Saab 96L - An Occasional Series.

[artdjones]

I finally started tó do something about my Saab96L today,as I had a free afternoon,and the weather is great.

[artdjones]

The first time the car has moved out of the shed for about 3 years,and it was last on the road about 2010.I removed and stripped the front wings last year,and put a coat of primer on them,but then lost momentum.

[Jim Bell]

Lovely car, nice shed. 

[artdjones]

After a couple of hours the car looked like this.I removed the rest of the lights,both bumpers,the boot lock and handle and the front panel.Next,both back wings have to come off and the rest of the trims and badges.After a few welding repairs hopefully it can be painted so that all the body is the same colour again.

[Shep Shepherd]

Looks like an easy restoration. Please keep us up to date with its progress 

[The Moog]

Ohh that looks tasty. Always wanted a 95 or 96

[artdjones]

The underneath looked fairly awful with lots of flaking underseal and surface rust.Amazingly though,it seems to be all solid,except for a strip on the bottom of the r/h inner wing,and the area in the second photo,which is the bottom of the rear quarter panel.Also,there are some small areas of rust on the boot surround,and the two brackets that hold the small mud flaps in front of the back wheels need replacing.

[artdjones]

So that's it for now.I'll leave you with this pic of the front end as it is now.

Stand by for irregular progress.

[fatharris]

Looking forward to seeing the project develop, something about a Saab that gets under your skin!

Sent from my VOG-L09 using Tapatalk

[chaseracer]

I had a 96 for a year or so, 25 years ago.  Lovely old thing.  Still around, on SORN somewhere.

[danthecapriman]

Lovely little car, and I love the colour too! Can’t wait to see how you get on.

[Asimo]

Wonderful colour. 

Always wanted to try one of these because FREEWHEEL!

[artdjones]

I had a spare couple of hours today,so I carefully removed one rear wing.This car is really solid.I only found one tiny hole that I wasn't expecting.Graham McDonald said it was a good one when I bought it off him,but that was 11 years ago,and it's been sitting in my shed for the past 8 years.Also ,I only paid  him £900 for it,which wasn't a huge amount for a roadworthy 96 even then.

[artdjones]

L/H rear wing off today.This corner is even more solid  than the other side.Next thing is to power wash the four inner wings then strip back , weld and rustproof the four corners in turn.

[KitKat]

Looks solid indeed. I like old Saabs, so this thread has my interest piqued and a follow added. What's the plans for the engine and drivetrain? Is the engine a runner or are you rebuilding that too?

[Saabnut]

That does look very solid indeed!

[artdjones]

The engine runs ok.I have a two barrel manifold for the car,so if anyone has a 32/36 or 28/36 Weber at not too high a price,let me know.I may get a Jetex/Simons 2" exhaust as well once it's on the road.

[somewhatfoolish]

Given these originally had 3 cylinders of smelly two stroke goodness and the V4 is a terrible lumpen piece of FoMoCo horribility, have there been any with bike engines swapped in? The lump out of a Honda Pan Euro must be decent candidate.

[artdjones]

The V4 is the German Ford design out of the fwd Taunus,so is a better proposition than the English V4 as found in the Corsair and Transit.

[Saabnut]

More power is not the problem, 3 litre V6 and 2 litre turbo engines have been fitted. The weak point is the gearbox, designed for the mighty power of the two stroke and made of chocolate. The fact the diff bearings, often the first thing to fail are made of unobtanium does not help.

[artdjones]

Luckily,I have a spare gearbox.

[KitKat]

What gearboxes did these have? Are they unique to these cars? 

[artdjones]

They are totally Saab specific.I,m sure someone else's transaxle could be made to fit with a lot of work,but the column change and freewheel,which give the car a lot of it's charm, would be lost.

[artdjones]

You know all the people that told you removing underseal was great fun? They were lying.

[bunglebus]

I really like the 95 and 96, and that is absolutely the best colour they came in. My vote is for a front mounted Beetle engine and transaxle, but then I'm weird.

[artdjones]

11 minutes ago, bunglebus said:

I really like the 95 and 96, and that is absolutely the best colour they came in. My vote is for a front mounted Beetle engine and transaxle, but then I'm weird.

I'm not going to do a transplant on this car,but surely the object would be to improve it.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Good stuff; nice to see pics of a '96 which isn't mine...I've done a little work on the front wings recently, they'll be getting top coated soon, then the rad and pipework can go back in and the fun stuff fiddling with Nikki carbs and linkages can begin. 

How did you get on taking the rear wings off? I haven't got around to the rear end yet; is it just a couple of bolts? We're they seized up?

[Uncle Jimmy]

On 9/22/2019 at 10:30 PM, somewhatfoolish said:

 the V4 is a terrible lumpen piece of FoMoCo horribility, 

The Taunus V4 is really rather good.

It's compact, fairly light, strong and reliable.

Really the only thing I could hold against it are the siamesed exhaust ports. 

[Justin Case]

Good to see at least one has survived.  I had one exactly the same colour (KOW 296 P) which apparently survived till  2009. Mine only had a little rot on the front valance panel, but it is amazing that any car of mine could survive for 15 years after I sold it (and 33 years in total ? }

[artdjones]

7 minutes ago, Nibblet said:

Good stuff; nice to see pics of a '96 which isn't mine...I've done a little work on the front wings recently, they'll be getting top coated soon, then the rad and pipework can go back in and the fun stuff fiddling with Nikki carbs and linkages can begin. 

How did you get on taking the rear wings off? I haven't got around to the rear end yet; is it just a couple of bolts? We're they seized up?

There are 12 bolts.4on the front edge of the wing ,which screw into captive nuts on the side panel.You can soak them in penetrating oil by removing the trim inside the car.

There are three that screw vertically into the body side below the window,also accessed from under the wheelarch.They can be soaked in oil from inside the boot .

Those are all normal set screws,13mm/½ inch head.The rest of the fixings can be seen running down the edge of the boot and valance. They have a Phillips head and screw into spire nuts on the edge of the wing.I used my impact driver to get them started.