I left a deposit on this old '65 yesterday, and I'm picking it up tomorrow.

andx0r

Well-Known Member
It's a '65 Volvo 122S sedan. 4-speed, with a blue interior. This definitely wasn't an impulse buy. I've been sniffing around this car for YEARS.

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lol potato fail.
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The story basically goes that this car sat in a new Volvo showroom down in Georgia for about 20 years. Then, a few years ago it sold on ebay to one of the owners of a local import repair shop. Said shop was once a new Volvo dealer itself, but now the original owner's 2 sons run the place as a repair garage. Really nice guys, I bring cars there sometimes.

I saw the car sitting there right when he first got it, so I stopped to ask about it and look at it. And threatened to return should I ever see it for sale. He bought the car for his wife, and put a ton of work into it to get it roadworthy for her, and now a few years later she's decided she wanted an old wagon intsead. She got a big old AMC wagon, and the 122 went up for sale. And now I'm picking it up monday.

It's the best kind of old car. One that never got rusty, and one that belonged to someone who knew how to work on it and sorted it out completely. It's great to just fire it up and drive around, like you would any other car. He was also nice enough to put it up on the lift for me and the underside's almost ridiculously nice. The last old car I bought that was this sorted out was 10 years ago when I bought an '81 Datsun from a friend's brother (who is also a mechanic) out in Sacramento and drove it home.

So, pretty pleased that I got to it. And it's owner is pleased that it's going to another Volvo enthusiast.

No real plans for it once I have it, except to remove the dealer-accessory under-dash AC unit and MASSIVE York compressor and store that away, install a tachometer, and maybe get a slightly smaller steering wheel. There's definitely some fat guy in a small car action going on, but it's quite comfortable once situated inside it. A smaller wheel would be nice though.
 
Now that is a cool old car. It has a really classy look. Looks really clean, too. Low mileage?
 
Thanks guys :)

qpagoda, I'm not sure. It's showing 90-something on a 5-digit odo. Given the overall condition, I can't imagine it's rolled over too many times.
 
Cool. I like that original, unrestored thing too sometimes. Unfortunately sometimes that is not an option if you want a car thats not half shot. Clean originals are awful rare these days. The only ones that seem to show up are cars like this that don't have an insane collector or hot-rod market to have gobbled them up by now.
 
Ok, right up front I'll say this " I AM JEALOUS!!!" back in the '80's ( being single of course ) I used to buy 122's collect 'em, strip'em for donor parts, store them under the porch, basement, etc. It was a funny lil' cult thing, often times I'd park the car and go into a store or mall, come out and find notes on the windshield wiper saying " will buy your car if you want to sell it" . Of course I'd do the same, leaving notes on cars, or crawling under neath to see if it had the laycock overdrive, gosh the only car I think that would be more desirable would be the 1800. Enjoy the car, does it have overdrive? Good luck tuning those SU carbs...Have fun with it!!!
 
Good taste in cars.

I had triple SUs before and did them myself. Not too hard. Balancing 2 should be easy enough.
 
Thanks guys!

This is actually Volvo #4 for me.

It's predecessors were '86 and '89 240s, and a '90 740 Turbo. This one is just a little older :D

I'm more worried about the ignition than the SU's. I HATE points. On the '70 Dart I once owned, I put this little Pertronix deal on to get rid of them. May do the same here.

No OD, Frankie. Bummer. Can't have them all, I suppose. Oh well, this car will just be for around-town jaunts anyways.
 
Wow,
that's rock solid for a 50 year old,
re-do the brake fluid at the very least,
I don't need to tell you to enjoy.
 
Wow !

That`s a beauty....congrats ! :thmbsp:

(Of course, now you`re gonna have to buy a P1800 to keep it company....:D)
 
,
re-do the brake fluid at the very least,
I don't need to tell you to enjoy.

It's all done :D

I'm buying it from a second-generation Volvo mechanic who really went through the car and then some. One of my least favorite things in the world is dealing with gunky old fuel systems. No worries there, tank's been boiled and coated in and out, new lines, senders, filters, pump, carbs sorted. It's pretty much turn-key at this point.
 
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SU's

Good taste in cars.

I had triple SUs before and did them myself. Not too hard. Balancing 2 should be easy enough.
Definitely good taste in cars, I loved those 122 wagons! As for the SU carbs, it seemed like they were constantly leaking fluid.
Also watch out for the Odometer, I seem to remember that at least one of the gears inside it was either plastic or bronze. It would wear out and you'd be left with a speedometer that worked, but a non working odometer.
 
That was a thing on all of the Volvo clusters, at least up until the 90s. I had to change the plastic gears on both the '86 and '89 240s. They'll have a single tooth break off and then they're junk. Annoying.
 
That's a gorgeous automobile. I love the color.

To say that it is in amazing condition would be an understatement.

I had the pleasure of driving one in 1977. A friend had one as his car for college. He loved it. I drove it for only about 10 minutes, but I do remember the experience.

That's an amazing find. Congratulations.
 
That looks like big fun! Kudos on finding such a nice example!
 
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