Damn you, UKSaabs classifieds!! 99t buys another £350 Saab!!

Damn you, UKSaabs classifieds!! 99t buys another £350 Saab!!

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99t

Original Poster:

996 posts

208 months

Monday 12th February 2018
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No progress in January, partly due to me entering hibernation mode, partly due to the final decline of my father, who had been terminally ill for some time.

Necessary arrangements out of the way, some Saab shaped distraction seemed a good idea, so dragged myself back over to the barn.

I had removed the nearside arch liner to see if it provided a better view of engine or subframe mounts (it didn't) so took the opportunity to clean the metalwork up and check for rot.

Arch liner has done its job well





Just one bit of grot, around a sheared off stud that once helped secure the liner



Ground it back flush and then drilled the centre so I can use a self-tapper to re-fix the liner. Note rust creeping under paint



Cleaned the area back and treated with Phosphoric and wire brush until pits were completely cleaned (a little bit after this pic was taken)



Bit of zinc rich primer to protect the bare metal



I'll put some top coat over this before refitting the liner, won't be 279 Steel Grey as I don't have any, but that hardly matters as completely hidden when the liner is back on!!

Cambs_Stuart

2,833 posts

83 months

Wednesday 14th February 2018
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Sorry to hear about your father.

But on a happier note, yet again I'm amazed by how good the metal on that saab looks.

99t

Original Poster:

996 posts

208 months

Wednesday 14th February 2018
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Thanks.

At the risk of revisiting the cost / value discussion on pages three and four of this thread, I agree that everywhere I've looked, poked and prodded, this does seem to be a pretty damn good example of a pre-facelift Aero, utterly regardless of the purchase price paid.

Given that early ones like this are getting rarer now, I'm pondering whether I should use this as planned - a cheap and cheerful commuting car to pretty much run into the ground with just basic maintenance, or whether I should continue to give it some TLC and tidy it up further - I don't think it would actually take that much to make it really nice.

Hmm...


Cambs_Stuart

2,833 posts

83 months

Wednesday 14th February 2018
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What are the chances of finding another in this condition when this one is uneconomic to repair..?

99t

Original Poster:

996 posts

208 months

Thursday 15th February 2018
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Based on the condition of ones I have looked at previously, nigh on impossible would be my guess.

I'm in the process of having a bit of a think about what to do with my "fleet".

As much as I like every car in it, the current number feels a bit unmanageable without neglecting my family duties, so some thinning out and changes are probably coming this year.

Not sure where that'll leave this old Saab yet, but it won't even be back on the road unless I get my finger out and put the front suspension back together!!




NiceCupOfTea

25,280 posts

250 months

Friday 16th February 2018
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Lovely work, I've always liked the early 9-5 Aero estates and always planned on having one as a family wagon - have ended up with an e46 330 Touring which is a very entertaining car, probably a better steer but not as comfortable and certainly a lot more expensive.

I really wish I had the skills (and time) to do this sort of fettling...

99t

Original Poster:

996 posts

208 months

Saturday 3rd March 2018
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As the temperature in the barn had reached the heady heights of 1℃ today, I decided to see if I could fit the new lower arms before losing feeling in my fingers and toes.

I had bought the arms complete with the bushes and ball joint already fitted and I slotted the first one into the subframe without problem. However when I connected up the ball joint to the upright, there was a distinct lack of clearance between the ball joint bolts and the pinch bolt as below.

Note the curious location of the massively thick washers...



Already rather chilly by that point I retreated home to consult the Saab EPC



Shakes head

Washers should be below the ball joint (which is where I would have expected them to be TBH)

I'll try again tomorrow, correct the assembly (and the other side which is also wrong) and see if the clearance looks better.






bearman68

4,642 posts

131 months

Saturday 3rd March 2018
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Read all the pages in this thread in one go. Nice writing style, please continue.

Shedding - the environmentally friendly way to get about.

99t

Original Poster:

996 posts

208 months

Monday 5th March 2018
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Cheers! beer

Disassembled and reassembled the ball joint fittings correctly. Clearance now ok.

Now to torque up the control arms

SAAB WIS said:
ONE DEGREE!! Seriously? HTF are you supposed to measure one degree? And would it REALLY make a difference if it was just horizontal instead??!!

headache

Some time later, after an awful lot of faffing around...



bowtie

Cambs_Stuart

2,833 posts

83 months

Monday 5th March 2018
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Impressive diligence!

99t

Original Poster:

996 posts

208 months

Monday 5th March 2018
quotequote all
Cambs_Stuart said:
Impressive diligence!
Or not.

Seems my earlier bowtie was a tad premature.

Looking again at the picture I uploaded before, I thought, "funny, the height of the ball joint nuts above the arm - almost looks like I've gone and put the ball joint above the arm rather than under it.... nah, I wouldn't have..... I couldn't have...."



Looked for another picture taken at the same time



OH FFS!!!!!

Seems whilst I was re-positioning the washers and ranting to myself about the imbecile at Scantech who assembled the ball joints wrongly, I became that imbecile!! bangheadcensoredbigmouth

Sorted now.

At least a) I noticed and b) I hadn't fitted the struts, brakes etc which would have made it a far more annoying and lengthy cock up to fix.

Onward and upward...

99t

Original Poster:

996 posts

208 months

Sunday 18th March 2018
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All back together now.

I'd dumped the front wheels around the side of the garage and completely forgotten to send them for a refurb and new tyres! whistle

As a quick Sunday fix, I borrowed two wheels from the 9-3 which will do the trick until the ALU28s are sorted.



Connected up the battery (without so much as a charge since the car last ran in October) and the old girl fired up first time and settled into a steady idle. Moved backwards and forwards a few times to let the suspension settle.

Still want to replace the thermostat and change the auto box fluid before I put her back into use, so the target is 1st April!! nuts

99t

Original Poster:

996 posts

208 months

Saturday 24th March 2018
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Wheels turned out well, pleased with the quality of the finish, nice deep reflections for silver.



Not been a cheap month for wheels and tyres what with one thing and another!



Think it's safe to say I'm moving away from bangernomics with this one now!!


Cambs_Stuart

2,833 posts

83 months

Saturday 24th March 2018
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The wheels look great. Have you had a trip out to try out the new parts yet?

wormus

14,497 posts

202 months

Saturday 24th March 2018
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99t said:
Wheels turned out well, pleased with the quality of the finish, nice deep reflections for silver.



Not been a cheap month for wheels and tyres what with one thing and another!



Think it's safe to say I'm moving away from bangernomics with this one now!!
I completely sympathise, I have a 9-5 Vector with only 85k miles and an immaculate interior which I bought and use every day for train station parking. But I like it and cannot bear to run it into the ground. It has no rust but a few scrapes and I’m thinking of getting some paint done. I’ve spent about £3k on it since I bought it 3 years ago which is nuts but it deserves it now Saab is no more. Good for you!

Weirdly we both have Monaros!


Edited by wormus on Saturday 24th March 20:37

stewjohnst

2,442 posts

160 months

Saturday 24th March 2018
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99t said:
Think it's safe to say I'm moving away from bangernomics with this one now!!
Know the feeling...I wasn’t supposed to get attached to my banger but I seem to forever picking up the odd bitbhere and there from eBay ‘just to tidy it up a bit’...

99t

Original Poster:

996 posts

208 months

Friday 30th March 2018
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Came home from a couple of days away (took the train, disappointed no Spandau Ballet background music, bloody awful seats, did not enjoy) to find the wheel pictured above to be somewhat flat. Only at the bottom mind, but still!! grumpy

A quick dunk in the bath showed the value stem to be leaking, so a quick word in the refurbist's shell-like and hopefully it is now sorted...

Next jobs on the hit-list were replacing the thermostat and coolant, finding and fixing the coolant weep in the vicinity of the 'stat and then changing the oil and filter.

The weep was traced to a slightly weak spring clip on the 'stat outlet, so replaced with a more manly Jubilee clip. Ran up to temp and all appears dry.

Whilst working under the bonnet, I also spotted one of the Lambda wires resting on and merrily rubbing itself away against the cat!



Fortunately only the outer heat shield was damaged so re-routed and cable tied it away from danger! A future error code avoided hopefully.

The old girl is taxed and insured from 1st April so have to wait until then to find out if my efforts have yielded any improvement...


99t

Original Poster:

996 posts

208 months

Thursday 12th April 2018
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A couple of weeks commuting done now and all seems well with the work done. The front end feels miles tighter although it does now show up the wear in the rear which is still on the to-do list!

I did have to top up the coolant after a couple of days, only about 300ml, and the level hasn't moved since so I assume it just burped a bit of air out after the coolant was replaced.

Only other niggle is that one of the rear tyres is losing air at a fair rate so that needs to be investigated, but the rim looks pretty grotty so I'm guessing bead corrosion to be the issue. The tyres have plenty of life left so I'll see if the local garage can get it to seal any better...

99t

Original Poster:

996 posts

208 months

Tuesday 17th April 2018
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A smidge of excitement on the way to work this morning.

A light touch of the brakes brought up a warning chime combined with the TCS, ABS, brake warning and warning triangle lights all doing their thing. That little lot combined almost woke me up!

They all went out as quickly as they lit although the cruise control was inop. for the rest of the journey, although it appears to be back now after a "reboot".

Cracked reluctor rings are pretty common so probably one of those on the way out or maybe a wheel speed sensor. See how long it takes to recur...

JakeT

5,406 posts

119 months

Tuesday 17th April 2018
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I love this project. Don't think you could do any better for £350!