How much shite is too much shite? Saab 9-3 Diseasal Project - Completed it M9

[Saabnut]

38 minutes ago, quicksilver said:

Gilbern Invader with a carbon fibre-wrapped bootlid for some reason.

The bonett matches!

[Supernaut]

I recall it wouldn't start at the auction on Saturday.

Have you or your friend had a look at it / got it running yet?

 

I'm also curious about the other purchase. I know what sort of vehicle it is, but no other details!

[Saabnut]

4 hours ago, Supernaut said:

I recall it wouldn't start at the auction on Saturday.

Have you or your friend had a look at it / got it running yet?

 

I'm also curious about the other purchase. I know what sort of vehicle it is, but no other details!

Drove the Gilbert off the trailer! Turns out they did not try to start it at the auction as the throttle cable had touched the back of the alternator, melting the cable and the wires. Some insulation tape and a hand operated throttle saw it running beautifully and the mileage at 90k would appear to be correct. 
 

Update on the other vehicle later tonight all being well. 

[95 quid Peugeot]

18 hours ago, Saabnut said:

The bonett matches!

Nice Purchase, i've had about 8-9 previously  Genies, Invaders and a couple of estates   

Last one

[Saabnut]

After the auction on Saturday, I headed down towards Perth to go and view an interesting* vehicle that showed up on faceache marketplaice. I had been considering one for a couple of years, but anything even slightly useable was ££££££. This seemed cheap. It was located at Scone Airport so as we were in the area, we decided to go and have a look. As I have one and a bit dead Ivecos, it sort of made sense. So what was it?

 

Of course, it has problems, it starts and runs fine but has an electrical drain, fixed* by fitting an isolator switch. It has a cracked windscreen, fixed by ignoring it! The biggest problem is the swivel motion for the jib does not work although the motor tries. We think this is just a build up of old grease as it has been fixed* by only using it in the forward position.  The unit was based at Barra Airport for it first working life and at Scone where it was used for changing light bulbs within the hangars. I only really need a cherry picker, but as it has all the pumping gear still fitted I can see it being useful for roof cleaning etc

 

Hopefully it was delivered to my friends in Perth today so I can go down at the weekend to see just what I have bought!

[hairnet]

🤣🤣🤣

heres hoping its not a pile of 💩

[Tayne]

Isn't Barra Airport the one where the runway is a tidal beach?

Hopefully its not too rusty...

[Floatylight]

55 minutes ago, hairnet said:

🤣🤣🤣

heres hoping its not a pile of 💩

Clearly better than the other one, but this one has the disadvantage of being 1000 miles away from where it's needed..

 

[High Jetter]

2 hours ago, Saabnut said:

After the auction on Saturday, I headed down towards Perth to go and view an interesting* vehicle that showed up on faceache marketplaice. I had been considering one for a couple of years, but anything even slightly useable was ££££££. This seemed cheap. It was located at Scone Airport so as we were in the area, we decided to go and have a look. As I have one and a bit dead Ivecos, it sort of made sense. So what was it?

 

Of course, it has problems, it starts and runs fine but has an electrical drain, fixed* by fitting an isolator switch. It has a cracked windscreen, fixed by ignoring it! The biggest problem is the swivel motion for the jib does not work although the motor tries. We think this is just a build up of old grease as it has been fixed* by only using it in the forward position.  The unit was based at Barra Airport for it first working life and at Scone where it was used for changing light bulbs within the hangars. I only really need a cherry picker, but as it has all the pumping gear still fitted I can see it being useful for roof cleaning etc

 

Hopefully it was delivered to my friends in Perth today so I can go down at the weekend to see just what I have bought!

Isn't there something similar across the channel? Euro lifts?

[Zelandeth]

That's what I need to sort out conservatory roof!

Read: Smear about five tonnes of tigerseal into every bloody seal that's never sealed properly since day one.  It really wants totally pulling apart and rebuilding, but I ain't throwing £50K at it!  I'd just like it to be something vaguely resembling water tight for five minutes...

[LightBulbFun]

15 hours ago, Saabnut said:

After the auction on Saturday, I headed down towards Perth to go and view an interesting* vehicle that showed up on faceache marketplaice. I had been considering one for a couple of years, but anything even slightly useable was ££££££. This seemed cheap. It was located at Scone Airport so as we were in the area, we decided to go and have a look. As I have one and a bit dead Ivecos, it sort of made sense. So what was it?

Deja Vu thats what it is  I call dibs on any lightbulbs you find rattling around in the back!  

 

[Saabnut]

As usual, a very overdue update. Spent a day at my friends in Perth and had a good look over the deicer unit. We managed to get the boom working as it should (it had rusted into position as it was so long since it was rotated). Had to strip the hydraulic motor down then apply the Disco and a tow strop to the basket and eventually it became free.

Calling that a success, that project has been put on the back burner for a couple of weeks as I need to remove a headlight and indicator from my spares van and order 6 new tyres for it. My priority shifted to me 1959 Saab 93b DeLuxe which has been invited to be displayed on the Saab Owners Club stand at the NEC in November. Whilst mostly ready, the big problem with the car is that on trying to start it it would make a screaming noise and not turn over as the starter failed to fully engage with the flywheel. Turning the engine a few degrees before attempting to start would solve the problem, so it was obviously* a damaged tooth on the flywheel or on the starter itself. Removal of the starter showed a little wear on the teeth, but not enough to cause the problem, but consistent with what you would expect from a damaged flywheel tooth, so the engine had to come out.

This clearly showed the teeth to be in good condition, so a) that was not the problem and b) the engine did not need to come out. Bugger.

Next step was to strip the starter and see if there was a problem there. This showed that the slippers that should be on the operating fork were missing and as a result the fork itself had worn away (this is a cable actuated starter).

Of course, whilst I have a mountain of spares including about 18 flywheels with good starter rings on them, the only spare starter motor was missing the bits I actually needed. These starters are unique to the 750cc triple twostroke that was made for about 6 years from the mid 50s and were never officially imported into the UK so the only source of spares is likely to be Sweden or the USA where there was a relatively large amount of sales. Time of course prevented this.

I took the bits to the best engineer I know locally @Gasman of this parish where I pleaded and waved pictures of the king at him  . Simon as usual worked wonders, fixing the fork, turning new pins and also new brass slippers for the starter clutch dog.

I am confident it will work but until the engine goes back in we will not know for sure, so next job is to repaint the engine, gegrease the engine bay and put the engine back in. Engine should be painted this week and @Inspector Morose has promised an assist to replace it all next weekend.

[beko1987]

Jeeez thats amazing work! Probably better than one you'd wait 3 months for from sweden

[hairnet]

DRIBBLE

[Inspector Morose]

4 hours ago, Saabnut said:

 @Inspector Morose has promised an assist to replace it all next weekend.

As Inspector Morose got the bloody engine out before taking the starter apart and finding the real problem, Inspector Morose, I suppose, better head over and put it all back together again. 

[High Jetter]

It would take a braver man than I to ask why the esteemed, and highly respected, Inspector disregarded the option to remove the starter motor in situ but I am sure it is a similarly impossible option to that operation on a Lancia Beta Monte Carlo. 🤣

[Inspector Morose]

8 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

It would take a braver man than I to ask why the esteemed, and highly respected, Inspector disregarded the option to remove the starter motor in situ but I am sure it is a similarly impossible option to that operation on a Lancia Beta Monte Carlo. 🤣

Erm, in my defence, I only took the starter apart after removing the engine. The way the fault was presenting was textbook damaged ring gear. It was only after looking at the gear on the deck and finding nothing really wrong, I thought the problem might lay elsewhere.

Oh well, at least saabnut can clean the engine bay property ready for the NEC now...

[loserone]

Could @Inspector Morose give @Saabnuta nudge to pack up the range rover bits and get them somewhere they could be posted perchance? 

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Inspector Morose said:

Oh well, at least saabnut can clean the engine bay property ready for the NEC now...

Maybe that was his plan all along 

[Saabnut]

On 13/10/2025 at 20:07, loserone said:

Could @Inspector Morose give @Saabnuta nudge to pack up the range rover bits and get them somewhere they could be posted perchance? 

I am at work until Friday (leave home 0700 and return around 1830) so no cahance of doing anything before, but I will try and refind the stuff  and get it away to you on Friday.

 

[Saabnut]

In the meantime the engine and (most of the) gearbox have received a quick coat of paint and are ready to go back in the car at the weekend 

[hairnet]

What kinda breakfast will you be serving at the nec

[N Dentressangle]

1 hour ago, Saabnut said:

In the meantime the engine and (most of the) gearbox have received a quick coat of paint and are ready to go back in the car at the weekend 

 

Do like the squirrelcage fan and its overhead shaft drive on these engines. Beautifully simple.

[hairnet]

Arses

Oh well lmao

I tried to do the dumb tourist on the db guy and he said

 

NEIN

Planned to be here now but the train he said no to was 43 euro

The one i bought is 27

[hairnet]

Lol at herman gadge on the platform with what i thought was a pint glass of beer which he then put down to mess with his bag

It was a large coffee

[hairnet]

Nein

Thats why it was cheaper

 

[hairnet]

Oh and this is why i hate herman trains

 

Not kne of the them on time

 

The s bahn is brilliant - why cant the trains be the same 

[Saabnut]

A long overdue update from me. There has been a lot of upheaval in life in general and work in particular over the last couple of months  which coincided with a busy period for me. That is my excuse and I am sticking to it.   Just after the last update, it was off to the NEC

for the Classic Car Show where my 1959 93b DeLuxe was on display.

The car attracted a great deal of interest, more than I expected if I am honest, and the show was as usual excellent. I will be returning for the March show, but probably without this car.

Once home, it was time to tidy up some of the trees that had been blown down near my place so went to start the petrol/parrafin Grey Fergie. As it had been several months since it was last started, I had to go through the ritual of adding petrol due to evapouration and cleaning the points to get a spark. Eventually it went but it was getting dark by then so it was left for another day. That night I was talking to my friend near Sheffield, a retired agricultural engineer and moaning about the lost afternoon. As a result a deal was done so my 1952 Petrol/paraffin one was put up for sale and a 1957 diesel one purchased. This meant a trip to Sheffield to do the swap so one was loaded and taken south and the other loaded to bring back

One out:

and One In:

Since my return the petrol one has sold and gone to a new home.

The Disco was then parked up and the old Saab 9-5 estate loaded up, filled with LPG and off I went to Chez Saabnut in France where I needed to cut the grass, fill the Kubota with fresh antifreeze following a hose failure in the summer and drink an excess of red wine! I arrived on Tuesday morning and Tuesday evening met up with friends here to start on the European Wine Lake.

Sadly, this probably went too well. During the evening my friend mentioned his nephew, who plays professional rugby, was playing this weekend so we decided my friend, his wife and myself would take a road trip to see the match. We decided in a fit of common sense to take his newish Ford as it is LHD. And where, I hear you ask, is the match being played on Saturday? Near Barcelona. He is picking me up at 0730 tomorrow so for a couple of days we are switching to Spanish red, and we will be back at Chez Saabnut Sunday. Yes, we are daft. But it should be fun.

 

[hairnet]

nutter

do they know they have to throw it not kick it *runs

[Saabnut]

Well the end of my French trip coincided with everything changing for me Due to the actions of third parties (two people I used to consider friends) I found myself under investigation by DVSA and West Midlands Police. Both events were unrelated, they just both reared up at the same time. DVSA informed me I was under investigation which would probably result in my MOT testers licence being suspended for between 2 and 5 years. The police investigation potentially held a 9 point penalty and a £2k fine!  Both were hard to defend as it is very difficult to prove you did not do something. Not surprisingly these things caused a deal of anxiety and also took up a huge amount of time, which reduced chod playing opportunities and indeed mojo.

Fortunately after a huge amount of work, DVSA capitulated and I am still an authorised tester, and last week I received a very grudging letter from WM Police saying all charges have been dropped, so time to return to normal!  

We had a pretty hard winter this year, with one snowfall exceeding 1m. This resulted in me being snowed in at home for 10 days which was great, but consequences came later!

Once all the snow had melted and the floods subsided, I decided to replace the guttering brackets on the North side of the house which the weight of the frozen snow had broken. These plastic brackets were only 42 years old, nothing lasts!   However, whilst removing the broken bits, I started to look closely at the Lime Mortar pointing on my house, and I did not like what I saw. My house was built in the late 1770s and most of the pointing was original, but with many areas of patching with cement. I have never had any damp problems in the house, and want to keep it that way, so asked several local builders for quotes to redo the entire house. As a result I have committed to £21k worth of work and work has started.

To get away from the noise of the electric hammers, I went to the NEC or the Practical Classics show. I had intended not to take a car this year but a couple of weeks before the show, one of my exhibitors pulled out so I took my 1959 Saab 93b again. About 25 miles from my overnight stop in Leicestershire on the M1, I was flashed by a passing van, and a quick stop on the hard shoulder revealed this

I decided I was not changing a wheel on the hard shoulder and as the trailer was still towing fine, decided to change it when I got to the pub. I took the wheel off and found the tread lying on top of the spring  

Spare fitted, I went out the following morning to find the rear tyre on the opposite side flat! My battery compressor managed 73psi before the leak equalled the output, but I made it to the NEC where a good time was had

Before leaving the NEC I filled the flat tyre with some instant puncture gunge which seemed to stabilise the tyre at 33psi. Decided to see how far I could get with a fall back plan of pulling off the motorway and buying a new tyre. However a closer inspection of the remaining tyres found the sidewalls shot on all of them. These tyres are less than 4 years old! The back up plan then became get as far as possible and then rely on the AA  . As it turned out, I made it home with no further problems, so I now have to find more tyres. The choice seems to be expensive Chinese tyres or cheap Chinese tyres. I suspect there is little difference in quality so may just buy cheap and plan on changing them in 3 years time.