60six
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Posts: 1,679
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Owned this for 10 years - Years ago it helped me get a job interview that pulled me out of serious drowning debt - I promised it then I would totally sort it out ....
On the morning of the job interview I accidently had left on the interior lights overnight - Dead battery. Nothing from ignition. Mate borrowing my only charger. Parked too awkwardly to bump. Sat in the car, rolled a cig, considered my options. (basically lots of derogatory statements about myself!)
Turned the key once more and by an absolute miracle it started to turn over the engine really really slowly - this slowly got quicker and then it started!
10 years on I have kept the car on various driveways, gardens, low loaders, etc - Someone attempted to steal it by rewiring the windscreen wipers - all the time the battery was in the passenger footwell.... I still laugh thinking about it.
Had a very quiet couple of months for work so being a great believer of 'The devil makes work for idle minds' - I set about learning to weld. The SAAB would be my welding testbed.
Mainly front arches and the passenger side transmission tunnels. A real rot trap on these cars and the killer of most of them as it is quite an awkward fix. - I persevered and got it through an MOT by the skin of it's tyres.
Didn't take many pix whilst repairing as it was causing me to lose focus on the task at hand.
It is now my daily driver - My goal is to get to 300,000 miles - Currently at 270,000 ....
Modifications/work
LED indicators & brake lights
Remote central locking (10 quid for a 12v relay with 2 remotes from amazon!)
Bypassed APC - now using manual boost pressure valve, topping out at 10 psi.
Dent on bonnet from INSIDE thanks to me adjusting the pressure valve incorrectly thus blowing the metal intake pipe off the turbo at extreme force!
Air conditioning system removed along with HUGE copper thing
New clutch, home-made PTFE braided tubing clutch line. Had too many clutch lines die on me. This one won't.
New discs & pads & calipers all round
3 inch JT exhaust with wrapped manifold
Battery relocated to boot
Compomotive TH1570 alloys with the embossed 1970's style lettering removed.
newish front wing
New engine mounts
New flywheel oil seal and gearbox oil - IT DON'T LEAK OIL! still shocked.... keep thinking it has run out of oil ...
Headlining sprayed with thick stonechip - It looks great, honestly guv!
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Last Edit: Aug 4, 2017 9:23:12 GMT by 60six
Some 9000's, a 900, an RX8 & a beetle
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60six
Posted a lot
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Posts: 1,679
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Some 9000's, a 900, an RX8 & a beetle
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Love these, my mate had a, lets say tatty, black one a few years back before they were worth anything. It was mega cool!
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Love it. Good to see another old Saab on here.
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Very cool Saab, like it in red too. will be good to see what happens going forward
Cheers,
Drew
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2001 Mk4 Golf - Not retro yet but getting there
Some cars I've owned:
'91 Renault Clio 1.4 RT
'96 Peugeot 306 2.0 XSi (the one that got away)
'96 Vauxhall Astra Euro'96 Gold edition
'97 Renault Laguna 2.0 RT
'98 Mk3 Golf GTI Colour Concept
'00 PT Cruiser
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60six
Posted a lot
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Posts: 1,679
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After owning over 50+ cars of various types - These SAAB's have totally stuck with me. For me it's the little things like me being left handed and you unlock the car with the left hand and the ignition is in the centre. No need to swap hands!
The Dash is as perfect as a dashboard can be. Nothing obscured. nothing too bright.
Turn off the ignition. The lights turn off as well if on main beam. Why don't all cars do this?
The best front facing visibility of any car, as the windscreen pillars are angled to only take up a very small amount of space.
Very solid electrics. Loom manufactured by Nokia. (Unless you have owned a 1985 car which had a bio-degradable wiring loom - before they realised that engine oil / engine fumes ruin the loom) - I never forget fixing an electrical fault on one of the injectors only to unravel the cloth tape which in turn took off every single sheath for every single electrical wire. The compression of the tape was the only thing holding the entire engine loom together. I love soldering!
Equal length driveshafts so no pull on the steering wheel on acceleration.
Even now, 24 years after the last one was made - Very few cars can beat the acceleration between 60 & 80mph.
I can fit a full size fridge in the back, and pretty much everything from IKEA (not all at once)
A heater that only a log fire can better.
If maintained, always more reliable than anything else I have owned. The only breakdowns I have had was a fuel pump & fan belts on G512AAR (my first) - They have two fan belts in series and if they have been on there a while, and someone (me) only changes one of them, you are guaranteed that they will both fail and every recovery service will only carry one of them - if any.
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Some 9000's, a 900, an RX8 & a beetle
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60six
Posted a lot
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Posts: 1,679
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Some 9000's, a 900, an RX8 & a beetle
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60six
Posted a lot
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Posts: 1,679
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I really loved it when it wasn't sprayed, steelies & had a black wing and every panel was a different shade of red.
All I can say is that as this car got me out of a really tight financial problem, and had never once ever let me down, when absolutely every other thing in my life had - It deserved more than looking like this, but not pristine and shiny.
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Some 9000's, a 900, an RX8 & a beetle
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60six
Posted a lot
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Posts: 1,679
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Very cool Saab, like it in red too. will be good to see what happens going forward Cheers, Drew Forgive me, but I have never understood quite what 'Good to see what happens going forward' actually means. People would say that to me in the corporate environment and I didn't know what it meant then either, Sorry! |
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Some 9000's, a 900, an RX8 & a beetle
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Saab 900t is on my bucket list. 270,000 is a proper example at how bullet proof these engines are. Is it showing signs of any wear?
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Mk2 Golf 16V resto
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Very cool Saab, like it in red too. will be good to see what happens going forward Cheers, Drew Forgive me, but I have never understood quite what 'Good to see what happens going forward' actually means. People would say that to me in the corporate environment and I didn't know what it meant then either, Sorry! It's a complement of sorts! It seems all the work has happened in the past, and you are posting up to present (so you may have done lots and not posted yet) but it's a way of saying 'I'm interested in what you've done/are doing to this' Personally there are quite a few threads that I started reading when they were big projects and now consist of little updates, but strangely that doesn't stop me reading up on them, it's nice to see them still plodding on, and see what happens I do like an old Saab, carry on  |
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Certainly a shape I actually love.
And they are not that common, so pleased you saved it for various reasons.
The convertibles do it for me as well.
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Well done nice looking Saab.
I can honestly say yours is then only vehicle I have seen painted in satin finish that looks very cool indeed.
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melle
South West
It'll come out in the wash.
Posts: 2,010
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Great one, keep it rolling! My daily is a 1988 900i.
What are the Ronal Turbo lookalike wheels in the first pics?
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www.saabv4.com'70 Saab 96 V4 "The Devil's Own V4" '77 Saab 95 V4 van conversion project '88 Saab 900i 8V
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Rob M
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,915
Club RR Member Number: 41
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Ive loved Saabs ever since I bought a 1973 99 back in the mid 80s.
The 900 Turbo is on my list of 'cars i must own before I cark it...'
They are car individuality personified.
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60six
Posted a lot
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Posts: 1,679
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Forgive me, but I have never understood quite what 'Good to see what happens going forward' actually means. People would say that to me in the corporate environment and I didn't know what it meant then either, Sorry! It's a complement of sorts! It seems all the work has happened in the past, and you are posting up to present (so you may have done lots and not posted yet) but it's a way of saying 'I'm interested in what you've done/are doing to this' Personally there are quite a few threads that I started reading when they were big projects and now consist of little updates, but strangely that doesn't stop me reading up on them, it's nice to see them still plodding on, and see what happens I do like an old Saab, carry on You know sometimes when a brain simply can't read something properly? - A brain-fart - Thats what I had last night! Sorry! Damn vodka.  |
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Some 9000's, a 900, an RX8 & a beetle
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60six
Posted a lot
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Posts: 1,679
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Saab 900t is on my bucket list. 270,000 is a proper example at how bullet proof these engines are. Is it showing signs of any wear? When I fired it up after a few years - It pumped out so much blue smoke I couldn't see my garden. Thought it was done for. Turned out that the turbo over time had leaked oil down into the exhaust manifold and thankfully that is where it was coming from. Driving through a tunnel on the way to the MOT station was pretty bad for everyone else in the tunnel but thankfully the smoke cleared by the time it was on the emissions tester. The gearbox does whine but it recently has got a lot quieter thanks to the oil change. It can occasionally put out blue smoke if you leave it running without driving, then it clears. The indicator arm doesnt self cancel and the pull back for the high beam doesn't work so has been moved to a button on the dash. The indicator arms on these things are badly made from the factory. |
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Some 9000's, a 900, an RX8 & a beetle
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60six
Posted a lot
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
Posts: 1,679
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Great one, keep it rolling! My daily is a 1988 900i. What are the Ronal Turbo lookalike wheels in the first pics? They are called compomotive TH1570's with 205/60/15 on them - may change to 205-50-15. The wheels are originally for a gravel track sierra racing car, and only just fit on the back using 5mm spacers. This rubs very slightly on the arch so I have got some 3mm spacers to try - It should improve things but it will be even closer to the rear suspension arm. The wheels would of originally looked like this - bloody awful with that embossed lettering.  |
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Some 9000's, a 900, an RX8 & a beetle
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melle
South West
It'll come out in the wash.
Posts: 2,010
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You must have a big lathe! I don't like alloys in general, but I have to say these look quite OK.
Are you on UKSaabs? I vaguely remember having seen this car before?
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www.saabv4.com'70 Saab 96 V4 "The Devil's Own V4" '77 Saab 95 V4 van conversion project '88 Saab 900i 8V
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60six
Posted a lot
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Posts: 1,679
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You must have a big lathe! I don't like alloys in general, but I have to say these look quite OK. Are you on UKSaabs? I vaguely remember having seen this car before? I'm not on UK saabs, but I read a lot on there when trying to fix a problem. Never put a picture of it online until now. I didnt shave the letters off, but I did have to get the centre-bore expanded from 63.5 to 65mm |
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Some 9000's, a 900, an RX8 & a beetle
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