Bel Air

Volvo Amazon Abandoned In The Woods 30 Years Ago Roars Back To Life

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Introduced in 1956 as a large family car, the Volvo Amazon remained in production for a whopping 14 years. Volvo offered three different body styles and sold more than 660,000 units until the nameplate was phased out in 1970.

Although it’s not the company’s most iconic model, the Amazon has an important benchmark to brag about. It became the world’s first car with front seat belts as standard equipment in 1959. A few years later, it became the first car to feature three-point seat belts as standard.

Unlike its predecessor, the PV series, the Amazon was notably more popular outside Sweden. Volvo outsourced production in Belgium, Canada, South Africa, and Chile and introduced the car in the US in 1959. Of the 667,791 examples built, about 60% went to export markets.

Why am I talking about a Swedish automobile that went out of production over 50 years ago? Well, for starters, I like the Amazon’s styling. I think it’s pretty classic that looks good in any body style. Second, YouTube’s “Hampus Granstrom” just rescued an Amazon that had been sitting in the woods for some 30 years, and that’s something you don’t see every day.

Found somewhere in Northern Sweden, this once-gorgeous two-door sedan (also known as the 130 Series) spent a whopping three decades under full exposure to the elements. And as you might have already guessed, it’s plagued by all sorts of issues, including rust holes, worn-out paint, mold, and an old engine in need of attention. But the car doesn’t look all that bad, given the amount of time it spent outside.

The body is still in one piece, and the interior appears to be complete at first glance. It’s one of those cars you could restore without spending a fortune on parts. There’s good news under the hood as well, with the original engine still in place.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Amazon, it was powered exclusively by inline-four engines. The Amazon debuted with a 1.6-liter four-banger rated at 60 horsepower in 1956, but Volvo added a twin-carb version with 85 horses in 1958. In 1961, the original 1.6-liter was replaced by a 1.8-liter lump good for 75 horsepower in base form and 90 horses with the twin-carb layout.

The output of the latter increased to 95 horsepower in 1966, 100 horses in 1967, and 115 horsepower in 1968. Finally, Volvo added a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with 90 and 118 horsepower for the two-door sedan model in 1968. Transmission choices included various three- and four-speed manuals and a three-speed Borg-Warner automatic.

It’s unclear which model year this white Amazon is, but based on the larger front grille, it’s most likely a late 1969 or 1970 version. The engine appears to be the 1.8-liter (B18D), 75-horsepower mill Volvo offered in the entry-level two-door Amazon from 1965 to 1970.

But whatever version it is, this mill is one tough cookie. Even though it sat for 30 years without a sip of gasoline, the four-pot roared back to life with an oil change, a new battery, and essential maintenance. Moreover, our host was able to get the Volvo driving and took it back to his shop. Will this Amazon enjoy a total restoration? That’s a piece of info I don’t have. But until I do, watch it coming out of the woods in the video below.

1954 Packard Patrician Hearse Parked For Decades Is Rarer Than Hen’S Teeth

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When talking about classic cars, hearses aren’t the first type of vehicles that come to mind. Yet these professional haulers are usually rarer and more valuable than their regular-production counterparts. This 1954 Packard Patrician, for instance, is a funeral car most of us won’t see in the metal. Because it’s one of the rarest Packards out there.

Famous for its luxurious and comfortable cars, Packard did not make its own professional vehicles. However, the Detroit-based carmaker produced commercial chassis for coachbuilders to add specific bodies. Henney was one of the companies that built professional vehicles at the time.

Like most coachbuilding firms that ventured into the automotive realm, Henney started out by making carriages in the 1800s. The company joined the professional car business in the early 1900s and became an important name in the funeral car trade by the 1920s. Henney began using Packard chassis in 1937, two years before it became America’s largest manufacturer of hearses and ambulances, with more than 1,200 units per year.

Henney remained faithful to Packard commercial chassis for as long as they were available. The latter discontinued the long-wheelbase chassis in 1954. In addition to funeral cars and ambulances, Henney also experimented with station wagons and limousines based on the commercial chassis. The collaboration also spawned the Pan-American concept car displayed a the 1952 New York Auto Show.

Henney stopped making professional cars around the same time Packard merged with Studebaker in 1954, so this Patrician based hears is among the last vehicles that rolled off the company’s assembly line. At the time, production had dropped to a few hundred automobiles per year (and not only Packards).

This hearse surfaced in Palos Heights, Illinois, and it’s most likely one of only a handful of survivors from this specific model year. Moreover, that thick layer of dust hides a surprisingly nice body with no visible rust. And that’s a rare feat for a classic hearse since many of them were scrapped or left to rot away in junkyards once decommissioned.

This one had a more fortunate fate. Even though it’s been sitting for decades and the engine hasn’t been started for 15 years (as of 2023), the hearse was stored in a garage. So why is the current owner parting ways with such a nice classic funeral car? Well, he claims he has too many projects on his hands, and the Packard has to go.

He wants $14,995 for it, which isn’t a lot for such a nice survivor, but he’s also entertaining a trade with a Mercedes Sprinter cargo van. The funeral car is listed on Facebook Marketplace.

As a brief reminder, the Packard Patrician was introduced in 1951 as a replacement for the Super Eight. It was the last of the “senior Packards” and remained in production until 1956. The full-size was offered with a couple of straight-eight engines until Packard introduced its first V8 in 1955. This hearse packs a 359-cubic-inch (5.9-liter) inline-eight rated at 212 horsepower when new.