Lots of people and some great cars! Met a 1978 99GLE with just about every option possible. Thanks ScanWest!
August 24, 2013
June 9, 2013
April 30, 2013
dash pad, upper dash and heater controls installed
Installed the dash pad, heater controls, cluster pad, tidy box and glove box. The heater controls must be installed first, followed by the tidy box. You can then install the two A pillar covers and then the glove box and cluster pad. On the heater controls, the heater valve is typically broken. On my controls both the heater and vent control posts were broken. The cables were disconnected and are normally held in with friction clips. However, the clip mounts were broken. What I did was clean up the ends of the cables (both ends) using an emery cloth and then lubricate them. I then tapped two coarse thread screws with washers to hold the cables in place. This worked surprisingly very well. I was able to use one screw/washer with the heater control and the defrost control. I used two control boxes to make one good unit. They are glued shut, so with some care you can pry one open to get at the gears. Plastic on plastic is bound to bind. I used lithium grease for both the cables and control box gears.
September 8, 2012
upp och gå!
I finished up the basic wiring, replacing a few of the crimp on connectors and started up the motor. There was still water in the block, but I needed to add coolant for the radiator and heater. There is a bleed nipple near the heater valve which I ran a hose from to the coolant jug. I ran the car for about 30 minutes to let the thermostat open to cycle the water and force the air out. It took just over one jug of new coolant. The system was flushed April before last when the water pump was rebuilt. The new fan switch and the serviced fan worked great. I had installed a switch that operates at 92C and thermostat which operates at 88C. There are ones that operate at cooler temps, but after I had the header core rebuilt and removed the intake bellows ‘anti-freeze’ collar (which was 100% blocked anyway!) along with the flushed radiator, things should be running cooler. At idle temperature the fan would kick in for 25-30 seconds every couple of minutes, which seems very good.
I still need to get the EGR Proportional completely hooked up, but after that I can finish up with the engine and put the lights in place.
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)
January 18, 2012
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.
October 5, 2011
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.
June 26, 2011
WagonBack vs. CombiCoupé
These vent louvers were a neat and unintentional find. I’d never seen these before, but I believe they were only on the US marketed hatchback 99s between 1974 – 1976. However, it seems that the WagonBack 99 didn’t debut in the US until 1976 [1]. Björn Envall is credited for coining the term CombiCoupé and most likely WagonBack as well. It’s not clear if these vent louvers were on any other model year, but I’ll put them on the car when its ready for them.
