My 'Shed' Saab 900 Carlsson
Discussion
A favour young man, if you would.....
Any chance you would be able to get me some photos of the Carlsson pin-striping on the wing, the door and the rear quarter panel, please - at the highest resolution you can?
I'm doing a project with a friend at the moment and we don't have the complete red striping and we're rebuilding them, but we need high res photo's to do it. You have snippets on the photo's you have posted, but tantalisingly - not quite enough. It's been a while since I has a 900 Carlsson, and haven't got the photo's I require.
Would you be willing to assist? I can send you my direct email if you would be willing to nuke them to me on the wire....
Cheers.
Any chance you would be able to get me some photos of the Carlsson pin-striping on the wing, the door and the rear quarter panel, please - at the highest resolution you can?
I'm doing a project with a friend at the moment and we don't have the complete red striping and we're rebuilding them, but we need high res photo's to do it. You have snippets on the photo's you have posted, but tantalisingly - not quite enough. It's been a while since I has a 900 Carlsson, and haven't got the photo's I require.
Would you be willing to assist? I can send you my direct email if you would be willing to nuke them to me on the wire....
Cheers.
Re the strips.. http://www.uksaabs.co.uk/UKS/viewtopic.php?f=8&...
Great car and great to see your spending the time to do it up. 
Just don't make the same mistake i did,(boring story time)I've had lots of 900c but had to wait to find a carlsson, finally got the car of my dreams in black. sorted out all the usual problems, headlining etc then went made and took it to abbott racing and had the works done. The car came back astonishing, power and handling to shame much newer cars. the only problem was the attention the car got and not just the good stuff.I was having to get wing mirrors every month, came back from holiday and some kind person had hit the front corner wripping the skirt off. (parked on road)some very friendly gentleman opened his door into mine and was kind to explain that it was my fault for having a car that kills the planet and cute puppies
but the final straw was parking up at a classic car show and going back to my car to find someone tying his shoe up on my bumper? (the last three happened in the same week)So i went and sold the car and got a focus st. What a mistake! The classic 900 is a great car and the carlsson body kit just adds to it. You have a great car and are doing a great job in doing it up. Just don't give up and sell out like I did. Sorry for going on but I understand the pleasure on thrill of owning a true classic as you do. i would buy mine back today if it was for sale
Just don't make the same mistake i did,(boring story time)I've had lots of 900c but had to wait to find a carlsson, finally got the car of my dreams in black. sorted out all the usual problems, headlining etc then went made and took it to abbott racing and had the works done. The car came back astonishing, power and handling to shame much newer cars. the only problem was the attention the car got and not just the good stuff.I was having to get wing mirrors every month, came back from holiday and some kind person had hit the front corner wripping the skirt off. (parked on road)some very friendly gentleman opened his door into mine and was kind to explain that it was my fault for having a car that kills the planet and cute puppies
but the final straw was parking up at a classic car show and going back to my car to find someone tying his shoe up on my bumper? (the last three happened in the same week)So i went and sold the car and got a focus st. What a mistake! The classic 900 is a great car and the carlsson body kit just adds to it. You have a great car and are doing a great job in doing it up. Just don't give up and sell out like I did. Sorry for going on but I understand the pleasure on thrill of owning a true classic as you do. i would buy mine back today if it was for sale^ Welcome aboard!
There are a few on the classifieds, but not sure I could afford a good one though!
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3409206.htm
There are a few on the classifieds, but not sure I could afford a good one though!
http://www.pistonheads.com/sales/3409206.htm
oceankestrel said:
Great car and great to see your spending the time to do it up.
Just don't make the same mistake i did,(boring story time)I've had lots of 900c but had to wait to find a carlsson, finally got the car of my dreams in black. sorted out all the usual problems, headlining etc then went made and took it to abbott racing and had the works done. The car came back astonishing, power and handling to shame much newer cars. the only problem was the attention the car got and not just the good stuff.I was having to get wing mirrors every month, came back from holiday and some kind person had hit the front corner wripping the skirt off. (parked on road)some very friendly gentleman opened his door into mine and was kind to explain that it was my fault for having a car that kills the planet and cute puppies but the final straw was parking up at a classic car show and going back to my car to find someone tying his shoe up on my bumper? (the last three happened in the same week)So i went and sold the car and got a focus st. What a mistake! The classic 900 is a great car and the carlsson body kit just adds to it. You have a great car and are doing a great job in doing it up. Just don't give up and sell out like I did. Sorry for going on but I understand the pleasure on thrill of owning a true classic as you do. i would buy mine back today if it was for sale
Ohh man that's a horrible story - I've had a few 'alternative' types have digs at me at uni and stuff but when you actually drill into them on the numbers of keeping a classic on the road vs. buying a prius with it's horrible overall life cycle emissions they normally shut up pretty sharpish as I find they have an inabliity to form opinions of their own and don't look into these things for themselves.Just don't make the same mistake i did,(boring story time)I've had lots of 900c but had to wait to find a carlsson, finally got the car of my dreams in black. sorted out all the usual problems, headlining etc then went made and took it to abbott racing and had the works done. The car came back astonishing, power and handling to shame much newer cars. the only problem was the attention the car got and not just the good stuff.I was having to get wing mirrors every month, came back from holiday and some kind person had hit the front corner wripping the skirt off. (parked on road)some very friendly gentleman opened his door into mine and was kind to explain that it was my fault for having a car that kills the planet and cute puppies
but the final straw was parking up at a classic car show and going back to my car to find someone tying his shoe up on my bumper? (the last three happened in the same week)So i went and sold the car and got a focus st. What a mistake! The classic 900 is a great car and the carlsson body kit just adds to it. You have a great car and are doing a great job in doing it up. Just don't give up and sell out like I did. Sorry for going on but I understand the pleasure on thrill of owning a true classic as you do. i would buy mine back today if it was for saleI did actually find someone had gobbed on the passenger window the other day but I think that's more down to the noise it makes with the 3" JT in the mornings going to work, rather than anything more politically motivated. ( I had planned to cycle to work but my bike got stolen on the day I moved here
) I still regret selling the classic mini that was my first car that I had just how I wanted but sold, purely because I couldn't justify doing the motorway miles in what was essentially a brand new car. Keep your eyes peeled and you never know the exact same one may come up again at a decent price. I wish you the best of luck with it because I know exactly how it can feel. I've made the mistake once and I won't let go so easily this time.
H141RUJ said:
A favour young man, if you would.....
Any chance you would be able to get me some photos of the Carlsson pin-striping on the wing, the door and the rear quarter panel, please - at the highest resolution you can?
I'm doing a project with a friend at the moment and we don't have the complete red striping and we're rebuilding them, but we need high res photo's to do it. You have snippets on the photo's you have posted, but tantalisingly - not quite enough. It's been a while since I has a 900 Carlsson, and haven't got the photo's I require.
Would you be willing to assist? I can send you my direct email if you would be willing to nuke them to me on the wire....
Cheers.
Did you get my pictures in the end mate. Not sure I ever heard back from you? I've spent the past 2 months in a house without internet so been pretty shocking in keeping in touch with people sorry.Any chance you would be able to get me some photos of the Carlsson pin-striping on the wing, the door and the rear quarter panel, please - at the highest resolution you can?
I'm doing a project with a friend at the moment and we don't have the complete red striping and we're rebuilding them, but we need high res photo's to do it. You have snippets on the photo's you have posted, but tantalisingly - not quite enough. It's been a while since I has a 900 Carlsson, and haven't got the photo's I require.
Would you be willing to assist? I can send you my direct email if you would be willing to nuke them to me on the wire....
Cheers.
Wow been a long time since I have updated this thread- unfortunately not a huge amount has happened but I will share with you what I have done.
So the rust you see on the previous posts had progressed over the time I had been using the car and after doing some work on the front end I spotted something rather disconserting - 10 minutes prodding later and I had made serious inroads into the driveshaft tunnels on both sides which were a bit err crusty shall we say
. So about 6 Months ago I decided to tackle the front end welding ( I say I, I got Martin @ Jamsaab to do me a cheap and cheerful job as I couldn't afford the "Rolls-Royce" treatment and just want a solid car underneath where people can't see it.)After the car came back from welding I had got the itch so decided to refresh the whole front end/engine bay a bit.
The rust on the front panel + battery tray was pretty bad as well and it was uneconomical to repair so I bought a new one and gave it the POR15 Treatment. Quite a good design actually in that pretty much the whole front end which gets peppered by stones and salt of the car is simply bolt in so it was a doddle to replace.
Out with the old
In with the new(ish)
I also treated and painted with POR15 all the areas I could get to whilst the front end was off the car
Caterham acts as a suitable work bench to treat some of the rust in the bonnet
Here are some of the snaps of the welding on the driveshaft tunnels + inner wing, dont have any before pictures unfortunately but I'm pretty satisfied that it's all solid now! I'm not really sure what was holding the lower wishbone on before:S
Martin also saved the drivers door bottom but I don't think I have any pictures of this as I was in a rush to get the car back together. Some snaps of the face going back on:
All better!
I then decided that as an update to the front I'd paint the chrome grille that was getting pretty manky. Just jet black as I'm not a heathen! I'm not too sure on it but it's still on the car, looks more modern but there was nothing wrong with the chrome before, I will probably go back to chrome if I find a decent second hand one.
Ahhh... the dreaded driveshaft tunnel rot... good thing you caught & rectified. That's another one saved then 
Personally I have always preferred the black grille treatment on black 900s (had that on Saabine, too) but I can see why you would want to keep things original with this one (I did keep the chrome grille for a while but sold it as I wasn't going to put it back anyway).
Personally I have always preferred the black grille treatment on black 900s (had that on Saabine, too) but I can see why you would want to keep things original with this one (I did keep the chrome grille for a while but sold it as I wasn't going to put it back anyway).
So just got the car back from Station Motorsport in Market Harborough who did some fantastic work for my Dad's sonett fabbing up a sports exhaust + big bore downpipes for it. Jonathan is a top guy trying to make his way in the business, I've no personal affiliation but I can't recommend them enough as he has been really helpful!
I've had the rear arches and boot floor corners welded up which were pretty far gone inside after I made the big mistake of exploring with Mr.Screwdriver, this also meant that the back bumper (which is a bit like a giant parachute under the car) was really only held on by a strong sense of will power - these are quite rare so I was lucky not to loose it!
Here are some pictures of the rot:
Main areas are the bumper mounting self tapping bolts and retaining brackets, which Saab seem to have sort of uncharacteristically bodged on the Carlsson which leads to this corrosion conundrum. Saab trim fixings are normally pretty well thought out for corrosion resistance with a sort of Rawl plug type plastic fitting which stops the galvanic cell being set up with two dissimilar metals in contact. As the body kit was an afterthought in the late 80's unfortunately this is not the case.
This one shows it through to the boot floor.
This top fixing bracket just came away in my hands - was at this point I took the descision to go in for some weldotherapy.
Wheel arch lip has started to go, luckily this will be covered up by an arch extension on the Carlsson to the repair does not have to be cosmetically perfect.
So before it went off to Station motorsport I gave the boot floor a quick going over with rust killer as an interim measure until I get round to cleaning it out and painting it properly:
I got these pictures from Jonathan showing the amount he felt he needed to cut away to get something decent to weld to, pretty extensive and it was rotten alarmingly close to one of the suspension brackets
Then when I turned up today to put it back together, new metal in, seam sealed and painted. Job jobbed.
Saab Crumble anyone? I've heard it's good with Ikea Meatballs.
Repair:
Then spent the day putting the fuel tank back in, refitting all the interior trim and drilling holes in the new metal
. After making up some new brackets (the old one was pretty well gone) the rear bumper was refitted. All the metal has been repainted where holes have been drilled and covered in cavity wax to prevent any baremetal being exposed.
Whilst the car was up on ramp we adjusted the exhaust mouting and copperslipped /vaselined as much as we could get our hands on. Win.
I'll post some pics up of how it looks now tomorrow - the car is currently absolutely filthy and so I am going to give it a good going over tomorrow to protect it for winter as best I can - didnt want to pressure wash it yet as some of the sealant/ cavity wax takes a while to go off properly.
I've had the rear arches and boot floor corners welded up which were pretty far gone inside after I made the big mistake of exploring with Mr.Screwdriver, this also meant that the back bumper (which is a bit like a giant parachute under the car) was really only held on by a strong sense of will power - these are quite rare so I was lucky not to loose it!
Here are some pictures of the rot:
Main areas are the bumper mounting self tapping bolts and retaining brackets, which Saab seem to have sort of uncharacteristically bodged on the Carlsson which leads to this corrosion conundrum. Saab trim fixings are normally pretty well thought out for corrosion resistance with a sort of Rawl plug type plastic fitting which stops the galvanic cell being set up with two dissimilar metals in contact. As the body kit was an afterthought in the late 80's unfortunately this is not the case.
This one shows it through to the boot floor.
This top fixing bracket just came away in my hands - was at this point I took the descision to go in for some weldotherapy.
Wheel arch lip has started to go, luckily this will be covered up by an arch extension on the Carlsson to the repair does not have to be cosmetically perfect.
So before it went off to Station motorsport I gave the boot floor a quick going over with rust killer as an interim measure until I get round to cleaning it out and painting it properly:
I got these pictures from Jonathan showing the amount he felt he needed to cut away to get something decent to weld to, pretty extensive and it was rotten alarmingly close to one of the suspension brackets
Then when I turned up today to put it back together, new metal in, seam sealed and painted. Job jobbed.
Saab Crumble anyone? I've heard it's good with Ikea Meatballs.
Repair:
Then spent the day putting the fuel tank back in, refitting all the interior trim and drilling holes in the new metal
. After making up some new brackets (the old one was pretty well gone) the rear bumper was refitted. All the metal has been repainted where holes have been drilled and covered in cavity wax to prevent any baremetal being exposed.Whilst the car was up on ramp we adjusted the exhaust mouting and copperslipped /vaselined as much as we could get our hands on. Win.
I'll post some pics up of how it looks now tomorrow - the car is currently absolutely filthy and so I am going to give it a good going over tomorrow to protect it for winter as best I can - didnt want to pressure wash it yet as some of the sealant/ cavity wax takes a while to go off properly.
oceankestrel said:
Great car and great to see your spending the time to do it up.
Just don't make the same mistake i did,(boring story time)I've had lots of 900c but had to wait to find a carlsson, finally got the car of my dreams in black. sorted out all the usual problems, headlining etc then went made and took it to abbott racing and had the works done. The car came back astonishing, power and handling to shame much newer cars. the only problem was the attention the car got and not just the good stuff.I was having to get wing mirrors every month, came back from holiday and some kind person had hit the front corner wripping the skirt off. (parked on road)some very friendly gentleman opened his door into mine and was kind to explain that it was my fault for having a car that kills the planet and cute puppies but the final straw was parking up at a classic car show and going back to my car to find someone tying his shoe up on my bumper? (the last three happened in the same week)So i went and sold the car and got a focus st. What a mistake! The classic 900 is a great car and the carlsson body kit just adds to it. You have a great car and are doing a great job in doing it up. Just don't give up and sell out like I did. Sorry for going on but I understand the pleasure on thrill of owning a true classic as you do. i would buy mine back today if it was for sale
Just to touch on what you've said here after owning the car coming on for 2 years now. It does seem to attract a huge amount of attention and you are quite right it's not all the good kind. I get stopped ALOT when filling up in petrol stations (I have go to petrol stations quite alot for some reason Just don't make the same mistake i did,(boring story time)I've had lots of 900c but had to wait to find a carlsson, finally got the car of my dreams in black. sorted out all the usual problems, headlining etc then went made and took it to abbott racing and had the works done. The car came back astonishing, power and handling to shame much newer cars. the only problem was the attention the car got and not just the good stuff.I was having to get wing mirrors every month, came back from holiday and some kind person had hit the front corner wripping the skirt off. (parked on road)some very friendly gentleman opened his door into mine and was kind to explain that it was my fault for having a car that kills the planet and cute puppies
but the final straw was parking up at a classic car show and going back to my car to find someone tying his shoe up on my bumper? (the last three happened in the same week)So i went and sold the car and got a focus st. What a mistake! The classic 900 is a great car and the carlsson body kit just adds to it. You have a great car and are doing a great job in doing it up. Just don't give up and sell out like I did. Sorry for going on but I understand the pleasure on thrill of owning a true classic as you do. i would buy mine back today if it was for sale
) by usually older blokes who go "oooh you don't see many of them about these days - cracking stuff gromit" and that's great. It's good to be reminded that you have something different and special as when you use one of these as a daily driver it's very easy to forget it's anything out of the ordinary as it just soliders on without a grumble.The other not so great stuff, I live on a road the kids (read little scummy scrotes) use to walk to school and hang around in a bit passing through drinking at night. It's not a rough area per se but there have been a couple of break ins recently and I do worry about the car parked out on the street. As quite often I've heard kids talking as they wander past along the lines of "ooh look dats a turbo innit bet dats well rapid shall we nick it man bet we could outrun da feds blud.." so far it's just been idle chit chat and they wander on by but I do worry that one day I'll wake up and it won't be there
. Probably not too much to worry about as I'm not sure they could manage to drag their knuckles up to the steering wheel to drive the thing.So far though I've had:
Drivers window phlegmed/spat on
two aerials snapped off (not good at 30 quid a pop)
wheelie bin tipped over against the car and contents on the bonnet
I'm sure this will bring cries of "move then idiot!" but I am renting with other housemates and actually quite like the house, these events have been pretty few and far between thankfully so I'll put up with it until now.
Great looking car. I nearly bought a black Carlsson when I was looking for my T16S. I must admit, I don't think I've had any negative attention in my T16S. In fact, for what is such an unusual car on the road these days, I am often surprised at how few second glances it gets. Even with the JT 3" exhaust! Glad there are still people around looking after these cars.
So as I mentioned previously the car came back from Jonathans absolutely filthy as is the norm when being parked near a bodyshop so I gave it a good going over to try and protect the paint as possible from what winter has to throw at it.
Here is a picture showing the brackets Jonathan made up to hold the bumper on in the new metal in the wheel arches:
Car back from bodyshop:
Onto the washing, so I jetwashed as much of the loose mud off as I could up in around the arches, and then foamed the car and rinsed before moving onto buckets:
Looking better:
The wheel lips have taken an absolute hammering from the salt as they are not laquered - I find as soon as you get a slight chip, water gets under the laquer and corrodes beneath it anyway and the whole layer turns milky and peels away. They were meant to be "sealed" but I think the heat of the brake dust eats through the sealant very quickly and it doesnt last long. 10 minutes with brasso brought them back a bit though so when I put my steelies on it's going to be a fun evening saving them.
Then onto clay, quick going over with SRP and then 2 coats of wax and J'ai Fini - definitely the shiniest car on the road during winter :P! Eagle eyed amongst you will notice I have finally refitted my Carlsson arch extensions - not to confident they will stay on though!
Hopefully that's all from me for a little while - I might be heading up to Pickering on Friday to catch some of the RAC classic in support of the Saab Historic Rally Team that are doing there bit up there. I'll post some pics if I do go.
Here is a picture showing the brackets Jonathan made up to hold the bumper on in the new metal in the wheel arches:
Car back from bodyshop:
Onto the washing, so I jetwashed as much of the loose mud off as I could up in around the arches, and then foamed the car and rinsed before moving onto buckets:
Looking better:
The wheel lips have taken an absolute hammering from the salt as they are not laquered - I find as soon as you get a slight chip, water gets under the laquer and corrodes beneath it anyway and the whole layer turns milky and peels away. They were meant to be "sealed" but I think the heat of the brake dust eats through the sealant very quickly and it doesnt last long. 10 minutes with brasso brought them back a bit though so when I put my steelies on it's going to be a fun evening saving them.
Then onto clay, quick going over with SRP and then 2 coats of wax and J'ai Fini - definitely the shiniest car on the road during winter :P! Eagle eyed amongst you will notice I have finally refitted my Carlsson arch extensions - not to confident they will stay on though!
Hopefully that's all from me for a little while - I might be heading up to Pickering on Friday to catch some of the RAC classic in support of the Saab Historic Rally Team that are doing there bit up there. I'll post some pics if I do go.
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