88 4 door "Rotsaab"

[Sam]

Here is my $500 4 door project. I named it after the roadkill Rotsun project car. Like the Rotsun its rusty, though its much less bad than other cars i have owned. No holes in the trunk and only one minor floor pan hole. Its finally on the road and going to the body shop next week to have the small amount of control arm rust repaired with new panels from saabits. I added some photos of them at the end. They are pretty good gauge of steel.

This car needed a ton of work on it to make it roadworthy and i got quite a bit of help from friends here as well as the FB 900 community which has been great for questions and answers.

Things i changed:
Plugs were fouled, IAC was dirty. Got it running again pretty easily
Radiator
cooling fans
Reverse lever fix. Reverse now works perfectly.
Alternator bracket snapped in half.
Crank pulley looseness was causing the battery not to charge.
Crank pulley looseness caused the oil pump housing to get damaged. Replaced housing and oil pump gear.
Since I was already there I did the water pump.

I've been driving it around the block and to the auto body shop. The drive is so enjoyable. I haven't driven a 900 since 2014 and forgot what it was like.
I like the patina and i don't think its worth painting unless corrosion starts to develop.

IMG_20201121_160329 by Sam Scherer, on Flickr
IMG_20201224_143024 by Sam Scherer, on Flickr
IMG_20201213_105432 by Sam Scherer, on Flickr
IMG_20201224_143036 by Sam Scherer, on Flickr

IMG_20201224_143217 by Sam Scherer, on Flickr
IMG_20201224_143044 by Sam Scherer, on Flickr
IMG_20201224_143053 by Sam Scherer, on Flickr
IMG_20210619_125702 (2) by Sam Scherer, on Flickr

IMG_20210619_130643 (1) by Sam Scherer, on Flickr
IMG_20210619_125904 (1) by Sam Scherer, on Flickr


Saabits Panels
IMG_20210825_120704 by Sam Scherer, on Flickr
IMG_20210825_120852 by Sam Scherer, on Flickr
IMG_20210825_120900 by Sam Scherer, on Flickr

[99Super]

Nice score for $400!
Save the 900s! (and the 99s and 9000's!)

[Sam]

The car looks awesome in my driveway but when I brought it to the auto body shop it just looked like such a rat. This is why you don't compound a car too many times lol. I can't say I ever got down to the white primer on a black 900 haha

[Geoff]

It looks like some of the car got some bodywork/paintwork at one point. Maybe the trunk and roof were repainted? The badging is laid out wrong; (upside down) "S" "900" instead of " 900 S". That usually indicates a body shop that stuck badges back on when they didn't have a reference to go off of.

Anyway, it must be nice to have it running and fun to drive around. It doesn't have to look perfect!