May 24, 2012

Repairing broken switches

The headlamp and fan switch are notorious for breaking. This is due to a few of reasons: 1. They’re the most used, 2. The grease used in the switch hardens over time, 3. There are four retaining tabs that become brittle and break. Usually what happens is the switch gets difficult to operate and when forced it breaks its tabs on one side and pops open. They can also break when disconnecting the switch from the wiring harness.

Even if you find an intact switch, it may be too difficult to operate and would probably break eventually.

This fix is a little messy and somewhat permanent, but it got my switches working again.

First, take the switch completely apart noting the orientation. There are two flat springs that hold the switch in the control panel, be sure to look for those if they’re still not on the switch. If the switch is still intact on one side, carefully pry it open. Use grain alcohol to clean out the old sticky grease. A q-tip may work, but you might need something a little more aggressive. Burnish the contacts and the spring loaded contact plate with high grit sandpaper if there is any oxidation. Put a light coat of lithium grease on and around the contact plate and inside of the switch with a q-tip. Also put a little lithium grease on the back of the rocker switch. A little will do a lot. Use a couple of small cable ties to get the switch back together noting its orientation. Test out the terminals for continuity with the switch positions. Operating the switch should be much easier now.

Using JB weld or similar resin/hardener apply to the tab areas and smooth while the switch is held together with the cable ties. If the retainers for the flat springs have broken, apply a little there too. Keep in mind that its going to need to still fit through the rectangular hole in the control panel as well as into the wiring harness. JB weld sets up in a few hours, but you should not operate or install the switch for at least 24 hours to allow it to cure.

May 22, 2012

SAABs and minis dating

Dating saabs probably isn’t has hard as dating minis. Some late model minis were imported as older model years illegally to get around licensing and DOT restrictions. One way you might be able to tell what year mini you have is to look at the back of the Lucas wiper motor. Interestingly, SAAB 99s use a similar Lucas setup. My SAAB was built in the fall of 1976 as a model year 1977 and the Lucas wiper motor shows a 1976 build as well.

(after much cleaning .. too bad its crammed up in the cowling)

primer and sealer done

After priming, more sanding and sealer. Years of dings, dents and rust damage are gone.

May 16, 2012

hood and rear doors primed

The rear doors and hood have been corrected and primed. 3M Dyna-Glass fiberglass filler was used and sanded to smooth out the door skins and to repair areas where rust damage left holes after the media blasting. The majority of serious rust was in the lower portion of the doors where rain water tends to collect and stand. The LR door had the most damage as it was pushed in from a highway side collision, but you would never know it. The hood had some damage as well, but it was minor. There were also a number of little dents (probably from years or rocks hitting the hood) that were addressed.

May 1, 2012

The rusty exhaust header

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.

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:




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