Project Saab 900 (lost my mojo and now sold).

[Joey spud]

A for sale ad for a Micra caught my sons eye the other day,it had been parked up since 2012 and for some bizarre reason he thought it would be a good project to do over a "couple of week ends" and then move on for

 

To be fair it cost very little and fits in the corner of the drive just fine and it helps mask the fact that the expensive 2pac paint job on my Subaru has also faded somewhat after sitting outside all winter.

 

Considering it's been idle for 4 years it don't look too bad,it doesnt need any obvious welding but the paint is really awful.

So the dead battery was put on charge for three days and it seems to have come back to life.

The fuel gauge was showing half a tank and the oil / water were both present and correct so an attempt was made to start it.

Well being typically japanese it genuinely started first turn of the key and after a couple of mins and a few blips of the throttle it came off its auto choke and sat quietly ticking over.

The clutch is super light and bites half way up the pedal,even the brakes work well albeit dragging slightly.

 

I was well impressed that this near thirty year old Datsun (i call all Nissans Datsuns it's an age thing i guess) was sitting there purring away on stale petrol after four years sitting idle when it promptly stopped dead and refused to fire up again.

 

It had lost its spark and after removing the distibutor for a closer inspection the problem was clear to

 

The springy bit had snapped on the points but i had an new set gathering dust in the back of my work van that fitted a treat and now the 988cc engine runs even sweeter.

 

I can't see my sons optimistic "two week turn around" happening any time soon and selling it on once it's mot'd for a worth while profit seems remote when nice tidy ones are about for £700.

 

But it's seems to be a happy little thing and so deserves getting back on the road again.

[Faker]

K10! Awesomely awesome

[mrbenn]

I love that! What a great project.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

Your son sounds like he’s on track to make a splendid ‘mad old giffer’ in future. Get him a starting handle, an old St Bruno tin full of odd nails & screws and a big piece of roofing felt for Christmas.

[Joey spud]

Well my son isn't as stubborn as me.

 

After recently finding time to look over the jaded/faded Datsun it became clear that it was a bit too horrible to resurect and his plan of fixing it up and selling on to a ''Hipster type'' for a modest profit was well wide of the mark.

 

Me i would have spent out on half an Exhaust,and couple of tyres then a few hours of sill to floor welding etc,gone through and sorted the brakes,maybe even fibre glassed up the wings that no longer touched the front valence before MOTing and selling for a massive loss.

 

Son instead stuck it on facebook where a lad from Canterbury came up and took it away basically for the engine to go in one of his ones that had just snapped its cam belt,oh and his Dad needed two front suspension arms for one of his cars.

So now i had a gap on the drive for something else.

 

I like 70's / 80's Saabs and have lusted after a 96 combi for a while but they are getting / are silly money and what i can afford wouldn't get much more than a rusty incomplete ''project'' that i just can't be asked to commit to these days.

So my mind moved on to the 80's and Saab 900's rather than 99's (you cant take a car seriously if it's named after an ice cream can you?)

 

A black turbo flavoured 16 valve hatch would fit the bill rather nicely but again their prices it seems have also gone sky high overnight and so i had to reel in my expectations to the more modest n/a ones.

I looked a met blue 3 door with 218,000 miles under its wheels in nearby Maidstone that was only £350 but it was a tired car that would really need a repaint and much welding just to look half tidy again,to be honest it was really a parts car at best.

 

Any how a few weeks back a bottom of the range 900 had sold cheaply on ebay and i kicked myself for not having a bid on it..

 

Low and behold the ''Chod Gods'' were looking after me as the same car was relisted a couple of weeks later after the winning bidder had gone AWOL on the seller.

Alas it was 140 miles away in Wiltshire and i couldn't make time to visit it but trusted the picures and fair description and bid and won it although for £200+ more than it had previously sold for (so much for the Chod Gods looking after me).

 

Time and general lazyness dictated that i got the Saab recovered up to me,actually thats a lie after i had priced up the fuel go down and drive it back plus the best part of a day wasted doing it the extra cost to get a man to do it was only around £60.

 

So i now have a Saab 900 sitting in the hole vacated by the Micra.

[Joey spud]

It's a base spec Finnish built 900 without luxuries like electric windows,sunroof and heated seats etc.
It drives absolutely brilliantly,i had forgotten just how nice these were back in the 90's when i last drove one.

The paint is really weathered and i was a bit shocked when it turned up at my house to see just how bad it looked,that's internet images for you..

Her indoors was not impressed by its distressed look so i hit the bonnet with some G3 and G6 and it has started to shine again.

Alas no amount of compounding is going to sort out the scabby front arches.
You cant get new arch trims any more but the aftermarket ones now available are much wider and should cover a lot of the damage so repairs wont need to be too perfect hopefully.

The interior is a lovely place to be and its had a new head lining in the recent past so no safety pins holding this one up.

Got to love the quirky door sill design that makes getting in and out a doddle,shame it also trapped water causing the bottom of the inner doors to rust out.

Although my head lining isn't sagging my door trims are,i reckon these will be easy to recover with some real faux leather vinyl in a similar shade bought from a popular auction site.

The eight valve / 118hp engine with simple Bosch mechanical injection sounds very healthy too

So you buy an old car whats the first thing you fiddle with ? the dash of course.
The radio would go off if you adjusted the dash dimmer switch and after a bit of head scratching i found its 12v feed had been taken off the dash illumination circuit so it you dimmed the lights you also dropped the voltage to the radio.

So summing up i am chuffed to fuck with this little car,her indoors really hates it which is actually a bonus.

All my images died when photobucket fucked everyone over,so this thread's a bit clunky now with images at the end of the text.

[Skizzer]

Well bought. A decent late 80s/early 90s Saab 900 remains on my bucket list.

[Vantman]

Looks a good buy,i am rather disappointed that you have polished it though!

[Springer]

 

 

 

 

It's a base spec Finish built 900 without luxuries like electric windows,sunroof and heated seats etc.

It drives absolutely brilliantly,i had forgotten just how nice these were back in the 90's when i last drove one.

 

The paint is really weathered and i was a bit shocked when it turned up at my house to see just how bad it looked,that's internet images for you..

 

Her indoors was not impressed by its distressed look so i hit the bonnet with some G3 and G6 and it has started to shine up really well.Phew..

 

 

Alas no amount of compounding is going to sort out the scabby front arches.

 

 

You cant get new arch trims any more but the aftermarket ones now available are much wider and should cover a lot of the damage so repairs wont need to be too perfect hopefully.

 

 

 

 

The interior is a lovely place to be and its had a new head lining in the recent past so no safety pins holding this one up.

Got to love the quirky door sill design too that makes getting in and out a doddle,shame it caused the bottom of the inner door frame to rot thru.

 

 

Although my head lining isn't sagging my door trims are,i reckon these will be easy to recover with some real faux leather vinyl in a similar shade bought from a popular auction site.

 

 

Eight valve / 118hp engine with simple Bosch mechanical injection is very strong and only done 124k.

 

 

 

So you buy an old car whats the first thing you fiddle with ? the dash of course.

The radio would go off if you adjusted the dash dimmer switch and after a bit of head scratching i found its 12v feed had been taken off the dash illumination circuit so it you dimmed the lights you also dropped the voltage to the radio.

 

So summing up i am chuffed to fuck with this little car,her indoors really hates it which is actually a bonus.

My mate had  a white one of the same era. It was G--- VRX so maybe out of the same dealer. Was a thoroughly decent car! He did buy his new though, lol. Used to drive it a lot when he needed to lug stuff in my Subaru 1800 Turbo estate. It was metallic red on a D plate. Was a bloody good car.

[stuboy]

nice buy.. there's a saab that gets wrapped up every night on a28 leading into canterbury

[saucedoctor]

This SAAB is a thing of beauty.

[Joey spud]

I think it has a has a truely original shape that has never been cloned by other car makers (maybe a reason for that).

I love the styling but the wife thinks it's an ugly duckling.

 

One thing i have noticed is Saab specialists and many ebayers really like to try and charge top dollar for parts.

 

£90 for a second hand headlamp with a faded reflector anyone ??

[Vantman]

There's a chap from Margate I know who is advertising a pair of used headlamps for £50.00,i can try and contact him if you like. I can even collect them for you!

[Joey spud]

Yes please,that would be perfect sir.

[Spottedlaurel]

The 2dr saloon always seemed to be a bit of an obscurity.

 

For 1989 F/G-reg models, my Parker's Guide says the 2dr was £11495, 3dr £12495, 4dr £12195 and 5dr £12795. Odd to have so many variants of the same model, and that's just the 900i.

[Vantman]

Yes please,that would be perfect sir.

 

Ok,i have sent him a message.Just to confirm,are your headlamps electric height adjustment?

[Cavcraft]

It must be just about impossible not to like these cars.

[Joey spud]

No not adjustable base spec car.

 

It don't matter if they are electric adjusted ones as i can swap bits around as required.

[Joey spud]

OK update time.

First off a big cheers to Mr Vantman for collecting a pair of headlamps from the bleak wasteland known as Margate for me,i now have a matching unbroken pair

My door trims were a bit past their best so i had a go at making new ones.
I got a small sheet of 3mm ply board from Wickes and from the 'Bay some 6mm scrim and a couple square metres of top quality faux leather.

And set to making new ones.
Alas photobucket has lost all visual evidence of the skill and precission involved in cutting and glueing fabric to wood but it was an enjoyable task.

There you go not perfect but they turned out ok for a cack handed mechanics first attempt.

 

 

Also fitted these bad boys.

 

 

 

I never knew that these 2 door booted 900's could do this either.
The whole back seat folds just like a hatch back,how cool is that.

 

 

 

While i was having a rumage about under the seat base i found this little chap who now lives on the dash.

[Guest Hooli]

Not seen a Brat that tidy for years, always liked them.

[Lacquer Peel]

Are you sure it's Bosch fuel injection? My 1988 900i 8v had Lucas fuel injection. 

 

Great cars, I think they're out of my price range now.

[Magnificent Rustbucket]

A lovely looking old thing.

[twosmoke300]

K jetrronic that is . Cunt of a system when it goes wrong

[Lacquer Peel]

I may have imagined the Lucas fuel injection.

[Joey spud]

I have done a bit of dirty stuff too.

The engine oil was dripping on to the exhaust and stinking and smoking after ten mins of running and the worst leak seemed to be the cam gasket.
I picked up a new one locally and swapped it over.

It's clean and unsludged under the cover and the oil no longer collects on the exhaust manifold or down pipe.

There was an advisory on the mot for a worn lower front shock bush and there was also a loud knock when going over bumps that seemed more than just a manky bush.
I had a dig about and the the bottom shock bush was perished and worn but the noise seemed more like a ball joint so i tried to check it for play but its hard to detect any due to the way the 900 suspension is designed just by using a lever under the wheel and so i took it off for a closer look.

The joint was dried out with a shed load of free play so that got swapped for old stock QH one from my local factor.
I drives even better now.

 

Coming up,rusty arches and inner wings...

[Joey spud]

Not seen a Brat that tidy for years.

It's like the Forth bridge,non stop painting and rust chasing.

[Joey spud]

So i have a Saab with really grim front arches and just scabby rear ones.

I don't have the funds,time or any enthusiasm to get into replacing corroded panels and then painting as required on a £750 car that is just a runabout toy so sorry if the following offends but my car,my rules.



This is the worst of the damage and although it looks horrid the wheel arch sections are double skinned and still nice and secure just not nice.
Obviously it's not structural in any way so i just treated the brown bits with kurust type stuff and then fibre glassed over the top.
The missing lower wing on the drivers side was roughly welded up as it would be hidden behind the bumper corner.



Not very pretty but it's moving it forward and hopefully slowing down the rust.

[Joey spud]

Once i had laid a few sheets of fibreglass mat and resin down it was much tidier.
Fibreglass has a bit of a bodgey stigma attatched to it which is unfair.
If used on non structural body it's a good low cost repair.

Once it was dry i gave everything a few coats of red primer.




Now i really needed to hide the fibreglass and primer mess and looking around the net i found a German supplier that did wheel arch covers for most automotive things including pre GM Saab 900's so i took a punt and ordered a set of four and awaited their arrival.



These are made of metal with a crinkle paint finish and are suposed to just clip on but i fitted mine using lots of tiger seal behind them followed up with more tiger seal along their inner lips to totally seal up the vulnerable inner wings.



I am quite pleased how it turned out in the end.

''Turd polishing'' my wife calls it which seems a bit harsh.

[Joey spud]

This little hole was in the centre of the drivers floor pan and looked simple to patch but from below it had an open box section finishing there that had been collecting mud for 28 years so that too had to have a repair and be remade before replacing the floor section again.



With a few little bits around the front jacking points / sills also cut out and plated that is the frontal grot all sorted.

Just need to tidy some previous welding to the rear ends of the sills and fit the rear arch trims.

[tooSavvy]

Liking this TrollWagen... Love the forged [...not fake!] logo on camshaft!

 

My BiL had one.... never locked it.... had the screen stolen   + 7days later they stole the 'factory replacement' fitted   

 

 ...last one stayed in.....

 

GLi.. Nippy 

 

 

TS