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The time has come for me to start stripping the car in preparation for the bodyshop. I had planned to remove the bulk of the bodykit and trim this end but my dad has made space for me in his garage so i can do a full strip down over the Easter weekend in a dry warm space. I did get a bit eager over the weekend so removed and cleaned up the factory accessories and most of the badges. Big surprise but the car still doesn't fit if i reverse it in.
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Once the car is gone and i've caught up with all my other chores i'm hoping to make a proper start on the garage the car doesn't fit in. Will share some plans soonish but once again i'm stealing ideas from @jambon and managed to pick up these components draws for less than half the RRP.
One way of making this seasons F1 bearable...
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Neighbour has been around a fair bit to watch me break down the car and convince himself to put some love into his T5. He took it into the tuners I recommended and found loads of scope for improvement. When I asked what power they thought was possible on mine they simply shrugged and said it's nice but leave it alone. When he asked the same question he got "400bhp, easily"...
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Managed a few other jobs before delivering the car to the body shop. The brakes were not feeling great so i went for new discs and pads from my bargain spares hoard. The passenger rear disc had uneven wear and on review i discovered one of the aftermarket pads had completely disintegrated. Replacement disc quality is a bit meh but the pads are genuine quality Saab. I'll be doing the front discs and uprated pads, front and rear hoses and maybe the rear calipers (prefer to rebuild original) but the result is already improved braking and less stuff to fall over.
I also picked up Aero spec springs to match the front and replace the HD springs previously fitted. These dropped the rear slightly more than i was expecting but have given it a more planted feel without any loss of comfort. Downside is the car might be slightly nose up now so i may need to think about spacers as i liked the previous stance. Pleased/surprised that the relatively cheap B4's fitted 4-5 years ago still look and feel like new unlike the flaky Spax and Avo fitted to my VW. I may look to fit B6's on the front but the back feels spot on now.
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Am I heretic
No not at all. I've gone back and forth on the bodykit (see here and here) but as highlighted the kit does a great job of protecting the bodywork. I still have the original side trim if this ever becomes a garaged car. No spoiler looks too vintage 99/early 900 IMO and doesn't work as nicely as it does on a 911. I'd also need to weld up the holes and i'm keen to avoid any custom mods to the body.
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Good and bad news from the bodyshop. Now that the outer shell is 99% stripped they can see that the repairs done previously (before we purchased the car) are a bit of a mess. Not a big surprise but they used a fair amount of filler to hide the bent panels and to put it right will take a lot more work than hoped. There's also a few rust areas on wing seam lines that may be indicative of rotting from behind the panels so they'll need to cut into the metal to see what's going on behind. The good news is for the age and considering the repairs, the shell is still very decent and they don't think it'll be difficult work. Luke from TBP spent over an hour on the phone with me yesterday (a car guy being helpful on a Sunday!) to talk me through all the areas he had already sent me pictures of. Understandably he won't put a figure on it but no doubt the cost is going to rise significantly. I had a budget in mind but it looks like i'll be 20/30% over that and without doing some of the other jobs i'd factored into that amount. A bit shit but after talking it over with partner and my dad who may take on some sort of joint ownership down the line i've given them the green light to proceed. Doing the maths the actual bodywork figure is actually looking very close to the insurance payout so i may still end just paying for a top class paint job out of my own pocket which i'm fine with.
Luke has very little interest in social media but he does have a fairly inactive Instagram page he very occasionally updates. Yes that a real 250 GTO.
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Tbh i didn't know they were going to do such a thorough job of stripping the original and non original paint but that's the only way of being sure what's going on underneath. AFAIK i know they won't be stripping inner arches, door pillars, boot and certainly not the engine bay. They'd had it for 3.5 days, no idea if it took the the entire time!
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Previous estimate was originally 2 months but that's going to change now they have the car and have seen what lurks beneath. I'd like to have the car back in London by July but that's probably unrealistic given the work that needs doing once we've collected it from the body shop.
Saying that the bumpers, bodykit and trim will only be getting a quick clean before going back on which should speed things up. I'd like to think everything will get properly restored down the line but no doubt by mid summer i'll be totally skint and want the car back on the road.
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final call on new colour?
I'm sticking with the original blue. The engine bay, inner arches, boot etc are all pretty good so will stay in original paint. I'm confident Luke will do a good job of blending it all in. IME original colour is better for maintaining value. This isn't a standard spec restoration but i'm keeping the original parts should i sell it on and/or return it to factory spec. I also really like it.
I do have some concerns it'll be a little more grey than what i'm used to. The (not great) previous respray definitely had more blue/sparkle in it which looked great in the sun but i'm a stickler for originality so am sure will like it.
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First invoice paid, list of work to date
Strip all body work of existing paint and body filler from previous repair work
Strip to bare metal substrate
Treat bare metal surface with zinc phosphate coating to prevent flash corrosion
Remove additional components such as doors, bonnet etc
Begin removal of nearside rear lower quarter panel due to corrosion
Prepare inner wheel arch for fabrication and welding work
Prepare and test fit/align new panel
Cleco new panel in preparation for welding work
Template areas as discussed for welding repairs
Prepare inside of door shut areas and backs of panels to appropriate finishing edge In preparation for epoxy primer stages
Finesse body work to all previous body work repairs to offside rear quarter panel ,offside lower door
Shallow dents on the existing body work -
"Hello Saab specialist/breakers, i'm looking for a late model rust free tail gate for a classic 900"
"A what?"
"A rust free tailgate. For a late model 900. A Saab 900"
"what year?"
"93, late model, all late model tailgates are the same"
"Yeah should have one"
"Ok... Can you confirm?"
"Yeah we got one"
"Er ok, can i have some picture please?"
"don't know where it is"
"i'd like to see the condition before travelling 2 hours with a trailer"
"It's a good one, do you want it or not?"
Fuck you old generation broken Britain useless car twats.
jambon
Rodolfo
nick_h.
hugo7
t.o.
russmeyer
jonny
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Project roll neck, Saab 900 turbo and the garage it doesn't fit in
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You might of had the desirable type 8 primary gears which gave better spacing and taller 5th gear. I'm not really fussed about more power but would love them for more relaxed motorwaying.
Depending on your tyres and driving style you can easily get torque steer with standard power when the boost kicks in. Getting more power is not that hard but transferring it through a delicate gearbox is another matter.