I’ve been working on the engine bay and decided to go ahead and paint the rusty exhaust headers. I chose to use brush on POR-20 which is a high temperature version of the famous POR-15 rust bond/inhibitor. It supposed to hold up very well.
May 1, 2012
April 13, 2012
1 year since the restoration was started
So here we are 1 year after the restoration began. It has been a lot of fun, but there is still quite a bit more work to do. Some parts have been replaced, some parts of been restored through easy cleaning and others through extensive cleaning. Its been a lot of cleaning! And its not just dirt, its been moss and old paint overspray as well. The rubber parts seem to be responding to scotch brite, joy and Black Again.
The rust is all gone and fortunately it doesn’t look like it made its way into any of the hidden areas. The driver’s side door had quite a bit of rust in the ‘rain collector’ but that has all been ground out and patched. It was all mostly surface rust elsewhere. The wheel wells have been power wire brushed out and a new layer of black undercoat has been sprayed in. I have a new set of SPG springs to install and Blistens for the front to replace the (apparently) stock KYBs.
I will be getting the incas sandblasted, corrected and then either powder coated or painted. I plan to put Michelin Hydroedge 195s to replace the current 185s which will match well with the new spring set.
I was hoping to be done by the 21st of this month for the Volvo/SAAB show at the Nordic Heritage Museum, but I’ll have to shoot for the Volvo/SAAB show at the Swedish Cultural Center.
More updates to come .. I’m obviously obsessed with this car.
March 15, 2012
a very rare SAAB 99 item – flag style chrome side mirror
I purchase a pair of standard black painted with chrome base motorized 1978 SAAB 99 side mirrors off of ebay last year with the plans to put them on this car. When I received them, I noticed the paint wasn’t as good as it looked in the auctions so I was prepping them to be painted. When I started removing the paint from the first mirror, I saw a shiny surface beneath. Indeed, it was chromed. I posted on a couple of SAAB forums but no one has ever seen a flag style mirror that was chromed. The other mirror, which apparently came from the same 1978 99, was not chromed. If you know anything about this, please get in touch!
*** UPDATE ***
Apparently all 1978 99 Turbos have black painted chrome mirrors. If you have worn paint on your mirrors, look a little closer, is it shiny underneath or dull gray? If shiny, you might want to try using paint stripper. Do not use bleach or steel wool! Just a sponge or rag with stripper should do it.
March 7, 2012
engine compartment detail
Slowly working through the engine compartment. We’re going to pressure wash the lower portion while we have access, repair the battery tray and spray in rubber paint. The rest will be compound polished or repainted where needed. I’ll try detailing parts of the engine where I can, it won’t be pristine (that would require insanity) but it will be much cleaner. A wire brush and rubber cleaner will probably as far as I go with most parts, though I’d like to sand blast and paint what I can. It probably looks worse than it is due to the sand blasting material sticking to the oil build up on the engine.
We sand blasted and painted the valve cover. Troll Motors did a major valve job on it mid last year, not just adjusting the valves, but replacing shot buckets and shims as well. The old cork gasket was in good shape, but I went ahead and replaced it with a new one and sealant.
The radiator had its mounting brackets repaired and it was pressure tested and painted all at Greenwood Radiator. I replaced the fan switch with a new 82C unit and also replaced the thermostat with an 88C unit as well. The car used to run a little hot and the previous owner had shorted the fan switch so it was always on. I’m hoping that by having the lower threshold on the fan switch and thermostat that it will help with overheating.
February 27, 2012
rebuilding the lower console
I was sorting through the parts boxes and I really have a lot of detail work to get done as re-assembly is going to go pretty quick.
The original lower console from about 1972 on used a paper strip of simulated wood. Unfortunately this paper peels, fades and shows the outlines of some of the optional openings in the lower console.
There are some really great wood laminates available today and I found a roll of 1/32″ (or so) thick REAL walnut which is thick enough to be sanded and finished, but thin
enough that it can be trimmed with a sharp knife or crafting small saw.
I’ve also been going through all the switches and cleaning out the old sticky brown great with fresh lithium grease. That old grease is actually a big problem, especially for the most used switches like the fan and light switch. They get hard to operate and can end up breaking. In fact, this is what happened to the fan switch. The contacts needed to be burnished and it had to be sealed with JB weld as the clips had broken.
more to come from this later …
February 3, 2012
new old stock radio box accessory
I found this via craigslist from a previous 99 owner who bought it from the dealer around 1978 but never installed it. There are a few variations, some including a speaker mount, some including the ash tray. Most folks want the Turbo center console which made its way into the model 900.
In the mid 70s and earlier 99s the radio was mounted in the center of the dash where the REAR DEMIST/Fasten Seat Belts panel is and the speaker was in the dash pad. In fact, you can see after I removed the dash paid there is still a perforation in the sheet metal for adding the dash speaker.
Here is what I had before:
Here is the new setup:
January 18, 2012
December 31, 2011
front seats done
Last update for the year, and quite a bit of work has been done to the car. It’s going slow, but I’m hoping that it will be done by the Spring. I did post pictures of the seats at Mark’s Upholstery, but they were still in progress. Mark asked that I get a rebuild kits so that he could fix both the seats and the backs. Now they really are as good as new. He is also recovering the head rest inserts with the same black vinyl (rather than fabric).
December 2, 2011
body work in progress
Both the left front wing, left rear door and left rear quarter have been straightened as best they can. Now all the detail has been filled with a fiberglass compound and will be sanded and sanded smooth.
October 20, 2011
going a little more classic 99…
I visited a wrecking yard with a few late 60s, early 70s SAAB 99s .. back when the bumpers were chrome and lots of the trim was metal instead of plastic. The cool thing about 99s is a lot of parts are interchangeable throughout the years. I needed a new steering wheel and I ended up with a really nice EMS 3 spoke, but after I saw this steering wheel I sort of thought to go more in the classic direction than the sporty direction.
The wheel itself is hard plastic over a metal ring and in decent shape. There are some old style plastic wheel restoration kits, such as Eastwood’s, which allow you to repair cracks and pits. The horn piece is rubber over metal and the trim pieces are solid aluminum. I used Black Again on the rubber and 300 grit sand paper on the aluminum.
