[sirbow2]

This project has been going since last summer, so I guess it's time to post this before it's done (not even close by the way). Plus I thought of a clever title haha!

It has rust in the floorpan, rear part of the rocker panels, and 3 out of 4 wheel wells. It's kind of bad, but pretty localized so it will require cutting out small metal sections and replacing it.


The rocker panels were done last year and will be finished when the car is painted:

Onto the floor pan which turned out kinda rough, but eh, it was my first big patch:

Investigating passenger side:

Driver side wheel well will need some work too:

The rear underside isn't too bad and will be sandblasted.

The last big body repair to do is this very unfortunate towing accident....

So the plan now is to get the rest of the rust taken care of, sandblast the underside and cover it all with a 2 part epoxy mastic coating. Then it's onto the suspension with the same sorta plan.

 

[sirbow2]

Online sites and the EPC are saying the part changed for 05+ or is that just a part number quirk?

Jpgroth, kind of. I've done a few engine rebuilds and I'm pretty handy with a wrench but this is my first go with body work. I think it'll go alright now that I have a good little tig setup and more time than money as a student.


Today I got a new tank of argon and worked on a 5SFE engine from a Camry so I can afford this project

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[sirbow2]

Picked this up from the junkyard so I can fix up my smashed rear light section. I don't plan on replacing the entire quarter panel, but I did cut past the spot welds around the taillight on the donor car so it can disassembled and spot welded to easily fit my car.

Today's project: front passenger wheel well rust using the Project Binky paper template method!

Cut it out, make a template:

Transfer template:

Done-zo!

I threw random rattle can on the outside as it will get sandblasted later, but the inside was sealed up real nice with some OSI caulking stuff. Used this on the floor pan before I decided to redo it and it held up very well. Super stoked on how this turned out compared to the floor pan repair, but surprise, surprise, the proper tools really help! I did light my damn saab on fire like 5 times though! Should have cleared away more sound deadening material.

Started to put interior in:

But didn't finish because the rear seats would just get in the way of removing this rust. Problem is that it looks like the rust goes through that entire section of seem sealer through the divider wall. Not sure how i'm gonna tackle this one as I really don't wanna take out that divider.

Also did some other underbody stuff and tinkered with the platonoff diy short throw shifter.

 

[sirbow2]

That's so true, but i'm already in too deep and being a college student I can't spend that much for shipping. There aren't any Saabs for sale in Rapid City and in general the cars are typically in bad condition and have ridiculous prices. Advice for anyone wanting to move here: don't. Unless you REALLY like the scenery.

It's "just" the rear fender well rust now and then its onto paint. Spring break is a week away, so having the underbody sprayed is the goal for that.

 

[sirbow2]

Good to know. What about a lower pressure? As i already bought a bag of Black diamond.

 

[sirbow2]

What engine? hahaha that's already in quite a few pieces in storage waiting for forged internals. The underbody will be taped off with plastic as well.

There's actually not any rust on the underside except in a few spots. I took most of the undercoating and paint off with a wire wheel because i didn't think the media would play nice with gooey undercoating. Problem is the wire wheel left an almost polished surface that needs to be roughed up before painting. Thoughts?

 

[sirbow2]

Finally got something done on the Saab. I peeled apart the various layers of sheet metal in the rear wheel well and got rid of the rust with a sandblaster. It wasn't the best way to do it, but it's the best I could do without taking out the cabin/trunk divider.

Welds are better than the last patch!

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[sirbow2]

I'm still making progress and that's what counts!

I picked up some weld thru primer and got the passenger side patch spot welded in and cut out the rear rusty section. Its not the prettiest, but once it gets sandblasted and epoxied primered with the rest of the underbody, it'll be sealed and that's what I care about. Especially once the seam sealer gets properly reapplied.

The other side needs just as much help:

Notice in this next picture that the rust stops when the seem sealer starts. Shame they didn't put it along the whole seam

While I was at the PPG paint store, I asked them on a quote for some high fill primer, header orange (like the newer dodge darts) base coat and some clear coat. That came out to $1100.... So that ain't gonna happen, especially for my first paintjob.

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[sirbow2]

No progress on the Saab but school is finally over and I got some new welding supplies which should make this job a lot easier.

I got a Jackson auto dimming helmet, gas lense for the torch, solenoid valve for the shielding gas and some better hardware for my tig pedal.

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[sirbow2]

Woot! Finished the welding on the wheel wells.

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[sirbow2]

And we're onto the rear quarter panel damage....

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[sirbow2]

Yeah me too...! I would've pulled the entire quarter panel from the junk car but the junkyard had it in front of the crusher and told me to get what I wanted asap. So I rushed and used a cutoff wheel but the Saab is still in the yard to this day... I don't like that place much....

But yeah it's just been lots of guess and check to get it right.

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[sirbow2]

Yeah me too...! I would've pulled the entire quarter panel from the junk car but the junkyard had it in front of the crusher and told me to get what I wanted asap. So I rushed and used a cutoff wheel but the Saab is still in the yard to this day... I don't like that place much....

But yeah it's just been lots of guess and check to get it right.

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Crap, that was three weeks ago.... oh well. I finally got the replacement section tacked in place and then promptly ran out of shielding gas because I didn't get any the week before....

Im pretty happy with the fitment, though ill need to round out the tail light holes a bit so it can be slid to the left.

As for the rest of the build, I've had some unexpected funding so I have wossners, abbott forged rods and some other goodies coming!

 

[sirbow2]

Time for an update....

So far I've collected the turbos (stock td04hl-15T and a Holset HX35 7 blade), rebuild kits for them, and wossner pistons. The forged rods are coming once Abbott Saab gets them back in stock.

As for actual work, the quarter panel repair is done and so I moved onto sandblasting the underbody. There was some rust where the subframe mounts to the frame rails that I found earlier but didn't think was a big deal....turns out I had to make some more patches.

 

[sirbow2]

Isn't that what we all do?

Compound turbo charging. I considered quite a few forced induction methods to obtain the power I wanted while maintaining power in the lower rpm range. Exhaust flows through the small turbo and then the large turbo with a external wastegate on each. Air is compressed by the larger turbo before being fed to the smaller turbo. This setup is essentially like running the single smaller turbo with a higher atmospheric pressure (28psia instead of 14.7 psia for ex).

Also, most importantly, the setup is quite easy to implement... The large turbo is controlled by itself with a manual boost controller and the ECU controls the smaller turbo (or another manual controller, I dunno how the trionic pressure sensor and boost controller will like ~40 lbs of boost).

These setups were originally found on diesels but i found all the gasoline related info from the guys over at dsmtuners.

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[sirbow2]

Custom tune for sure!

One guy has done it as far as I know but it was on a 900 and I haven't been able to get in contact with him. Check out these links:
https://www.homemadeturbo.com/new-member-introductions-42/because-saab-wasnt-weird-enough-120862/

http://www.dsmtuners.com/threads/new-guy-looking-for-compound-turbo-information.430366/

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[sirbow2]

Well, I was chasing around electrical gremlins in my daily the past few days, but that doesn't mean it was ok to slack off on the Saab the past week! The Corolla had a bad ground point so something was grounding through the light module/lights .... that killed the module and made the engine buck when using turn signals... quite the experience.


Look what came in the mail

$550 for the set!

Today after work I finished preparing the back half of the underbody for blasting. I still need to mask off the trunk and blast some rust and the inner side of the wheel well patch welds. I might as well have it all ready to paint at once.

Once it's blasted, I can weld the patches in for the rear subframe mounts.

After that it'll be time to clean everything and paint... finally... but really it's my own fault for not working on it haha

Oh, also, you can see that I rolled (aka beat nicely with a hammer) the rear fenders and trimmed the lip back to the spot welds. It looks completely normal form the outside. I'm planning on stock wheels for now but ya never know for the future so the space will be nice. The rubber undercoating will replace the rear fender liners (and that stupid wheel well lip trim piece). Not sure about the fronts yet.

 

[sirbow2]

What ever you guys wanna call it! haha. It started with a simple rust repair that ran away from me when I found more.

Just been sandblasting the past two days:

Still got a bit to go...

 

[sirbow2]

Wow, what a great build. Kudos to you! Heck of a lot better than expanding foam and bondo to fix rust (was horrified to see a YouTuber do that) and fake chrome side vents for speed ;ol;

Thanks guys! the support is much needed, haha.

Yeah, that's terrible. It really needs to be cut out, cleaned and patched to be a proper repair. But really depends on how much you care and what you're doing with the car.... My daily has iron cancer all over the rear fenders but the PO hit a deer so the car is already junk.


Also, sandblasting is done for the underside/trunk area so I've begun working on removing all the blasting media and cleaning the metal for paint !!!

 

[sirbow2]

Aghhh..... Haven't touched it since august.

All the blasting is done and kinda lost motivation (havent heard that one before!). I bought a motorcycle project and actually just finished that up so now I just need to work myself up to starting on the Saab again. I graduate in a few months so it'd be nice to have it back together.