cut it off.

Turns out Harbor Freight blades suck, so two of them later


How bad it looks without something on the chin


And finally test fitting.


It is definitely not a super close fit so it'll take some time screwing around to get it to look flush.

At some point today, I will be getting my coil over springs and limiting straps so that I can look at lowering. Supposedly, you can use '88-'91 Honda lowering springs to lower Amazons for pretty cheap but as far as I know it hasn't been tried on a wagon before. They are supposed to be different so it might not work but we'll see. I might not get around to that till I get some extended free period from work so that I don't screw something important up when I need to be able to drive to work.
Also, not sure if I am feeling the red so I'll be painting one of the spares I have blue and one black and hubcap each to see if they look better.

[Dueyferg]

Very cool car. Looking forward to the progress. What is the BMW?

[thedefenderofawesome]

Very cool car. Looking forward to the progress. What is the BMW?

Thanks! That would be my dad's '76 2002.

[Keith602]

Looks good man! You can use the honda coils in the front but the rears won't work on a wagon. I like the air dam.

[99sil-teg]

Looks nice man, can't wait to see what you do with it

[thedefenderofawesome]

Looks good man! You can use the honda coils in the front but the rears won't work on a wagon. I like the air dam.

Thanks man! I found a video for the Amazon that's in the IPD build off and I am thinking I might be able to cut off the top of the spring seat to expose the hollow portion in the middle that I can put the tube thing (technical term) in. Fingers crossed.

Looks nice man, can't wait to see what you do with it

Thank you! I am hoping to get most of the visual stuff done in the next month or two.

[thedefenderofawesome]

Would anybody happen to have the dimensions to a VW bus or Squareback roof rack? I'm mostly interested in the width dimension.

[Keith602]

Thanks man! I found a video for the Amazon that's in the IPD build off and I am thinking I might be able to cut off the top of the spring seat to expose the hollow portion in the middle that I can put the tube thing (technical term) in. Fingers crossed.

I'm not positive all years of the wagons have the same rear suspensions, but the ones I've seen are set up differently than the sedans. I'm pretty sure the springs are longer and the mounts are behind the axle and not over the axle. Interested to see what you come up with.

[thedefenderofawesome]

I'm not positive all years of the wagons have the same rear suspensions, but the ones I've seen are set up differently than the sedans. I'm pretty sure the springs are longer and the mounts are behind the axle and not over the axle. Interested to see what you come up with.

I took a look today while it was on jacks and the spring is behind the axle. Not sure about the spring height because at some point it looks like the PO put in overloads. As long as the seat up is the same, I should be fine. I want to get to that next weekend.

[thedefenderofawesome]

Today I got around to putting the front air dam on. After asking around about how different people put it on, I had the general concept and got the hardware last night. I bought 6 #10-24x1.5 inch screws, the accompanying nuts, some small washers, and some rubber washers that were larger than than the first washer.

The bolt setup



First, I measured the lip that I was to screw into. It was about .5". To make that visual on the dam, I used some painter's tape to give an approximate "lip". From there I decided not to make one center screw but two on opposite sides to avoid the possibility of splitting the fiberglass. I marked two additional spots on each side of the dam that were equidistant. Made a little cardboard template to make sure I drilled the right amount down from the top the whole way around. Ended up using three consecutive drill bits so that I could continue to avoid splitting.

The center holes



Mounted with the center screws



I held it up to the lip on the car and used a center punch to get an idea of where to drill. Did that, then put the washers on the bolt and placed the dam on the car with the bolts and nuts so that I could determine the fit for the edges which were probably the most out of alignment pieces of the whole setup. As these air dams aren't "first quality" and neither is my car, it isn't a perfect fit. I got lucky that I didn't have to do anything significant to make it fit flush. The edge holes I drilled with the dam on the car and I had to guess because the lip around the corners was different on each sides.

Here is what it looks like now, but without the blue tape. I actually sort of like the blue line and I might paint one on. I also want to find a big "VOLVO" die cut to put right in the center.



Once I figure out the license plate situation I think it will look much better up front.

Better pictures of the car off the jacks tomorrow!