Finishing Our Saab

Our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo has been going through the last few stages of its restoration as of late.

Classic car technician John continued his work by fitting the rear quarter vents and trims as well as the boot lock and latch. After he had done this, he began the long and laborious task of removing the old sticky tape from the badges. He then had to apply new tape and reattach the badges in the correct position. John also fitted all four quarter mouldings.

Once John had finished the placement of the badges, he repaired both front door speaker wires so the door panels could then be re-fitted. The washer pipes to the bonnet and both headlights were routed and connected.

After John found that the nearside front calliper was seized, he stripped and removed it before fitting new flexi hoses.

The oil and filter were drained and John found that the coolant system was brown and sludgy. The header tank and radiator hoses were removed so they could be cleaned out before being re-fitted. John ran water through the radiator and reconnected the hoses.

John went on to remove the thermostat and cleaned this as well. The hose joiner was replaced with a new piece of copper tubing that classic car technician Clinton flared. All pipes were then secured.

The front spoiler was painted before being refitted along with the front bumper.

After noticing that there was a small hole on the offside inner arch/suspension mount, John stripped and removed the suspension so Monty could access the area and weld it. Monty cut all the old rusty material away and made plates to replace it and welded these in.

Classic car technician Brian has also been working on our classic Saab by refitting the door panels, connecting the wiring to the speakers, fitting the boot panels, and re-fitting the spare wheel and cover.

New brake calipers were also fitted to our Saab 99 Turbo.

Putting A Classic Saab Back Together

Classic car technician Brian has been working on the interior of our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo. He first fitted the headliner board before moving on to the A posts. The sun visors and rear view mirror were next to be fitted followed by the B posts.

Brian went on to fit the rear quarter panels and seat belts before he made covers for the seat belt holes in the C posts. These were then fitted into the C post panels. Once the C posts were fitted, the brackets for the side window opening catches were fitted too.

The rear parcel shelf was fitted and the front door window handles were painted.

Classic car technician John has also been working on our classic Saab. He has been refitting multiple components and cleaning them as he did so. As no new parts are available, things are getting refurbed as they are refitted.

Before all of the lights were refitted, John painted the frames and touched up all the visible screws in matt black. He also repaired the grille before painting it silver and black.

New wheel arch trims were sourced, however, they are delivered straight so needed to be heated and bent into shape when fitting which is not an easy thing to do! John went on to clean and check the brakes before fitting the mudflaps. As he was doing this, he noticed that the holes for the mudflap fittings had been filled during welding so new ones had to be drilled.

The nearside front brakes were binding which John found was due to the caliper being seized. The pads had also been very hot and had gone brittle. This means that new caliper and pads are needed.

Painting Our Saab

After our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo was taken back to bare metal and repaired, it was prepped for paint.

As you can see from the photos below, it now looks much better with its new coat of paint and it will soon be ready to move on to the next stage of the restoration process.

Our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo continues to make good progress and we are looking forward to seeing this carry on over the next few weeks.