Project Loki - 1988 classic SAAB turbo

[Adrian Thompson]

Any progress is good.

There is no "panel" for the sunroof. it just gets headliner fabric stretched over it and fastened at the front.

Cool, good to konw, what about the cables and gears, can you fix them without removing hte head liner?

P.S. your hillclimber is my desk top background. I love that car.

[Adrian Thompson]

Who makes braided brake hoses for the 88+ and any advice for some decent front pads (autocross, rallycross, street and possibly a future track day)?

Thanks

[SwedeSport]

I got my brake lines from SAS. www.SASAB.com.

You may have to take the cables off of the motor. one comes in from each side. If the ends of the cable are undamaged, you may just be able to replace just the gear pieces. If you are removing the headliner, youll have access to tge cables.

You could try to get some penetrating oil into the cable sheaths. might free up the gummy workings.

Thats cool about the desktop background, I assume you mean the light blue notchback?

[Geoff]

I'd say put the roll bar in!

Take the screws out that mount the sunroof motor. Flip the motor forward and look to see if the side cover is loose. With some luck you might just need to tighten the side cover screws on the motor and it might work again...

The exhaust tunnels usually rust from the outside in, not from the inside out. This is because the heat shields can rust out and then the undercoating and paint melts off above the catalyst which exposes the sheet metal which then rusts. I've never had one rust too badly under the carpet from the inside of the car.

[Jordan]

Most every 900 I see now , at least in this area, needs to have the heat shield replaced, if left rusted out, that catalytic converter makes short work of the tunnel. Also lots of wires run under the shifter and like to get melty.

[SwedeSport]

My 85T project, and the 84 notchback project both needed a little tunnel reconstruction.

Geoff is on the money about the motor. The plates that hold the cables to the motor can work loose, and cause the roof to not work. Probably the first thing to check.

[Crazyswede]

Most every 900 I see now , at least in this area, needs to have the heat shield replaced, if left rusted out, that catalytic converter makes short work of the tunnel. Also lots of wires run under the shifter and like to get melty.

You mean they came with heat shields?

[87 n/a]

I can see the traditional seatbelt mounts in your car. I have the seatbelt parts you need. Plus a new sunroof panel too if you want it. I took mine out for weight savings. It was a muanual roof, so no motor or lines

A tip for rust, where you see the black rubberized coating cracked, that is a result of the metal beneath experiencing some rust and forcing the rubber up. Scrape up the cracked sections and coat the surface rust with a product called Ospho. Inexpensive product and usually available at Home Depot or Ace Hardware.

[Adrian Thompson]

Pathetically short update. I’ve decided to wait off on the roll bar until this winter as I’m making such slow progress on other stuff. I’ve sourced some regular seat belts from an 87 via ‘87 n/a’ but he can’t ship then to my until 4/12. I did manage to get the headliner out, but it fell into four pieces as I removed the bits holding it in. It’s now a front section, a rear section and the two parts that are either side of the sun roof. Once I get the remaining dust that used to be foam and material of the parts I’ll put it back in to hold things in the right orientation and use some fiberglass matt and resin to hold things together before re-covering.

Next debate is Firestone Winterforce or used rally tires for Detroit region rallycross? I haven’t seen any used rally tires local though, so it may need to be the Winterforce snow tires, I believe they are the preferred winter tire for rally cross. My goal is May 25th for my first event.

[Adrian Thompson]

Oh, and when I saw the headliner disintegrating before me as I was pulling it out I was >< close to saying fuck it, I'll do the no interior thing after all. But then I saw some comments by someone on their rallycross E30 build thread (http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/ ... 440/page1/ well posted in many corners of the internet) about how noisy his car is and that he's thinking of adding some sound deadening back in and that cured me of that. I have the fantasy of being able to drive the car up to the U.P. the weekend of 4/26 4/27 to see the Magnum Opus rally. 5 1/2 hours with no interior? No thanks.

[SwedeSport]

It is nice to be able to stay warm in the car too. So much easier to heat it with some interior in it.

[Adrian Thompson]

First off I may be allergic to my car. I spent some time yesterday removing sound deadening tar (why in a mo.) By the time I was done I nose was streaming, eye’s itching, throat sore, lots of sneezing. Crap, is this allergies or a cold starting? Well I know several other people have been sick and it carried on all night until I went to bed. Crap thinks I, I may be getting sick. Well I wake up this morning feeling 100% A OK. Great. Go to let the cats out through the garage, I open the door, lean in, open the garage door to let them out. Head in the garage for maybe 10 seconds. Immediately start sneezing. Hhhmmm. After getting ready for work, head out into the garage to get the trash and re-cycle out before work. Immediately start sneezing again and the itchy eyes, yet by the time I’m at work I’m fine again. I think the crap in the car is hitting me hard on the allergy front, must be some funk mold in there. I’ll grab a face mask before I start again.

So, the little I did. The pics I posted the other week when talking about the roll bar showed the tar was brown in places. 87 n/a made me nervouse about what was underneath there, he said that can hide serious rust underneath, so I started chiseling away at it, plus pulling up the fiberglass over the cat hump on the center tunnel. Well I think I’m lucky. Everything I’ve got up so far has plenty of surface rust underneath, but is very solid to the screwdriver/hammer/chisel test. I think I need to get some dry ice to help get the rest up (or leave it, I want to use this on the road) then give it a good wire brushing and use some rust convertor before hitting it with rust bullet.

I also pulled the sunroof motor, it seemed to be held together properly so the gear should have been engaging with the cables. The plastic gear looks good, like the new ones I’ve found online with nice sharp edges to the teeth so I don’t think that’s the issue. Hmm, everything looks good back here. So I grab the sun roof with my hand and I can relatively easily slide it back and forth, so it doesn’t seem to be stuck there. Any other ideas?

[SwedeSport]

I had (and still have) the flu. It has been 4 weeks now. It seems like it bounces around your body and affects different areas. One day its the sniffles, next day its the chills, next day its a stomach issue, then its in your chest, then its gone, now its back again with a vengeance....


You may just have the bug that has been going around. I have had it twice this year so far.

[SwedeSport]

It is a good thing to catch that (rust under tar) now, and neutralize it before it gets bad.

[KPAero]

I like the hawk HPS pads for street/rallyx/autocross and an occasional track day. If you start doing more track days the HP+ is a bit more aggressive.

Another vote for the roll bar.