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Glacier Blue 9-5 Aero Wagon Project

11K views 49 replies 12 participants last post by  Troup 
#1 ·
The story is: My girlfriend has enjoyed driving my wagon over the past 2 years claiming that it "wants to be driven fast". Given that we each have a big dog, the wagon works out great. We tossed around the idea that we would get her a wagon one day. She saw the Glacier Blue color on the internet and decided that was the color she wanted. I kind of laughed it off as I knew the color was super rare. As fate would have it, one popped up a few months later in Monterey, CA. I made it work out as part of a trip to move my brother from Ventura, CA to Nashville, TN. (I am currently spending the summer in Boulder, CO). We packed up the wagon and my SUV and loaded everything east. It all worked out pretty well.

I knew the color combination on a aero wagon was rare, but it turns out that this car is 1 of 13 Aero wagons. 10 were automatic, 3 were manual. That being said, the car needs a lot of love. It was a deceptive California car that started its life in Massachusetts. I knew about the dog leg rust that was on it, but of course there's more where that came from. The seller told me that the incorrect hood was on it because he lost his temper on the original one. Which he did, but only after he had a little run in with a deer. (the part I didn't know about until I drove 1200 miles). The radiator support is kind of kinked up and the condenser, radiator, and rad fan are likely going to need replacement. The Aero bumper is missing the bottom lip and is cracked from the deer incident. It will need replacing.

At 193k on the motor, I knew that I was getting into a project regardless of the body work.

However, I have no regrets. I love the car and so does Anna. It may take a couple of years, but we'll bring it back to it's former glory.
 
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#5 · (Edited)
Got a lot accomplished on the wagon in the past couple of weeks. Finished up the rust repair on the dog legs and driver door that had been started when I got the car, cleaned up the scratches / damage on the rear bumper, buffed head lights out, charged up the AC and did a new fan speed controller. I also did a new radiator, and new (used) radiator fan and condenser to replace all the stuff that was cracked up front from the impact. We picked up a hitch and installed for the bike rack. Other new stuff includes EGR valve, MAF, and Bluetooth stereo and dashkit.













 
#6 · (Edited)
Anna flew into Colorado and we took the wagon to Saab Owner's Convention in Loveland. Had a blast meeting everyone, but I'll admit I was embarrassed parking this car next to other 9-5's with the hood in the condition that it was in.



After SOC, we made the 1,200 drive home. Luckily we had no issues. I'm pretty pleased with the car so far.



Dropped the hood off for paint. Can't wait for the results.



The two wagons together

 
#9 ·
When I picked up the car in California and got it to Denver, I had about 3-4 weeks to tweak things on it before Saab Owner's convention. I really wanted to get the hood looking decent, so I tried to see how a primer filler would hide the clearcoat defects. I was going to get aerosol paint cans and put a coat on the hood so it wouldn't be such an eyesore. It didn't do a horrible job, but the cost in materials would've been more than I wanted to spend since I knew I was going to have it professionally painted once I got home. Unfortunately it went to SOC like that.

The last owner had already started the rust repair by stripping it down to bare metal and used body filler. All I had to do with the dog legs was spray them. I had to redo the driver door because it didn't look right. As far as painting, I used automotivetouchuppaint.com to get aerosol cans of the correct paint code and then cleared over it. I've used them for many projects in the past. Always pretty satisfied with the results.

All of the rust repair is temporary. One day I'll patch in new metal.
 
#11 ·
The dash that came with the car had some scuffs on it and some deep scratches. We decided to do a dash swap with a textured black dash from the 06+ Dame Edna 9-5. We liked the look of the dash being all black instead of shiny black and gray. When we got to the junkyard, the black carpeting was in really good shape, so we pulled that as well. After $80 in parts, the interior is in pretty good shape.









 
#12 · (Edited)
We have done a lot of work on the car recently. Since the rear suspension blew out, I decided to put D2 Coilovers on my Espresso wagon and donate my Bilstein B8's and stock Aero springs to the Glacier Blue wagon. They are in great shape and seem to be low mileage.















I am also working on redoing all of the rear bushings. I got trailing arms that are in great shape from the junkyard and installed new rose bushings and Powerflex trailing arm bushings. Both sides are on the car now. I have the inner control arm bushings to go on, but waiting on some non-rusty control arms / adjustable lower control arms before I install them.





Used parts pile is growing:



I also did the "666" modification for the headlights. This modification allows the center lights to come on simultaneously with the xenon high beams. I highly recommend this to anyone that has these Aero Xenon lights. $13 upgrade. The Bosch part number for the proper relay is Bosch 0332015006



 
#13 ·
I've heard of the relay mod but never looked far into it, is it as simple as buying the relay and swapping it with what the car came with?

And it only happens with the brights are on, right?
 
#14 ·
Yeah, I wasn't super clear on it until I got the relay and tested it out. With the stock Aero xenons, when you hit the brights, the xenons just get brighter. The lights towards the grill don't come on. So this relay allows the center lights to come on in addition to the xenons getting brighter. So it's super bright.

Yeah, all this changes is the condition when you hit the brights on the stalk. Beyond that, everything is normal.

It is as simple as replacing the stock relay with this Bosch one. I added a picture to the original post indicating which one.
 
#15 ·
I wrote a thread on it if you search. I made a jumper wire with spade terminals for approximately free but if there is a proper relay for a few bucks, thats probably worth it. Really nice improvement in high beam performance. Its like getting an extra set of high beams. And the combination of xenon and halogen makes a lot of light.
 
#16 ·
Ah nice! I admire the ingenuity. I'm ok at wiring, but I'd rather have a proper relay if possible just to be on the safe side. I was discouraged when I could only find the relay as a "666 modification" from eEuropart's. Then I remembered I had a car with the relay, so I just pulled the Bosch PN from it and found it cheaper from FCPeuro and Rockauto (comparable pricing).
 
#17 · (Edited)
We had a long weekend, so naturally I spent the entire time wrenching. The water pump had started to leak really bad after I was pressure washing the engine bay, so I went ahead and did the water pump and silicone cooling hoses. The kit came with intercooler hoses as well, so those got put on too.

The bolts on the water pump housing were seized and I stripped the bolts. Perfect excuse to replace it with a shiny used housing. Looks so much better. I know you never see it, but I know it's there. ;)

When I pulled the water pump housing from the junkyard, I also grabbed the pair of metal tubes that run to the water pump from the driver side of the engine bay. The ones on the car were rusty of course.









Finally got the hood back. I couldn't be more pleased with the turn out. It looks amazing and completely transformed the look of the car. After 4 months, it finally doesn't feel ghetto. Having the hood the proper color makes the entire car look like a deeper blue in my opinion. I know it's all just brain tricks, but either way, the car looks soo much better. We fitted a new Saab emblem to top it off.









We also got the Hirsch replica spoiler back from the same place that did the hood and got it mounted up. It was a little more tricky than my other wagon spoiler I did because of the angle of the mounting holes. I love this look on the wagon.







We got the valve cover back from the powdercoating place and fitted it with a new valve cover gasket and stainless hardware. We debated a variation of the Glacier Blue color, but with the blue silicone hoses, I'm glad we went with the textured purple for contrast.









The upper engine mount bracket was looking a little rough next to the new valve cover, so I primed and painted with VHT Aluminum finish. The result exceeded expectations.

Primed:



Painted:



Picture of the engine bay shortly after I picked the car up 4 months ago. It's come a long way.



I got sick of looking at the cracked and tattered seal on the windshield cowl, so I took a razor and cut it all off and sprayed the cowl with a Rustoleum bed liner. Still looking for a new seal solution to replace the original if anyone has any experience doing this. I also had the wiper arms powdercoated black at the same time we did the valve cover. Really cleaned up the look of this area.





 
#18 ·
This car is looking so much better than when you first got it, great work.

Questions:
Did the templates I sent you have the holes marked in the right spots on them?
Did you also use double-sided tape to secure it, or just the screws?

On the cowl cover, did you need a puller to get the wiper arms off or were you able to work them off by hand?
 
#19 · (Edited)
This car is looking so much better than when you first got it, great work.

Questions:
Did the templates I sent you have the holes marked in the right spots on them?
Thanks so much! Shame everyone at SOC saw it before I could really dig into it.

The templates were very close. The first side I did went well. The problems started to arise when I drilled holes for the second side. I think the problem was related to the potential of the spoiler to bow up or down since it's a hoop. I could make everything line up if I started to force the spoiler up, but I didn't want to keep it in compression, so I just drilled all 4 holes larger. If I were to do it again, I would have done one side, then used a combination of the template and mocking up the spoiler actually bolted to the car on the one side to locate the second set of mounting holes. (Really obvious in retrospect). Thanks again for the templates!





The tape kind of obscures the edges, but it is lined up to the best of my ability given the tools. hahah.

Did you also use double-sided tape to secure it, or just the screws?
I did use double sided tape. Unfortunately didn't take any pictures of the mounting set up, but I used 3M automotive molding tape. I also used a foamy type of washer in between the spoiler and body that the body shop gave me. Since I had to make the holes so large, I was worried about water leakage around the mounting bolts, so I used silicone around each bolt. I don't even know that those holes communicate with the interior of the car, but I'd rather do it to be on the safe side.

On the cowl cover, did you need a puller to get the wiper arms off or were you able to work them off by hand?
No, I didn't use a puller. You can get the wiper arms off in a matter of seconds if you extend the arm and rock it firmly back and forth towards and away from the car. I have a video of me doing it to debunk the puller thing. I'll see if I can get it uploaded.

Edit: Uploaded that video. Don't mind my super disheveled post-exam look.

 
#20 · (Edited)
A couple of weeks back I decided to "touch up" the wheels using the same paint the previous owner used. This was meant to be a small thing to hold us over until we can afford to have the wheels properly refinished. The previous owner didn't use a clear coat and the paint was wearing down to the primer in places. Naturally, I ended up doing more than a touch up. I sanded down the lips and faces and re-primed and painted each one. A couple of days and a lot of elbow grease later, they actually don't look too bad for a Rust-oleum rattle can job. (Obviously not my first choice, was just trying to use what the previous owner used). I used a 2k clearcoat and it actually took a lot of the cheap looking metallic sheen out of the finish. I'm pretty pleased with the results considering it cost about $15 in materials. We also fitted new wheel emblems to finish out the look that were the proper "Saab" vs. the "Saab-Scania" ones that were on there.











On the car:



 
#21 ·
I am now extremely tempted to finally install the one I had painted for my wagon a few years ago, I kinda forgot how much better it looks with a spoiler.

I kinda think those RKs look awesome in that shade, I still say I like that shade of metallic silver better than the choice I made on the powder coat on mine.
 
#22 · (Edited)
You should do it. Not super hard. Totally worth it. I'm a sucker for factory spoilers. I ended up using Saab bolts that I had laying around to mount it. I don't know if the spoiler was tapped when I got it, or if the body shop tapped them (The bolt holes had some type of material built up in them and couldn't tell),but it was a metric size that's used in a lot of Saab applications.

hahah, you should repaint your wheels if you like these better. Or we can trade it you want ;)
 
#24 · (Edited)
I took the wagon out to visit the 92 9000 yesterday. All recent repairs seem to be holding up well, no boost or coolant leaks. Subframe bushings are still really bad and distract from the driving experience, so that's next on the list. I picked up a subframe from the junkyard a couple weeks back to replace the existing rusty one. It cleaned up well with some elbow grease and the pressure washer.

I can't get over how much better this car looks.













A Saab friend picked up an OEM cargo mat from the junkyard for me for $10. It looks great! Just needs to flatten out a bit

 
#27 ·
I've always liked the color, but I probably wouldn't have ever gotten it for myself. I'll admit, it's definitely growing on me as well. The color is so much more rich looking with the proper hood on it.
 
#26 ·
Looking at these pics really has me wondering how much difference there is between ice blue and glacier blue. I'm sure they're different but they look awfully close going by these pics and looking at my new ice blue 9-3 out the window at the same time.
 
#29 · (Edited)
I wrapped up a bunch of work on the wagon this past week. I got the new subframe and polyurethane subframe bushings installed. When I dropped the subframe, I found that the lower rear motor mount, the lower transmission mount, as well as both sway bar bushings were trashed. I went ahead and took care of all of that. Luckily I happened to have a Powerflex transmission bushing on hand.

Since I had some time while waiting on the other parts and the subframe was already dropped, I thought now was as good a time as any to drop the pan. The pan wasn't abnormally sludgey (a little bit over the exhaust), but it did have some coffee ground looking gunk in it. I cleaned everything really well, replaced the three seals in the pick up and crossover tube, and am going to run Royal Purple for a couple oil changes to try and clean everything up in there.

I also spent a great deal of time cleaning the engine and engine bay from underneath using Simple Green, a pressure washer, and some brake parts cleaner.

Still a long way to go, but so much better than it was before.

For anyone interested in the differences among Powerflex and Propart's subframe bushings, I can't necessarily speak to their longevity differences, but I will say that the Propart's ones seem to be much stiffer and were more challenging to install than the Powerflex ones that I installed on my other Espresso Black 9-5 wagon. The car still has vibration issues at idle, but I'm willing to bet that I need to finish replacing the upper motor and transmission mount before I can blame that on stiff subframe bushings.

Some before pictures:











Five of the six subframe bushings were removable by hand. It's a myth that only the rear subframe bushings go bad on the 9-5's.



The plate that secures the rear subframe bushing. This one was so bad that it was allowing metal on metal contact back there.

 
#30 · (Edited)
And After:







When dropping the downpipe, of course I had a problem stud that ended up stripping out which required I drop the exhaust housing to extract. I ended up replacing all 7 studs on the turbo exhaust housing with stainless studs and copper nuts.













 
#31 ·
After doing the subframe bushings, the car had less vibration, but it was still pretty bad. I decided to get the last 2 upper motor mounts from a black friday sale. The passenger side one arrived first and I threw it on. Much better. I didn't realize that all of the hydraulic fluid had leaked out of the existing one. I thought that was a power steering leak:eek:



 
#32 ·
The door handles have had some weird fading / chipping on them since I've got the car that look like barnacles on a boat. I got a set from the junkyard that were in better shape. They look 100x better in my opinion. I couldn't ignore it. hahah.

The old ones:



New ones:



We also swapped out the door panels for ones that were gray with black inserts as opposed to gray on gray. It looks great with the solid black dash and black carpeting.





 
#34 · (Edited)
Finished up the last motor mount today and put on a Genuine Saab oil cap that I got on black friday as well. (the previous pictures were with the polished oil cap from my other wagon). Zero regrets on pulling the trigger on doing all of the mounts. This one was shot as bad as the other 3 were and came apart once I got it off the car. This car has transformed in the past couple of months and is so much fun to drive finally.







 
#35 ·
Whoa, its really come along! Nice work.

How difficult was it to drop the subframe? I need to replace the bushings on my wagon as well. Looks like you only had a jack supporting the whole engine/transmission?
 
#36 · (Edited)
Thanks!

Dropping the subframe is alot of work, but not as much as you might expect.

The biggest variable is dropping the downpipe. If you have a stud break on you, it makes the job alot more complicated.

It's also not necessary unless you want to do OEM bushings. You can install the proparts or powerflex polyurethane ones without dropping the subframe.I only dropped it on this car because I was swapping out the entire subframe for one that was in better shape.

And yeah, I only had a jack under it. The upper motor mounts will help support it, but I'd recommend doing a jack like this or an engine support that supports from above. I did have to remove the jack to be able to manipulate the frame out from under the car and then again to put it back in and didn't have any issues. I don't promote the method, but I didn't have a support available to me. If you do it my way, just don't be underneath the car unless there's a jack supporting the motor obviously. I don't think the passenger side mount will allow the engine to drop even if it has failed based on the way it's designed. I'm not sure about the driver side though.
 
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