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Things have been a little quiet at Chateau Crackers lately since selling the P6, however dad's been feeding back some news on the blue Landy.

A few weeks ago he was asked to ferry a friend's son to his school prom, so before I left for Germany we did a little bit of tinkering to make sure everything's OK after a few months laid up due to the now-resolved running issue. All seemed OK, except for a boss on the steering column has broken, which means the choke cable won't return - fix TBD.

Day after the event, I got this message:

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Oh dear... that sounds like a tasty short somewhere in the dash. Oops.

Solihull Spaghetti, reveal yourself!

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Yes, a perfect* match** to the wiring diagram. Good. Time to call a Sparkie :o Good thing it's easy to remove the doors for better access.

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Didn't take the electrician long to find the culprit:

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Yep, that's toast. Looks like the choke cable has chafed through the insulation on the main group of wires coming up to the binnacle. Unsure whether this is related to the issue with the choke cable pictured below:

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The cable core shouldn't be visible there. The part immediately behind the handle, with the small brass clip attached, is a part of the casting on the right - it's snapped off at some stage and now won't let the cable go back as it should unless you pull it back at the carb. We reckon a bit of high-strength JB weld will probably do the job, as it looks like a swine to replace the whole upper casting on the column. 

The electrician has got everything back up and running again, the only casualty being the dash illumination switch which fell apart, but isn't needed anyway. The lighting was spliced into the side light circuit, so it just lights up as it usually would. It's not like you need the option of switching the instrument lights on with the headlights off, as they're so dim they don't make a difference in daylight anyway. If I can convince him to fit an electric rad fan, a switch for that will probably go in that slot instead.

New oil pressure switch and washer pump fitted, so the washers now work for the first time in his ownership. Also, the sparkie bypassed the central red light on the dash that was discussed in this/another thread when he bought the car, the light was redundant as a trailer-supply indicator because we don't tow.

I believe he's got the electrician coming back soon to look at a general tidy up of the wiring and check over the rest of the loom to just make sure everything's pukka.

In Saab news, I was hoping that the non-functional AC would be fixed by the time I came home. Dad's local garage managed to investigate the major leak for free, but didn't have any slots to repair it until I get home so I'll look at changing this valve/associated o-rings myself. Hopefully that's the only leak in the system, then I can get it tested, vacuumed and regassed/oiled. Fingers crossed!

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That pretty much brings things up to speed. I've got a few shite-spots to post and some Modernz which probably won't get much attention on here. Back home at the end of next week!

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  • 2 weeks later...

And finally, two oddities. 

The name of the first one is on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember:

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And then... This... Thing? 

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I honestly can't tell whether it started live as an early 2000s Merc, or a Jag S-type. I can only assume the owner is blind. 

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7 minutes ago, Crackers said:

And finally, two oddities. 

The name of the first one is on the tip of my tongue but I can't remember:

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kinda reminds me of a Bitter SC

but the face just looks a bit wrong like someones punched it in the face and broken its nose LOL 

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1 hour ago, D.E said:

A Kia Opirus, except for this silly two tone paint they came out of the factory like that...

Christ. I honestly though it was a bodykitted something-else. 

A crime against design, if ever there was one. 

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1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

kinda reminds me of a Bitter SC

That was my first thought, but it's just not quite right... The boxy arches and sidelight positions just don't quite match. Even Google Lens reckons it's an SC. 

My photo isn't quite clear enough to see the front badge unfortunately. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oh dear, I've just seen a Berlingo van for sale going very cheap down the road. It didn't look too bad... at 30mph, in my headlights, in darkness. Might have a quick gander tomorrow, even though I have neither the need or space for a van.

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1 hour ago, Crackers said:

Oh dear, I've just seen a Berlingo van for sale going very cheap down the road. It didn't look too bad... at 30mph, in my headlights, in darkness. Might have a quick gander tomorrow, even though I have neither the need or space for a van.

They're really smoll. Also easy to sell give away

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Took the 9-5 (which recently became a Saab 9) to the FOD this weekend, well received all round with a few people left quite impressed at its turn of speed. 

Shame the "proper" 95 doesn't have it's face on, but it was nice to get the two side by side this evening for a photo op. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Badge engineering.

My front and rear Saab emblems were totally gubbed, so I slapped a new pair on (gen-you-wine OEM Saab, no less) which has really smartened things up. 

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In the less successful corner, the "5" of "95" fell off a couple of weeks ago, and I also noticed the R in Aero was wonky, so I thought I'd just go the whole hog and debadge it. Which went well. 

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The paint behind the badges is clearly slightly less faded than the rest of the bootlid, and a couple of letters took a tiny bit of paint with them - so you can make out the outline of all the lettering unfortunately. Hopefully after a couple of washes it'll all blend in a bit better.

Looks alright from a few feet back and it's definitely smoothed out the back end, so I'm happy enough but not thrilled. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Another job done: Cataract Surgery

The headlights had developed some pretty bad yellowing since I bought it, so based on a recommendation from a thread on here I attacked them with a Holts restoration kit. 

The results speak for themselves, it looks years younger. 

Before:

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During:

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After:

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Still haven't fixed the air con, handbrake and Coolant leak, and it's just started a slight clonk from a bushing in the front somewhere. Leaving that one until the MOT and they'll hopefully locate it. A few jobs on the list then, but all easily achievable in the fullness of time. 

Still love it. ❤️

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The ungrateful prick heard me saying nice things about it. I've clearly thrown out the shite-equilibrium by improving one aspect of the car, so it just blew the passenger door speaker to balance things back out again. 

Can't wait to do battle with 18 year old trim clips... 🙄

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