Grille and Sides

In 1974 Saab introduced the hatchback version of the 99. They called it the CombiCoupe or WagonBack in the USA. This would become a defining body style for Saab. At the same time they updated the grille design, changing it from metal to plastic. The plastic grilles are very fragile and it is rare to see a complete and perfect grille. The grille on my car is missing the tabs which connect the headlight surrounds to the center grille and the top chrome trim piece. Additionally the paint is faded. This sounds bad, but I've seen much worse. The tab at the top of the grille is good, as are the four outer tabs. There are also no cracks or missing slats.

I carefully removed the trim and badges.

Badges removed.

I sprayed the grille with SEM trim black. Then I masked off the areas that would remain black and sprayed the silver. I also taped the chrome trim rings around the headlight surrounds and sprayed those silver. The SAAB badge got a few coats of metallic gold pain. I sprayed the Turbo badge black and then sanded off the black from the letters. I have a feeling they used a similar process at the factory because of the brushed aluminum look on the original letters. This was replicated faithfully by the choosing the right grit sandpaper. 

After reassembly it looked pretty sharp.

I still need the top trim piece. The bottom is NOS via a friend (Jeff from ePartsland), via the Trollhattan world Saab convention. If you know of a good top trim piece I am interested. 

The paint had worn off the mirrors and the silver of the mirrors was failing. 

New mirrors are NLA so I had a local glass shop cut these replacement pieces. 

SEM trim black to the rescue...

Here are the grille and mirrors back on the car. Also, the air dam is back on. Looks pretty good. Still need to work on the hood.

   

Ugh Rugs

The carpets were quite badly faded. Worse the fading was uneven making those spots stick out even more.

As it turns out RIT Burgundy Dye is a near perfect match for the original color. I decided to use the liquid version of the product as opposed to the dry mix. I followed the manufacture's recommendations based on the size of the carpet. I used the hottest water I could get from the tap.

My neighbors were throwing out two kiddy pools, perfect fit. 

 I set up some saw horses and an old ladder to dry the carpets out fully. 

After the carpets had fully dried I rinsed them with a hose until the water ran clear. I then let them dry again.

 A few weeks later when I was ready to install them.

These rear mats are from a 900, but they may the back seat area look more complete.

The front looks fantastic with the original accessory coco mats. 

The Damn Air Dam

I'm way behind on updates. The weather has been good and I pushed through to get the car ready to drive up to the Canadian Owners Conventions in Toronto. 

The air dam on the 99 Turbo is one of its most distinctive features. I think the original is made of ABS plastic. It tends to crack very easily and my was pretty seiously cracked. I found a fiberglass reproduction made by SAS as a replacement. The SAS kit does not come with the grille surrounds or mounting hardware so I recovered those pieces from the original. 

The old cracked dam in foreground and the SAS replacement behind it.  

 The hardware removed.  

Unfortunately, the grille surrounds were also cracked and would need to be repaired. Masked off the SAS air dam and taped the surround pieces into place. Where a large chunk section was missing I made walls to form a mold

I cut some pieces from the old air dam and ground up the plastic. By mixing this with some epoxy I was able to batch the missing sections. 

The repaired parts. 

I filed and sanded the excess epoxy. I sprayed primer on the air dam and surround separately then reassembled the pieces. My neighborhood pro auto painter sprayed epoxy black and a high gloss clear. The new air dam shines like the originals did when new. It also should be much more durable then the original ABS. 

Bump em off

I am a little behind on updates. Fear not! I have been making progress and taking pictures trying to remember to take pictures. While I was changing the gear box oil (Redline MTL) I decided to address the front bumper. The rubber had oxidized/bleached. Some elbow grease and a scour pad worked very well.  

This picture reminds me a shaving commercial. 

I followed up with some high grit sand paper for a smooth finish. 

The rear bumper is fine. Must have been parked in the shade. 

I have some updates on the front air damn, rear spoiler, valve cover, radio, and more coming. Until then here is a video of the car on the highway for the first time in 10+ years! 

Ruffle, Shuffle, Muffle Muffle

I was able to fit the the aluminum intermediate pipe over the steel pipe from the cat. After removing the steel pipe from the cat I could see that someone had welded a sleeve OVER the end of the pipe, not adding onto the end of it as I thought in my last exhaust system post. I was able to expand the aluminum section and then pound it in over this sleeve. The muffler lined up well. 

Then I tried to fit the tail pipe section I had by spreading it to fit over the muffler. I split the pipe by spreading it too much. 

For the heck of it I tried to check the fit and noticed that if I cut off the split area I could fit the pipe into the muffler (it has a slight flair). The tailpipe sat well like this except for the hanger so I cut it off and moved it an inch or so back to line up with the hanger on the car. 

Everything sits well now and is very quiet! 

Brakes Bleed, Hearts Don't

I got some suggestions on what to look at for the smokey exhaust, turbo, and dipstick. 

I checked the PCV and hose to the air cleaner. 

It was pretty creamy in there. I cleaned the hose and the valve. The question is did this moisture come from the atmosphere or coolant? 

A bypass valve had been fitted by a previous owner. When I was checking the air box I noticed that the bypass valve was dripping with oil. I wonder if the piston can move properly with all of the oil in there. 

In the intake..

Compression output...

Air intake elbow...

 

I know that a certain amount of oil is normal in the intake from the turbo. Does this look like more then normal?  

There was no lateral shaft play in the turbo, but a bit up and down. I've been told this is normal.  

I think I located the source of smoke from the exhaust side of the turbo. You can see the oil leaking from the waste gate and dripping on the chassis.

Why am talking about all this in a post that is supposed to be about breaks? At the very least the valves need to be adjusted. The waste gate may need to be rebuilt. I'd like to be able to drive the car to my mechanic, Mike Connelly. So that means getting the brakes sorted.

 

Both front brakes were seized and the rears were draggy. I figured that meant the parking brake was sticking, but it released fine. The fluid reservoir was pretty dirty so I figured the fluid was probably pretty old. I flushed each diagonal circuit and then bleed each brake. Here is a sample of the crud that came out with the old brake fluid.

The result was functioning brakes with good feel. I backed up down the driveway and tried some quick stops. Success!

By the way I'm pretty sure the rear axel is a 900 unit (no hub centering ring), but the front brakes are original 99. I might upgrade the fronts hubs to early 900 if any brake work is needed.

While I was driving up and down the driveway I noticed some extra noise when I applied the clutch pedal. Shit eating grin.

Exhausted? Not yet!

Two owners ago this car was used for autocross. The owner decided to remove the muffler and re-route the exhaust pipe to just in front of the passenger rear wheel. Here is a good picture of the previous setup.

 
For the sake of my ears, muffler-less would get old fast on a cross country trip, I want to revert back to the stock setup.

Starting from the cat moving back there is a steel section, flanged to match the cat. On the rear side of the pipe a small section has been welded on.

The pipe is 33 inches long.

The outside diameter of the welded section is 2 7/16 inches. I think this is an odd size for pipe.  

Next I have an aluminum intermediate pipe seen below.  

I tried to stretch the inlet of the aluminum intermediate pipe to fit over the welded section on the steel  pipe to the cat. That didn't work.  

Moving back down the system, the other side of the aluminum intermediate pipe fits well into the muffler I have.

 Here is the label on the muffler.

When I try to join the rear exhaust pipe to the muffler I get this. That is muffler on the top and the rear pipe on the bottom.    

The rear pipe is nearly the same size as the muffler pipe. I am thinking that this rear pipe is for a non-turbo?   

Thats the rundown. I'm left with a few questions. 

1. Should I cut off the welded steel section on the cat pipe? Anyone know how long that pipe is supposed to be? 
2. Is the rear pipe the wrong diameter for a turbo car?