RadioFlyer's 1980 900T

[RadioFlyer]

Also took the opportunity to install the dash fascia from the '79 5-door that was in the Pick n pull a couple of months ago. This was a fascia that I had never seen before - blue coloring in the arrows on the HVAC controls, no rheostat, and the super old style headlight knob, and a "fasten seatbelts" light up sign that has different lettering.

[RadioFlyer]

CROSS COUNTRY MOVE:

Finally catching up on some posts. We decided to up and move from Utah to New Hampshire last month. Here are some pics from the drive. We packed everything into the moving truck and rented a trailer for the '80 so it could be a backup car while we drove the '91. Figured if anything went wrong, why not just bring a spare car instead of tons of spare parts? ... Right? So we packed the baby and his mom in the back seat of the vert (which was surprisingly comfortable) and she made the whole trip. Only thing that went wrong was a full blowout in Indiana (literally right at the "Welcome to Indiana" sign). Stroke of stupidity brought on a stroke of great luck - I had planned to bring a mini compressor, but it went dead the day before we left so I forgot to inflate the spare. So blown tire, flat spare. Called AAA and the dude that showed up was a major hill billy. Coveralls, scraggly beard, missing teeth, etc. BUT he was a Saab lover!! We talked shop while he filled my spare tire and then directed me to a hillbilly friend of his that ran a spare tire shop. The guy was awesome! He opened the place for us at 9pm and we were on the road again by 10 and made another 200 miles.
So we made it to VT with no probs. Stopped to stay with my parents for a few days before heading down to the apartment in NH. Took the opportunity for a quick photo shoot with my dad and his '94 vert and left the '80 in the barn for a few days while we got ourselves sorted.

[Geoff]

Welcome back to the north east, where the mountains are smaller but the roads are more treacherous, you cars rust from being looked at, and you can buy real beer.

So are you living in Manch?

[RadioFlyer]

Haha thanks. Good to be back home. I think I'm going to get the bottom of the '80 oil coated. That way, even if I do store it for winter, I will at least have some comfort. Maybe I will just plastic-wrap the whole thing instead. THat would be really comforting.

Yeah, we are in Manch-vegas scouting out jobs and places. We should do a Manchester-area bbq or something.

[Crazyswede]

Haha thanks. Good to be back home. I think I'm going to get the bottom of the '80 oil coated. That way, even if I do store it for winter, I will at least have some comfort. Maybe I will just plastic-wrap the whole thing instead. THat would be really comforting.

Yeah, we are in Manch-vegas scouting out jobs and places. We should do a Manchester-area bbq or something.

ugh.. I hate oil undercoating. It makes a mess, often traps in moisture and aids in corrosion. The rover guys in europe seem to be fond of the waxoil treatment...not sure if anyone does it around here.

[RadioFlyer]

Yeah its pretty disgusting, but as long as it stays under the car, I'm happy. There was a '79 900t 5-door at SOC on Friday that had the oil undercoating done all the way up in the engine bay. That was pretty gross. Oh and did I mention how gross that was? Yeah it was bad. But underneath is fine and the owner totally swore by it. This car is rust free, but it's not a museum piece. The way I figure it, I just want to enjoy the snot out of it as long as I can. I have seen winter beaters that were already rusted out and still lasted many heavy Vermont winters. I had one that lasted almost 10 years, including 4 in Rhode Island with the sea-salt air in the summer and Vermont salted roads in the winter and was ready for at least 3 or 4 more when my sister drove it off a cliff. So I figure, if they can last that long with no care for their condition, then I'm hoping that this one will last a long time even if I do have to use it occasionally in the winter.

[hutch]

I know most on here hate ng900s, with good reason of course, but I would think especially up in New England you could find a $500 non turbo that will be cheaper in the long run than rust removal on a nice c900. Or a rusty Subaru station wagon, I always assumed you were handed one with a drivers license in VT

[DrewP]

My hate for the NG900 means they are absolutely perfect for winter time DD's. I'd do that in a heartbeat if I needed a foul weather season car.

[Geoff]

MansChestHair, the Queen city...

There's a place in Keene that does oil undercoating with FluidFilm http://www.fluid-film.com/
You could also get some cans of that or similar stuff and do the car yourself. You'd probably do a better job because you'd take the care to do it right. I wouldn't undercoat the whole car, just follow the instructions in the 99 factory manual (should be similar/same for C900). It lists all the places under the car where there are little rubber bushings with splits in the middle that you can reach a small spray hose from the can through and spray that stuff. Then you can go around the seams too.





Products like Fluid Film, Boeshield, LPS, Waxoyl, and the stuff that Wurth makes will displace water and seep into the seams. Oil undercoating using used oil typically traps moisture, doesn't drive it out, and doesn't really penetrate.

My hate for the NG900 means they are absolutely perfect for winter time DD's.

Or for a few hundred more you could probably pick up a 9000. They're more mechanically alike to C900s so you'd feel more comfortable wrenching on one and are overall better cars.

[RadioFlyer]

I think that is a wonderful point. I do enjoy the 9000 and even my wife at one point mentioned that she liked driving the one that my sister also destroyed (she is very good at destroying good Saabs). We'll see how much parking space we have come winter... right now we have room for one car and I have somehow persuaded my dad to loan a stall from the barn for the other. My wife wants her own car and I would need a winter beater as well. Might need to figure out a place for them all. And then convince her how great an idea it is. Hope she doesn't make me get rid of any of the c900s.

[Jon1]

Hope she doesn't make me get rid of any of the c900s.

Well, I know a place where they would be very well taken care of....

[RadioFlyer]

Oh I know they would be well cared for by you, Jon. How did you get your wife to allow so many saabs? Mine cuts me off at 2!

[Crazyswede]

Oh I know they would be well cared for by you, Jon. How did you get your wife to allow so many saabs? She cuts me off at 2!

What wife?

[RadioFlyer]

That would explain it.

[RadioFlyer]

CARPETS:

I discovered two problems with the '80 when I finally got back to driving it a couple of weeks ago. First, the lower passenger seat gave out - the padding and support split. Luckily no damage to the seat skin. Second, there was a lake of water in all of the footwells when we arrived in Vermont. So it needed an under-carpet job. We tackled that one first...

Pulled out the aftermarket shag carpet that must have been installed with the terrible aftermarket seat skins some time in the late '80s or early '90s before being left to rot in the desert. The blue matches surprisingly well, but I sure wish I could find some originals. Anyway, pulled that out along with the original under-carpet which had not yet turned to acidic mush but was well on its way. Luckily there was no rust or damage to the floors at all yet. Man did I luck out with this car. So ripped those out and went to the local carpet shop to persuade the owner to donate some nice fiber carpet padding scraps to the cause (he knows me well by now after doing this for 3 Saabs). Lined the bottom with that and the next layer was PVC bathtub liner to keep the water away. Then took the carpets down to the laundromat for a nice deep clean before reinstalling. You can see why I need a set of originals - the aftermarket shaggies just don't fit like they should. But man did things smell better once this was done! I also took the opportunity to replace all of the door and window weather stripping with a set from a crashed '93 hatchback that we have had sitting around for a while - Vermont car weather stripping is much better than desert-rotted and shrunken Utah weather stripping apparently. Also replaced the heater core which had apparently corroded through (the '93 hc did not quite fit, so I'm going to take it into a radiator repair place to see what they can do). Then sprayed down the car to look for more leaks and HOLY COW did it gush in through the sunroof!!! Turns out the drains were all plugged up. So blew those out and Bob's yer uncle. It rained hard the next couple of days and she was dry as a cat out of water.