C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

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87 n/a
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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby 87 n/a » Wed Oct 08, 2014 6:15 pm

Here is a link to the UK restoration
http://www.saabsunited.com/2013/02/saab ... jects.html
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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby TurboBudapest » Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:08 am

My new red dash just arrived from Holland. I buy a lot of my spares from Thom at Saabworld (http://www.saabworld.nl). He is an awesome guy, and has parts that my local Saab guru says are unobtanium.

One of which was this red dash. He has had it gathering dust in his attic for ten years now. When I told him I needed a red dash, he said he had one in perfect shape, but was embarrassed as to how much he wanted for it, and did not want to offend me. He asked for USD 550 (EUR 400) which I found expensive but fair for a perfect dash. It will be the crowning piece to my 900 SPG that I am restoring.

If any of you from Europe need spare parts (also anyone from the US, although shipping will be expensive), check out Thom's website. He is a true genteman in a genuine Saab fashion.
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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby TurboBudapest » Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:12 am

After the euphoria of receiving the red dash in the mail this morning, I was greeted with the following pictures in my in box from my Saab guru is working on my 1985 900 SPG restoration.

Seems that the rust was much worse than we had thought, and they had to cut a fair amount of metal out. I got a little sick to be honest when I saw these pictures....but at least they are using mostly original metal from a donor to fix it. You will see that the whole right bottom is missing, although they welded in cross members to keep the frame rigid.

On a positive note, their was no rust under the SPG panels, which goes to show that this car was not a total basket case (although admitedly close to being one).

Am feeling quite discouraged....could use a little encouragement that I am not totally crazy for undertaking this project!
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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby TurboBudapest » Mon Oct 13, 2014 3:31 am

87 n/a wrote:Here is a link to the UK restoration
http://www.saabsunited.com/2013/02/saab ... jects.html


Hi 97 n/a,

Yes, I had followed this build. In fact, this build was one of the inspirations for me to take the plunge on this car.

There were quite a few silver 1985 900 SPGs built with the red interior and dash. To this day, it remains one of my favorite color combos for C900s. As this was the car I had falled in love with at the tender age of 10, to be honest no other color combo would have satisfied my craving. It was also important to me that my car be an original 1985 flatnose that came from the factory with this color combo.

I find it odd that it was never sold in this combination in the US. Perhaps because it was considered too flamboyant?

Funny, but I have also purchased the same accessories for the car as the gentleman in England who restored the same car in right hand drive. I have the same momo steering wheel (but in original black), and have also just purchased the instrument cluster (again, it was important to me to have it with the SAAB logo - incredible how expensive these accessories are getting if you can find them!).

I will be mounting the instrument gauge up high, and the radio at the lower DIN location. I found a new in box NOS high end Clarion radio/cassette which I will be installing. Not original Saab equipment, but definitely what one would have purchased for a high end car in the mid 80s. Will post pics of these separately. I decided on this rather than buying a second hand unit, as I figure the sound will be a lot better.

Thanks for posting!
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Good Progress made

Postby TurboBudapest » Fri Oct 24, 2014 12:48 am

I went to my indy again this last Wednesday to check up on progress and deliver some of the needed parts I am collecting for the car. I felt much better after having seen the car again - all body work has been largely done. Now they are applying rust converter to needed areas, and will begin smoothing things out, priming and painting. They are doing the work between jobs (helps keep cost down).

The floor issues still has us stumped. I spoke again to the body tech, and he thinks that at some point in it's life, the car ran oversomething which damaged the whole driver's side floor. This could not have been rust induced, as then the car would be rusty in a bunc of other areas as we all know about these beloved C900s of ours.

When they took the tupperware off, there was only one place where there was rust, and they cut that out and welded in some new metal as you will see from the attached.

Still can't believe what good condition the original paint and body work is in. After a good polish with two or three individual areas repainted, it should look like new.

Thank God I live in Hungary where the labor is cheap. I can only imagine how expensive this would have been if in the US or Germany for example (although I still do not know how much this is costing me).

Next week, they are sending off the wiring loom to get looked over and rebuilt as necessary, the gearbox for a new synchromesh for the second gear and a general look over, the turbo for a rebuild (there was more play in the shaft than we would have liked), and the running gear for sandblasting and repainting. In the mean time, I have a long list of parts I need to hunt down - mostly suspension related.

Any way, feeling much more positive now about this project generally. I have given into the fact that this project will probably only be finished in the sprint, but at least it will be done right. In the mean time I have my 99 Turbo and 9000 Aero to play with (although the 99 Turbo goes into winter hibernation in the next few weeks, depending on when the snow begins).
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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby SwedeSport » Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:17 am

Looks pretty good... the stuff under the car and hidden by the carpet just has to be solid. Pretty is not a huge issue.

They are doing a nice job.
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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby Geoff » Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:51 am

That looks pretty good. It's nice to have someone else doing the work for you. Just make sure they do a good job of getting paint and sealer into all the seams. The rustiest C900s and 99s I've seen were cars which had been damaged early in their life and not painted/sealed well at the repair points.
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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby TurboBudapest » Fri Oct 24, 2014 12:13 pm

Thanks Crazy Swede. Agree fully that what is important is that the bits be solid and not beautiful. That said, I appreciated the fact that my indy is doing this in a pretty way as well. Most cuts were on the panel seems as from the factory, which is great.

Geoff - very good point. Will speak with them to make sure this is done. That said, they are very very thorough, so am sure this will be done right. Will be going over every week or two to make sure the job is done right.

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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby Crazyswede » Fri Oct 24, 2014 12:45 pm

There were a couple of guys in the USA who bought Lancia Delta Integrale cars a few years ago from somewhere in Europe. They apparently had a them fully rebuilt in Romania or Budapest or one of those lesser known (to Americans) countries. The amount of work was impressive and the cost was minimal compared to the equivalent cost in the USA.
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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby Luke » Fri Oct 24, 2014 12:55 pm

Crazyswede wrote: They apparently had a them fully rebuilt in Romania or Budapest or one of those lesser known (to Americans) countries.


I can't understand why more Americans don't know about the beautiful country of Budapest. :lol:

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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby Crazyswede » Fri Oct 24, 2014 3:33 pm

Luke wrote:
Crazyswede wrote: They apparently had a them fully rebuilt in Romania or Budapest or one of those lesser known (to Americans) countries.


I can't understand why more Americans don't know about the beautiful country of Budapest. :lol:



At least somebody got the joke.
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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby DrewP » Fri Oct 24, 2014 5:43 pm

Random American filling in a map of Europe.

To be fair, the maps of Europeans filling in the US states are even funnier.


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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby Geoff » Sat Oct 25, 2014 7:32 am

Crazyswede wrote:
Luke wrote:I can't understand why more Americans don't know about the beautiful country of Budapest. :lol:

At least somebody got the joke.

Got to love that subtle wit! :denmark:
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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby TurboBudapest » Sat Mar 21, 2015 2:33 am

Been a while since I have posted. The body work other than the doors was largely completed early December. Since then we have been restoring parts and collecting new parts attached a few pics. All suspension and break components have been either sand blasted and powder coated, or acid washed and zinc coated. The suspension will be as new once we are done. All bushes and gaskets have been changed. My garage had to remanufacture the bushings in the real stabiliser bar, as a parent tly these are no longer available. The steering group column and steering pump have been totally rebuilt. I found NOS sachs dampers in England-these are not produced any more, and the front units are near impossible to find. The turbo has also been completely rebuilt. The turbo housing was racked and needed to be welded. With respect to the engine, all bearings and gasketz have been replaced, but otherwise it was in god shape given the 140k mils it has run. The gearbox has also been taken apart, and parts replaced and overhauled as needed. The rear set is being refurbished-some parts of the leather need to be replaced, and it needs a good clean and a bit of redwing. The front seats had been reupholstered by the previous owner to a high standard. It is all coming together now. Amazing how difficult a restoration like this is. The collecting of the various needed parts and the coordination between the different specialists restoring the various bits is the hardest and most time consuming. My garage rassures me that progress should be swift moving forward. Oh, forgot to mention that the new headlining material is arriving next week......I turn 40 at the end of April and have asked that come hell or high water, it needs to be done by then!
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Re: C900 SPG Purchase - Possible Fiasco

Postby TurboBudapest » Sat Mar 21, 2015 2:49 am

Lastly, I had the conundrum as to what radio to install. The car came with a niwish CD player that stuck out like a sore thumb. I really wanted something period. I sourced some original Saab Clarion units, but most of the good ones are in the US (where there are different radio frequencies than in the US) and all were risky of not working well. I found this NOS Clarion unit from 1987 and bought it on Ebay for about 80 bucks. Still was in original unopened box and smelled factory fresh. Made in Japan. I figured that this would have been the replacement radio the owner would have purchased in 87 if the car's original radio was stolen....wish it was tinted green rather than orange, but this is as good as I could do without buying one of those ultra expensive currently produced retro units. Will mount this low as I have a gauge set which I will mount where most mount the radio. Can hardly wait till this puppy is complete!
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