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A deer decided to have a close look at my grill while the car was doing 50 mph. Front nose piece, grill are unrecognizable. Hood is origami.
Maybe I'm lucky. It must have jumped high enough to clear the bumper but not high enough to slide up into the windshield. I may give up on using these beautiful cars as daily drivers though. This is the second one damaged without any fault of the driver. My 544 was totalled by a drunk last year.
We are going to price up having it fixed but if anyone wants to make an offer to buy it as is, then now is as good a time as there ever will be. Other than the front damage the car is very original, complete and solid.
Drive careful!
Joe M in WV
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Hi Joe
I am amazed that there was not more damage - must be that superb Swedish steel.
I remember about 30 years ago a mate of mine was driving a 61 122S in the middle of Australia and hit a large 7' kangaroo at 60 - 70mph. It caused similar damage to yours but bounced off the front and hit the side pillar and pasenger side part of the windscreen. He was towed to a garage and did a patchup job on the radiator
and panelbeating and kept on driving until he got back to Brisbane 1500kms later. He said if he had of been in any other car his wife who was in the pasenger seat at the time would have been seriously injured or dead.
Get that beast back on the road.
Cheers
Bilo 123GT
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Karl came by today with a good radiator. We pulled the nose out with Karl's 122 and got the hood opened. The engine ran fine with the replacement radiator.
Karl has a spare hood and nose piece. I'll write offline about the kind offers for grill pieces. Please let me know if anyone can source headlight trim rings.
Joe M in WV
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Where you at? The car shows a '63 issue California tag (hang on to that one!).
I can contribute on of the 1967 type grill inserts (just like the ones in the picture). Don't know which side it is, I'll have to go down into Volhalla.
You can have it for the postage costs, just so I can know that I helped keep an Amazon on the road!!
Remember, there's restorations, and there's resurrections. The former involves lots of dedication and hard work, the latter includes some divine intervention!!
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George Downs is sending grill inserts but thank you very much for the offer. My regular source for parts is out of town until next week. Until then I'm still in the market for a good pair of outer headlight trim rings. They can be had new for less than $100 a pair but it would be nice to keep costs down to pay for the body and paint work.
Funny you should mention the tag. I keep "forgetting" to take it off and none of the highway patrol ever minded, even while writing a ticket.
This Amazon isn't used for a show car. It was just loved for all of its life and the entropy gods didn't seem to take note of its age - until a couple of days ago. Hopefully fate will be forgiving for another 40 years. The car always seems to be fine until I go and "upgrade" something. The last major ordeal occured after installing steel timing gears . . .
Joe M in WV
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That's nasty, but overall it doesn't look too bad. I would say that you are very lucky! Your fenders look great and you bumper looks unscathed. So, get a new hood, nose, grills, and a few pieces of chrome (trim rings, hood, letters if you need them) and you are set.
I have a line on a nose piece that will could help you. I've got a single bid on it. If you need it, I won't bid again on it.
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Yes, in a twisted sort of way I was very fortunate that things weren't worse. There was only a small amount of blood on the nose piece so perhaps the deer didn't suffer more than some really sore ribs. I *thought* I heard a small voice saying they had seen linebackers hit harder . . .
We are hoping that the car will be fixed within a couple of weeks and back to rolling on the roads the way it was meant to.
Thanks much for the heads up on the nose piece. Karl is pretty sure he has what I need at his place. I'm going to stop by (like a vulture) tomorrow and see what can be picked.
Joe M in WV
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VP-Autoparts will very likely have headlight trim rings -- I got a new set from them a few years ago from Sweden, back before they had a S. Carolina office.
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Joe;
My condolences...for a second time...man you've got some rotten luck with your swedes...but it really does "only" look like sheetmetal damage...repair and repaint! Maybe you should take up hunting those roadpests...we've got too many of them in northwest CT too...and consider adding some "roobars" to the repaired car...
Holiday Greetings
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I can probably cough up a pair of fairly good grilles. Let me know if you
need them.
--
George Downs Bartlesville, Heart of the USA!
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Oh man... my heart would break if my 67 wagon were totally like that... If I can provide anything for the resurrection, please let me know. I have a ton of mechanical parts around, but no bodywork...
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Thanks for the kind offer. Karl is going to stop by tomorrow. We will try to make a list of parts needed to put humpty dumpty together again.
Karl has a hood, nose piece and radiator. :-)
Joe M in WV
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I have some useable but not NOS grills...LOL
Karl
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66' 122 2-door, 66' 122 4-door, 67' 122 wagon, 78' 244 sedan, 88' 240 wagon, 91' 240 wagon
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I am so sorry to read about your accident. I am glad you are all right physically.
Did you cry? I may have.
In any case, I have some pieces for the old style grills, if that might do you any good.
Matthew
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NNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!
Are you okay Joe??????
I will donate a hood to the reconstruction if you
promise not to sell!
I may have a nose piece as well!!!
Gonna give you a call now bro.
Karl
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66' 122 2-door, 66' 122 4-door, 67' 122 wagon, 78' 244 sedan, 88' 240 wagon, 91' 240 wagon
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Joe,
Very sorry to read that. The thing with the 544 was hard enough... But it's unlikely that anyone here is about to let you stop driving that 2dr.
I'm on the wrong side of the continent, but the guy who got my 122 isn't interested in keeping it long-term. Good straight body and the right color... just an idea. How's the frame?
On one side of the argument there's preservation of orginal machines, and on
MY side of the argument is enjoying these cars to the fullest. If your period of enthusiasm is to occur within the scope of their lifespan, so be it.
It's hard to dispute that it's admirable and I'm sure many of us were envious at that being your daily driver. half the cars we talk about hardly ever get out of the driveway for one reason or another. Mine mostly get moved by hand & foot for parking tickets.
So... ready to try a 140? The braking experience between a 122 & a 142 is night and day.
Best, -Sean
--
'66 122s, '70 142s, '74 142e... Blue is beautiful.
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Steering and braking seemed fine after hitting the deer. The impact point appears to be above the bumper just off center (passenger side) of the nose piece.
The good part about driving a classic car every day is there is no choice but to keep up with maintenance. The bad part about driving the car every day is there is no choice but to keep up with maintenance. :-) Tinkering is fulfilling but sometimes becomes a bit much when other life issues need attention.
Neither 544 or 122 ever left me stranded over 45K miles or so of cummuting. Hopefully, with a little help from friends, the car will be repaired and roll again.
As my better half pointed out to me, something like this could have happened no matter what kind of car was being driven. This was my first significant accident in 34 years of driving. Judy was innocently sitting at a traffic light when the 544 was rear ended. In both accidents, no passengers inside the Volvos were injured.
If anything prevents the 122 from getting back on the road, the next commuter will likely be a late '80's BMW. Both the M30 and M20 inline six engines are fairly easy to maintain, get 25+ mpg and have plenty of torque. The cars handle exceptionally well and now sell for similar prices to decent roundfender Volvos.
Joe M in WV
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Joe,
Very true, could have happened to anyone in any other car where you live. I do see that in junkyards the Volvos there have hoplessly devestating body damage to one section of the car, but you can open some doors and most of the mechanicals are still good to go. And there are FAR fewer volvos; on par with Peugeots. All the Volskwagens, nissans and hondas and Toyotas there just look like they ran out of steam. At least you won't have too much diffuculty finding metal replacement parts, but that original paint is sadly a thing of the past...
You'll be happy proably with a bimmer for a while. A girlfreind was in to 2002s, they remind me of 142s in some ways.
Cheers, -Sean
--
'66 122s, '70 142s, '74 142e... Blue is beautiful.
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