85 900T Street Project

[SwedeSport]

This is the Saab that started it all for me. It's an Admiral Blue 85 900 Turbo that I bought back in 95. I drove it for almost 4 years, having plans to put a paint job on it and make a nice driver out of it. That is until I had the misfortune of getting into an accident, and a week or 2 later losing the trans. I tore it apart to begin repairing it, and my A.D.D. kicked in and it got pushed to the side. It has been sitting in 3 different garages since 99. I have made small steps over the years. I got it all apart, and collected a bunch of cool pieces. Built a full 3 inch exhaust for it. I have boxes of new parts, and shelves full of restored parts and hardware ready to go on. I have a decent leather interior to go in it. I sent it to a body shop that tweaked the chassis and grafted in the replacement inner and outter fender bits that were damaged. It really just needs finish work and reassembly.


I figured since my goal was to have the whole front clip painted over Xmas break, I should start a proper thread. If all goes to plan, I can be reassembling the front end and engine bay early in the new year.

[SwedeSport]

Almost everything is sitting around the shop awaiting a paint job and installation. I have all the brake parts ready to go on the car, including an 87 vented setup. An entirely cleaned up and painted front suspension. All the engine bay hardware has been cleaned and prepped. The engine and trans was freshened a few years before i quit driving it, so it should drop in without much work. I have tire and wheel combo at the ready. I scored a nice blue leather interior a few years back and plan to use that. I have a BRAND NEW whaletail to put on it.

Here are a few more pics of the pieces and bits.

I'm afraid it will be too nice to drive when I finish.

[SwedeSport]

I'll repaint it the original color (Admiral Blue) in a single stage Dupont Centauri paint. I'll paint the grill with a smoked chrome paint, and the rear license plate area probably the same. I have Euro lights with NEW lenses, New reflectors, and a 90/130 conversion. Im tossing the idea around of smoking the taillights while I'm at it. Although a touch of color is not bad either. I have a set of clear front corner marker lenses to put on it. I have an SPG kit to put on the car, with plans to paint the ground FX body color. The rear glass gets Limo tint while the sides will get something slightly lighter. There will be a graphic of a Swedish flag on the side of the hood where the turbo emblem goes, and yellow and blue stripes trailing off toward the back of the car.

I scored a (nearly) crack free dash years ago that will go in it. The interior will be mostly stock with a few accents. Carbon fiber inserts in the dash fascia, and the door panel inserts will be redone in matching blue leather. The rear parcel shelf area will be modified to accept some speakers and recovered with the same. Really other than mods to fit a sound system and a few accents it will be stock.

Since all my cars use the pre 87 bolt pattern, I can mix and match wheel treatments on the car easily. The 17x7 Drag wheels will be the primary choice for the car. But I may run a stock steelie look on it too. I really like steel wheels, especially with the black plastic caps that came with the winter wheel package.

[Geoff]

Looks like you have a lot of nice clean parts there. Why not repaint the whole car instead of just the front clip?

[SwedeSport]

The whole car is getting a respray, I'm just breaking it into two stages. I'll paint the front clip to make sure the engine compartment is freshened up. Then I intend to reassemble the suspension, and engine bay. Then the whole car gets paint as if I wasnt going to do the engine bay.

I originally did not intend to respray the engine bay but the collision damage changed the plan for me. The metal work that had to be repaired left too much to ignore.

I have to be careful of the size of the spray job I do. There are other tenants in the building that will get upset if I stink the place up too bad. It's all about timing. The neighbor closes early on Saturdays, and is closed on Sundays. So If I spray it Saturday afternoon, the building will have a better chance to air out by Monday morning.

[Luke]

I'm excited to see this coming together. I've always really liked that color and all those nice parts you've collected will be put to good use.

[SwedeSport]

Think of all the shop space I'll regain if this car were reassembled.

It will be really nice to get it back together. It's only been apart since 1999. Getting this car finished means that some of the other projects can get the deserved attention. I just get too particular sometimes about every detail. I think the desire to finish and drive it finally overcame my desire to build the "perfect" car.

I have sprayed a few panels here and there, with decent results. This will be my first time painting an entire car.

[DrewP]

I just get too particular sometimes about every detail. I think the desire to finish and drive it finally overcame my desire to build the "perfect" car.

You and me both. Looks like it will be really fun, and even if you don't pick every detail looks like it will still be really tidy.

[Geoff]

Those blue leather interiors are pretty rare. It should look pretty neat, but you'll definitely have the blues.

[SwedeSport]

So I spent the weekend working on prep for the paint job. Decided that I should body work the whole car and get it in primer before I spray the engine compartment. I bought etching primer (Variprime) and a 2k High build filler primer. I ordered a gallon of single stage Dupont Centauri in the original 131H Admiral Blue.

I discoved that the car had almost the whole back half repainted, and found that the bodywork under the repaint was failing. I decided to take it down to bare metal in the areas that were redone. Where possible I left the original paint and primer in place. I found several areas that had filler in them. The pass rear quarter had been hit and repaired so I cleaned it all out to metal. There were a few dings on the other side that were fixed before the respray too. I took the drivers door to metal and found some damage on the top of it. The pass door had a few dings too, but Ill only spot repair those since the original paint is still solid. I am also eliminating the rivet holes from the side moulding. I welded the holes shut and ground the welds. A minimal amount of spot putty will get the spots in line. There is some rust inside the body that I am working on treating with Rust Kutter and a liberal coating of Eastwoods Rust Encapsulator. I am cleaning out any seams with failing seam sealer, treating the rust and then resealing it with new seam sealer.

The floors in the car will need some work. The tar coating shit will get scraped out and cleaned out. (Gasoline and gloves) Ill treat any rusty areas with the aforementioned products and give it a coat of paint to seal it. All brush work here since it is only for corrosion resistance and is not seen once the car is back together. The plan is to replace the tar with Dynamat or a comparable product. ( I do plan to put a stereo system in it)

[SwedeSport]

I dunno if anyone noticed the parallel between the slot car in my avatar, and this project. Been dreaming up this car for a while.

[SwedeSport]

Found a pre digital camera photo of the car. At the time it had 81k on it and looked really nice inside and out. It had its share of issues for being a 10 year old car. But overall it was a really sweet ride for a 21 year old kid.

Of course I had yet to discover the issues lurking under the skin. Not long after the photo was taken I discovered anti freeze and oil mixed in both systems. Pulled the head and refurbed it, plopped it back on and took it for a ride... Sill mixing the two fluids, chocolate milk in my motor. Pulled the head back off and spun the crank to inspect the bores. That's when we found the cracks splitting the block in half for the most part. 3 of the 4 cylinders were cracked down the middle. One had a hole in it about the size of a pencil eraser. The best we can figure is it overheated and someone poured cold water into the engine before it cooled down. Or it had too much water in the system and froze up in winter. Either way we pulled the whole motor and replaced it with a good used one.

[Luke]

Wow look how shiney that paint was.... can't wait to see it looking like that again. I also really miss the old PA plates, they should re-issue those.

You've really been cranking stuff out, its great!
Keep it coming!

[SwedeSport]

How many whacks with a 3 pound hammer does it take to break a hatch glass?


Removed the remaining glass from the car last night and now I'm working on removing the black urethane sealer (P.I.T.A).

Under the door and window seals, where there are 2 panels pinch welded together is a thin gray foam tape. Im assuming its to protect the pinch weld from rust caused by dirt and moisture that gets behind the seal. Its about an inch wide and wraps over the pinch weld. i guess my question is about how necessary it is to replace it when I reassemble the car. And if it's determined to be needed, where do I find it or a reasonable substitution.


I destroyed a bunch of the little T clips that hold the door weatherstrip on. I had to remove a bunch of them to clean surface rust from the bottom of the doors. But I found a commercially available replacement at the body shop supply. .13 cents each. That is reasonable enough.

I cannot find a suitable replacement or substitution for plastic inserts that go in the square holes in the lower body sides. The ones that expand when you run a screw into them. They hold the rails for the SPG Ground FX panels. Can anyone suggest a source or PN for a replacement?

[Geoff]

Foam holds moisture (like a sponge). That tape is typically used for adhering things together.

If you want to put something on seams when assembling trim, I use the wax from toilet bowl was rings. It keeps water out and melts at a fairly high temperature and is pliable enough to put where you need it.