'75 99 Rally Car Restoration

[SaabsBreakDown]

my sister has gotten a few saab stripe kits reproduced already, maybe I could talk to her and see what the vinyl guys have in the computer. I know she's done the Turbo and I think the EMS already, but i'm not totally sure.

[Luke]

Or you can take a picture of the side of the car, send a measurement of the door length, a picture of the S&R stripe, and have a vinyl shop make some for you. Shouldn't be too expensive. Then you can apply in the summer.

And sell extras to other Saabers who would love to have the look without the paint process.

I guess a really narrow swoosh would look alright in vinyl, but one with a width greater than 2 inches or so is going to look crappy and end up costing more than paint and not last nearly as long.

[Luke]

A few updates!

The paint is totally done now and I've even reproduced most of the original decals.

[Jordan]

Neat!

[Geoff]

We need a :drool: smiley!

[Luke]

A few more updates:

This is an original sport and rally guard that will be used to protect the gas tank, seen in the catalog shot below, pretty neat!

Also an original sport and rally wheel as seen in the photo with Stig at the wheel and in the catalog.

wheels.JPG (38.05 KiB) Viewed 3492 times

Some other parts in the process of being cleaned up for the project.

[DrewP]

Luke,

On your '75 does your forward roof support meet the minimum 200mm dimension for drawing 253-15 for rule 8.3.2.1.4 Windscreen Pillar Reinforcement (the really ugly straight member connecting the lower front hoop mounting point to the top of the halo support, where it turns down to follow the a-pillar)? FIA 253 says that applies to cars after Jan 1 2006, and mine is definitely more than the maximum 200mm dimension and looks similar geometry to yours, but I also built mine with a halo rather than the half hoops like you did, or are you measuring to the reinforcing gussets to get to the min dimension there?

(EDIT: I am taking the homologated date in all of the regs to mean when the specific car in questions enters competition / receives a logbook, am I being an idiot and the structural regs go by the homologation date of the vehicle model in question?)





Also, I was wondering what your reasoning for mounting the main hoop rear stays to the tops of the rear wheel wells rather than to the trunk floor where the spring perch is, since it doesn't look like the '75 is getting the rear coilovers. I can't decide which spot I like better for mine, picking up at the suspension will be better for stiffening up the body for the sake of the suspension, but going to the arches will reduce the amount of tubing I need, and will weight less.

I also don't have to carry a spare wheel and things like you guys do, is that why you wanted more space there?

Best,
Drew

[Luke]

Depending on where you measure the cage its borderline on needing those additional braces. Rally America and NASA have never had an issue with it at all though. The FIA rules actually do mean the date of homologation for the car itself, but that is not how it is interpreted in US. Dont even get me started on the interpretation of the fuel cell rules either! Basically in the US we have to double bag the cell as the translated french is something like "fuel cell need to be enclosed in a sealed metal container" Well what they mean is that the bladder itself must be in a metal box... not that the fuel cell kit which already comes with this box metal box must have another metal box around it!

[Luke]

Oh, on the rear brace mounts. I like to get the braces (and everything for that matter as close to exterior of the car as possible. When i mocked up the braces to the floor I wasn't happy with the converging angle the two braces would make when viewed from the rear, like this \ / . If I ran them straight up then they would be too far inset to effectively backup the foward lateral hoops. Running them onto the wheel well (which is pretty darn stout metal too, especially the inner housing) allows an angle more like this: /\ which is a lot stronger.

[DrewP]

Makes sense. I don't think this car will have the same propensity for going sideways into immovable objects with the rear quarter like yours will. On mine I have a little over 41" clearance between the rear fender wells, and my main hoop x-brace comes up right in the center of the bends on both sides like yours, so the node that the rear stays will come up to is right about a 39" c-c spacing, so they will be nearly perfect parallel, just set inside the car a little farther from the rear windows.

Are the rear pans of the early and late body cars different? Maybe the reliefs for the dampers just don't come in as far on my '73 than yours, but I am definitely going to take advantage of stiffening up the rear suspension mounts.

My windshield pillars are something like 34cm with that measurement above, but unless the tube is kicked waaaay outwards towards the door skins that reinforcement tube would nicely intersect right where the rim of the steering wheel would be anyway, the 99 is just so small that it doesn't quite make sense to have it there especially with the a-pillars boxed in. I am just gonna leave it like it is.

I noticed that about the 253 paper too, I am pretty good at reading regs, but the terminology in there is rather inconsistent and some of it took a few readings to get square what the intent was, and looked to me like it might have been a translation. I am decent at reading the French, but I don't know all the technical words, sort of the opposite for how it goes when I read SAAB pages that are in Swedish - I only know the technical terms!

Best,
Drew

[DrewP]

Have you done anything more with this since starting the engine project? There's this shot of the car waiting patiently, but haven't seen anything in a while.

[Luke]

sorta on the backburner waiting for an engine - but it is a complete rolling shell right now.

[airsweden]

Sometimes I forget about that car, then when It pops up again I get all sweaty and its hard to breath. When its all done I want to park it in my living room so I can look at it while i'm eating dinner.

[Crazyswede]

Sometimes I forget about that car, then when It pops up again I get all sweaty and its hard to breath. When its all done I want to park it in my living room so I can look at it while i'm eating dinner.

Next to the P1800 and the Vespa

[Geoff]

Back to the original suspension geometry huh? Did you remove the coil-over turrets?