It was suggested that I spray the painted lamp clusters with a clear high gloss enamel to protect them. I also sealed the lamp lenses where they had cracked with an epoxy. I cleaned up the rubber with mineral spirits and then treated them with “Black Again” which made them look and feel good as new. I’ll replace the cage nuts with stainless steel ones and I’ve done that with the screws as well. Lets see how they hold up.
October 2, 2011
Rear seat is finished
I picked up the rear seat today. The driver and passenger seat are still getting finished up with new seat and back trampolines. I think they really turned out great. The trunk fabric on the back of the back seat is what is going to be used on the floor panels and side panels of the trunk. There are a few ‘manila brown’ pieces which I plan to paint with a good enamel and cure in a low temp drying oven. The two side panels that fit over the wheel arches in the back seat area are getting painted at the body shop with a very durable paint.
September 22, 2011
Possible culprit for engine ‘rattle noise’
When the car was in one piece, I would hear a loud rattle coming out the engine compartment while driving at highway speed. It didn’t sound like it was coming from the engine itself, but I wasn’t sure where it was coming from. Today I removed the radiator hanger/hood latch to get it painted and noticed that the upper left bracket of the radiator had broken off. I removed the radiator and also found that the right lower bracket had also broken. That means that the radiator was only being held in place by the overfill hose and the left lower bracket. I’m going to guess that this damaged occurred in the accident.
Fortunately there is a radiator shop next to the body shop, so I walked it over. The shop said that the breaks were clean enough that everything could be prepped (sandblasted and tinned) and welded back on. I was also told that this is a common occurrence with SAAB 99s and 900s.
The radiator and assembly is going to be painted black. The hoses are in good shape, but I’m going to replace the temperature sensor fan switch and the thermostat with lower threshold ones to improve cooling.
September 19, 2011
Experiment in refinishing turn signal reflectors
Before I found the old new stock turn signal, I got a pair of front turn signals that were complete, but were pretty weathered. I started searching on how to refurbish the reflective surface of the light cluster and found a couple of options. Unfortunately the only right way to do it is expensive and uses the same method of applying a thin metal film just as it was done during the manufacturing process. Some people suggest “chroming plastic” which is a little cheaper. Others suggest using two coats of Krylon high gloss black plastic paint as a base and then two coats of “brilliant” silver paint. So I tried that, and after letting the clusters air dry, I put them in a low temp drying oven for a few hours.
Before:
After Krylon High Gloss Black for plastic:
After Krylon Brilliant Metallic Silver paint:
I’m concerned at how well it will hold up, but we’ll see. It definitely is reflecting light better.
September 17, 2011
The SAAB 99 Holy Grail .. well, one of them
There is a definite list of Holy Grails for the SAAB 99. The front turn signals probably aren’t that rare for the 1977-1984 models since they’re newer and they were made for 7 years, but they seem impossible to find. I was piecing together a set when I came across a brand new one .. and just one. Both the left and right on the car were destroyed by the accident and weathering. What was left of them crumbled to the touch.
I probably will save the new one pictured above until I find another and for now make a pair out of these below. The clear lenses are from the earlier years, the later were European spec and later US models. One reason why these may be so rare is that they have issues with weatherproofing which causes moisture to get trapped. The build up of moisture, moss/mold can destroy the reflective mirroring enamel and ultimately make the plastic brittle. If you ever crack your lenses its important to take care of it as soon a possible. I’ve been researching how to restore them, its a common problem but its very expensive to get the mirroring restored.
It’s best not to obsess over this though.
September 15, 2011
Seats are nearly done
Here is a start at the interior. Once the painting is done, I’ll get it finished up, but I wanted to at least get the seats redone first.
You remember this one:
I wanted to the new seats to be similar to the old sporty Sonnett buckets which looked like this:
This is how they turned out:
August 11, 2011
ready for more body work
After getting blasted, it was important to get it down to the paint shop so it could be primed.
freshly blasted
The blasting revealed the extent of the rust damage. Fortunately for the areas of concern it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. We did find new areas from a previous repair job on the left rear quarter and left rear door along with evidence of bondo. All the bondo was removed and any rust damage to the bottom of the doors will be patched with fiberglas.
August 2, 2011
July 31, 2011
to the media blaster on Monday
This is about as stripped as she is going to get before the media blaster does the rest. I am not pulling the engine or getting the interior blasted except for the exposed wings and door jambs where there are rust issues.
Tow truck arrives @ 11am Monday
