[tuner4life]

I figured out the passenger side wiring harness. I was going the wrong way with it. Instead of trying to remove it from the car from the outside, I just pushed the big grommet inside the car and was able to pull it all inside the car through the hole.. That will work for getting it painted.

Yes, I know it's filthy..



It will lay it all on the floor once I get that done..



Also managed to get the front wheel e-brake cables removed.. Good riddance to those things.



Lastly, I still can't find a good diagram of the ducting under the dash. I think I'm missing a piece. Can someone verify?




There is a duct that comes straight down the middle in the back. It is behind the wide duct in the pictures and doesn't seem to connect to it at all. There are inserts to accept screws, but I am missing whatever piece attaches to it.

 

[jimbosaab]

Good to see you've got the fusebox/harness figured now. Obviously my memory was off!

The duct you are missing runs from that square connection under the center dash, back over top of the shifter rod. The main part of it ends at the bracket in front of the shifter assembly and it Y's from there along either side of the shifter to around the fronts of the seats. You likely had about 2 inch square holes in the carpet where the duct ends would blow air out under the seats. ('91-'93 have extra pieces under the seats).

 

[jdwertz]

Looks like #1 to me:

 

[tuner4life]

Ah! Great! Thank you for that. I am definitely missing that piece as well as the rear extensions for it.


Didn't take any pictures last night, but I stripped down and removed the core support, steering rack and brace plates under it, and most of the exhaust. Going to keep the existing 3" downpipe, but add in a flexpipe and then have a new rear section fabbed up.


Over the weekend I'm hoping to get the rear suspension removed, old doors removed, and basically everything else that would be removed in order to do the paint job. Possibly drop the headliner and remove the sunroof panel to be painted separately. Remove hatch (I'm still weary of welding up a little bit of spoiler rust so close to the glass, but I'm told that as long as I cover the glass with masking tape it shouldn't be an issue).. Maybe if I'm lucky I'll start on the weld repairs!


I also need to build a "body cart" of sorts so that I can roll the shell in and out of the shop as there is a lot of grease and grime that needs to be cleaned off of the engine bay and underside and it would be nearly impossible to get it cleaned and rinsed inside of the shop. I plan on using large industrial casters (swivels on the front), various lumber, and metal gussets/braces to strengthen where necessary. I've seen many built this way and it seems the most economical. My question is where would be a good place to support the car? There will be no suspension components, and no cross-member. The jack points are being used right now with jack stands and it's not nearly as stable as I would like because they are in the middle of the car. I would like to support it further out at the front and rear and be able to mount the body to the dolly for when I transport it to the paint shop..

 

[tuner4life]

Weekend progress. My OCD has decided that I needed more help with this project and I'm pretty sure that it's not going to be ready for summer anymore lol..

This is on the floor and all bolts are soaking in PB blaster.



There is some surface rust above the rear axle, but nothing too bad and nothing I wasn't already aware of, so that's good. A little bit of POR15 and some undercoating will take care of this area.



Also took back windows out.



Cleaned/organized the parts area and added the table to save more floor space.


Engine bay is officially empty and ready for me to start tackling the rust.



And current status of the shop... I'm also currently restoring my old Chevy G20 van so there is stuff everywhere from both cars. Doing my best to keep it all separated. I can't stand the mess right now, but just have to keep on keeping on.



And lastly, I came across this C900 on my facebook. What front airdam is this and what sort of sketchy activities do I need to take part in to acquire one?

 

[Saabeh]

Nice progress.

That is a stubnose airflow, good fucking luck.

 

[tuner4life]

Haha. I figured.

 

[Cark]

I want your shop. I count 5 vehicles in there?!

 

[tuner4life]

Thanks. Yes, there are 5 cars in there right now. If I really want to pack them in tightly, I can get 7 in there, but then I have no room to work. It has been the biggest blessing after working on a 2 car garage for the last 6 years. Unfortunately I still have cars parked outside.. :redface:

Last night was just more disassembly. I stripped the hatch of everything but glass and emblems. Hoping to get those removed tonight. Also removed the headliner to try to get the sunroof panel out for paint. Kind of a weird setup with the headliner being glued to the sunroof assembly.. But I got it out. Going to be redoing the material on the headliner and pillars while it's out. I still need to drop the sunroof and get the roof panel out to paint and the upholstered panel out to recover since it's falling down.

 

[tuner4life]

Last night I got the windshield and hatch glass out of the car. Wasn't too bad at all with a second person helping. All windows now reside in my basement on the pool table with tons of blankets and padding. There's no way they would make it being stored in the shop.

The removal is covered in this thread:

http://www.saablink.net/forum/general-classic-900-posts-information/116441.htm

There doesn't seem to be any rust or corrosion under the windshield although there is a bunch of black gooey adhesive that I imagine is from a previous windshield replacement. I was under the assumption that there wasn't supposed to be any adhesive here.



As for the rear glass, I'm glad that I decided to remove it because there was some rust starting under the bottom edge of the window frame. It appears to only be surface rust so it should be easily taken care if. The larger spot under the spoiler may need a bit more work that I'm not exactly looking forward to. I was uncomfortable welding so close to the window, so with it out of the way, it should be easier.





For disassembly, I still need to remove the front doors and strip the jambs, remove the hatch and finish disassembling, remove sunroof assembly and disassemble, strip the parts from the hood, strip parts from new doors, remove the SPG panel mounting rails, and finish removing all of the tar from the interior and hatch floor..

I've got half a mind to pull the dash anyways just for good measure as it's about the only thing left.

 

[Turbo00]

Thanks for posting so many pictures. My c900 is last on the list after the CJ, the Rx7, and the turbocoupe, but mostly because I want to do it right and strip it down to this level. I'm sure I'll be referring back to this thread.

 

[tuner4life]

Thanks! Build threads are no fun without pictures, Makes the process seem too easy and gets boring to read later on.


Does anyone know how to get the "A" pillar trim covers out? I've removed the 2 fastener pins on the pillars, but the trim seems to be very stuck down next to the dashboard. I felt around behind the dash, but can't find any fasteners or anything. I don't want to pull too hard and destroy them, is there a trick that I'm missing?

 

[tuner4life]

This thing fascinates me... Universal flares and wide wheels, actually looks pretty good compared to the stancey cars I usually see. Evidently he actually tracks it too..

 

[jimbosaab]

Does anyone know how to get the "A" pillar trim covers out? I've removed the 2 fastener pins on the pillars, but the trim seems to be very stuck down next to the dashboard. I felt around behind the dash, but can't find any fasteners or anything. I don't want to pull too hard and destroy them, is there a trick that I'm missing?

You've already got the headliner out and the two pins pulled. I assume you've already removed the rubber trim around the door lip...the A-trim wraps around under there.
IIRC, there is a lip on the A-pillar trim that goes under the edge of the dash cover. That is what's holding them on you.

This has certainly snowballed into a full restoration! Go OCD Go! :not_worthy:

You're not going to stance/flare this car are you? Just my opinion of course. I'm the sort that wouldn't even do a whaletail.

 

[tuner4life]

Thanks. I'll look into the pillars tonight. I figured it was something simple, just couldn't pinpoint. I may actually just pull the whole dash out and remove the HVAC for painting because of that annoying box that sticks into the engine bay on the passenger side.. It would be nearly impossible to paint around that.. That and the dash is about the only part left in the car. I feel like I should pull that just for the sake of being thorough. :redface:


I am not planning on "stancing" this car, in the way that you are probably thinking. I can't stand the "hellacamber" garbage that is completely unusable, but I am perfectly fine with going lower/wider.etc. I'm even ok with some tire stretch. The car I posted is a bit much in the stretch department, but he does track the car according to his Instagram, so I assume that it does still function well, Shoot, my Cressida drift car runs 17x9 with 215/45 tires (mild stretch) and I've never had an issue with debeading a tire. Not trying to start a function vs form battle, but I have a bigger issue with camber than stretch. And since that car really doesn't have much camber, I really kind of like the look! And for the first time probably ever, universal ebay flares actually look decent on a car.. Anyways. Sorry for that little rant. My car will (for now at least) be running the same Aero Wheels and Airflow arches that it already has. I have some ideas that I want to play around with in the future, but it'll be a while.

:rant:

I do want a whaletail though.

 

[tuner4life]

I got the sunroof out over the weekend and disassembled it to where I have the bare metal panel ready for paint, and the headliner panel out and waiting to be recovered.



Also got the new doors stripped down and ready for paint. There are 1 or 2 small rust bubbles that will need attention on the new doors, but they are 100x better than the originals.

Also finished stripping the hatch and removed it. I added plugs to the harnesses going into the hatch as there was no way to disconnect them before. Also removed the doors and finished stripping the door jambs and hatch jamb.

At this point, there is 1 rusty heat shield and the dashboard/hvac that will still need to be removed. Then I can start welding and getting it ready for paint.

Didn't take a ton of pictures this weekend, but here's a couple.




Since the engine was just sitting there next to the car, I decided to take Palmer's "signed and dated" advice...




Also, I'm having an issue (not surprisingly) tracking down these plastic mounting nut-serts for the SPG rails. I have several that are stripped or damaged and would like to replace them with new. I can't seem to remove them without ruining them completely and need new ones. Anyone have a source?



Also, looking at options for the weather stripping between the body and the SPG panels. Besides cutting down my own trim, has anyone used this with any success? Supposedly it's a easy direct fit.

SAAB 900 CLASSIC AERO KIT RUBBER TRIM convertible SPG AERO T16S Turbo | eBay

 

[tuner4life]

Had a little bit of time last night to work on this thing.. I removed this rusty heat shield. Looks simple enough, I will probably just fab a new one out of aluminum sheet.



I also received the parts needed to convert to rear e-brake, so I had removed the heat shields to see what I was up against.. It looks like the seat mounting brackets from the newer car that the e-brake handle was pulled from are different than mine and the handle will interfere with my current seat brackets.. I'll have to fab something up to remedy this. Shouldn't be too bad.

I also removed the dash fascia and the dash cap. What a circus that was! There was only 1 of the 4 bolts holding the dash fascia in, and it was stripped. ended up ruining it getting it out and breaking one of the mounting points on the fascia panel as well as the vacuum actuated flap behind the left dash vent.. I'll need to source those parts and might just try to source a wood dash too. Idk. Either way, it's out. and wow, there is a lot going on behind the dash in these cars.




I found some wiring issues as well as some issues with the vacuum hvac that will need to be addressed. Also currently trying to remove all of the factory stereo wiring. It looks like a large chunk of the wiring behind the dash is for the stereo.. The original worked sort of.. None of the display worked, so you had to guess what stations you were on.. And it had the mixer down below, but it just wasn't working great. I'm going to remove 100% of the stock stereo and start from scratch wires and all.. I may have to actually break down and buy a Bentley manual though because I need wiring diagrams of what's all there currently.

I had to tell myself to quit worrying about wiring for a minute and finish taking stuff apart..

I am still trying to wrap my head around how to remove the HVAC system and the rest of the stuff behind the dashboard. It looks like most of the parts are fastened to the metal cross member (which saab conveniently used for part of the hvac ducting). I think that if I remove this cross member that almost all of the rest of the parts will come out with it. There is a bunch of wiring that goes towards the rear of the car that I can't seem to find a disconnect plug for, also the steering shaft, and a few other parts. I'll take a crack at it tonight and see where I end up.

 

[Saabeh]

I'm peeved that there is a reproduction SPG panel rubber molding. When I did my two kits, there was no such thing.

 

[tuner4life]

Well, I got the finally managed to get the dash innards loose last night. There was no good way to disconnect the main harness from the dash, so I ended up just removing the rear portion of the body harness.



Besides that, I just needed to pull the steering shaft boot inside of the car so that the steering shaft could be removed with the dash innards. Also needed to unbolt the bracket for the brake/clutch pedal switches, and unhook the springs for the clutch/brake pedals. Then I finished unplugging the ecu harness and everything else that runs out the right side of the firewall into the fender/engine bay. Made sure to label absolutely everything I unplugged because there is no way I'll ever get it right otherwise.. Then there are just 4 bolts coming in from the exterior that hold the crossmember, just had to make sure to unhook the main harness from the clips in the firewall and it all came loose. (This is more of a list for me to remember what I did later)...



There is a ton going on behind the dash.. Definitely leaves a large hole:



Tonight, I'm picking up another table from my parents as I am out of places to store parts. Also need a helper to get this mess out of the car and set on said table without breaking anything..

 

[JK]

Wow. This is intense!