Lee Cordner didn't have high hopes for the Volvo his teenage son dragged home several years ago. "The thing was trashed," he readily admits. "He thought he could use it for delivering pizzas. Well, that didn't last long."
The '68 Volvo 122 was, in fact, too cheesy to even stay on the road. Cordner of San Rafael, Calif., whose stable of Volvos includes a C70, a V70R and an 1800E, took the 122 off his son's hands and parked it in the backyard. Although San Rafaelinos at large must have benefited from a restoration of dependable pizza delivery, Cordner's neighbors no doubt winced at the unanticipated addition to their local landscape.
It wasn't long, however, before the 33-year-old Volvo began working its wiles. A consultant by trade, Cordner found himself daydreaming between business projects about the 122's potential as a whacked-out street rod. He bought a set of handsome A.R.E. 20-spoke wheels, size 15x8-inches, front and rear, and had the folks at Toscolito Tire in San Rafael mount them with Goodyear Eagle GTs, measuring 205/60R-15. The new wheels and tires inspired a few random doodles, which soon evolved into blueprints for a total Volvo makeover. Then, Cordner found paint and body guru, Tony Amaral, in Petaloma, Calif., who shared his vision for transforming a down-and-out Volvo into a one-of-a-kind show stopper.
Amaral insisted on starting from scratch. All the 122's mechanical components were removed and set aside for four years while Amaral welded and filled seams, removed all chrome, designed and fashioned a new rear-end treatment and fitted an eye-catching front spoiler. Cordner opted for "Viper Racing blue" paint, to which Amaral added dramatic white Sebring stripes.
With the body looking good, Cordner tapped Carlo Gardin, a former Volvo racer and now owner of CRO Imports in San Rafael, for the mechanicals. Gardin collaborated with Keith Tenny to design and modify a 1974 Volvo B20E engine whose performance would live up to the 122's striking visual standards. Accordingly, CRO and Huffaker Engineering of Sears Point, Calif., bored the 1800cc four-banger out to 2155cc and ported, polished, balanced and blueprinted everything. They installed Mahle pistons, a D-grind "Isky" from Iskenderian Racing Cams and larger competition valves and valve springs. Headers from IPD Volvo Performance were dumped into a Flowmaster muffler, and the electronic ignition system came from Jacobs Engineering.
Gardin and Tenny also adapted Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection for this engine, which means Cordner's Volvo 122 is very likely the only one of its kind in the world. And no wonder, installing fuel injection meant modifying the fuel system, altering the engine compartment and relocating the battery.
After all that, early test runs revealed fuel-slosh problems. The engine stalled during cornering. Adapting a pre-pump system from a Volvo 240 fixed the problem, but only after the fuel tank was modified to accept the new components.
At this point, Cordner and Gardin installed a Volvo 142 four-speed overdrive transmission from 1974. This required judicious cuts and welds to the driveline tunnel in order for the gearbox to fit. Although the front A-arm and rear live-axle suspensions were largely left alone, CRO did install Bilstein shock absorbers at each corner, along with new rear coil springs and heavy-duty anti-roll bars front and back from IPD. As for brakes, the stock master cylinder was retained, but the entire system was replumbed, using braided lines from Aeroquip.
Greving Brothers of San Rafael combed over the 122's interior. They started with black Recaro seats, added black carpet and black and gray door panels. Inset into the "Viper blue" dash was a new instrument cluster, with Autometer gauges and tach. For the car's four-speaker CD sound system, Cordner consulted with Marin Auto Stereo, also of San Rafael.
By Marc Stengel
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