Thirty Seven Years With An Amazon

[Ray Charlton has been a long-time TTAC reader (amazon ray) and has fed me numerous tips. He has offered to share the story of his experiences with his automotive companion of thirty seven years. TTAC always encourages reader submissions, and we are particularly interested to make this type of reader’s story a regular weekly column. It’s a great way to get to know each other better, and share our automotive-related passions, careers, crazy stories or?? And you’ll (eventually) be $50.00 richer. Send them to me at curbsideclassics@gmail.com. About 800-1200 words, and if it needs editing, I’m on it. I also need suggestions for a title of this series. PN]

It was October of 1973, and my seventeenth birthday. My father’s idea of the perfect gift was to give me his daily driver: a 1968 Volvo 122 Amazon. He had bought it new and now it had 74,000 miles on it. Well, needless to say I was mighty happy to get the car. But I’m even happier to have it still today.

Sure, it needed some work when I first got it. But I had just taken 1st year Auto Shop at my High School and I figured I knew a few things about cars. (“a few” being the operative words here). Right off, I had to give the car a tune up, a brake booster rebuild and last but not least have the automatic transmission rebuilt. Yes, it has an automatic; a Borg Warner Type 35 three speed, and probably the weakest part of the entire car. It is the one thing that has given me the most trouble over the years. But at the time I was not worried about it. I figured I would have the car for 5 years or maybe 10 at the most. Little did I know.

I kept signing up for Auto Shop. It was my favorite class, and between my excellent teacher and my car I was learning a lot. I enjoyed every minute of it, knowing that I would much rather have my hands on a tool than on a textbook. And having a car that needed a lot of things fixed on it was actually an advantage, for a change.

I did a quick engine rebuild on it (quick meaning I did not pull the engine out of the car). One thing I learned right off was that “tight is good – too tight is bad”. I probably twisted off half a dozen valve adjustment screws learning that lesson. And when a valve adjustment screw is twisted off, the entire rocker arm assembly has to come off to change it. And of course all the valves then needed to be adjusted again, giving me 8 more chances to break another adjusting screw.

For the next sixteen years, the Volvo was my daily driver (twenty six years total). I was living in Los Angeles at the time, and took the car on several long road trips including to Arizona and Northern California. And I soon got to be good friends with the parts guys at my local Volvo dealer, who gave me a discount since I was such a good customer.

I owned the car for four years before I started modifying it. I installed a set of IPD front and rear sway bars, and a year later I installed IPD coil springs that lowered the ride height and a complete set of Bilstein shocks. The car now handled a lot better but it just seemed like it did not have much power. So I bought a used engine from a junkyard for $200 and totally rebuilt it, using IPD parts. I bored the block .30 over and installed a camshaft that increased the torque. A set of custom alloy wheels were next. A Weber two barrel downdraft carb replaced the balky SUs, and a set of headers completed the package. That second engine now has 145,000 miles on it and is still going strong.

I have been a loyal IPD customer since 1977, and seriously doubt that I would still be driving the car if it wasn’t for them. From the headlights to the tail light lenses, and pretty much everything else in between that needed replacing came from them. Right now the car has 271,000 miles on it, and the only moving parts on the car that are still original are the fuel tank, the fuel quantity sending unit, the heater fan motor, the heater core and the wiper motor. Everything else has been repaired or replaced at least once.

I have had that damn transmission rebuilt seven times. The first few times I took it to repair shops that didn’t do a very good job. But I have high hopes for the latest rebuild (always the optimist).

As recently as two years ago I used the Volvo as my daily driver for a while. It was a rather strange feeling driving a 40 year old car around every day, realizing I was pretty much always in the oldest car on the road.

Back in 1989 I bought a new Saleen Mustang, and the 122 then became my second car. It was a real shock going from a 21 year old car to a brand new vehicle and all its conveniences. And there is nothing like the power of a V-8, especially the Saleen, which is a very quick car. It has 105,000 miles on it now.

Two years ago I bought a Mazda MPV minivan from my ex-wife. So now the Volvo is my third car. The MPV, which has 282,000 miles on it, is currently my daily driver, as I would much rather put the miles on it than on the Saleen or the Volvo.

Looking back over my life it is hard for me to imagine not having my Volvo. My father got it when I was 12 years old, and I’m 53 now. I can see it sitting outside in the driveway as I write this. That damn car is like a family member, it’s been in my life for so long. I think of all the people I have hauled around in it and all the places and jobs it’s taken me to. My two daughters grew up with the car and both of them have driven it. I think it says a lot about a car that three generations of one family have be able to get behind the wheel of this car and head on down the road.

My father passed away in 1988. Not many days go by that I do not think of him. I still feel a very strong connection with him and owning the Volvo is a big part of that. It is very easy for me to think back to times when my father was driving my younger brother and me around in the car. And I can remember times when I was driving Dad around in it. I like to think that he sometimes looks down on me driving his old Volvo around and smiles. He got a lot more for his money buying that Volvo and then giving to me than he could ever have imagined. Or maybe he did?