Topless Swede *spoiler alert*

[MAF260]

Having recently sold my Fiat coupe 20v turbo project I realised I was in great need of another car to fettle and enjoy. The impending summer (still waiting) turned my thoughts to how great it would be to find a suitable convertible for some top-down fun. I've only ever owned 2 convertibles in my almost 40 years of motoring:

A beautiful E30 I renovated and improved over 5 years, fitted 2.8l 24v running gear to and regretted selling as soon as it drove away. It was replaced with:

 

A late Audi 80 convertible, 2.6l V6 powered in a very rare colour. I improved this cosmetically over a year or so and moved it on as the drive was rather dull.

After looking at all sorts of different options, from BMW Z4s to Audi TTs to Merc SLKs the right candidate appeared before me. There's a huge amount of nostalgia in this purchase as my father owned a new car from this manufacturer every few years from 1978 until he passed. Mostly 'Classics', then a later modern diesel model. My parents' favourite of all of these cars was a bright red turbo Classic nicknamed Nellie, which they took all over Europe and Ireland after my father retired. This is the only picture I have of that car:

 

My next car was a no brainer. You may have followed my epic collection thread last week which involved aeronautical travel and a 400+ mile drive home.

 

[MAF260]

I had a chat with Split_Pin over the phone while I was away on a short break and made some travel arrangements for the following week.

I flew to Scotland and was wafted back to his home in his lovely Audi A8 to meet the latest addition to my fleet.

 

 

 

 

A brief inspection, the car was as described thankfully, money transferred and I was on my way home. Just the matter of 400+ miles in an unknown to me quantity.

I had nothing to worry about; a relatively leisurely cruise home via Gretna Green, Tebay services and a visit to a friend in Cheshire, I arrived home that evening without drama as the car performed faultlessly. It rained the entire journey, though. So much for topless motoring!

I haven't had much chance since to do a lot with the car, but have started to make a few plans to bring it up to the standard I want.

First job was having the tracking checked and adjusted. The steering wheel wasn't centred, although the car didn't pull to the side.

Money well spent; the car drives even better now and the steering wheel is straight which satisfies my OCD.

[MAF260]

While I'm waiting for a few bits and pieces I've ordered to arrive I have had a good look over the car and will start with a very thorough clean of both the exterior and interior. This is a job I really enjoy as the results are instant and obvious. So that I can plan what's needed with the little free time I seem to have I made a start.

Cream interiors, especially on convertibles really show any grime and dirt. This car is no different. I grabbed some leather cleaner to see if I could make any improvements:

Before

 

After a quick clean:

The driver's seat is understandably the worst. Upon closer inspection I found that somebody has previously 'renovated' the seat. The treated areas of the seat have a different texture to the rest of the leather which hasn't worn well and cracked; it's also a different colour to the rest of the interior!

I need to add a leather restoration kit to the list.

The shiny steering wheel gave up years of oils and dirt from the hands of the previous owners after a very thorough clean and now looks like new, with the matt/satin finish it should have. Very satisfying!

[MAF260]

I bought a new wind deflector which makes a massive difference when driving with the top down and have mostly been enjoying driving this car around in the sunshine we are finally getting. Some collection duties for the Mrs demonstrated to her just how practical this car is:

[MAF260]

I was really keen to take this car to show my mother, but was worried it may upset her with memories of good times past with my late father. I drove it down to see her and she was absolutely overjoyed - a tearful moment for us both as she looked up to the sky to ask my Dad if he was watching.

Her smile says it all!

I've had a few bits turn up over the past few days, so I'm hoping to find some time over the weekend to do some fettling.

 

More soon if there's interest?

 

[Spiny Norman]

19 minutes ago, MAF260 said:

I bought a new wind deflector which makes a massive difference when driving with the top down and have mostly been enjoying driving this car around in the sunshine we are finally getting. Some collection duties for the Mrs demonstrated to her just how practical this car is:

Funny looking wind deflector, any good? 😛

 

[MAF260]

1 minute ago, Spiny Norman said:

Funny looking wind deflector, any good? 😛

 

It’s the latest in Swedish aero design 🤣

[Split_Pin]

I meant to say that's an Aero steering wheel, worth ££s apparently, no idea how it got there!

The seat was removed and renovated by a cack-handed fool who ripped the under seat wiring loom to bits when taking it out, causing the air bag light to permanently illuminate. Thankfully I got a new loom from a scrap car and fitted that. I covered it on my You Tube channel if you're interested. 

I used to be really into getting my cars super pristine but life just gets in the way these days. The seat looks loads better now!

I don't normally bother what happens to my cars after I sell them but because this one has cheated death twice, I wanted to see it be appreciated and that's certainly the case here!

[MAF260]

Parked behind my Dad’s last 93 which hasn’t moved in a couple of years since my Mum stopped driving. I need to come back and give it a good clean as she will never get rid of it.

[MAF260]

I finally managed to find some time this weekend for a few jobs.

The scruffy number plates really let the car's appearance down.

I was initially just going to buy some replacement plates, but after seeing some old photos of the car and a couple of other Saab convertibles I thought it would look better with a personalised plate.

Time to take the old plates off, to be met with many old applications of sticky tape. It was a bit of a mess...

A good few applications of tar & glue remover followed by lots of gentle scraping with a plastic tool got the old gooey fixings off. Some heavy compound followed by some polish and wax got the number plate areas up to a better condition. I know it can't be seen and will be covered by plates again, but it's something I had to do

Time for the new plates to be fitted:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[MAF260]

Next up to address was the cracked instrument cluster

 

I hoped I might be able to swap the clear plastic lens from another cluster. People seem to want daft money for these clusters, I couldn't find just the lens anywhere. Patience paid off and I bought a cluster on eBay for just a few pounds. It was time to remove the original cluster to see how I could sort it.

A bit of straightforward, methodical dismantling resulted in the cluster being freed. It was very clear that somebody has been here before me:

I could see that the clear plastic is bonded to the black plastic, so my plan to replace this was a non-starter. Bugger 😡

After another look I found that I could liberate the gauges from the binnacle and just swap them over - 4 screws and all sorted.

Dashboard back together, the fix has really lifted the interior for me as the crack was always in sight when driving.

 

 

 

[MAF260]

Last job of the day was replacing the headlight bulbs. I've not driven this car very much in darkness, but the few times I have I've found the light output to be dreadful. I was going to fit replacement LED bulbs, but some online research persuaded me against this for various reasons. I ended up buying some trusty Osram Night Breaker bulbs which I knew wouldn't throw up any errors; I've previously had good experiences with fitting them to other cars.

Lofty promises...

I'd read of some owners experiencing difficulty fitting replacement bulbs, having to move/remove all sorts of parts to fit them. I have no idea why they were deemed by some to be awkward to get to - just the filler neck for the washer fluid needed to come out with a gentle pull

Then access was reasonably decent on both sides.

Rubber covers off, a 90 degree twist and the bulb carriers were out.

Old vs new bulbs for comparison:

2 minutes later the new bulbs are in.

I'll take the car for a drive in the dark to see if they've made much difference. The headlight lenses aren't cloudy, but I reckon they would benefit from a polish - another job to add to the list.

[Split_Pin]

Ace work on the sticky stuff. Most of it was from me just giving up trying to remove it. What product did you use as most of my other cars are the same!

Glad to see this being appreciated, especially the cosmetics. 

[MAF260]

4 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Ace work on the sticky stuff. Most of it was from me just giving up trying to remove it. What product did you use as most of my other cars are the same!

 

I've tried just about every product out there and swear by Gyeon Q2M Tar which removes tar,  glue and 'organic contaminants' (whatever they are!) very effectively. It's not cheap, but you don't need to use much. That lot took 2 applications, a bit of soaking time, then some patience with a plastic scraper followed by a microfibre cloth to clean it all down.

[Split_Pin]

Cheers I'm going to have to get some as I've run out of space to apply the pads and my plates keep falling off.

[MAF260]

Another small job done:

  

[MAF260]

Air con sorted, just needed a regas m9

Now blowing icy cold just in time for the rain!

[MAF260]

Time for some more cosmetics (I have a mechanical job on the to-do list, just need some uninterrupted time to do it)

The side repeaters were past their best...

Cracked & dirty:

Cracked, dirty and swampy:

 

Needs some OCD cleaning once removed

 

Voila...

[MAF260]

Latest job was to sort the broken and cracked control knobs on the head unit...

 

Old vs. 'new'

 

And replaced:

 

 

 

 

 

[MAF260]

Update time.

Better weather is upon us and the MOT is looming; guess I'd better wake the car from winter hibernation.

Being a trusty old Saab of course it started on the first turn of the key after not being used for just over 6 months. All is well. Or is it.......?

What's that fluid forming a puddle on the ground under the rear driver's side? I'd better jack the car up to investigate.....

Yes, that's fuel, pissing out of the fuel filter region. Bugger! Quickly switch the car off and place a catch tray under the car to collect the fuel which is still dripping out at a fair rate.

A visit to Halfords (I know, but it's the closest parts place to home and the staff there are quite decent) and I'm armed with a new filter, followed by a YouTube tutorial providing the knowledge of how to change it.

Of course it was a little more fiddly than the video made it out to be, but care must be taken not to damage the ends of the fuel pipes.

New filter in place, secured with a big cable tie as the plastic bracket for the filter is old and damaged. I'm not the first owner to have done this as I had to cut the previous one off.

 

The old filter has clearly been on there for some time looking at its condition, so I'm happy to have changed it anyway.

The culprit - filter casing is cracked. Can't have been caused by any impact due to its location. Maybe just age-related or has anyone else experienced this?

 

I have a couple of other jobs to do before the MOT to give it the best chance of a clean pass first time, so took a look underneath where these cars can suffer badly (bear in mind it's also lived a few years in Scotland). I'm very happy with how clean it looks, but might touch in a couple of areas to keep it that way.

 

I'm now looking forward to pressing it into service again soon and carrying on with the improvements and upgrades I have planned.

[Split_Pin]

Apart from the outrigger I had welded up that was a clean one underneath. The  front subframe was in great condition and the sills were good too (main areas these can rust) 

Fingers crossed for a clean MOT pass!

[MAF260]

When I bought the car last year it was advertised with a niggle/fault relating to the alternator. A replacement had been fitted, but not the correct version, which resulted in a fault message being displayed on the dash stating the battery wasn't charging. This was incorrect, the alternator was working perfectly well (a volt meter plugged in to the cigarette lighter socket confirmed this), but somehow the car's check system didn't recognise it. A minor issue really, easily solved by pressing a button on the dash to remove the warning every time the car is started.

The missing pixels on the display were also an annoyance, so a sweep of eBay solved that with a new display. The problem still remains, though.

Fortunately the car's original faulty alternator was supplied with the car. A visit to a local specialist had it checked and rebuilt for less than the cost of a new replacement. The refurbished alternator sat on a shelf in my garage throughout last year as I was enjoying driving the car in the good weather.

The looming MOT reminded me of the battery error warning and a bit of Googling didn't give me a definitive answer as to whether the warning and red battery light on the main binnacle would be an automatic fail. Having gathered a few other parts and tools last year to complete the alternator swap, I had no more excuses to not get on with the job.

The first thing I bought was a lovely aluminium t-piece for the coolant hoses situated above the alternator. The standard plastic part goes very brittle and the small end usually fractures with the slightest provocation.

My luck would be that I would guarantee to break the original part, but of course it was removed unscathed. I'll keep it as a spare.

A little coolant is lost in the process, but nothing to be concerned about.

Before I committed to the job I looked for YouTube tutorials and found that there were so many different ways to do it and lots of contradiction about what needed to be done. My method took various tips of what I watched, especially when I hit a snag. One of the tools I bought was a serpentine belt removal tool - a big lever which slots into the tensioner to provide enough slack to remove the belt. It was only of any use when I took the grinder to it (after removing the air filter housing which some said was uneccessary).

With everything out of the way I had decent access to the alternator and the belt could come off, followed by the removal of the alternator.

It's out. Old and refurbished units side by side (I didn't pay the specialist extra to tart it up, this is Autoshite!). They look identical, but the internals are different.

Progress was halted by a relatively brief, but very heavy downpour.

Refitting is the reverse of the removal process, right? Hmmmm....  I just could not move the tensioner enough with the modified tool to get the belt on. I tried everything I could think of, but failed. A new course of action was required.

Wheel off and wheel arch liner removed to give some access lower down. While this was off I was delighted to see just how clean and unrusty it was in there.

I used a different method again to move the tensioner enough to get the belt back on and started putting everything back together.

The moment of truth; have I sorted this and given the MOT tester one less reason to fail the car....?

Voltage still looks fine - happy with that.

And finally - any warnings on the dash....?

I'll take that as fixed!

 

 

 

[stuboy]

great work..

[Split_Pin]

Great work Mark! I should have done that job, I only had the thing for 3 years 😬

I don't think it's a fail though, mine went through 3 MOTs with the battery light on. 

But nice to not have that bing-bong of doom on every start up now. It was a shame to have such a lovely clean example that told me it was broken every time I got in! Plus I kept having to explain to passengers that the car was fine and we wouldn't be stranded 😂

[MAF260]

50 minutes ago, Split_Pin said:

Great work Mark! I should have done that job, I only had the thing for 3 years 😬

I don't think it's a fail though, mine went through 3 MOTs with the battery light on. 

But nice to not have that bing-bong of doom on every start up now. It was a shame to have such a lovely clean example that told me it was broken every time I got in! Plus I kept having to explain to passengers that the car was fine and we wouldn't be stranded 😂

In a way I'm glad you didn't as I enjoy fettling and improving cars within my limited ability.

Some sites stated very clearly that a battery light isn't a fail, but others stated just as clearly that it would be; mainly because the battery light is red and on the main dash. It was a job I'd prepared to do anyway and it means I won't be taking any chances.

I know what you mean about passengers. I would usually have my finger on the button to clear the message before anyone could say something!

If the MOT outcome is favourable I have some nice additions ready for the car before it goes into use from next month.

[MAF260]

MOT pass this morning, very happy. A couple of advisories for pitted discs - I have something up my sleeve for this by way of an upgrade and corrosion on the rear subframe was noted. Tester said it's nothing bad, just surface rust which I will have a think about how to address. Subframes are a known weak spot on these cars, so best to do something preventative.

[Split_Pin]

Good result!

@Wgl2019 would be a good person to ask about Saab subframe treatments. The one he fitted in 2020 to the 9-5 I owned for a bit this year was still good 5 years later.

[Wgl2019]

I used Corroless chassis all in one..... A quick Google suggests that this might not be readily available now...... This looks similar though https://www.buzzweld.co.uk/chassis-paint-black-satin-cio-chassis-in-one.html

[MAF260]

It’s the Saab’s 1 year anniversary of my ownership, so I thought I’d bestow a suitable gift. What to get a topless Swede…..??

 

A rim job! 😮

 

 

I’d hatched this plan just after buying the car. The standard alloys are OK, but not in the best condition. The rear tyres have plenty of tread, but are cracking (even though they’re not that old). I had an idea that a set of my favourite ever OEM alloys would suit this car and might even fit without issues. I’m glad I did a lot of research as it turns out this style of wheel was made in various diameters, PCDs and offsets; it would have been easy to buy the wrong fitment. Many weeks of scouring all possible avenues left me a little dismayed. Unscrupulous sellers trying to pass off less popular/common fitments, wheels in poor condition needing expensive refurbs, crappy tyres fitted that were of no use, but drove up the cost. I almost gave up looking.

Then, out of the blue, a perfect set came up for sale. Freshly professionally refurbed, unused, 4 matching Goodyear Asymmetricals in the exact size required - 2 brand new and the other 2 just a little older and barely used. Whilst they weren’t cheap, they were offered at a price that was too good to be true. I don’t like paying anybody’s asking price, so I sent the seller a message with an offer. It was refused. Back to the drawing board…..

[MAF260]

The seller messaged me some weeks later - was I still interested and how quickly did I want them?

I told him I could collect straight away, but that I didn’t have the money I’d offered previously as I’d spent some on the car already. He was so keen to offload them he accepted the offer and then drove an hour to meet me half way!

He was a really decent guy, just seemed to want some quick cash and get rid of the wheels. He told me what he’d spent on the wheels, refurb and tyres - it was over 3 times what I gave him. My good fortune. I suppose. Even though I got an absolute bargain these wheels cost me almost half what I paid for the car!