Looking pretty good! That later firewall section is handy - will be a lot cleaner than the 'big hammer' trick. The welds don't look that bad for rusty sheet metal. When I end up with ugly sheet metal welds and I want them to present a little better I use a flapper wheel on an angle grinder on the welds. I usually end up with some holes afterward that I have to patch and grind again but it works OK and looks a little better than weld beads (plus it's easier to paint and seal).

Ground welds with a few holes to patch:

Cleaned up and painted:

Looks great! I really like the euro firewall.

Too bad I had to crush the rust-free '76 last fall, it had everything you needed (except the firewall)

John
(Stuck in Denver)

What was your cost for the H-engine firewall panel ?
I hadn't even considered that as an option for my 99 resto-mod project.
Do you know if it will clear double V-belt 16V or will you need to run a single ?

Grinding welds is something I consider my self an expert at!

99Super wrote:Too bad I had to crush the rust-free '76 last fall, it had everything you needed (except the firewall)

vintagesaabs wrote:What was your cost for the H-engine firewall panel ?

75 euros. Mr. Thom van der Wiel may not have another one available. He emailed me a few days after sending it to say that they had gotten the address wrong; left off the house number and street, and that he hoped it got to me because they didn't have another! I threw up and then called the local post office who said if it got though customs they would get it to me. It all worked out and I would highly recommend saabworld.nl

vintagesaabs wrote:Do you know if it will clear double V-belt 16V or will you need to run a single ?

I plan to run a single on the water pump and alternator. No AC. The single water pump pulley cost me a week of Poison Ivy. I hope to be able to get away with a double crank pulley. I believe Saab ran singles on all three pulleys with H engine 99s. I also think there are two crank lengths for H-engines. The shorter being pre 1991?

I believe you're right about the belts. I have a bare bones 1983 sedan that has single belts all the way round.

This is great! glad you are taking the time to fix a 99 that nobody besides the people on this board would have touched.

Ben,

Your double row crank pulley should clear fine. I have the double on Frank and it clears with minimal firewall mods. Maybe 3/4" pushback in that area. You should have even more room with your new firewall.

John

Good to know on the two row crank pulley. Thanks for the confirm.

There was a lot of pitting all over the body and I was not happy with the film of undercoat left after several cleanings with nasty chemicals. So I decided it would be a good idea to abrasive blast the car. The question was what method. After lots of research and conflicting info I decided on "dustless" blasting. Basically its glass bead blasting mixed with an anti rust and salt removing solution. The liquid solution is also claimed to cool the metal as the glass beads abrade.

I hired a gent with a pressurized hopper and tow behind compressor.

Work begins.

This is the hatch from my parts car. Filler was clearly visible pre-blasting, but rust was minimal.

Material removal was very effective.

It was hot that day, so his hazmat suit didn't lat long.

Freshly clean


The plan was to seal the bare metal with epoxy primer after drying the metal. The first challenge was getting all the clumped wet glass out of the crevices. This was unanticipated and a major drag. After the glass beads break they effectively become sand, wet sand. Blasting air allowed me to get them clean enough for paint.

This worked for the hatch and doors.


When it came to the body though there was an additional problem, flash rust


Pretty upsetting. It was getting late in the day and the weather report said rain that night. I got the car inside. There are a lot more nooks in the shell so hours were spent drying, brushing, blowing and vacuuming glass sand out of the car. The next day I got the car outside and treated the shell with a metal prep phosphoric acid wash. This dissolved the surface rust. The paint shop assured me the epoxy recommended this metal prep for maximum adhesion. :roll eyes:

Ben, after doing a few different methods of "cleaning" the shell, what do you think is the most effective? Or, if you were to do it again, what would you do and what would you not do?

When it comes to removing undercoat and sound deadening I think the dry ice-isopropol and/or liquid nitrogen can't be beat by chemicals or heat. If I was going to reapply undercoat after making repairs I would just do the repairs, spot clean, seal the rust and then undercoat.

Fully stripping a car I would not do the dustless again. Its just too much of a pain to deal with the wet "sand". Also, there is the threat of flash rust (even with the inhibitor). I would not do soda blasting, again because of the post blast material cleaning. Blasting dry ice is interesting because it evaporates but will only remove paint, possibly filler. It won't help with rust removal.

I do think its a good idea to get as much of the undercoat off before blasting. Its a pain to blast and I suspect that you end up pushing the rubber and oil into the metal which may cause trouble later.