First post on this forum so hello to everyone. I own a 1966 volvo amazon estate, My intention from day one was to find one in a poor state so i could modify it. I come in peace, and dont wish to offend any purists, as my project is a little extreme. Im using 1998 BMW 323i floorpan, M3 evo running gear, and a volvo 960 6 cylinder motor, turbo d and running 800 bhp Will put some pics up if anyone s interested ?
Sounds like a monster, share away!
Pics asap
Some pics in july 18, just arrived
1.8
Some more...
BMW ill use, 1998 323i
Very interesting project. Keep us up to date please.
1998 BMW 323i now we ve down sized it
Front
rear
Volvo strip down
A posts were blasted and part repaired for floor removal,
BMW trimmed a wee bit more
Front end is not required so off it comes !
1x final pic as an amazon...
Point of no return now !!!!
Front end 20ft away
We were in the mood so we cut all the floor out
Volvo now like a radio control car, its on timbers raised on a 2 post ramp.
Sill and arch removed as bmw rear arm is in our way, ill explain later on...
Wheelbase is a bit more on the bmw so we undid the factory spot welds and seperated it,
Back 1/2 of floor is sat summat like
More...
We braced it loads as it was like a wet paper bag
We ll sort it later.
Raised up, we prayed it wouldn t snap in two, and it didnt
Rear end..
Sill clamped on for a look
Look at difference, filler was all over
First job is make some inner sills ready for rest of bmw
BMW about to lose its inner sills
Ready !!!!
Folded for floor to sit on, ill weld to inner sills
In it rolls
Amazon lowered down
Nearly
Nice !
Perfect
Bonnet back on to mafe front end and line it all up
A posts were knackered, not now !
Lovely tunnel
Suspension cut, we wanted to make sure in its lowest point all would be ok ?
More braces
Lined up nice
Panel for inner wing.
Work it
Before
After
Brilliant! What an awesome project. That floorpan an front end looked like it needed a lot work anyway.
[QUOTE=Dangerous Dave;817306]Brilliant! What an awesome project. That floorpan an front end looked like it needed a lot work anyway.[/QUOTE] It was all knackered, seams were all swelled, it just dropped to bits in your palm
More for ya...
Drilled ready.
On ramp properly for first time, no more bad backs !
Now a car
Our problem
Rear door wont close, so on order for it to close, we modified the door
Excellent, it closes now.
A bit more of a fettle
Bolt needed to move as is in our way
Next we started to join up front
BMW trimmed a bit more to neaten it up for a better fit
Rear end after a sand blast, its all disappeared ?
Inside
Saved from our amazon, we will try and fit it so it looks factory and as is.
I now need my mate to make me some repair panels not available for rear end,
Thats all for now and where we are at,
More pics soon
watch this space ........
That is some serious fabrication skill ,, cant wait til next part ! Woudnt have minded that engine and box from BMW for my compact lol !!
Bit like a Mini then, only the whole of the Mini usually crumbles in your hand :D
[QUOTE=The Flying Banana;817320]That is some serious fabrication skill ,, cant wait til next part ! Woudnt have minded that engine and box from BMW for my compact lol !![/QUOTE] Its still sat in my unit, motor and box
Amazing work, all the best.
Much more interesting than most tv resto programs.
Great work! Looking forward to seeing more pics.
Been a bit busy last few days, just spent £12 on some metal, as i needed some thinner stuff, to make our repair panels for the rear quarters, I ve used for the rest of the car some 16 gauge and it wont shape properly as its too thick. Will put some pics up ASAP !
Look forward to the updates!
Been busy last few weeks, but a bit more s been done
Rear end under construction, we needed to make our own repair panels as none exist
Repair panel we made for upper rear corner, you can buy lower rear corners ???
We also needed to make a panel which sits under the rear reflector
drivers side is turd as well
Nice 1970 s repair, slotted screws as evidence :nono:
More to come soon
Brilliant work, good to see some old school skills :)
Nice one mate, appreciated,
RANDOM INSIDE PIC
DRIVERS SIDE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
NEAR SIDE BEFORE
AFTER
BEFORE
Pleased now it looks like a car , and not for scrap ! :wink:
Some more pics.
Underside
Some more pics.
Underside
Sorry posted pics twice
Keep them coming, it's taking shape :)
Some more......
N/S sill under construction, bmw rear arm mount is in our way, same as O/S
Drivers side sill almost done and looks effin beaut !
Back to N/S
1 More of drivers sill
Door mod so it closes
Door closed,and all in place, lined up
More to come very soon........
Update.....
Bodywork is certainly looking a lot more car like now, very satisfying to watch.
update......
We folded some steel to make our boot floor and rear chassis.
We cut all traces of bmw boot out, as we decided to make our own as it will look better
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A few more.....
Remember we saved our old volvo boot floor to put back in, so it looks as factory as poss !
Lid closed.
We are just on with the spare wheel well, more pics soon...:B_thumb:
This is awesome!
It is brilliant, and when it gets an engine to match even more amazing. I check back regularly hoping for an update. Loving the progress!
Cheers lads, it is a labour of love, it was really bad and i dont want to do any more as bad as our amazon, We are just bead rollin our spare wheel well sections, more pics soon......
Thanks for being so active in sharing the pics and progress, hope all goes to plan in the next stages. Definitely a huge undertaking a project on this level, but you're the envy of many on here, when finished I'm hoping it rivals the one that Guy Martin bought (sure you've seen it)! [video=youtube;6BjI1lG2q4A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BjI1lG2q4A[/video]
Ive seen it yes, i like its 3 door conversion, i also want it similar, but to use as many volvo bits as poss, i like the cool amazon dashboard and clocks, and wont swap it for a newer look, as in my opinion it ruins it, also ruins its sleeper effect !
UPDATE..........
VW T3 motor lid
SOME MORE..........
Marked to bead roll
Bead rolled !
VW T3 motor lid, for our floor
Number 2x bead rolled
Number 3x rolled and all drilled and blasted and zinc primed
All marked out
Some more...........
All fitted, base is just screwed in ready to square up,
Really pleased, its turned out spot on, and you wont even notice once painted !
That's fantastic, really good that you can get the original floor well panels still! Quality work.
Its a VW T3 motor lid, id lyin about, looks ok to me. We are now about to join our lower rear quarters, to our new spare wheel well, thus the rear end will be done completely construction wise, we need to sort a fuel neck as our amazon was opposite side to our bmw, volvo one is now blanked off and we need an idea, but well cross it as and when, Our motor will be back soon so we can play around with it, it is been mated to an M3 trans, we need to make some motor mounts, should be easy, Also i need some wings on back order, supposed to be end of september now end of year ? But what can you do when your dads a butcher, and you dont eat meat ? More soon.......
awesome build. great to watch.
Wonder if there are any updates on this project? :B_steerin
Excellent thread and loving the detail going into this, the fabrication is superb.
I wonder how Paul is getting on with this project? Looking forward to hearing and seeing the updates :)
Likewise an update would be much appreciated.
Not done a lot since last post, as we ve needed to wait for our brand new OEM front panels to arrive, we couldnt line our front end up as our panels were turd, so we waited, and waited, and waited, supposed to be end of september, october, november, december, it ll be new year, and february they turned up, so we will do some more on her.
Also our 960 motor is back, we need to make an adapter to fit our M3 EVO transmission
Also you can see our clutch, which is ok for 1000 hp
We aim for 800 hp
BMW M3 evo six speed manual
We basically downed tools and left it, as no panels meant we couldn t complete it so we ve been at work on our many projects,
We wanted to complete rear end so made a re start on it,
Drilled ready to spot weld
Welded in
Left rear
More to come soon.............
Brilliant :)
Ditto on what Dangerous Dave said, cracking work, will be a monster :worship:
We removed most of our "scaffold support bars"
Starting to look robust - What's next Paul?
Next job is to line all the front panels up, and mount the front bumper. Pics to follow soon .........
Looking forward to them, best thread on the forum at the moment :)
We made a lid for our battery box
Back to our front end
Cross member
Braces now removed, and our strut brace fits nice !
We decided to mount our motor and box, as we couldn t wait any more
Its just sat on a piece of wood, but it is in exact position, ready for some mounts !
Not far off at all
More to come soon...
Amazing
Coming along very nicely, I wonder how much planning has happened on paper first to make sure everything will fit?
[QUOTE=kmb;818306]Coming along very nicely, I wonder how much planning has happened on paper first to make sure everything will fit?[/QUOTE]
No plans on paper at all, just a tape measure, welder, grinder .
We take each problem as it comes, sometimes you need to go backward 2 steps to move forward 3 ?
A few more pictures, we made our motor mounts .
Quick buzz over to make it look nice
Opposite side, it looks close but it isnt.
Told you.
Next job is to finish bulkhead, mount front bumper and finish front cross member.
More to come soon......
Some more pictures..
We took our motor out to rebuild and tune.
Also almost completed front cross member
New front bumper arrived so we fitted it,some modifications needed obviously ?:rolleyes2
Motor doesn t run now
I will do bottom end 1st, and top end 2nd, more pics soon...
I love engine rebuilds :) You doing any internal engine upgrades?
Usual stuff, some arrow precision rods, omega pistons, bore liners, balanced crank, Cams, oversized valves, ported, flowed, triple valve seats, uprated injectors MASSIVE TURBO ! :banana: Reminds me, i must save up !
Oh my, yeah the usual stuff :D
Does anyone know the part number by any luck, for my 1996 volvo 96O crankshaft ? Its a 2.9L 24v whiteblock My local volvo dealer said "we dont give part numbers out" I need it to find the spec of the splines, as i need to make a crank for my motor, and a part number will save some coin
[QUOTE=PAULDRIVER;818641]Does anyone know the part number by any luck, for my 1996 volvo 96O crankshaft ? Its a 2.9L 24v whiteblock My local volvo dealer said "we dont give part numbers out" I need it to find the spec of the splines, as i need to make a crank for my motor, and a part number will save some coin[/QUOTE] Hello Paul - We're looking forwards to the updates, I can't help with the part number but I normally search on Skandix which gives volvo equivalent part numbers based on VIN when you look for a part, hope this works for you: http://www.skandix.de/en/
Turns out i dont need to make a crank, as a bloke in finland s advised it can take over 1000 bhp, and 1200NM of torque, so i will be fine,
At the minute some pistons are been made at a place in york, very helpful people,
Conrods i can source in USA, as i said earlier i want to do bottom end first, and top end next.
Some pictures of repairs to back end of body, roof, rear windows etc...
My mate blasted over said areas, so we know what we ve got 
Not pretty at all
Repair round window, we needed to make a piece to sit in, and make up what d disappeared.
We also made our steering up, so now it steers !
We used some bmw column, and some volvo amazon column, and it works perfectly,
The column itself need to be lower than its original position, as our bmw bulkhead determined so, its angle was too steep, and put unnecessary strain on it, so we put in its optimum position, we also managed to fit its dashboard back in.
A few more.....
Its just mocked up and will be welded up properly, we just wanted to make it work, and it does brilliantly, obviously it will be bmw power steering, but none of it is piped up yet.
A couple more...
We removed all the track that the rubber sits in round boot area.
It was rotten in places, and rusty on underside, plus you can buy new stuff,
So i purchased some for later.
My friend skillfully made me a repair panel for my rear window, as it was a lot worse than the opposite side.
Top news on the crank. Amazing what the sand blasting uncovered, will be good when all solid, nice work :)
Hoping there is an update on this one soon :) Should be a monster!
[QUOTE=kmb;818915]Hoping there is an update on this one soon :) Should be a monster![/QUOTE] Yep with you there, it will be interesting to see what's happened lately, loving the work going into this project
Also keen for an update
Come on Paul - Let us know what's happened :)
Ive been ill and not done a lot, we ve started to repair all 4 doors, and my motors been modified as we speak, i needed some rods and pistons, plus a nice turbo, ive acquired all above parts, and we will slowly be back on bodywork. Will put some pictures asap, ive not posted for a bit, its moved on since my last post ! Ive done my bottom end first, once my top end is done, we can take it for its manifolds, inlet and turbo.
Sorry to hear you've been ill, hopefully you're on the mend now. Anyway a fresh year to get things done is here. Looking forward to your updates :D
[QUOTE=PAULDRIVER;819503]Ive been ill and not done a lot, we ve started to repair all 4 doors, and my motors been modified as we speak, i needed some rods and pistons, plus a nice turbo, ive acquired all above parts, and we will slowly be back on bodywork. Will put some pictures asap, ive not posted for a bit, its moved on since my last post ! Ive done my bottom end first, once my top end is done, we can take it for its manifolds, inlet and turbo.[/QUOTE] Many thanks for the update Paul, hope you're on the mend now. Look forward to seeing the pics and progress.
oh.....just got back and thought there maybe a new progress post on this project, hoping this enforced downtime has pushed this awesome project on....looking forward to an update shortly ....
Also hoping the same :)
Hoping you're doing well Paul, we're still wondering how the build is doing too [emoji16] Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk
Must be due an update soon I'd guess
Sorry for my inactivity, we were slowed down waiting for some main bearings due to covid, and i still dont posess any ? i will be back on it soon and keep you posted
[QUOTE=PAULDRIVER;821739]Sorry for my inactivity, we were slowed down waiting for some main bearings due to covid, and i still dont posess any ? i will be back on it soon and keep you posted[/QUOTE] Oh no, hopefully you'll get some soon! Thanks for the update :)
what a brilliant project, defenitly following!
It was King race bearings, kept moving the ETA, There were literally none in the entire universe ? They are same as a focus RS been a T5 volvo motor, so all focus tuners were in my boat, plus i need 2x sets as mines a 6 cylinder, and has an extra bearing to a 5 pot.
[QUOTE=PAULDRIVER;821743]It was King race bearings, kept moving the ETA, There were literally none in the entire universe ? They are same as a focus RS been a T5 volvo motor, so all focus tuners were in my boat, plus i need 2x sets as mines a 6 cylinder, and has an extra bearing to a 5 pot.[/QUOTE] Nothing worse than waiting on parts and the date keeps getting pushed back, hopefully they'll come good for you soon
Bearings now in stock and ordered today !