Saab 96L - An Occasional Series.

[artdjones]

10 minutes ago, Justin Case said:

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 ? }

You'll be happy to know - it lives!!!!!!!

[Justin Case]

Wow, what an amazing co-incidence ? I bought the car in 1986ish as a weekend toy and it was more fun to drive than anything else I have owned (with the possible exception of a 1973 96V4 ) I kept it for about 7-8 years then reluctantly sold it to another Saab Club member when I changed jobs and realised that I wouldn't have the time to lavish the care on it that it deserved. I did have a significant birthday at the time I owned it and my wife commissioned a portrait of it (with me at the wheel ) from a friend who was a leading marine and wildlife artist, and it still hangs on my study/spare bedroom wall.

[bunglebus]

Hang on - is it the same one?

[artdjones]

Yes-that plate has been hanging up in my garage for the last 10 years.Incidentally, it's the thickest number plate I've ever seen,don't know who made it.

[KitKat]

2 hours ago, Justin Case said:

Wow, what an amazing co-incidence ? I bought the car in 1986ish as a weekend toy and it was more fun to drive than anything else I have owned (with the possible exception of a 1973 96V4 ) I kept it for about 7-8 years then reluctantly sold it to another Saab Club member when I changed jobs and realised that I wouldn't have the time to lavish the care on it that it deserved. I did have a significant birthday at the time I owned it and my wife commissioned a portrait of it (with me at the wheel ) from a friend who was a leading marine and wildlife artist, and it still hangs on my study/spare bedroom wall.

If it is the same one, that’s a fantastic story and huge coincidence!!

[Justin Case]

Here is a rather poor photo of it captured in an earlier existence.  Mike, who sadly died early last year, did a very good likeness of it and the number plates definitely had a black border. Serck? The person I sold it to was an ex Saab engineer who bought it as retirement project, but was going to have some of the work done professionally so perhaps thats where the Graham Mac Donald connection and possibly the current number plates came in.

 

[artdjones]

Thanks for sharing the picture.

I checked over the bits of history I got with the car,and there is a receipt for £820 in April 97 for the sale of the car to a man in Sonning, Berkshire.This is from a dealer.The previous owner is down as living at an address in Walsall.He seems to have kept the car until 2007,but only did about 6000 miles in that time.There are a few receipts in that time for bits of welding and body tidying from motor trade garages local to Sonning.The car then passed to Christopher Partington,who I seem to have seen mentioned before as a leading light in the Saab club.Anyway,his name was on the V5 copy I have,but Graham McDonald was the man who sold it to me in 2008.I think he had tidied it up for sale,but I don't think he had needed to do very much.There were a few paint matching issues with the car,also the clutch release bearing was slightly noisy,but he'd told me about all that beforehand.That was why the price was so reasonable.

Edited September 26, 2019 by artdjones
Wrong year

[Saabnut]

Chris Partington is indeed a leading light in Saab circles. He worked for Saab for many years and was the go to man for gearboxes before he retired (Graham has his old jigs and special tools now). Chris raced the 93 stroker (the green one) on two occasions at LeMans Classic and I think the last car he worked on before fully retiring was my Sonett that he tuned and re-jetted for me. A true gentleman.

[Justin Case]

Perhaps I can add a bit more on the history of KOW 296 P.  I bought it in 1986 from Regal Motors (Peugeot dealers in Bilston, and still going strong) It was up for £385 in their 'Bargain Basement' but as it wouldn't stay in 3rd gear  on the test drive they reduced it to £285  (they probably wanted shot of it )so of course I snapped it up. I was living in Walsall at the time, not far from Highgate Garage who did one or two jobs on it,  so I may be the owner referred to in artdjones's post I , especially as i didn't do that many miles in that time, as life tended to get in the way.  I'm pretty sure that I sold it in about 1993, but it may have been a little while later.  I sold it directly to Bill Faulkner, who I thought was living in south Birmingham at the time, but not for anything like £820 .  However he worked for Saab GB when they first imported 96 two-strokes in 1960 and were based in Marlow so he could well have lived in Sonning  at some time and I'm certain he knew Chris Partington,they were both well-known in Saab circles.

I think that Graham Macdonald bought the Saab 93 from the Patrick Collection whwn it closed down, if so I might have met him a couple of times at Saab Club events, but not to know him. Interesting how much of the history of an ordinary and unknown car  and its links to people can emerge from just a random thread on AS, but then I suppose that's a thing with early Saabs, they've always been an enthusiasts car

[artdjones]

Wrong year,the previous owner before Chris Partington sold it to him in 2007,not 1997.

[artdjones]

3 hours ago, Justin Case said:

Perhaps I can add a bit more on the history of KOW 296 P.  I bought it in 1986 from Regal Motors (Peugeot dealers in Bilston, and still going strong) It was up for £385 in their 'Bargain Basement' but as it wouldn't stay in 3rd gear  on the test drive they reduced it to £285  (they probably wanted shot of it )so of course I snapped it up. I was living in Walsall at the time, not far from Highgate Garage who did one or two jobs on it,  so I may be the owner referred to in artdjones's post I , especially as i didn't do that many miles in that time, as life tended to get in the way.  I'm pretty sure that I sold it in about 1993, but it may have been a little while later.  I sold it directly to Bill Faulkner, who I thought was living in south Birmingham at the time, but not for anything like £820 .  However he worked for Saab GB when they first imported 96 two-strokes in 1960 and were based in Marlow so he could well have lived in Sonning  at some time and I'm certain he knew Chris Partington,they were both well-known in Saab circles.

I think that Graham Macdonald bought the Saab 93 from the Patrick Collection whwn it closed down, if so I might have met him a couple of times at Saab Club events, but not to know him. Interesting how much of the history of an ordinary and unknown car  and its links to people can emerge from just a random thread on AS, but then I suppose that's a thing with early Saabs, they've always been an enthusiasts car

I just checked the 1997 invoice more carefully and it was Chris Partington who sold it then for£820.But you must be the previous owner,as the invoice mentions that the previous owner acquired the car on 1 .12.86.So it may have been floating around in the trade for the previous two years.Maybe some work had been done on it in the meantime if the price of£820 is a lot higher than what you sold it for.

[artdjones]

Chip,chip,chip.

Chisel, chisel, chisel.

Slowly getting there, moving to another wheel arch from time to time to relieve the monotony.

[KitKat]

Are you just doing this with hammer, chisel and teeth? These fleece discs are great for any paint, filler and underseal removal. Pricey, but they don't smear or clog like flap wheels and do speed things up.

You're making speedy progress though, keep us updated ?

[artdjones]

I have some of the fleece discs but I don't really want to strip everything back to bare metal.The grey paint you can see in the pictures is still in great shape.So I plan to clean any rust off with a cup brush,then treat all the bare sections with Hydrate 80,followed by an overall coat of anti rust primer,then epoxy paint.

[Sudsprint]

This is an excellent thread

 

[artdjones]

This really is a solid car.Almost finished stripping the left rear quarter,having decided I needed to remove the shock and spring to gain access.These are the only holey bits I could find.

[artdjones]

In other news,I can confirm that 15 year old Kurust still works,or at least turns purple.I was too mean to open my nice new bottle of Hydrate 80.

[artdjones]

First patch gone in.

[artdjones]

This corner is a bit of a weak spot on these cars.I think it's already been done before.Also some bits around here are a bit thin so some holes had to be filled with weld.I need more welding practice,really.

[Uncle Jimmy]

Good work....carry on!

Bought a much better offside front wing for mine last week, will try and get it prepped next week time allowing. 

[artdjones]

I'm slowly chipping away at this.I put another patch overlapping the first one to tie it to the horizontal panel under the window that the wing mounts to but didn't think it was good enough.So I ground it off and replaced it.

Then I cleaned up the top corner of the side panel,and found the holes in the picture,which I welded shut.

[artdjones]

Then I noticed that the bottom corner of the same panel below was a bit flakey.Looking through a hole I poked I saw that there were a couple of holes in the end of the outer part of the upper sill.So I cut the bottom corner off to gain access.The picture shows it painted with weld through primer.

[artdjones]

The next stage was to build up the bottom flange ,which is the return edge of the floor, with weld,then grind it back flat.Then patch the sill ,with plug welds on the bottom edge and stitch welding around the other 3 edges.Followed by grinding back .The next stage is to reinstate the side panel bottom corner

[artdjones]

When I get bored with the back corner,I do some more underseal stripping at the front corner.

[danthecapriman]

Nice job so far. It looks like a very sound car for its age!

[artdjones]

This is the bottom of the front inner wing.It has had the strip on the bottom replaced very neatly a long time ago.But the patch on the left has been welded in a " get it through the Mot as cheaply as possible" standard so will have to be cut off and a neater patch let in behind.My welding is slowly improving again,but I'm worried that I will be tempted to start redoing stuff once my standard of finish gets higher .

 

 

 

[artdjones]

Here's what the patches are being made with.It's a piece of roof I cut out of a Saab 96 I broke up about 10 years ago.The roof was the only non rotten part of the car as it had spent about 15 years in a leaky shed.

[artdjones]

I haven't totally forgotten this. I welded up up the last small hole on this corner today, removed the last bit of underseal, and put Hydrate 80 on any surface rust.

[N Dentressangle]

Looking good.

Want one. Again.

[Justin Case]

Good to see that it's coming along well