Lagertha, 85 SPG Sport Touring

[RS68]

I've been lurking here for some time and have been in attendance watching some of you run at STPR and the Giant's Despair Hillclimb. The fabrication work that some of you do is inspiring and I want to get off my butt and join in on some of the fun. My 85 SPG has been somewhat of a project for a while but I finally have a spot to work on the car and a tiny budget to get this thing on the road again.

A brief history on the car. This is my 1985 SPG that I've owned since 2006. I've tinkered around with some performance mods in the past while it was a daily driver. It was running on megasquirt back in 2012 and I trashed 2 or 3 transmissions [I can't remember] while trying to tune it on the road. After replacing one of the transmissions I put in a refreshed engine and reverted back to the stock ecu thinking that I would work on getting all my mods in place then convert to T5 and tune it once on a dyno and be done with it. But that never happened. It was hit in the right rear quarter panel and repaired. The right rear shock tower rusted out and was repaired, and repaired again after the repair rusted out. About 4 years ago the jack went through the left front floor board and the car has been sitting ever since. A tree nearly crushed it this winter but it escaped with a few dents on the hood and I realized I need to stop procrastinating and actually start working on it.

My plans are to patch up the rust issues and get it back on the road by the fall. Then I want to continue modifying it. My vision is to use it for weekend road trips and adventures such as trips to the beach, camping, biking, kayaking, etc. But I also want the car to be capable of handling light motorsports events such as autocross, track days, and perhaps hillclimbs.

As it sits:
85 pistons
2.1 head, intake, FPR
red T5 injectors
scaled eprom
ebay FMIc
adjustible cam gears
2.5" cat back exhaust
Lukes steel diff cover
bilstein sport shocks


The first step is I need some fabrication equipment to fix the rust but I don't know what to get. I eventually want to do some heavier fabrication welding for my truck and potentially put a partial cage in the Saab. I'm not sure if I would need a multiprocess welder so I'm thinking I should get a dual voltage mig welder. I've been eyeing the Hobart 210 MVP but it weighs 80 lbs which might be a problem since I don't have a garage and I would have to move it up and down a dozen steps to get it in and out of the house. Its also about the limit of what I want to spend as I also need to buy welding consumables, a welding helmet, welding gloves, a tank of gas, and an angle grinder and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting. The Harbor Freight Vulcan 215 is less expensive but the warranty isn't great and it looks like they are currently backordered. The Eastwood 180 amp welder is currently only $500 but I am concerned it won't be reliable a year or two down the road. What welder would you guys recommend?

[squaab99t]

Thanks for run down on your project. Great to see some traffic on the forum. Been relying on FB to get my Saab fix, but it lacks depth.
As for welders, I can not comment on the lower end stuff and having to move it up and down stairs is very limiting. That said, I have almost always regretted buying and "using" cheap tools. On the other hand quality tools are such a pleasure to use, I forget what I paid for them.

[KPAero]

Agreed, nice to see a bit of activity here lately. Sounds like a good project, and nice to see another one getting back on the road.

In terms of the tools, you can do a lot with a welder and an angle grinder. Bench grinder and a vise get pretty handy as well. 10 years ago thats what I had along with hand tools. Id definitely look to use an argon/co2 tank with the mig welder. I also recommend getting welding gloves marketed for TIG welding. I find the big heavy welding gloves to be overkill for anything automotive related, and its nice to have better dexterity.

In terms of the welder itself, I have no experience with the Harbor freight ones, but Id probably stay away. The first welder I had was an Eastwood 110v unit I bought back in 2010, and it continued to work great until 1-2 years ago after a good amount of use. It does still weld, but has some sort of issue so I keep it as a backup. I now mostly use a lincoln 110v one (their Lowes/home depot version) and also have a 220v hobart I bought used. Both are good.

If budget and size/weight are a concern, Id seriously consider wether you really need a 220v unit. If I was going to buy one new MIG welder today Id probably get one of the multi voltage ones to have a bit more capability with thicker material. But for most of what I do, its usually the 110v unit I turn on unless its thicker than 3/16". Maybe something to consider unless the truck stuff will be more 3/16" and thicker stuff.

[RS68]

I haven't made much progress as I have been working on my deck but I did pick up a Hobart Multi Handler welder. It was more then I wanted to spend but it is light and portable, dual voltage, and multi process. I'm going to start learning how to use this thing over the next few weeks.

[Crazyswede]

Might I suggest going with a T5 head in place of the 2.1 head and build a large diameter and radius down pipe off the turbo into a high flo cat or eliminate the cat.