Daily Driver #2 88 SPG

[Luke]

Because more is always better, but mostly because when SAAB opportunities rise its hard to turn them down, I picked up an 88 SPG that I got a lead on from a friend at work. It had been sitting for a few years with a bad gearbox, the original owner had planned to repair it himself with/for his son to drive and just never got around to it.
Its black, which from what I can gather was never an official color in literature for '88 SPG's but a handful are out there. He told me he had to special order the black and wait for it to come in. He bought it in Priceton NJ, then moved to California for a number of years, reciepts show that a dealership called "vasek polak" did the majority of the service on the car and then moved back to the east coast at some point.
The car is very solid where it matters, got some slight bubbling here and there but overall not bad and better than the average purebred east coast car.
I payed $600 which may seem like a lot considering the gearbox was toast, but I saw some potential and I'm pretty quick with a gearbox R&R by now so I went for it.

[Luke]

First step was to yank the drivetrain out.

The car was actually somewhat driveable but the gearbox made weird noises. Heres why:

Thats the layshaft, the bearing had not only totally degraded, but the bore of the gear was actually starting to rub on the shaft itself... prob one of the worst I have seen.

So I put together a nice fresh box for the car and clean everything all up. I converted the engine stand over to transmission holding duty which is a nice option to have.

I also cleaned the engine up since it was out and already fairly clean.

[Luke]

The engine after the gearbox R&R.

All cleaned up and ready for action:

The interior is pretty nice, not perfect, but not bad

.

[Luke]

So in the course of 2 months I've done two complete gearbox R&R's and parted out two other C900's. I managed to wrap the important stuff up before it got really really cold, so I think I'll take a bit of a break now. Although I am already lining up projects and ideas for the spring. Ah it never ends....

[KPAero]

I'd say that looks pretty good for $600! Also, I get jealous every time I see a picture of your engine stand.

[Hans]

<Borat>Very nice.</Borat>

What's your technique for cleaning the engine out of the car -- plug the holes and steam? Elbow grease and cleaning product _____________?

[Luke]

In this case I pulled the intake manifold off to clean it, degreased the manifold with castrol super clean and warm water, glass beaded and then rinsed with normal detergent and water and blew out with compressed air. The Engine block I taped ports off, castrol super clean, brass bristle brush on the aluminum and steel brush on the iron parts, blast with the pressure washer and repeat a couple times, Dry, then hit with some acetone on a rag and then mask for some fresh paint. Pull the plugs and blow out the chambers in case any water got in there and call it clean enough.

[Neil_G]

Hi Luke

Excellent work (as always)

Have you ever considered moving to the warmer climes of Australia?
My Saabs would benefit greatly from your expertise

I did seriously consider for a moment sending my gearboxes to the US for you to maintain....

regards
Neil

[DeLorean]

Neat, do the passive belts still work, or does it need to be converted to conventional seatbelts?

[Luke]

Neat, do the passive belts still work, or does it need to be converted to conventional seatbelts?

Didn't work, I ditched them right away and installed all the stuff leftover from my 86.

[DrewP]

That's definitely $600 worth of potential. That looks like about the nicest paint job on a $600 car I've seen in a long time.

One of my friends has a factory black '88 Airflow, and I've heard of some black '88 SPGs even though there weren't supposed to be any.

I always get a kick out of how fantastic the SAAB engineering used to be, and how poor their book keeping was.

[Geoff]

So in the course of 2 months I've done two complete gearbox R&R's and parted out two other C900's. I managed to wrap the important stuff up before it got really really cold, so I think I'll take a bit of a break now. Although I am already lining up projects and ideas for the spring. Ah it never ends....

Yup, "SAAB FARM" is right!

My dad bought a black '88 SPG (with passive belts) back in '98. He scrapped it a year or two ago because it was a basket case.

[hutch]

Looks great, I've been missing my black '90 SPG and have been wanting to get another black 900 with a little less body issues.

Let me know if you're ever going to sell it!

[Scott]

Nice! I'm jealous.

How many miles are on the body?

[turbo stephan]

Great car Luke. I can't believe it though. I've been looking for a black 900 SPG with that steering wheel and that interior for god knows how long. I just can't seem to find any. Either I must be doing something wrong or 900 SPGs fall out of the sky in PA.

Stephan