The "Georgia Peach" Project - A 35-Year Wait For a Special 1968 122s Wagon

[vintagewrench]

I was first introduced to a 1963 Volvo 122s two-door by a cousin when I was about 10-years old in 1965. Later his brother gave me that car in 1976 when it had about 275K miles on it. I drove it another 100K miles until finishing the restoration, modification and painting of a really unique 1966 wagon and had it on the road in 1980.

Up until 1988, I had about 20 122s cars and one P1800 over a period of time had to sell all of them to finance building a new restoration shop where I restore and rebuild early road and racing cars for clients. Over the last 18-years, I have missed having a Volvo but never had to time to get another until just recently.

It’s a long story I will share with you another time, but this creme-colored 1968 122s wagon with a saddle interior has only had two owners since new. The first owner lived in Florida, and it was sold through Cars International in Atlanta, Georgia in the late-1970s and hence the "Georgia Peach" nickname it was give 35 years ago. The second owner, a friend from Massachusetts has taken great care of the car of it since then, and it was in regular use between the spring-to-fall season up until six years ago.

It is a wonderfully preserved car w/187K miles that has never been in any accidents, is almost rust free, and was repainted Desert Sand # 97 its original color for the first time ten years ago only because the original finish keep turning chalky. It has an M41 transmission w/OD and dealer-installed air conditioning. The B18 was rebuilt about 15,000 miles ago, and it is equipped w/a B20 fuel-injected head.

All of the work needed to improve and modify this car will be covered in this thread. I plan on doing it the "old school" way trying to use only n.o.s. or vintage parts for any modifications I make to it: engine, exhaust, steering wheel, wheels and interior.

[cwdodson88]

Very cool! Thats a great looking car, sounds like a good candidate for a clean up and drive resto.

[vintagewrench]

Thanks cwdodson88.

This is the 1966 wagon I restored and modified. I cut the coil springs, put on IPD sway bars and Koni shocks. The engine was a B18 bored out to a B20 w/higher compression, headers, modified SU's with velocity stacks.

I installed an early P1800 shifter and welded in the P1800 trans tunnel, installed a roll bar and the wheels were American Racing 200s.

The hood was nosed, the cowl vent was filled in and the flex hose brought in fresh air for the heater, and the license plate was sunk into the tailgate and I formed the grills out of stainless tubing and an attractive stainless mesh. It was painted in hand rubbed lacquer in the original Volvo bluish-grey color.

Wish I had it now but I sold about 1981 to buy equipment for my restoration shop.

[cwdodson88]

Very cool! I'm working on a 67-68 wagon, had a rough life to start with, and well I havent made things any easier There are a few other Amazon owners on here, so keep us posted.

[vintagewrench]

Originally Posted by cwdodson88

Very cool! I'm working on a 67-68 wagon, had a rough life to start with, and well I havent made things any easier There are a few other Amazon owners on here, so keep us posted.

Will do I can't wait to get started on it, only have had time to get it running well.

[vintagewrench]

Thanks to a friend in the UK I was able to track down a dealer who sells original n.o.s. (new old stock) vintage Abarth Italian exhausts systems in Europe and this one is on its way here and should arrive in June.

In the 1960s & 1970s these systems where the one to have on your foreign sports car and they sound GREAT, bolt on and make a few more horsepower.

This 1968 is the first 122s that I have had with a double front exhaust pipe and it has more torque than the earlier single pipe version or the headers I have used in the past. Since this car is going to be a daily driver in the good weather months and parts chaser for the shop here in Vermont the "Green Mountain" state I am going to stay with the two-pipe exhaust at least for now.

Good low-end torque gets the job done climbing all the hills and mountains around here and this will work better than the other systems. Very happy to have found it.

Does anyone have an original "R Sport" header or other "R" parts they will sell that will work on this project?

[vintagewrench]

When I brought this car it was running rough, had a terrible idle and was running way to rich. My friend Jon who I got the car from mentioned that it had been that way since the SU carbs were rebuilt about 20-years ago.

After trailering it home and draining all the old bad gas out of the tank I went to work to try to get it to run better. After adjusting the mixture on both carbs along with checking the timing and gapping the points and plugs it still ran poorly.

After taking another closer look at the carbs I discovered that one of the jets was to short and it was in the carb that was running rich and causing the problem. After cleaning up a jet from a spare carb and installing it, followed a little bit more mixture adjusting it now idles excellent and out on the road it has more power and runs as it should.

The top photo shows a look thru a SU carb with the piston lifted up and the tapered needle raised up in the jet as it would be at high speed.

The second photo shows the replacement jet and a spare needle close to where it would be at idle speed.

The bottom photo is of the incorrect jet that is 1/4" shorter than it should be which was allowing it to run way to rich all of the time.

After a good rebuild that includes reaming and fitting oversized throttle shafts or new bushing when worn and some careful tuning the original constant velocity SU's do work quite well in spite of being a very old design. By changing needles they also be tuned to work well after engine modifications.

Learn more about the SU here. Most needed parts are available from specialists here in the US - Burlen Ltd.in the UK has everything needed including good books on the SU and w/air freight parts arrive quickly.

[Coupid]

That exhaust is gorgeous! Great find. I've enjoyed reading so far and can't wait to see how it progresses

[vintagewrench]

Wanting to use only vintage speed equipment on this project I bought a Judson Supercharger as can be seen above on an early P1800 in the photo. The Judson is an axial unit that uses vanes to generate the pressure.

I had one years ago and thought it would be neat to get another and rebuild it and I found one that came out of a garage that used to work on racing cars that were run at the Lime Rock Park track in CT in the 1960s. It is all apart and I hope it will not be a big ordeal to rebuild it and hopefully the slots in rotor are not worn - time will tell when it arrives. The first priory here is to do all the maintenance the car needs and enjoy it a bit this the summer.

In the 1950's and 60's the Judson Research and Manufacturing Company of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania made these vane type superchargers for Volkswagen, MG, Triumph, Volvo and other cars including the Mercedes 190SL. The blower added a significant amount of horsepower to these cars by adding a modest amount of boost.



How the blower works can be seen above. The intake side of the blower housing is on the left - the exhaust ports in the center - the rotor and sliding vanes on the right.

Jeff Koch at Hemming Motor News wrote about these blowers: "The Judson supercharger made all of its boost in the engine's normal rev range. Printed reports suggest power gains between 25 and 50 percent, depending on the car and equipment; Judson once ran an ad promising 32 percent more power or your money back.

Judson's supercharger had quite a bit going for it: It operated silently, it had no cams or gears to wear or cause a loss of efficiency and it didn't operate at idle or during steady cruising. The Judson would only kick in if you were on the accelerator. It utilized four sliding vanes that were mounted at an angle to an eccentric hub. The vanes themselves were made from a laminated plastic, and are not only half as light as aluminum, but are less subject to heat expansion.

As the hub spins, centrifugal force throws the vanes out to seal against the inside of the supercharger body, pressurizing the mixture and sending it to the intake manifold. Friction issues are handled by a separate canister that drops Marvel Mystery Oil into the body of the supercharger via a metering valve, which is ingested by the engine and burned; Judson once claimed this acted as additional cylinder lubricant, thus increasing engine longevity!"

See a video of one running on a 122s here.

This chart below gives the performance specs of an earlier 544 model fitted w/a Judson. It is not known if it was a B16 or a B18.

[vintagewrench]

Finally was able to get the wagon inside of the main part of my vintage mechanical restoration shop (been in operation for 40-years) in one of the service bays and took a quick pair of photos tonight before the sun went down. Both show the amazing condition that the GPWagon (new name) has survived in. TheOldMotor tags on the photos are from the TheOldMotor.com a popular vintage car blog published at the shop that is updated daily.

More soon.

[vintagewrench]

The shop dogs, Cassie and Lena, rescued Labs love to go for a ride in the GPWagon to go swimming at the Farm fire pond nearby.

[Coupid]

There was a Judson supercharger on ebay and I was very curious. Thanks for sharing!

[RichGT]

wow

[vintagewrench]

The Judson Supercharger arrived today and all of the parts are in excellent condition (it is apart) and accounted for other than some of the Holley carb parts. The original carb jets Judson put in the carb have survived so all I need to do it get another used carb which is is easy to do and a carb kit.

I will share the rebuild with all of you.

[lukeball]

VP Autoparts in Charleston, SC sells a newer version of the Abarth exhaust systems with one even in stainless. It is advertised as 2", but I wonder what the performance is really like and if the mufflers are straight through or have baffles.
http://212.247.61.152/us/main.aspx?p...e&artno=291135
http://212.247.61.152/us/main.aspx?p...artno=291135SS

Good luck on your project; I hope to follow your progress.

[DanMarino]

Very cool car. Had no idea about those superchargers.

[vintagewrench]

lukeball and DanMarino - Thanks to both of you.

[vintagewrench]

This question was quickly answered on the Performance and Suspension Forum learn the difference here: http://forums.turbobricks.com/showth...=321620&page=2

It appears that there were two different models of B20 fuel injection heads and I am looking for the one with the lowest compression ratio to use with this supercharger

One is referred to as the "E" and the other as the "F"?

What are the actual differences between the two and the compression ratios of each one?

How exactly can they be told apart?

[wtarkington]

Such an awesome wagon! I cant wait to see your progress! Your shop looks absolutely amazing by the way. Those cars look like works of art. (They are!)

[flyfishing3]

Good stuff here

[vintagewrench]

wtarkington and Flyfishing3 - Thanks and I hope you enjoy it.

[vintagewrench]

I thought it would be good to share with all of you what I am trying to accomplish with this supercharger installation:

1. My business is rebuilding antique racing and road-driven engines (pre-1930) and since I also run a very busy vintage car website, theoldmotor.com this project is going to only use (for now) period speed equipment and a Bosch centrifugal advance points style distributor (re-curved) and no electronics. That way the build it can be covered on the website as retro project, and a friend who writes for Road & Track is also interested in covering it as a period-like piece.

2. The blower output capacity is sized to work on a 1800cc engine and on a 2000cc motor it will be undersized and produce less horsepower and torque.

3. I had a Judson in the past (late-1970s) and installed it on a stock B18. It produced exceptional power, but could not handle even premium gas due to detonation, but would run great on racing gas. A standard carbureted B20 head was then installed (lowered the CR due to the smaller B18 bore) and it then preformed great on pump gas.

4. This car is going to be used like a shop truck in local traffic and some runs of up to 200-miles and has to be reliable.

5. It is first going to be installed on the completely rebuilt, original to the car, standard bore B18 with a new set Mahle cast pistons that are in it, and the "F" head that is on it now. This will give a good base line and with the lower compression ratio will handle the denotation issues and give a good base line to begin with.

After all of this is accomplished, a programable electronic distributor will likely be installed and the blower speed will be stepped up a bit.

I have very little knowledge of electronic ignition - what Volvo distributor (so it will look stock) and programable electronic system would you recommend that could be setup later to be work on this engine?

[AndrewNance]

I plan to run Microsquirt on my 142 later. I'll use a Pertronix trigger for a hall sensor and that will leave the distributor appearing mostly stock. That's about all I can add.

[Coupid]

Can't wait to see this develop further, I love the plan for the build. Have you ever been out to the Mullin Automotive Museum here in CA? I volunteer there and we have many prewar French racing and road cars on display.

[vintagewrench]

Originally Posted by AndrewNance

I plan to run Microsquirt on my 142 later. I'll use a Pertronix trigger for a hall sensor and that will leave the distributor appearing mostly stock. That's about all I can add.

Andrew, Thanks for the information - with this setup will you be able to adjust the timing curve to suit the engine?