saab 99 turbo

Our Saab Is Live

Our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo is live on the Bridge Classic Cars Competitions website. After being refurbished by our team of classic car technicians, it

Read More ยป

Finishing Touches

Classic car technician John has been putting the finishing touches to our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo. Before things were completed, John needed to replace the

Read More ยป

More Repair Work

Our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo began its restoration journey with us earlier this year. Since then it has been stripped and had a good amount

Read More ยป

Our Saab Is Live

Our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo is live on the Bridge Classic Cars Competitions website.

After being refurbished by our team of classic car technicians, it retains a lot of its original features and has been refinished in its signature deep black paintwork. The interior is in excellent condition and the lucky winner of this classic Saab will be the owner of one of the first true turbocharged performance cars.

Tickets are available now from the Bridge Classic Cars Competitions website.

Finishing Touches

Classic car technician John has been putting the finishing touches to our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo. Before things were completed, John needed to replace the faulty fan. The initial plan was to use a fan we already had in the workshop, so John duplicated the bracket that was initially used on the old fan. However, even after modifying the slam plate, it became apparent that a slimline fan would be needed to fit the space for the fan in the Saab.

Once the new slimline fan arrived, John fitted it and reinstalled the radiator. Everything was put back together and the coolant was filled.

While on a test drive, John noticed that something wasn’t quite right with the vehicle. Upon investigation, he found split or perished vac hoses that needed to be replaced. After stripping and replacing all the hoses, John found that the vac accumulator was leaking. This was sealed up and refitted before our Saab got back on the road for another road test.

Finally, the body mouldings were put on the car bringing this restoration to an end. The future for our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo is still being decided but, whatever happens, it is leaving the Bridge Classic Cars workshop in fantastic shape!

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.

Almost Time For Paint

Whenever you take a car back to bare metal, you usually end up finding issues that need to be repaired. Unfortunately, that is exactly what has happened with our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo.

This project has been challenging and has taken a whole lot of time, effort, and skill but it is now almost ready to be fully prepared for painting.

It’s always great to see progress like this being made and we are excited to see what the future holds for our classic Saab.

More Repair Work

Our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo began its restoration journey with us earlier this year. Since then it has been stripped and had a good amount of its interior components removed too.

With the headliner, C pillar caps and some of the boot panels being retrimmed by our classic car technicians, progress has been made.

We recently called on our friends at Motts Body Repair Specialists to lend a hand with this classic Saab. They were kind enough to repair the boot area of the car.

As you can see from the photos below, the team at Motts did a fantastic job and our 1980 Saab 99 Turbo continues to make progress through its restoration.

Remove and Inspect – Removing Interior Pieces from the 1980 Saab 99 Turbo

The Bridge Classic Cars trim shop have been working on stripping parts of the interior on the 1980 Saab 99 Turbo for restoration.

Along with the paint and body team assessing the exterior of the car to come up with a plan for the body and panels, our trim shop have been removing and assessing pieces from the interior of the classic Saab. Each piece is individually inspected for condition and any marks or tears. The main piece which needed attention of the interior, which is in relatively good condition, is the headliner.

The team pulled the headliner from the car which will be taken up to the trim shop, stripped and recovered.

Getting to the Bottom – Stripping the 1980 Saab 99 Turbo

As part of the assessment on the 1980 Saab 99 Turbo in with Bridge Classic Cars, our technicians wanted to know just how far the rest had set into the classic Saab.

The process began with our friends at Car, Glass and Trim pulling out the front, rear and side window of the car for our technicians to assess all the window channels for any corrosion. Then, the team began removing the body panels to inspect behind them.

After that, the team had a much better idea of the level of metalwork and bodywork needed to bring this classic Saab back to the best condition possible. As you can see, the rust runs deeper than first anticipated but it’s no problem for our restoration teams who will begin the process of getting this iconic early turbo car back to its best.

New Arrival – 1980 Saab 99 Turbo

The latest addition to Bridge Classic Cars is the 1980 Saab 99 Turbo.

This is currently being stored at our safe, secure storage facility the Hangar before it will come over to our Pettistree workshop to be inspected and assessed by the restoration technicians here at Bridge Classic Cars.

Keep a lookout on the Bridge Classic Cars news page for more updates on the 190 Saab 99 Turbo.