What a find. They just aired a repeat of the Wheeler Dealers where they bought a Saab 900. They bought a black on tan car and swapped the whole interior over to a black one. I think he had to swap the exhaust as well.
What a find. They just aired a repeat of the Wheeler Dealers where they bought a Saab 900. They bought a black on tan car and swapped the whole interior over to a black one. I think he had to swap the exhaust as well.
If you hog out the converter and put 3" pipe to the rear of the car they sound real nice. Run the tip just past the rear bumper and very plesent inside.
Back from the break again!
First order of business, a badly needed bath:
Much better!
Still needs polishing with a mop though.
Next up was a fresh special order air filter. First time I've ever gotten orange in a NAPA Gold (Wix) box...
Proof that the windows and roof work:
Time for another test romp and some gas! I even sprung for 91 Premium.
And finally to the reasons I haven't mopped it yet, the body damage. It has a bad crease dent in the front offside of the bonnet:
And this gnarly shallow dent in the offside wing door:
These are the first order of business for today. I suspect I'll get the door out to 95% fixed no problem, the bonnet I'm worried about. Once those are out, then I'll polish and wax the paint. I may touch up all of the black trim first.
The paint doesn't look nearly as knackered after a bath.
91octane? that is horrible.
mad_machine wrote: 91octane? that is horrible.
The west coast is a terrible, terrible place.
Swank Force One wrote:mad_machine wrote: 91octane? that is horrible.The west coast is a terrible, terrible place.
Only at my local Qwik-E-Mart. All of the Shell's have at least 92 and the few Sonoco's and other scattered goodies have 92 or 94. Plus I can buy E85 nearly anywhere.
100% of our regular 87/89/91 is E10 though, and it sucks bags of dicks. The Javelin hates it and the lawn mower keeps E36 M3ting out.
Javelin wrote: Only at my local Qwik-E-Mart. All of the Shell's have at least 92 and the few Sonoco's and other scattered goodies have 92 or 94. Plus I can buy E85 nearly anywhere.
Looks like you're in better shape than we are down here - we get all the gas from CA refineries, which means that we only get the 91 horse pish premium they have in CA. E85 isn't that easy to find either.
The Evo runs OK on 91 but really wants 93...
We have 93, but it's always E10. I can buy race gas down the road, for some exorbitant price.
Javelin wrote: 100% of our regular 87/89/91 is E10 though, and it sucks bags of dicks. The Javelin *hates* it and the lawn mower keeps E36 M3ting out.
I wouldn't say "100%". There are certainly places that you can get E0 pump gas in SW Washington. Pure-Gas lists 4 places in Longview and another in Kelso that sells E0. Although, two of those will require a Pacific Pride or CFN account, and only one place has 87, 89, and 92. But you can still get it.
I've noticed the prices of the ethanol free stuff doesn't seem to fluctuate as much. The E0 92 seems to hover right around $4.50/gal in Salmon Creek.
In reply to Mr_Estrotica:
All of the places on that list in my county that have E0 are commercial fuel depots only (CFN, Pacific Pride). I guarantee you that the Flying K there is E10, you can even see the stickers on Google Streetview.
In reply to Javelin:
The only markings I see on the Flying K station are giant block letters stating "NO ETHANOL GASOLINE" and "E85". But maybe you googles are different. :shrug:
In reply to Mr_Estrotica:
I'll drive by and take a photo for you 
Edit - LOL, they are listing the E85 station as a Flying K. There's an actual Flying K across the street and up a block or so. Yes though, the E85 station supposedly has some E0 regular. I'll have to stop in there again.
I've got 87/89/93 here in VA Beach, but it's all 10% ethanol. I think you can get some 100 octane race gas at an old Sunoco in Chesapeake, though.
NJ has the 87/89/92/93/94 (depending on the station) and no-ethonol
And we're back from the break!
The weekend was jam-packed with family and racing, so I really didn't get much of a chance to work on the SAAB.
I started by removing the door card (thank you Harbor Freight 20% off coupon for the new star drive bits) so I could work that nasty dent out.
A little time later, we had this. Not too bad, but could be better.
It does look like a massive improvement from back a little ways. Fast-forward to Monday night...
That's more like it! A little more time and I'm pleased as punch. Again, it's not perfect, but it looks pretty straight now and fits with the overall condition of the car. Reinstalled the door card.
Back under the hood, I had to mess with the heat shield (that I am 95% convinced isn't stock) for the battery. I also cleaned the battery posts and connectors and installed a positive terminal guard. I took the opportunity of a cold engine and a missing battery to wire brush the exhaust manifold and turbo hot side and then High Heat paint them. This will dull down to an aluminized look after 2-3 heat cycles, and bring the temps way down.
And now this morning:
This is the faded original Talladega Red paint. It is single stage, no clearcoat (except the offside rear wing, which has clearly been repainted with a clear coat).
A squeeze of compound and an electric mop...
Voila'! (Half & half)
There's life in that paint after all.
And in the sun. 
As you can now plainly see in the sunshine, the offside rear wing has been resprayed at some point in the car's past incorrectly with a base/clear in the wrong color. Grrr...
I spent my lunch break out back with the Porter Cable...
Results!
Not bad, huh? Dent is pretty well gone, paint is pretty well polished, and the engine runs great.
Great work! Now come over and make mine look that good that fast!
There is nothing in this world more rewarding to me than buffing out a badly neglected car and bringing the paint back to life.
Looks great!
Man, that thing is looking awesome! Nice work!
Thanks!
I really wish I had some spare money. 
What tools/ techniques did you use to knock out that dent in the door? Very impressive!
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