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Sort of update time. Some of you may have witnessed me having a wobble about keeping the car in the main car thread. Long story short my back has been fucked and i really wanted to drive more than i ever normally would. Good news is my back is easing off and my ULEZ bill since it started up is under £40 (think i either dodged cameras or there's a few trips yet to come through). For now at least i'm committed to keeping the car.
Not so great news is the car not being used regularly in this poor weather hasn't been good for it. After over a month of not driving i found an inch of water sat on the rear footwell matt from a blocked sunroof drain and once i got moving discovered a binding handbrake caliper. The latter was a fairly easy fix (couple hard yanks on the handbrake at 30 miles an hour) but clearing the water wasn't a fun job. On top of a damp interior and clunky brakes i'd also forgotten to put any air in the tyres and a bit of corrosion on the drivers front alloy left me with less than 20psi in there. Dealing with stuff like this each time i want to use the car isn't going to be fun so after a bit of research i put together a hibernation pack that i should have invested in a while back. I've gone for a cap over a full cover for less faff and i also don't like the attention full covers seem to draw. I've also gone for a couple reusable dehumidifiers for the interior (now that it's dry) and best of all got a fancy auto pump half price. Although it's slow af and noisy it's gonna be pretty handy if i want to do any long haul trips after the cars been sat for a while.
So that should be the end of the update as the car will be mostly hidden away until i can get it to my dad for mechanical work however floodgate has opened a new can of worms. Fortunately no damage was done but pulling out the rear seat, and carpets, and trim (...) highlighted several things.
- Years of half arsed cleaning has let grime build up, let stuff fade and in the worst cases resulted in peeling, cracking etc.
- Pulling this car apart (and putting it back together) is actually very easy. Now that i have a half decent selection of tools i can get most bits off with little stress (ignoring the relentless speeding on my road).
- Not much if anything is past saving. After some elbow grease i was pretty chuffed to see how well stuff started to clean up.
- Now that i'm having a break from bike projects it's given me back some space in my life and in the garage to do little mini projects. Not a great time of year to be starting on this but once whatever i choose to clean up is off and in the garage it's so far been quite enjoyable doing little jobs in there.
I'm looking forward to trying the glass and plastic polishing kits, first job will be to restore the sunroof deflector as it'll need to come off to unblock the drains properly!
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- Years of half arsed cleaning has let grime build up, let stuff fade and in the worst cases resulted in peeling, cracking etc.
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Lovely job all around! Shame about those inconveniences, but this kind of stuff happens regularly on almost any car of any age (my mother's 2007 Mercedes B class got the spare wheel boot completely flooded for a similar reason).
I'm sure you're gonna find a lot of satisfaction with all these little tasks, anticipating something that would eventually be done anyway.
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Yeti cool box is borderline golf club thread!
Yeah it's pretty lifestyle dickhead isn't it. We rarely holiday abroad and i wanted something nicer for our road trip than our old Argos bag, does do a good job tbf.
Parked outside and driven all year round. When you safe do you mean exposure to the elements or likelihood of getting nicked? No idea on the latter, we live opposite a school so it's well covered by cameras, more common issues are kids thumping it with footballs or parents sitting on it. The weather has accelerated the deteriorating paint for sure but has (AFAIK) had little impact on rust as these are pretty thick gauge steel and were protected well out the factory. If i get it painted i'll start applying protective wax much more regularly. £15 cap up page adds a little weather protection from the current horizontal rain but other than a blocked sunroof drain that caused a leak and longer than a modern car demisting i wouldn't say water ingress is an issue. Cross Climate tyres were a pretty good investment, not had any issues in the wet. Battery does drain down in the cold when not being used regularly and will be something i need to address but i suspect the original alternator could do with a refurb.
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New year updates...
Smaller stuff first. Although the car had very little use over the last few months it breezed a 300-mile round trip to the southwest over the holidays. The winter pack actually made quite a difference in keeping it clean and dry and ready to roll. I wanted a relatively car free break but had planned to get the car in the air and inspect the wheel arches and floor plan. Much to my relief it was all looking solid and tidy underneath but i did discover a split CV boot that was spraying grease everywhere. Thankfully we had a spare CV assembly with an original boot in good condition and better still i had the time to learn how to do the swap myself with my dad pointing/swearing/kicking me through the process.
The other job i had planned was to take stock of all the spares and service parts me and my dad have amassed over the years that had been slowly taking over his garage and shed. Given that parts are getting harder to find and more expensive having a clear out is a slightly risky move especially when you consider the convenience of the CV replacement. But the reality is the clutter is stressful for both of us and can often make working on the car unpleasant. The other factor is that my dad is thinking of moving on his convertible so the need to keep spares much reduced. TBH i didn't get that far into the void but what we did agree was that any spares that were better than the current parts on the car should be swapped and whatever that was left over could be moved on with the exception of any smaller rare/hard to find bits. As a starter for 10 i've just swapped my worn/faded indicator and wiper stalks with much fresher looking units that actually remain in place when going over bumps. Next job will be to go through all the interior switches, bodykit and trim spares and replace them with the best we have. All easy and very satisfying jobs.
I also have a big pile of new bits to fit so i plan to do these over two consecutive weekends soon. From memory this includes:
Rear calipers with new genuine Saab pads and brake hoses
OEM spec rear discs
Rear wheel bearings
New factory Aero spec springs
Mintex performance pads for the front
Fuel & oil filters (air and cabin filters already done)
Timing chain and some valvetrain partsI don't doubt that selling stuff will likely be a bit of faff that i could do without, but the reality will hopefully be a much clearer workspace and less tasks bouncing around in my head.
Initially thoughts of doing the above were brought on by the likelihood of selling the car in the near future but the more exciting news is that i've finally committed to doing the body/paint and have just put down a deposit for a slot at the bodyshop in late spring. I'm slowly hatching a build plan in my head and will follow up when i have a better idea of how i'm going to manage this!
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I envy the fact that you have such a quirky and cult-worthy car as a daily driver to work on and to share it with us.
This post was made by the 4th hand grey cheap estate car owner gang
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I wanted to see if it was going to be possible/useful to be able to get the nose or the tail of the car into the garage to work on it without too much effort. Normally there's a big storage box blocking the door so i put castors on it to roll it out the way. Not going to say it was entirely unsuccessful but it's still pretty cramped in there and yes that's some gate post paint on the nearside of the bumper. Thankfully scrubbed off/matches the other side scuffs. Picture does highlight the fact that i've reinstalled the headlight wipers which i assume are fairly useless unless it's snowing so these might come back off in line with my current build plan ideas.
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Build plans.
Trying to keep this as simple as possible, step 1 will be to do the jobs outlined above and step 2 will be to strip the car and deliver it to the body shop. The next step to decide will be what look am i going for and how much work am i willing to do when i rebuild the car?
For a while this was a rat-look project and dressing the car with body-kit, badges and accessories was good way of distracting from the condition of the paint and trim. I had toyed with the idea of an "Outlaw" 900 once it was painted but having attended a few Porsche/Alfa/Cafe Racer events i'm fairly confident it's not for me.
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Next thought was to go the opposite direction and go the "Sleeper" route. The Ruby (the ruby one...) was the final special edition 900 and was full Carlsson spec underneath but came in the more subtle/minimal non aero trim like mine did originally. It also had the best interior which i currently have although mine needs surgery. I have all the original trim to revert mine to either option below but after going back and forth i've decided to keep the body-kit. It was an original factory option for my car so is not "incorrect" but more importantly offers a decent amount of protection for the body-work and ties in with the look i'm going for.
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Which brings me to my current choice, a 1990 900SPG (special performance group) replica, albeit a blue one which was never offered with a Ruby interior. To be honest 900 turbo's all look pretty much the same and the differences between models are minimal but the SPG was unusual in that it stripped away trim. I want this car to be as easy as possible to live with and it's notable how much crap builds up in and around the trim and accessories especially when you drive and clean the car as little as me. By deleting unnecessary trim and accessories i'm hoping it'll be that much easier to look after and will be less things to clean up and maintain. The SPG did feature fog lights which are the one accessory i've wanted to play with given that i work in lighting. The brochure shows it with the very cool diamond cut 9000 16" tri spokes but it was sold with the same alloys as mine that will be staying.
Not very exciting and i'm already imagining the Pam Beesly meme in my head but for a slight twist i'm hoping to pass this off as original paint by being mindful of what i do with the trim. A problem with resprays is everything else then looks shit and you can be left with a mountain of jobs to do to get them up to standard. You then risk ending up with a car that a bit precious which is something i'm keen to avoid for my main/only car that gets locked outside. This black 900 SPG is close to perfection for me and has given me plenty to go on when i clean up the trim.
TLDR, after the car is painted none of the trim will be fully restored and some of it won't find it's way back onto the car.
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What a great picture, i should dig out some from our camping trips to France in the 80's. The rarer 2 door turbo was pretty sort after for it's better handling thanks to the stiffer shell. Don't see many around these days.
Very little happening at the moment thanks to weather and man cold so keeping myself motivated by searching out missing trim bits which is harder than expected. Didn't realise before but this years going to be the 40th anniversary of the 900 turbo so hoping for some cool events later in the year after it's been painted.
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better handling thanks to the stiffer shell
The previous owner was some sort of racing driver and he chose the 2 door for that reason. It had Koni springs and 205 tyres. It would always sit completely flat, whatever the corner and the speed. It never came unstuck, even under the worst provocation. I wish I still had it but it was expensive to run, even with a Saab extended warranty (which required the dealers to pretend the car was unmodified). 17 mpg sometimes. Gearbox life 18 months. And much too fast for the road. So I had to sell it. In the mid range the speedo needle would climb so fast...it was hard to believe it, so you just had to do it again...
If I won the lottery I'd get another one and go much further with the mods.
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Would love one but i'm not sure i would cope with the maintenance
Very fortunate my dad gave it a good going over when he first brought it home but there's been very little go wrong over 10 years of ownership. I'd go as far as saying i neglected it for several years as it just kept going. More recently there's been a few things wear out (normal consumables, blowing exhaust, stuck window motor etc) and with very little car mechanical knowledge i've been able to keep on top of things. A little ironically the lack of use is probably the biggest threat to it running well.
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Here's a tuned one for sale. £70k spent at Abbott Racing. Asking price is 30k. I can't imagine many people wanting to take it on. I would, but I'm poor. https://www.carandclassic.com/l/C1666348
230 bhp allegedly. Is it just me, or is there a horribly big tyre gap? Maybe because of low profile tyres? It's been lowered half an inch. Needs to go down another inch. Or have tyres with the correct sidewall height.
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Probably looks better IRL but yeah, weird stance and some awkward gaps all round. I had a Platana grey T16s and it's a nice colour but clear/smoked indicators look rubbish on it (and in general). Rims are 16x6.5" so they may have had to go low profile if they've gone 205 or wider as these rub at the back. Be interesting to know how much protection the LSD gives the gearbox or improves grip.
£70K spent and they've used £10 self adhesive bumper strip inserts that are are flaking away is a warning sign. My budget is approximately 10% of that which is still a lot of dough but hoping i can at least sell it for the price of the work further down the line.
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And the bumpers and bonnet aren't straight. And the poxy Abbott badge is under the lacquer, with no Saab badging at all.
I had 205s with lowered springs and no rubbing anywhere. But the mods were done by the previous owner and I was blissfully unaware of the details. I never even knew the power output. Didn't put it on the dyno. But the speedo needle went off the end of the gauge. It looked to be at 150. Good times.
What are the limits for putting extra power through the FWD? Do you get torque steer at some point? I never did.
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Project roll neck, Saab 900 turbo and the garage it doesn't fit in
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What’s the name of the body shop? Sounds like a great place.