[tuner4life]

Thanks! It still needs a lot of work, and I need to make some organizational improvements in the shop before I go splattering more compound on everything lol.

Facebook video link about the parts car.. Not sure if you will be able to see it or not! There is a bunch of goodies in that car!

https://www.facebook.com/tuner4life/videos/10221298621597558/

I'm hoping to be able to part that 1985 out and fund most of the engine refresh on this 1992..

 

[tuner4life]

Body work is now done and in primer. I have a good friend who will spray the color once the car is driveable.

Here are a few pictures along the way. I was happy with how nicely the metal worked back to pretty flat. It looks like a lot of filler, but it is very thin. Less than 1/8" in the deepest spots.

(Before pic of front fender)








And the little crease on the back corner:

(Before picture)



The metal straightened as much as possible (It's thick metal there!)



1st layer of filler:



And final result (I know the primer is screwed up on the top surface. My dumb self dropped something on it while wet. It's smooth now )



I also traded some parts from the black parts car for this stuff. It's everything I need to fix mine. I'll probably try to find a nicer grille eventually, but the rest is presentable for this $300 car



Now all I need to do is get to work on the drivetrain refresh. That should happen over the next couple months as I save $ for this project I didn't intend to have. :saab

 

[jimbosaab]

Look's great!
I bet it's nice to do metal work without rust falling out.

 

[tuner4life]

Look's great!
I bet it's nice to do metal work without rust falling out.

It's a pleasant (and frankly rare to me) experience :biggrin:

 

[tuner4life]

Also opinion time:

I haven't sold the SPG side panels from my black parts car and am likely just going to keep them and put them on this red car. My heart wants me to grab the spoiler (regular turbo spoiler not whale-tail), and also put it on this car to complete the look.. Meanwhile my brain doesn't want me to drill holes in this rust free smooth hatch.

Your opinions? I can talk myself in/out of anything.

 

[jimbosaab]

It's a pleasant (and frankly rare to me) experience :biggrin:

LOL...yeah. Because so often even what we think isn't rusty, actually is. I've been having that experience yet again while refurb'ing my new-to-me trailer lately.

Also opinion time:

I haven't sold the SPG side panels from my black parts car and am likely just going to keep them and put them on this red car. My heart wants me to grab the spoiler (regular turbo spoiler not whale-tail), and also put it on this car to complete the look.. Meanwhile my brain doesn't want me to drill holes in this rust free smooth hatch.
Your opinions? I can talk myself in/out of anything.

Do whatever blows your dress up!. Personally, I'm always on the fence about the side panels, but the spoiler would make the hatch seem a bit less naked.
It's your car and you're investing your time and money, so why not. You've already got the parts in hand for relatively little cost. If you decide to sell it, most buyers would likely prefer the spoiler. Rust-free car or not, you're saving a beat-up 900S, so you're not defacing a mint special model. And, most importantly, you're not a fart-box ricer teenager who's going to make a mess of it trying to stick it on with rusty nails and scotch tape

:saab

 

[tuner4life]

Do whatever blows your dress up!. Personally, I'm always on the fence about the side panels, but the spoiler would make the hatch seem a bit less naked.
It's your car and you're investing your time and money, so why not. You've already got the parts in hand for relatively little cost. If you decide to sell it, most buyers would likely prefer the spoiler. Rust-free car or not, you're saving a beat-up 900S, so you're not defacing a mint special model. And, most importantly, you're not a fart-box ricer teenager who's going to make a mess of it trying to stick it on with rusty nails and scotch tape

:saab

I like the way you think! Spoiler is going on!

 

[tuner4life]

Started going through what will be needed for the engine build.. Nothing is severely wrong with the engine itself. Just want to refresh everything to where it's going to be reliable for a long time.

I know there is still a lot missing (ignition parts for example), but I already have a lot of time in this lol.

 

[Troup]

Impressed with your organization and research on that list. Make one for the B234R

 

[tuner4life]

Maybe sometime before I die I'll do the same for my 9k

:th_alc:
:cryin:

 

[Troup]

Maybe sometime before I die I'll do the same for my 9k

:th_alc:
:cryin:

I hope parts availability holds out until I am at a place in life where I can rebuild mine.

 

[Greentime70]

Hi Love this project, any updates

 

[tuner4life]

Sorry, no updates at the moment. I have about half of the parts gathered to get this thing in the road, but have been in reduced hours at work and partially laid off for weeks now. Just going to have to wait it out to buy the rest, but still hoping to get this thing on the road by mid summer.

 

[tuner4life]

Well this has gone about as well as the rest of 2020...

Between Covid, work situations, and a divorce that God willing will be final soon, this car has been WAY on the back burner all year and it frustrates me. But I'm back at it and finally managed to source nearly all of the parts that I need to make it drive again. Hoping to have it 100% by spring. Here's to build season! :th_alc:

:saab

 

[tuner4life]

I promise there is still progress moving albeit slowly on this car.. I have a bunch of projects brewing at once, but I still plan to have this car on the road for this summer.

In the meantime, I was working on the front seats. The cloth material is very worn and thin, but I can't justify buying new seats. I repaired the split foam on the bolsters and reinforced them, then installed Kraco Sheepskin covers. They actually fit surprisingly well and are super comfy. It's a nice period correct thing and didn't cost a ton. I look forward to driving with these.

 

[tuner4life]

After way too much stalling and dealing with other BS, I'm back on this thing with a vengeance. I want to drive it this summer!

I took the known-bad engine off of the supposed-good transmission and set it aside for possible future rebuilding.. Then I drained the transmission and removed all of the inspection covers from the transmission and verified that the internals do all look to be in very good condition. I'll be cleaning this transmission up, flipping the inner drivers and running it. Next step is to start going through the engine. I'll keep this updated, but it should be much more often than it has been up until now.

 

[tuner4life]

I got productive this week so far. I gave the good transmission a once over and it is in very good shape inside, even the primary chains and tensioner were in excellent shape. I drained the rest of the fluid and pulled and resealed all of the side covers and diff cover. I found the 2 best inner drivers between my 2 transmissions and installed them. I also changed the input shaft seal. I'm just waiting on the shift shaft seal and the transmission will be ready to install.

Then I started taking the engine apart. There was a lot of crud and dirt everywhere, and someone has definitely been in this engine before as I found a few broken or missing bolts, but overall, everything is accounted for and seems to be in decent shape. I did a compression check before I removed the engine and it came back excellent and even across all the cylinders so I am not going to be messing with the rotating assembly. The crosshatching on the cylinder walls still looks good, and there is no noticeable play in the rod bearings. I was pleasantly surprised.

I'm going to clean up each part and refurb or replace anything that needs to be. It's not a show car, but it'll be presentable.

Anyways, here is the disassembly summed up in pictures:










Time to start cleaning and rebuilding!

 

[tuner4life]

More progress, I took everything apart and cleaned and repainted the block, then started re-assembling everything. Once I had the timing cover and rear cover installed, I put the oil suction tube back on with a new o-ring and mounted the engine back onto the transmission and started mounting some of the other parts.







I'm going to be going through the head and re-installing that next, but here is how the whole thing sits at the moment:

 

[tuner4life]

I've been slowly chipping away at this thing. I'm waiting for a few final parts to show up, then the engine will be able to be dropped into the car! I'm pretty excited! I know it's just a $300 base model, but It's gotta look good. My OCD won't allow any less.

 

[ninehundredt]

This is looking great! Definitely a good motivation to update my own dormant project thread. What's your plan for tackling the fender painting?

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