Update - things everyone restoring a 122 should know.
The front turn signals are a PITA to put in to the car. I thought they would be easy as the old ones just pop in and out without trouble. When I assembled the car in haste in 2009, I bought all new turn signal parts (buckets, lenses, and stainless trim). They never fit properly. So while I was thinking about how to do other things, I decided to get these parts to work properly.
First up - the stainless trim. These cars mostly have cast trim that seems to fit and work wonderfully but is difficult to rechrome (not to mention expensive) and Volvo offers (through the usual suspects) a stainless steel replacement. While not cheap either, they should be for life.
I found that they don't fit the body very well. I spent some considerable time convincing them to behave by rolling them over a 2 X 4 until they tightly fit the lens. I didn't take photo's - sorry, but you just roll the flat over the wood carefully and apply pressure to make the bend properly. It took about 1/2 hour per side but without this step, the rest is hopeless, so fit them first. One side even needed to be massaged to fit the fender (it needed to be opened up to fit the contour) - again, there is no short cut, just roll them out.
If they don't fit without the rubber, they won't fit with the rubber.
Next step was to fit the lens to the body. These are Hella lenses and are two piece and break very easily. I found that both of mine needed to have a little lip sanded off the park light side at the join. They should fit the panel without any stress or strain. I also had to open up one of the screw holes to match the trim (we've all seen the cracks that develop at the screws, now you know why).
Here it is finished.
Next was working out how the factory did this install, there is no way to leave the wiring harness in place and just change the rubber part. the easiest method (so the way it must have been done) is to release the turn and park light wires from the main harness (push back the locking tabs, push out the wires) and thread the harness back out the hole.
Once on the bench, assemble all the parts (wiring, bucket, lens, trim) and make sure they fit.
The wiring harness is passed through the boot like so with a little help from Vaseline.
The taper on the harness opens up the hole and then locks the boot to the harness. There is no way to do this the other way - you'll probably rip the rubber boot if you try. I have disconnected the turn signal bulb holder assembly for this shot, but it could be done with it connected.
There, installed - this is how you present the part to the car. Just thread the wiring harness back through the various grommets and along the rad support and insert the connectors (bend the locking tabs back out) and you're almost done.
The connection between the rubber boot and the wiring harness gets a big gob of butyl caulking if you're into that sort of thing. I left mine without as these are all coming off later, so there's no point in making a mess.
Putting the trim on is a bit of a pain, first give the boot a little lube (I used WD-40 because it's what I had handy) and get a bone tool. Then put the trim on the lens and start the screws. As you tighten, work the lip around the trim going from the bottom to the sides then the top. The better the stainless fit, the easier this process is - if you thought the stainless was "good enough", you're probably doing the shaping step again.
When done, it looks like this.
No bad cracking noises or swearing involved. Just a lot of careful fitting.
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