15x20 - Volvo Amazon 122

[bunniefuu]

Volvo's safe, dependable,
beige, boring, boring, snooze.

Or the 1965 Volvo 122S Amazon.

The suspension! My God, it's awful!

Indestructible.

I've got a funny feeling this
car hasn't got a lot of rust on it.

Powerful, legendary Volvo B18 engine.

I can't hear you!

Apparently.

What does she drive like?

It runs, but I've never driven it.

You've never driven this car?

No, it fires up okay.

If we can turn back that clock, well, who
makes better clocks than the Swedish?

Oh, that's the Swiss, isn't it?

1964, what a fantastic year.

I appeared.

The Beatles, they dominated
the charts all over the world.

And Volvo gave us one of the
world's greatest all-time cars.

Car in question, the Volvo Amazon.

Now, the Amazon come
in a few different flavours.

You had the two-door, the four-door,
or the estate car, and two engine sizes.

A 1.6, which was called
the B16, and a 1.8, the B18.

I found one that's got the sweet spot.

It's got a B18 engine, four-speed.

However, it's not the
desirable two-door version,

it's the less desirable
four-door version.

It's the perfect car to get
started in the classic car world.

And at the price, this one's
being offered at just $4,000.

Well, it's too good to pass up.

Now, Brian, the seller, has
been really truthful with me.

He lives up in Washington state,
and he says that the car, I can't drive it,

because the clutch doesn't work and
the brakes are really too old and too iffy.

He does say that the
car runs, which is good,

so I'm not expecting to get there
and take the car for a test drive.

I just want to make sure it's nice
and solid and hasn't got any holes in it.

And if it's what I want, then there
could be treasure in this Amazon.

Hey! How you doing? You Brian?

Yeah, Mike.

Brian, how you doing?

Great, thanks for coming out.

Pleasure, it's great you got it running.

Yeah, I wanted to make
sure it started for you.

That is fantastic.

Oh, it runs!

It runs.

All right, well, do you
mind turning it off?

We can turn this off, we
can have a chat about it.

No signs of accident damage, it
looks like it's all original, actually.

There's been some animals
living under here at some point.

You get that in barns, I think.

Yeah, I'll pick you two. I'll pick you two.

So, what can you tell me about the car?

Well, it was my wife's
16th birthday present.

No way.

Well, has it always been kept in a barn?

It has been kept in a barn, undercover,
a barn or garage, so no rust on this thing.

Yeah.

Inside, the seats are
a little bit beaten up,

dashboard's a little bit funky,

lovely big original Volvo steering wheel,

and there's no carpet.

I'll tell you what is good, right?

What's that?

It's the stuff that you can see,

it's the things like
the trim down the side,

the trim round the glass, door handles,

the headlamp beauty
rings, that grill at the front,

front and rear bumper, they
are in really good condition.

And the fact that this is a four-door means

that it's a car that
you can share, isn't it?

Family car, yeah.

It's a proper family car.

Yeah, I've got a funny feeling
with a good steam clean,

this car hasn't got a dot of rust on it.

Bumper at the back is good, it's having
that little dent that'll probably pull out.

Look inside the boot.

I think it's got the original spare.

It's got the original spare,
and it's got the hubcaps as well.

Yep.

And the books, the original Volvo books,

and a nice little badge,
some kind of Masonic club.

This is belong to, no
doubt all the mechanics

were repaired for free
on this car at some point,

in exchange for a chicken or a goat.

Well, maybe.

Right.

Would you mind if I just had
sort of five minutes to my own?

Not at all.

Just to get it in my head and to think about
it, and then we'll have a catch-up chat.

Top man. Thanks, Bri.

Yes, sir.

Right, okay.

What a car.

It's just the amount of
work that needs to be done.

Obviously, the suspension.

Yeah, look at it.

It bounces up and down
too many times on a push.

Brian's only asking $4,000,
around 3,000 pound for it.

Okay then, Brian.

What do you think?

You want just $4,000 for it, don't you?

Would you take three
and a half grand for it?

Yeah, I think you'll do right by it, so.

Yep. Top man.

Sounds good.

Perfect.

Just bought myself a Volvo Amazon.

Love it.

Sorry to disturb you.

No.

But I have brought you a gift.

Huh?

It's an Amazon.

I'd have known you were bringing in Amazon,
and I'd have rolled out the red carpet,

stuck some fireworks out,
opened up a bottle of champagne.

I've even had little guys in red tunics

with massive trumpets,
little flags on the end.

It's a Volvo Amazon.

I know.

And it's our Volvo Amazon.

Why not just give me a hug instead, eh?

Oh, I will.

I will.

How good is that?

So this is our Volvo 122 Amazon.

What does it drive like?

Right, well, these drive amazingly.

I mean, they use these in historic rally,
and it's got such a huge rally pedigree.

They drive fantastic.

They're so much fun.

They've got a great engine.

Yeah, but what does she drive like?

I couldn't tell you.

But I would imagine
it's going to be all right.

I mean, the clutch doesn't work.

The brakes are going to be dodgy.

It runs, but I've never driven it.

You've never driven this car?

No, it fires up.

Engine looks good.

Let's have a look.

It's got that legendary Volvo B18 engine.

I can't hear you.

I know.

It's so lovely.

You can see it runs, and wait, look.

So the engine's got some strength.

It does run.

Clearly, it needs a little bit of work,

but I know that these engines
are so simple to work on.

The carbs need doing.

You can see it's nice and solid.

Someone's been living
underneath in the past, you know.

I'm going to go and get the carpets.

I'll go and get the rubbers for the door.

I need to get a clutch.

Ignore all that, or I'm
going to give you the list.

What I'm going to do is I'm
going to get the engine singing,

shifting through
gears, brakes sorted,

steering sorted, sorting
out all the interior.

This is... Why
are you still here?

You want me to go and buy parts?

Get out the workshop.

Go and buy some stuff.

Stop being so tight.

I'll bring back the clutch first.

I'll be back as soon as I can.

Nice one, Mike.

This is a Volvo.

It's the very essence of
safe, dependable driving.

But back in the day, the
advertising slogan for this car was.

drive it like you hate it.

And this is unbelievable.

Get this.

It was also cheaper than a psychiatrist.

When you consider today's
modern advertising standards,

I think that would be
pretty much frowned upon.

But, hey, this was the 1960s.

Volvo hadn't yet established
their reputation for safety.

Yeah, they were seen as reliable cars, but
it was more about ecologically friendly.

You see, the Amazon, it
represented fun, power and pace.

And what Mike's done is inadvertently
he's got one of my all-time favourite cars.

Now, the thing is, it runs, but
unfortunately it doesn't drive.

Mike tells me there's a
problem with the clutch,

which on a car like this should
be relatively straightforward.

Now, it's made up of only
a handful of components,

one of which is this master cylinder,
which unfortunately is absolutely bone-dry.

There's no way that's going to be working.

Now, the master cylinder is effectively
a cylinder with a piston inside it.

So when you push the
pedal, it moves the piston

and forces fluid down this
pipe, which is also bust.

It's got a big kink in it.

Anyway, the fluid goes down
the pipe to a second cylinder

called a sl*ve cylinder,
which works in the same way.

It has a piston inside
that operates the clutch.

I mean, it really is
entry-level basic hydraulics.

Now, I'm just going to bite the b*llet.

I'm going to swap these three items out.

These parts are consumable

and need to be changed at intervals anyway.

They're also affordable at just over
$100 for both master and sl*ve cylinders.

That's around 75 quid, and it's a nice basic
spanner job that can be tackled at home.

The sl*ve cylinder needs to
be tackled from the underside.

The sl*ve cylinder is simply mounted
to the transmission with two bolts,

an easy working space under the Volvo.

These two cylinders will
fix the clutch issue Mike felt.

Now, it's quite handy, this bell housing.

Someone's drilled a hole in it,
and I can see the clutch plate inside.

It actually looks quite
good, plenty of meat on it.

My gut feeling is that's going to be okay.

Inside this master cylinder,
there's a very basic piston.

Now, this end here is attached to the
clutch pedal, so when you push the pedal,

all it does is move that piston
and forces brake fluid out of here.

Now, it goes down that wiggly
pipe, which is still in the car.

That pipe joins onto the sl*ve cylinder,

and the sl*ve cylinder does
essentially the same thing.

Although it's not driven by the
pedal, it's solely driven by the fluid.

It moves that piston in
here that moves this rod.

Now, looking at it,
it's in pretty bad shape.

In fact, if I open it up, yeah, I
mean, that is completely gummed up.

Now, swapping it out is very, very simple.

It's held in by only two bolts.

New parts are off the shelf nowadays.

They're easy to get hold
of, even for old cars like this.

Now, Mike didn't get me a replacement
hard line, but it's not a disaster,

because making hydraulic hard
lines is actually easier than you think.

You just need some basic tools.

Pipe cutter, a little hand bender tool

to make the radiuses all
nice, and then a flaring tool.

Now, the good news is
I've got the old hard line,

so all I need to do is copy this shape,
using it as a template, minus the kink.

I'm using this quarter-inch
zinc-coated mild steel.

I first of all want to
drop a little curve in it.

Before I bend the other
end, I need to keep it straight

so it fits within my flaring tool,

so I'm just going to cut.

Now that this end's
done, use the flaring tool.

Make sure you put your fitting on.

Just drop this inside.

And then on this tool,
it's a two-stage process.

So I'm using quarter-inch pipe, stage one.

That opens the pipe out,
creates a swaged flare.

And then step two, this one.

Bellies it in and creates
a kind of a pocket

so that when I tighten it
up, it all locks together.

And it really is as simple as that.

Perfect.

Now all I need to do
is put that last bend in.

And that's it.

Hydraulic connections often
don't have gaskets or seals.

They're just metal on metal.

These rely on the pressure of the flange

being pushed into a cone
shape to make the seal.

While in the air, I'm attaching
the sl*ve cylinder end of the pipe.

A little tip, fix the hard line first

before fixing the master
cylinder to the bulkhead.

The master cylinder goes
back in the same place.

And get this, for the whole job so far,

I've only used three
spanners and a pair of pliers.

And then fill it with fresh fluid.

And then bleed it.

Using a compressor fed
bleed tool makes easy work of it

as opposed to having a
mate standing on the pedal.

And remember, keep the
reservoir topped up whilst bleeding.

You don't want to
draw air into the system

otherwise you'll have
to do it all over again.

Yeah, that's a nice solid clutch pedal.

You kind of get a bit of
experience on how it should feel.

And I reckon the clutch bolts
were down to a number of things.

Firstly a lack of fluid,
then the kink in the

hose and then that
gummed up sl*ve cylinder.

And swapping it out for new parts

means we can finally
get this car on the road.

Which also means Mike
actually gets to drive the Amazon.

Or...

Oh, brakes are terrible.

That's probably a good thing Mike didn't
drive this car because it's a death trap.

I'm going to have to slow
the car down using the gears.

The old fashioned way.

The suspension!

My god, it's awful!

Something's definitely wrong,
that's going to need looking at.

Also it took me five or six attempts on
the starter motor to get it to crank over.

So there's obviously an issue there.

Whoa, slowly, slowly, slowly!

Where's my man?

Where's my Volvo, more importantly?

Where are you?

Ah, right, I'll open the door.

Yay!

She drives!

Oh, I'm so happy, I love this car!

Love it!

Oh, look at the smile on my face.

It drives! Tell me, what's it like?

Oh, she moves because
the clutch is sorted now.

Fantastic. Gearbox?

Yeah, gearbox was good actually.
Yeah, I went through the gears as well.

Nice, nice.

So power on the road,
has it got good power?

I mean, it's a sluggish
car because it's quite big,

but for an Amazon, yeah,
the power's really good.

Good, excellent. So, any problems?

Unfortunately, that's
the end of the good news.

Oh, right, okay, so what's the bad news?

Brakes, it's got absolutely no brakes.

That thing is a death trap.

No, no, no, no, we knew
it, we knew it, no brakes.

What do you think that
box of parts is over there?

That's full of every part you
need to get this car to stop.

Now it goes.

All right, well, we're
going to need all of

those bits, but that's
not everything, no.

And the steering?

That steering's actually not bad.

I mean, it's a big car, but
there's problems as well.

because there's obviously something
going on with the suspension underneath.

I don't know what it is yet, but
there's probably some serious issues.

It's going to be tired, isn't it?

It's going to be tired.

You let me know what
you need suspension-wise.

I'll fix it for you.

Come on, what tools you need?

Let me know.

Don't touch my tools?

It was actually really nice to get
behind the wheel of a car before Mike did.

And that's the thing, as soon
as you go out on the road,

you get to understand
a little bit more detail,

and for me, two things
stand out on this Amazon.

One, the brakes, they're awful.

And two, the suspension.

There's obviously something
going on underneath

this car that needs
quite a bit of attention.

The thing is, though,
Mike is absolutely right.

This is a good, solid car.

It's a perfect candidate for a restoration,

and it's much better in our hands than
rotting away in some lost barn somewhere.

Now, check in the front.

Every rubber joint has
pretty much perished,

and of course, it's
the same on the rear.

That's absolutely going to
account for the bad suspension.

And also, both these rear
suspension arms are bent.

In fact, there's hammer marks on there.

That's odd.

To get to the brake rotor,

I first removed the brake line from the
caliper and then the caliper mounting bolts,

and then the actual nuts.

With the bearings removed,
the rotor slides right on.

Now, this is a really big car.

The brakes need to be effective.

Now that they're off looking at them,

they've seen better days.

I mean, this caliper's leaking.

It's all gummed up and gunky,

and this is going to
need some serious loving.

Since I'm refreshing all the rubber
parts from the front suspension,

it's much easier to remove
all of it from the car first.

I disconnect the tie rod from the spindle,

remove the brake disc backing plate,

and the anti-sway bar link.

This pole Jack's going
to take the weight off

things as they start to
undo more and more.

I'm definitely changing all the joints,

so I don't need to be too precious.

First, the top pole joint.

And then the bottom,
starting with a split pin.

Again, this is also getting swapped out.

And the spindle comes away.

Loosen the shock at the top,

then the bottom,

and it slides out really easy.

Now, what I really love about this car
is it's got this double wishbone set up

with a lower wishbone and the upper wishbone
keeping that hub in a vertical position,

because together they
work as a parallelogram.

So as the car goes over
bumps and dips in the road,

its sole job is to keep the hub, the wheel,

in an upright position.

That's the best-case scenario for handling.

Not bad for a big old girl.

Both the upper and lower
control arms are ready to come out.

That's the driver's side.

Now I need to do the other side.

Well, that's the front end stripped.

Now luckily, the rear end is
a little more straightforward.

First, out comes the torque rods.

Next, the panhard bar,
followed by the axle straps.

That is actually an old can belt.

Then I move on to the trailing arm.

Look at that.

It's bent like a banana.

Now that I've removed everything
I want off this rear suspension,

the axle's effectively
kind of free-floating,

and it's being supported
by these two pole Jacks.

At the same time,

they're also taking up the
compression in the Springs.

So if I release them ever so slightly,

slowly, slowly,

remove the tension from
the spring just enough.

so I can slide it out.

There you have it.

This tabletop here represents the sum
of parts for a Volvo Amazon suspension.

And now that I've got it all out, I
can work out a shopping list for Mike,

and then there's going
to be bits I'm going to

keep, like the wishbones
and the stub axles,

and then there's going to be
bits I'm going to throw away,

like these shock exorbitant,
definitely these bent arms,

and definitely all these rubber parts.

Then, while Mike's searching for bits,

I need to give the bits
I want a nice tidy up.

Hey up, Ant, how you doing?

Ant!

Jimmy!

How are you?

You all right?

Don't sneak up on people like that.

Look, I've got a box full of gifts for you.

Every part you need
for the Volvo suspension.

What, you didn't want
to go for polyurethane?

You went for rubber?

No, I went for the original Polo.

It's even got Volvo written on it.

It's fantastic, isn't it?

How you getting on? Good.

Is it all looking nice?

Yeah, I'm in mid-clean-up phase.

Yeah, look at that.

It's looking really good.

Remember that car?

2,500 quid, we pay for that.

2,500 quid.

Tap me on the shoulder, go on.

Go on.

Go on.

Yeah, see, 2,500 quid, I deserve that.

Get in!

You know, there's something to be said about
taking dirty old rusty parts off a car,

giving them a nice clean-up and
a lick of paint, because look at it.

It comes out fantastic.

It looks brand new.

Now, while those ones are drying,

I'm going to drop in those
rubber bushes that Mike sourced.

And they're really easy to put in.

I'm just going to put a
bit of grease on there.

I've got this little bit of off-cut old
exhaust tube I had lying around.

That's going to act as a backstop.

And then using this hand vise,

I'm simply going to hold it in the middle,

wind it in using the pressure of the vise.

Now, Mike could have opted
for a more modern material,

but the vulcanised rubber
bushes are going to give

our car that authentic
feel that it's so famous for.

Also, there's something
really nice, romantic,

in fact, about using
original OEM parts,

especially on a survivor car like ours.

Working on this car
requires very few tools.

It has a kind of genius
simplicity that I love.

Bear in mind, the Volvo Amazon
has a rich history as a rally car.

In the 60s, rally-prepared Amazons
won loads of world rally races,

in part because the car was
simple, strong, and b*mb-proof.

It finished races when
other cars fell apart.

They have a reputation for
being robust, well-built tanks.

And if a rally team can fix a car
on the side of the road in Africa,

it makes it easier to tackle in here.

I've got new lower ball joints...

..and a new upper ball joint.

Looking back to my short test drive
and how badly handling this Amazon was,

I can almost feel the improvements
we've put back into this Volvo already.

Restored geometry and new rubber bushes are
going to make it turn, steer, and brake.

with more control, confidence, and comfort.

I've gone for new dampers as well.

The last piece of this
renewed front suspension

to go back on the
car is the sway bar.

This front end has turned out really nice.

I can just feel it's tighter.

It's going to transform
the way this car handles.

Well, at least on the front half.

I need to do the back half.

Working on these trailing arms,

I still can't get my head
around the old ones.

I mean, look, if I make a comparison
between a new one and the old one,

I mean, it's quite obvious
this has been deliberately bent.

I'm not just using any old cam belt.

I'm replacing it with
new old stock from Volvo.

Now for the new torque rod.

Next, the freshly painted Springs
and new shocks are installed,

followed by the axle strap.

The straps limit the
travel of the rear axle.

Right, with those straps in place,

the whole axle should
now be self-supporting.

Check it out.

Now, the style of axle on this car

is what's known as a live axle.

It's a solid fixed axle
from wheel to wheel.

It's really common in this age of car.

Now, the thing about a live axle is that
it has to do a kind of a contradictory job.

It still needs to be flexible to go
over the bumps and dips in the road,

but it has to be held in
a solid, fixed position.

That way, the wheels stay
within the arch of the body.

Now, the live axle on this car
does that with five supports.

It has a pair of trailing arms,

these two top ones, the ones that were bent,
and then these two bottom torque tubes.

Now, between the four of them,

they prevent the axle
from moving forwards and

backwards and rotating,
but still allow it to pivot.

They still allow the
axle to go up and down.

Problem is, those four don't
prevent it from moving left to right.

That's the job of this little puppy here.

Now, this is called a pannard rod,

and it does exactly the
same thing as a trailing arm.

It creates a fixed, solid position,

making sure the axle
stays within the arches,

but still allows it to pivot.

So, between the five of them,

now the axle's held solid, fixed, but
can do that up and down movement,

and that up and down
movement's then supported by the

Springs and the dampers to
make everything comfortable.

It's genius.

It's been great working on
the suspension on this car.

It looks fantastic.

I mean, it's been labor-intensive, though.

Cleaning all those parts took ages, but
it's something that you can do at home,

and I only use basic tools,
and it didn't cost a lot of money.

So, a few cans of aerosol, and
then, of course, all the new parts,

like the ball joints, the
trailing arms on the rear,

the dampers, and, of course,
all those rubber bushes.

But all in, the new parts,
we only spent $400.

It's like 300 quid,

and when you consider what we've done,

we've definitely added more
than 300 quid value to the car.

Now, to complement our fresh suspension,

I'm now turning my attention to the brakes.

After pulling the cotter
pin, removing the axle nut,

I bolt a drum puller onto the drum.

and tighten the centre bolt down
until it pushes against the axle.

This will break free any rust and
pull the drum off the brake assembly.

This cylinder here has a
double-ended piston here, so when

you push the brake pedal,
hydraulic fluid rushes into here,

pushes the pistons out and forces the two
brake shoes to pivot off this point here.

The brake shoes themselves
have this friction material on it,

so when that touches
the inside of the drum,

it's that friction that causes
the vehicle to slow down.

And then this really strong spring here

forces everything to come back together
when you take your foot off the brake pedal.

It's a really easy, simple setup,

and all these parts were available, so I'm
just going to throw all the old ones out,

put new ones in.

By pushing down and
turning on the spring

of the retaining pin
with this special tool,

the brake shoe is freed from the
assembly and can be removed.

Now I have access to remove the brake caliper
piston assembly from the backing plate.

I spent some time
cleaning up the rear end too.

A wire brush, some degreaser,
some primer and paint

makes a big difference.

Now, this car has that very familiar setup.

of disc brakes at the front
and drum brakes at the rear,

and I think it's fair to
say that drum brakes.

get a little bit of a bad
rap, but to understand why,

you need to understand
a little bit of science.

To get a car to move, it
takes an amount of energy,

and that energy is
provided in the form of fuel.

To get the car to stop,

you have to take away roughly
the same amount of energy.

The brakes purposely create
friction, which causes heat.

The movement energy of the car is
transformed very quickly into heat energy,

and if you don't have heat energy,

you don't have the braking effect.

Rear brakes only account for
about 30% of the car's braking power,

and they don't generate the
same amount of heat as up front,

making drums suitable for the rear.

Drum brakes like this were patented
in 1902 by a guy called Louis Renault.

Now, fixing this rear
end has actually been

quite fiddly, but it's
fairly straightforward.

But this is the remarkable bit.

I'm reusing the drum itself,
that's actually in quite good Nick,

but all the bits I need to fix the
remaining part of the whole rear end is $97.

That's 75 quid for both sides.

Now, Ant has given me the
problem of the brake discs,

or brake rotors, they
call them here in America,

of our Volvo 122 Amazon.

You can see these are pretty old.

They've probably been
on the car since 1965.

They're rusty, they're pitted,

and they won't give good braking
performance, and that's exactly what we need.

Right, this is my man Bruce.
How are you, Bruce?

Mike, how are you doing? Not bad at all.

So Bruce has been cutting discs and rotors

and brake drums in this
area for how many years?

43 years now.

If you want an expert to come and do a job,

you would choose Bruce, wouldn't you?

This is a brake disc and
brake drum cutting machine.

You get the brake disc loaded onto it,

and then immediately it's going to start
using these little blades that wind in

and then start cutting
that top layer off the disc.

So what we're looking for is we're
looking for the disc to be nice and flat.

It'll have a nice, flat surface,

and it'll give, once
the new pad's on there,

you'll get a proper bond between the two

once you apply the brakes on it.

How much braking
performance am I going to get?

It'll probably stop 20% shorter by
having three surface rotors on there.

Check the thickness of
your discs before turning

to be sure that they fall
with inservicable tolerances.

Bruce is going to charge me
how much to cut the rotors?

$15 each for you.

$15 each, that's a crisp.

$30, that's around 20 pounds in my money,

and I've still got the original part.

You can't say fairer than that, can you?

And there we go, there's one down.

Right, remember what it...

Remember what it looked like when I just
stood outside only literally a minute ago?

Now look at it.

That is absolutely fantastic.

Number two coming up.

And I love the fact that we can come out

and find local craftsmen, trades
and services, very much like yourself,

that is still doing stuff like this.

rather than just throwing it
away and getting a new part.

There we go.

And there we have it.

Perfect.

Lovely, looks fantastic to me, yeah.

Can't wait to get them back on the car.

Another new rotor.

Lovely.

Look at that, fantastic, Bruce.

I arrive with two secondhand
sell-by-date rotors,

and now I'm going away with two

that look like they've just
rolled off the factory floor.

Thank you very much, Bruce.

Thank you, good to see you.

See you later.

You take care, bye-bye.

Rear drums are done.

Now unlike drum brakes,

disc brakes suffer less with heat issues,

and that's because the disc
itself is open to the environment.

It dissipates the heat way better.

It makes disc brakes more effective, and
even more so if you have drilled or vented

all the little grooves in it, because
they're just better ways to get rid of heat.

Now Mike could have gone and
got me a pair of rebuilt calipers

for around $300 a side,

but him being typically frugal has
gone and got me a rebuild kit instead,

and that is only $20 a side.

Now before I commit to the rebuild
kit, I need to strip the calipers down

just to make sure that they're
in refurbishable condition.

I need to strip this caliper bare

to determine if I can rebuild it.

Now I'm going to separate the caliper.

That exposes my pistons.

Now this seal's supposed to
be nice and soft and supple,

keeping everything out,
but it's all cracked and dry.

Of course the other side's the same.

Now these are pretty bad.

I'm surprised the caliper's worked at all.

Now bear in mind a
piston is designed to move,

obviously with brake fluid,

so I'm going to make it move to
take it out using compressed air.

I'll just simply apply very gently
a little bit of compressed air here.

Build up the pressure within the caliper

just enough to do the
job of the hydraulic fluid.

Told you that worked.

Now it's this surface
in here that's critical.

Give that a little bit of cleanup.

Actually, we might have got pretty
lucky because that looks really good.

This can go again.

There's the second.

Hopefully it stands to
reason that both sides are

going to roughly corrode
around about the same.

Yeah, we've got away with it.

This is great news because
the body of our caliper,

these two bits are salvageable.

Now I need to clean up all the bits.

and put it back together.

These have come up really well.

They look pretty much brand new.

Now the next thing I want
to do is take out that seal.

Now this is the bit you
have to be quite careful with.

I do not want to scratch
that internal surface.

I'm just really gently removing.

any tiny bits of debris.

It's so important that I don't
touch the surface of the cylinder.

That's got the worst of it out.

Next up, a tiny bit of abrasive pad.

A little bit of lubricant.

Yeah, that's nice and tidy.

Now for the other half of the caliper.

All I need to do now is give him
another bath, get rid of the grease.

A lick of paint makes all the difference.

Remember though,
calipers are going to get really

hot so you can't just
use an ordinary paint.

I've gone for a high
temperature paint so it lasts.

Now the first thing to
do is drop in my new

seals that come in
the kit that Mike got me.

Now looking at the old piston,
you can see what the problem is.

There's this kind of
rusty ring around the top.

I'm going to replace that
with this nice shiny new piston.

Now you're going to
need a tiny bit of grease.

This is going to help slide it in.

Then, a nice new seal.

And I can feel straight
away, this is pliable.

This is going to keep the elements out.

And then, join the two halves together.

And nice new brake pads.

Now install the pad
retaining clips to secure

the caliper and insert
the lubricated guide pins.

Much simpler than drums in the rear.

The last step is to install this hardline.

That is both calipers rebuilt.

Mike managed to get these
re-skimmed because there

was sufficient meat
already on our original discs.

Which is good news.

There are several reasons why
manufacturers go for this set up.

Discs on the front, drums
on the rear, even today.

And that's because you
actually want the majority of your

braking to be done on the
front axle, in fact about 70%.

You need the rear axle
brakes to kind of underperform.

So if you own a modern car and it
happens to have disc brakes all round

it's probably likely that the
discs on the rear are either

smaller or the caliper
performs less than the front.

The general rule of thumb
for a hub nut like this.

is to tighten it up
and back it off a touch.

This is a fast moving part.

You want it to ride the bearing

and not be pressured on the bolt.

Line up the hole for the split pin.

When the car breaks
the weight shifts forward.

The front end dips as
more weight is loaded and at

the same time the back
end lifts and gets lighter.

To brake you want your
tires routed to the road

allowing the rubber
to grip and stop the car.

Taking the weight off the rear
tires takes them away from the road.

Rear brakes that are too
strong would simply lock up

the lighter rear end and
lose traction and if you're not

in a perfectly straight line
you're likely to spin the car.

And then of course.

there's the accountant.

See the thing is.

producing drum brakes is actually
cheaper than calipers and discs.

So you know those really boring guys you
know the ones that normally wear grey suits

and you try and avoid
at the Christmas party?

They're happy too.

A perfect combination of handling and
power makes this Swede something special.

Unfortunately ours didn't run but now
that Ant has the car back on the road.

and has revitalized the suspension
we can stop as well as go.

This car is the real deal.

There's nothing artificial
about this Swede-ner Dad gag.

Tap me on the shoulder. Go on.

Go on. Yeah.

I got this car for just $3,500.

Clutch cylinders,
hardline and fluid at $136.

Front and rear suspension
rebuild was $400.

New starter motor $80.

Front and rear brakes rebuilt for $165.

This gives us a total of
$4,281 which is around £3,200

and all done in 28 man hours.

It's not bad is it?

54 years old.

Do you know what? Yeah, you're right.

I know it takes hard
work to... Not you, the car.

Do you know Volvo gave this car an 11 year
life cycle and here it is 54 years later.

It looks like it's just
rolled out the showroom.

Absolutely incredible job.

Check this out. The
inside. It's one of those

jobs you get to the
last day, it's late at night

and I had to go back
in the workshop, throw

some new carpets in
and give it all a spruce up.

And it's not till you get behind
the wheel of one of these.

You may think that you
look like a university professor

on his way to give a lecture.
That's a bit rude.

Well, it does look like that,
doesn't it? But I know with the

way these cars handle and that
B18 engine, it's got a few tricks

up its sleeve.
You haven't driven this yet have you?

Nope, and I'm so excited.

Well, what are you waiting for?

My very first drive.

of the Volvo 122

Amazon. I can't think of another
scenario where you've given me a car to fix

that you haven't driven.
This is one of the first

cars that I've not driven
on Wheel of Dealers.

From the outside, this looks
like a pretty average car. Kind of

take your kids to the shop
and take them to the shop and

very, very low-key. It turns out
underneath, this is an actual rally car.

And if you went to Volvo
and looked at their trophy

cabinet, well it would put most football
teams to shame because this thing had

rally wins all over the world.

Just sitting here, it feels so
connected, this car. I know it's old,

but it just feels blooming wonderful.

I don't know how to
describe it. Unfortunately,

it didn't feel like
that when I drove it.

It was like driving a boat.

It wallowed and moved all over
the place. But the reason was.

rear suspension had two bent trailing arms.

Every single rubber bush on this car was
gone. So you've had to replace everything?

Oh my god, this car's had
a full suspension rebuild.

Now I can feel that the engine's good,

the steering's good,
it turns in. I've had my

first little tap of the
brakes and they certainly.

seem to stop the car. Look at that.

It's a big car to stop as
well if you think about it.

This is such a charming
car to drive. Charming's

the right word. It
is exactly the right

word. I'm loving this.

If you could quantify the impact a
three point harness has had on the world,

how many lives do you
reckon have been saved?

This car was 1965, so.

there's been, what, two generations
since then. So you think about it,

there's probably been billions of
lives saved purely because Volvo said.

we've invented the three point safety

belt and we're going to give the
pains enough and everyone can use it.

Our Volvo is now finished
and it looks absolutely

amazing. And I've had this young
lady turn up to come and see it.

This is her sister, Carolina,

and that's the Volvo they
arrived in, another 122. But like

all women, they like
to buy things in pairs.

So her sister, Natalie,

has been out for a test drive in my
Volvo and let's see what she makes of it.

Lovely. So.

what did you think? I love it. You did?

Yes. Yeah, it drives really nice.

Why do you need another one?
This is my favorite car,

Volvo Amazon.
Need one in black, need one in red.

Really? I advertised it out there.

on the Internet for $7,000. I've had

lots of interest, obviously, because it's.

a beautiful car and that's what I'm
aiming to get for it. So what do you think?

Did you take six? I can't take six,

but I can meet you in the middle.

$6,500. What did you say?

Yeah.

All right, cut yourself a cracking
Amazon and well done you.

That is fantastic.

I've got one inch now.

Well, we did it. We sold our Volvo
for $6,500 or around £5,000 and that's

great for me and Anne
because we made a profit

but that's not the important thing.

The important thing is this car's

54 year journey and now
it's been bought by two.

young people that are going to
enjoy this car for another 54 years

hopefully. If you want to see
more iconic cars like this Volvo

being turned around by me
and Anne, then join us again soon

on Wheel of Dealers. Salut.