It's time to finally introduce Ulrika, my dolomite sand 86. She's totally base- crank windows, no sunroof, 8 valve, N/A. Unfortunately, also an automatic. Ulrika was a one-owner car before me, owned since brand new by a woman named Gerda, who took immaculate care of her. Always garaged, with perfect service history, and looking almost like a new car both inside and out. Unfortunately for Gerda, she was relying the local Saab dealer for repair work. She was towed to the shop 3 times for "overheating", and they failed to properly diagnose the problem each time, although happily threw money at the problem & replaced several components. I found the issue- the temp gauge in the instrument cluster had a short in it, which made the gauge peg on red. The dealer also replaced the starter motor to fix a loud squeal on start up, which of course did not help since it was the crankshaft pulley at fault. These off-course repairs led Gerda to donate the car to charity. Luckily, it was bought at auction by a serious car collector, who then had no idea what to do with her. I found her parked in a barn full of Corvettes, Mustangs, and the like- literally boxed in by an early 70s Barracuda. He gave up and dropped her on Craigslist, which is where I entered the picture.

We have the technology- we can fix her!

I fixed the temp gauge issue and the crankshaft pulley, then parked her in a barn myself. She's been mostly sitting in storage the last 2 years while I tried to figure out how to proceed. Finally, this project is underway! I'll start with a shot of how she looked brand new to me.



Different wheels:

A bit more of the story- Gerda flew to Sweden in 1986 to pick this car up in person. She toured Europe, then shipped her new car directly back to Oregon.

Here's the nameplate she had made:

Looks just like mine. Can you put some stock manhole cover wheels on that and take pics that I could send to the dmv?

I want to apply for classic plates for mine, and its not quite stock anymore.

The steel wheels and hubcaps were actually what came on my car. like in your first pic.

So here's the plan. It's turned into a bigger project than I envisioned, that's for sure. :)

- 5 speed with Quaife differential! I've finally got this ready to go, after a very long delay. Scanwest in Seattle did the install for me into a spare box I had set aside.

- Turbo! Because, boost! I'll stick with 8 valve though just for kicks. I have 90% of what I need, or at least I think I do. Lots of work to do here & questions to follow.

- Remove CIS, and go with an SDS ignition setup. This is the very kit that used to be in VinceT's old 99.

- Manual steering! I've got a perfect manual rack ready to drop in. I think it matches the crank windows nicely.

- Boxed a arms, ready to go.

- Swap out the seats and door panels for something else. The originals were in good condition, but a very dull color. I'm considering an upgrade to some 9000 aero seats that I've got. That would involve welding in new seat supports, and it might make sense to include the later style e brake/brake setup at the same time. I've got all the parts, so this a pretty close to a free swap. I've heard feedback that the brake upgrade is not (or just barely) worth it, but I've already disassembled it all so am considering it.

- Relocate the rear axle. I have the parts ready for this too.

That's the plan thus far, at least the mechanical stuff. Here's the current state of affairs:

SwedeSport wrote:Looks just like mine. Can you put some stock manhole cover wheels on that and take pics that I could send to the dmv?

I want to apply for classic plates for mine, and its not quite stock anymore.

Darn, I don't have any of those wheels anymore. When it rolls again, I'll see what I can do, but I may also be swapping to the newer axles. Does it really need the exact wheels? Seems picky. How about super incas?

How is the Caution Tape 900 you picked up when you were up here doing?

spgftw wrote:

SwedeSport wrote:Looks just like mine. Can you put some stock manhole cover wheels on that and take pics that I could send to the dmv?

I want to apply for classic plates for mine, and its not quite stock anymore.

Darn, I don't have any of those wheels anymore. When it rolls again, I'll see what I can do, but I may also be swapping to the newer axles. Does it really need the exact wheels? Seems picky. How about super incas?

Wheels shouldn't matter, Penndot isn't that smart, got classic plates on a 92 900 that had bronze painted aero wheels on it. They were more concerned about bumper stickers

Paul

kuponut wrote:How is the Caution Tape 900 you picked up when you were up here doing?

That one, sadly, became a parts car. Basically every bushing on the car was shot/missing. Oh yeah, and the wiring was all rotted just like an 85, guess it was a late 84. It had floor rust, a seriously damaged drive tunnel, and bondo work. So, I pulled the plug. It's donating a set of turbo pistons to this project, along with a few other goodies. That's the engine block on the right side of the above photo. Probably not my best purchase, but it'll work out.

Ah, I see. Sorry to hear that and such. I never met him in person, or saw the car itself, but Mr. Forrest made it sound like that car was his baby, so I hope he doesn't find out about that! The car did look a bit uh, "rough" though.




That Orting 99 is still available, he was looking for a new Water pump on Saabcentral a week ago, but never answered my reply to his thread, nor did he respond to my private message offering the use of my water pump tool. Oh well. Still needs a clutch, lol. Same post for over eight months now I believe.

I actually do have a kind of new water pump... pulled it from the Black 99T I picked up a bit ago. Scanwest did a water pump job on it back in March or so, but they used a brand new water pump shaft instead of re-using the old one. After fifteen miles, the new water pump shaft destroyed the jackshaft. The water pump shaft itself is completely intact, and is genuine SAAB it appears.

A Gray 99T also came with the Black one... too many cars now...



How goes the Notch and the Airflow?

I have heard of Penndot denying plates because of fog lights.
Mine is just too far from stock to ever pass, Penndot is pretty picky. Its not too often you see another 86 base model in Dolomite Sand.

SwedeSport wrote: Its not too often you see another 86 base model in Dolomite Sand.

Yep, and yours is looking awesome. Roof air scoop- yeah, that's going to be trouble under inspection.

I feel kinda bad about stripping out an original example like that, but I guess it is better it's going to go to use instead of rotting out as a station car or something.

Btw, I thought Scanwest had a pretty good reputation, but after hearing some of those stories and driving around one of their rebuilt boxes, I wonder.

spgftw wrote:Yep, and yours is looking awesome. Roof air scoop- yeah, that's going to be trouble under inspection.

Unfortunately I have some work to do to get it back to that state. I still have body and paint work to finish repairing the crash damage.

Jordan wrote:I feel kinda bad about stripping out an original example like that, but I guess it is better it's going to go to use instead of rotting out as a station car or something.

Btw, I thought Scanwest had a pretty good reputation, but after hearing some of those stories and driving around one of their rebuilt boxes, I wonder.

The good thing I can say about Scanwest is that they have really great Costumer Service... they are supposed to be one of the most reputable shops in the country, so I've heard?

I only took my car there once to be worked on, it was a power steering rack replacement, they only charged 3 hours of labor for it. They wanted to charge $499 for the rack, then another obscene amount for the hoses, they do price matching though, and ended up going down to $199 for the rack, same as eEuro and Thesaabsite I think. But thinking of all of the people who don't take that time to do price matching is kind of sad.

I wouldn't take one of my cars to any mechanic again, I just wouldn't trust that the job was done 100% correct. I'm still iffy about the work they did on my car.... but they have good customer service at least.