[jimbosaab]

Bummer. Exactly the chewed-up evidence you didn't want to find.
Unfortunately, good C900 transmissions are like gold these days. I wonder if there's any chance of salvaging that one?

Jumping back a couple posts...
Your 12+ vehicle collection beats mine. I'm at 9 on four wheels and 2 on two wheels, but that's including project cars and parts cars that are still mostly whole. I made a deal on a car trailer, so now I need to pick that up and find a place for it. Ha.

 

[tuner4life]

Luckily I think I have a lead on a good transmission for a fair price. I'm just trying to nail down the details today. I'm not comfortable with, or have time to try rebuilding one of these transmissions myself. It's a skill I'd like to learn, but special tools and sourcing parts are the biggest issues I am worried about.

Be careful Jimbo! I only had 7 when I bought my trailer. The trailer just makes it easier to bring those broken projects home that you might have otherwise passed over!
hahaha!!

 

[9Kwrecker]

Is the lead I sent you seeming like it'll work out?

 

[tuner4life]

Still working on details, but yes! I believe it's going to work out! Thank you so much!

 

[9Kwrecker]

That's great. If you get the deal done I think you both end up helping the other out, keep me posted!

 

[Troup]

I checked with my parts hoarders for you. Not much on my end. Just a bunch of broken ones. You could check with Mile Hi or EOS Boulder out in CO. One of them is likely to have something. I don't know about pricing. Shipping would be a pain, but Greyhound freight has always been good to me if you're willing to deal with a little sketchiness. I shipped a 9k trans to 9kwrecker this summer from CO to OH using FedEx and it cost around $160 which wasn't to bad considering the weight.

 

[tuner4life]

Well, I guess parting this car out is out of the question now. :whacky044:

9Kwrecker's lead worked out!! I made a little trip to north of Detroit on Saturday and picked up a transmission that was attached to a spare 1992 n/a engine (with a blown head gasket). Also picked up a core support, radiator with fans, set of wheels with nearly new snow tires, and a handful of other goodies. I was also given boxes of factory Saab repair manuals and info. I haven't gone through it all, but it was a worthwhile trip!

I was also able to sell some parts from a Toyota Cressida that I'm parting out on the way up which covered the gas for the trip.

The rest of the weekend was pretty busy, but I had some time Monday night to start pulling the engine. I have everything ready to come out except for the axles, steering lines, and rear mounts at this point.



The plan for now is to go through the existing engine and replace any/all gaskets and seals, as well as water pump and timing components. Then put it on the new transmission and put it all back together. I'll be going through the basics of everything and refreshing as needed. I'm too OCD to just throw it back together, but this is definitely a "budget" project compared to the others.

I did find that someone had been into this car before me. The good news is that it has a nearly brand new Sachs clutch, the bad news is that there is a broken flywheel bolt.. Oh well I have spares now.

I suspect that there are issues with the steering system on this car. it was dry when I got it, and even after adding fluid was noisy and hard to turn. I am thinking that I may use some parts (rack and pump) from my 1986 project to get this car on the road since I was planning on replacing everything on that car with new stuff anyways.

I'm going to document more stuff as I go.

 

[9Kwrecker]

So glad that all worked out. Jeff's a great guy, he's helped me out a lot in the past and I know he was trying to clear all that stuff out since he moved/is moving.

I'm excited to see this project continue!

 

[tuner4life]

I forgot to take a picture, but the engine is out as of late last night. Now to start taking it apart and make a shopping list!

 

[jimbosaab]

Great parts haul ! And progress.

Go man, go.

 

[tuner4life]

Nothing to write home about.. Just a mess.

 

[tuner4life]

This whole project is dumb.. I am still saving for the parts for the engine refresh. I am still tentatively planning on selling it after I get it all cleaned up and running, but every time I mess with it, I just get more attached.

I was going to work on winterizing a different vehicle and cleaning up the shop last night, but that didn't happen. I wanted to see if I could fix the front fender damage, or if I was going to have to weld in a replacement front section.

This was how it looked when I brought it home: Both front fenders look similar.



I was able to work the metal back to nearly the correct shape using only a hammer/dollys and a little prying. It is very close to the right general shape at this point.




I then started on the filler work:


And after sanding:


I still need to do probably 1 more coat of filler, but it's very close at this point, only a couple of low spots. The filler coat turned out very thin, so that's good. I'm happy with the progress considering that I wasn't even planning on touching it tonight lol. The other side is just a little worse, but after this I'm pretty confident it will come back nicely.

*Edit: I am not a professional body guy in the slightest. I have only limited training/experience. If something looks wrong, it very well could be*

 

[tuner4life]

It was in the mid-60s over the weekend, and I figure it may be one of the last nice weekends before winter. I was planning on waiting to clean this car until after it was put back together, but I needed the engine bay to at least be clean enough to put the engine back in.. So I cleaned that out reasonably well and in the process ended up washing the whole body.. I am absolutely astounded at how nice this car really is.




I'm going to touch up the paint in the axle tunnels and under the hood, Probably coat with POR15 or something to keep it all nice, then drench it all in fluid film lol. I'm going to see what it takes to keep a C900 rust free in the Midwest.

 

[9Kwrecker]

That's crazy clean, looks just as clean as the one I just got from California. Actually cleaner since mine's all greasy, but I will definitely be cleaning out the bay real well when I pull the motor to swap the trans.

How's the paint look once it dried?

 

[jimbosaab]

Funny how we get attached to the cars we bring home

That fender looks great. And the whole car is indeed nice and clean.

 

[tuner4life]

Thanks guys!

The paint definitely got dull once it dried. I still need to polish it, however, it is very smooth and clean and has surprisingly few scratches. The only "damage" besides the front fenders is one odd ding right on the body line on the back left corner (pictured somewhere early in the thread). I may just leave that alone and just touch up where the paint chipped. It is in a spot that would be very difficult to fix.

I am not in a huge hurry to polish it, but mostly wanted to get it clean before the snow flies and I lost the opportunity until spring.

 

[9Kwrecker]

That red should come right back, probably end up looking close to how it looks in the photos where it's wet. I've brought a few pink Saabs from that era back to bright red over the years.

I'm still just in shock that a car that clean was left to die.

 

[Troup]

Wow, this car is clean. I can relate to the started with the engine bay and cleaned the whole car thing. Pretty much sums up most of my weekends.

Really impressed with your body work skills.

 

[Troup]

Didn't you have a Talladega pink 9000 a couple of years ago that polished out really well?

 

[tuner4life]

Thanks! Haha, yes i did! That's why I suspected that this one would come back as well.




Unfortunately the red car had severe rust issues as well as electrical and other issues and eventually got parted out. Many of the parts live on in my white 9k and I many of the members here's cars as well. I was young and dumber then, and they weren't as rare yet.