Hi Everyone,

I am usually terrible about doing an intro post, but hey, might as well.

I have been lurking this forum now for quite a while, (oddly enough I create this account 1 year ago to the day ) and am finally getting going on a saab 99 that I picked up for a rally/rally x project. Ultimately, the goal is to run Targa Newfoundland once I have some experience and a well proven car.

I have 2 saabs, the 78 99 3 Door EMS (don't have pictures yet... it's sitting out at my mechanic friend's acreage)

and a 85 SPG, which is my daily driver, and is actually the first car that I ever bought :




Which I had to do a ps floor replacement on:



Matt

Welcome! Beautiful SPG, being north of the border you were lucky enough to geth them from the factory with e-codes. Those, along with the chrome grille, is the best look.

I look forward to reading about your 99, be sure to start a thread in the Projects section. As you've probably noticed, this is where all of the 99 experts hang out.

Nice! The first SAAB I bought was an '85 SPG too, about as rusty as yours, but my brother and sister both had their first accidents in that car, so it's a little bit bent now.

ouch, that's some nasty rust. Canada isn't kind ..
SPG as a DD isn't too bad tho

looking forward to those EMS pics as well

Welcome to the forum Matt.

I see you have been browsing for a while. You have some pretty nice cars and I like your daily driver. Where in Alberta do you live, Calgary area, Edmonton area? I know Alberta, especially Calgary, pretty well. I've lived there for a while during my engineering internship when I was still a student in Germany. Tons of salt and gravel on the roads out there and you almost always end up with a cracked windshield. I live in Vancouver at the moment and it's not too bad here with the salt, unless you decide to go towards the interior.

You might have already seen that there is another Canadian user on here with an '85 SPG. His name is Jeff and he lives in Vancouver as well.

I'm looking forward to see what's going to happen with your rally car. I think there are a few rallys in Canada's west as well. There is one from BC to Alaska and we have two users here that have attended this rally successfully a couple of times.

Stephan

turbo stephan wrote:Welcome to the forum Matt.

I see you have been browsing for a while. You have some pretty nice cars and I like your daily driver. Where in Alberta do you live, Calgary area, Edmonton area? I know Alberta, especially Calgary, pretty well. I've lived there for a while during my engineering internship when I was still a student in Germany. Tons of salt and gravel on the roads out there and you almost always end up with a cracked windshield. I live in Vancouver at the moment and it's not too bad here with the salt, unless you decide to go towards the interior.

You might have already seen that there is another Canadian user on here with an '85 SPG. His name is Jeff and he lives in Vancouver as well.

I'm looking forward to see what's going to happen with your rally car. I think there are a few rallys in Canada's west as well. There is one from BC to Alaska and we have two users here that have attended this rally successfully a couple of times.

Stephan

I'm in Calgary, and yes winters can suck...

A little story on the cracked windshields... about 6 years ago on the SPG, I replaced the windshield. I was driving to a friend's house and a rock got spit up from the other side of a divided road, and cracked my new windshield... 4 hours after I replaced it...

Fast forward to last summer with the bad hail storm, my windshield got trashed. I replaced it again, then drove it to the same friends house, and took a rock off the windshield again... and another large star/chip... Sigh

The floor was caused by the AC drain draining into the cabin, and the old open cell foam under the carpet trapping water there. It was like that when I bought it, so I just cut a PS floor out of another car (which was nicely rusted everywhere BUT the floor) and welded it in.

We have three rallys right near calgary, and several near my family's cabin in the Columbia vally in BC, so if I can get the car done, I have access to lots of events within 3 hours drive or so.

Matt

Is the rust the result of the dynamat?

sjones wrote:Is the rust the result of the dynamat?

No, originally the cars came with rubberized 'stuff' on the floorboards, and then open cell foam between that and the carpet.

The problem that I have seen with almost every saab with AC is that, at some point, the drain doesn't properly drain to the outside (and/or the sunroof drain) and drains inside the dash, which then drains to the floor. Instead of drying out, the foam absorbs the water and then keeps it right on the metal floor.

I put the dynamat like stuff down(its from a cdn company out of saskatchewan) once I repaired the floor. There is no way that water will ever get at in now, because it is a butyl based product (VERY sticky on one side).

Yes, those tar/foam mats, AKA "floor rusters." The first thing I do when I acquire a new to me 900 is throw those in the garbage.

Yah the only problem that I saw was then the carpet looked a bit odd and wrinkled in places because it wasn't elevated as much anymore. I always intended to get some closed cell foam, cut it and put it in, but you know how that goes... 8 years later, and it still hasn't been done.

I scraped all the asphalt/tar mats, and tossed the foam in my 86 900. The carpets do not fit right without something under them. But for Street Modified Front wheel drive it looks the part.

I think the trick is to seal all the leaks, and keep all the drains clean. I plan to do dynamat and foam in my 85 project. I'm gonna use a product called StandartPlast. Its a russian dynamat copy. They make all sorts of sound deadening products to replace the factory stuff. I do plan to have a bitchin stereo in it.

Yah, I used b-quiet (had to look it up again), because it was A. Significantly cheaper than dynamat and B. It was butyl based (at the time regular dynamat wasn't) which I was told from some hot-rod building friends was better because it wouldn't release like the asphault based stuff would.

It's been sitting in the car now for almost 8 years with no issues, and still is adhering to the doors (I did them as well where the vapor barrier normally goes) so I guess that works.

It's actually kinda fun to apply really.