Still Wicked Retarded May 8, 2007
We weren't happy with how the timing marks were "jumping" when we set the timing on the Saab last week, it appeared to be around 17btdc, but would jump back to 5btdc every so often. We took the distributor out, washed it out with brake cleaner and relubed the advance weights. We also filed and reset the points gap. The result? What looked like 17btdc was actually 5btdc with sticking advance weights. We've now advanced it to a true 17btdc and the car runs fairly strong and we're thinking at least as good as it was 30 years ago when Car&Driver measured 0-60 for a Saab 99 at 9.2 seconds. That was pretty heady stuff back in the day and one reason the Saab 99 was THE car to have in SCCA Showroom Stock's SSB for a while.
Next up, rust repair on the other half of the car...going to fix up the left side.
Saab rust repair continues May 9, 2007
Last night saw us wirebrushing and grinding off the paint, putty and fiberglass that was used in prior repairs. We welded in new sections of steel and treated it with POR-15's Metal Ready. Next, we'll finish off this wheel well.
Saab work continues May 10, 2007
Yarr, we've struck bondo!
The left rear wheel well had a lot of bondo and fiberglass in it. We wound up grinding out a bunch of junk and rust and recreated about 40 percent of the wheel arch. This is after its protective coat of POR-15. Next, we'll use a much smaller amount of filler on the outside to make it pretty again.
If the rain holds off, this evening we'll attack this bit of rust that's lurking underneath the left rear quarter window.
Rolling Restoration May 11, 2007
The restoration of this Saab could clearly be called a rolling one. Last night, we drilled out the four rivets that attach the hinge for the quarter window to the B-pillar. The small amount of rust along the bottom edge of the window opening was ground out, a patch was welded in and we treated it with POR-15 before we went off to bed. This morning, the spot was primed and we reinstalled the window, allowing us to drive to work. While we could take the car off the road (err, figuratively) we're instead choosing to repair little bits at a time for now, as we enjoy driving the car as it sits.
As an example of how "rolling" this restoration is, that's the welding gas bottle that we've been using, we need to bring it in on our way to work to get it refilled so we can do more repairs this weekend.
Ok, That May Be The Last of It. May 14, 2007
Like the last major battle in a war, this weekend was spent repairing the remainder of our rusty panels on the Saab 99
Our trusty welder, an angle grinder, various tools and a sheet of 20-gauge steel once again filled our work area. Too often what starts out looking like a little rust bubble turns into something much worse, like bondo over fiberglass, over rust.
What gets us is that it wouldn't have taken the original painter that much longer to just weld in patch panels, instead of filling the holes up with ucky-puck.