Saab History

Photo Credit: Saab History

The 1992 Saab 900 Turbo Project that began in December of last year will be receiving a paint job this week in the original Saab color, “cirrus white”, paint code 153B.

Just about everything has been removed in order to best paint the exterior car within reason, short of a naked shell, given that it had virtually no rust being a mid-atlantic car from Washington, D.C.

I am looking forward to seeing this vehicle in process and of course, the final outcome once complete!

Photo Credit: Saab History

The 1992 Saab 900 Turbo Project has recently received reconditioned wheels from Viking Wheel Service in Wilmington, Delaware. These wheels are the original wheels for this year and model, known as the “directional” Saab wheels for the 1992 900 Turbo model year only, in 15″ by 5.5″ wide painted silver. The later 900 models had grey insets with polished outer rims.

In terms of the final product, I am very happy with the quality and attention to detail on these original reconditioned wheels from Viking Wheel Service. It is my opinion that the Saab community is fortunate to have such a global source for Saab wheel reconditioning no matter how old or how new your wheels are. Furthermore, if you believe your wheels are beyond repair, I would contact Viking Wheel Service to double check.

As you can see in the photograph above, not only did they do a terrific job on the wheels, they also did not remove the outer lip that many “typical” wheel repair shops do.

As you will see in the original wheels, prior to being reconditioned, even the pitting from road debris due to not being regularly cleaned, remained impossible to remove even with the most potent of eco-friendly wheel cleaners.

The results of their work are really quite amazing. What you ultimately end up with are basically, brand new wheels, like you would have directly from a Saab dealership. The catch is that most of the older wheels such as the case here with the 1992, are no longer available, so this is the way to go.

I am extremely happy that I chose this logical route and look forward to seeing them ultimately mounted, balanced and fitted to the Saab 900 Turbo in the near future.

A thank you goes to Viking Wheel Service for a job well done! I highly recommend this route with any of your Saab wheels no matter how old or new and urge you to visit their website, http://www.vikingwheel.com/.

As I have said before and I will say again, the spring is here, and the 2008 Saab Owners Convention is also just around the corner, so get those beat-up old Saab wheels into Viking Wheel Service, you’ll be glad you did!

Photo Credit: Saab History

The cockpit of the 1992 Saab 900 Turbo has been removed and will be completely restored in due time. Please enjoy the progress photo above.

As of now the following interior items have either been replaced, reconditioned or are in queue to be redone.

* Entire Floor carpeting cleaned like new thanks to my fiancee’s hard work this past weekend.
* Entire leather seat backs and bottoms of both driver’s and passenger’s side to be restitched.
* Dash Replaced with brand new dashboard unit.
* Front & Rear Speakers Replaced.
* Original Saab Tape & CD player reconditioned, complete with Ipod connector, care of the maker of the Audio Troll
* Window Motors & Assembly Units completely reconditioned
* Headliner in queue to be replaced, just choosing the “right” shade of white/light grey to match original material.
* Side Door Panels in queue to be replaced, also choosing the “right” saddle color tone to match original material.
* Rear Seats are in mint condition and need no restitching, just leather cleaning and conditioning with UV protectant material.
* All console bits are in good shape, steering wheel & shifter are good as well. Still looking for a good “like new” leather shift boot.

To see the previous work on this project, please take a look at the project directly by visiting this link “Saab 900 Turbo Project“

Photo Credit: Saab History

The 1992 Saab 900 Turbo Project is now off to a good start after nearly two weeks of investigation, preparation, restoration and a little elbow grease.

Most of the work consisted of interior and exterior work, but as of now, I’ve been able to get a good handle on what is what and where to go from here.

In the meantime, anyone know where I can buy a “brand new” passenger’s side headlight for a 1992 from Hella? I still find it silly that these are almost impossible to find at this time.

All material covering the 1992 Saab 900 Turbo Project will now reside entirely in its own section now immediately accessible on the left-hand column of this website by clicking on this image.

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Photo Credit: Saab History

Priority #1 - Fix Turbo Guage

The recently acquired 1992 Saab 900 restoration process has commenced! I started this project with the help of Carl Levine, Audio Troll Genius also of New England. The first day at the shop where my car is located, we began to prioritize the work that needed to be done.

The first priority in bringing this recently acquired 1992 Saab 900 Turbo Hatchback to perfect working order, was to fix the Turbo guage which had not been working by the end of this past year. I realized that the Turbo guage was not working since I had significant boost while driving the car from Washington, D.C. up to New England so therefore I realized the guage was suspect or at least the boost to the guage. This was a big priority since this past year marked the 30th Anniversary of the Turbocharger for Saab Automobile since it launched the first Saab Turbo back in 1977.

In preparing to diagnose the Saab Turbo guage, I worked with Carl to rig up an air compressor that had about 30 PSI of pressure to the Turbo boost hose that the guage was connected to, in order to ensure a good test of pressure. As soon as we sent the compressed air into the hose, the host blew open and sure enough, we realized that there was a crimp in the hose which did not allow air at lower PSI levels to pass through it to ultimately send enough of a signal to the Turbo guage.

The final test with the air compressor after we replaced the entire hose, yielded extremely positive results as you can see in the video here.

A successful day completing the first priority of a growing list of work that will need to be done over the course of this spring and summer.

I will continue to keep you abreast of the progress that is made.

The 1992 Saab 900 3-door 5-speed Turbo that I rescued this past December will be commencing its much needed servicing and repairs in the next week.

Since I bought the Saab and drove it up from from the urban jungle of Washington, D.C. to rural New England back then, thanks again to Sports Car Service in Delaware who helped to quickly remedy the wheel & tire situation, it has been sitting in safe hands ever since.

As you can see from the photograph above, cosmetically, there are a lot of exterior pieces that need to either be cleaned, replaced or reconditioned. I fully expect these kind of tasks to continue as I get deeper and deeper into this project between now and the 2008 Saab Owners Convention which will be taking place on August 21st through the 24th, when I am planning to have it ready by.

These cosmetic pieces I see here are quite trivial but have been already noted in my master list of work to be done. It is worth mentioning that the Hella Company, a long time supplier of Saab parts has been recently problematic in the parts business when it comes to offering their headlight units for the classic Saab 900. I’ve made some requests and so far, picking up these headlight units brand new, are no longer available from all of the sources I have contacted as of late. I hope that this situation changes, it seems like it would be a common request, especially up in the North East as I recall these get literally “sandblasted” from sand & salt trucks during the winter to make them look like this. I’m not sure how they got this way from being situated in the moderate temperatures of the Washington, D.C. all of these years.

In the next week, I will be starting on this project and will be fully documenting the progress every step of the way, so please keep an eye out and wish me luck as it has been some time since I was an independent Saab mechanic and a weekend do-it-yourselfer!

In the meantime. I placed my first order today for Saab parts for this 1992 Saab 900 3-Door 5-Speed Turbo and here is what I ordered:

1 Set of NGKBCP7EV (BCPR7EIX) spark plugs
1 Set of Bogicord Spark Plug Wires
1 Cap & Rotor
1 Air Filter
1 Fuel Filter
1 Original Equipment Carbon Filter (got to cap that carbon!)
1 Set of Headlight Bulbs (9004 GE)
1 Set of Fog Light Bulbs & Glass Housings (H3)

Saab History’s 1992 Saab 900 Turbo has safely arrived in cold, wintery New England, thanks to Bill Jacobson at Sports Car Service in Wilmington, Delaware.

This recently rescued Saab will be safe and secure away from the complexities of the city here in Washington, D.C. at a Saab Shop in a calm countryside setting in rural New England between now and the summer of 2008.

There will be a rather large list being created that involves everything that the car will require in order to get it in good order in all respects, mechanically, electrically and cosmetically.

This car is currently an anomally in New England as it is completely rust free inside & out, so a very solid car to work with.

I will keep you up to speed as this project continues!

Photo Credit: Saab History

The 1992 Saab 900 Turbo that I just rescued in Washington, D.C. had a safe travel up North to New England with special thanks to Bill Jacobson at Sports Car Service in Wilmington, Delaware, conveniently located off of Interstate 95.

This rust-free mid-atlantic Saab was a private sale that really needed some immediate replacement and repair in the tire & wheel department. The two front wheels were bald, not to mention varying tire speed ratings and three out of the four wheels were identified as bent.

Thanks to Mr. Jacobson’s Viking Wheel Service also conveniently located on the premises at Sports Car Service, I was able to not only get three replacement tires for the trip up North that matched the 4th tire, but I was also able to get these unique directional wheels straightened all at the same time. The result of Viking Wheel Service’s work, yielded a significantly safer and comfortable driving experience in comparison to the first two hours of the drive and that’s the least of what they do.

This Saab enthusiast operated Viking Wheel service not only straightens any and all Saab wheels, but they also completely restore them back to original OEM standards and look brand new. It is also important to mention that unlike many wheel restoring companies that use a process that virtually eliminates the lips of the wheel, Viking Wheel Service uses a special CNC lathe that has the accuracy of 200ths of an inch, resulting in the least amount of material removed in order to ensure a showroom condition.

Here is the list of amazing amount of services they provide:

Wheel straightening, Stripping, Certified Welding, CNC Face Machining, Refinishing, Powder Coating, Polishing, Chrome Plating, Custom Finishes, Wheel Widening, Custom Work, Wheel Locator Service.

I highly recommend taking full advantage of this Saab enthusiast owned and operated Viking Wheel Service at Sports Car Service. Conveniently located right off Interstate 95 for locals on the East coast region of the United States just 2-hours North of Washington, D.C. , and 4 hours South of New York city, Sports Car Service offers a multitude of wheel services at a reasonable price without the burden of state tax given their geographic location in Delaware. With the international exchange rate advantageous to those outside of the United States, you can take note that they also ship Internationally.

This is the place where I will be sending my wheels before next summer. If you need to get your wheels redone once and for all, I suggest you tour their website, then give them a call now that we’re in the winter season so that they are ready to enjoy by the summer.

The 2008 Saab Owners Convention is also just around the corner, so get those beat-up old Saab wheels into Viking Wheel Service, you’ll be glad you did!

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Viking Wheel Service
3901 N. Market St.
Wilmington, DE 19802

Phone: 302.764.4041

E-mail: vikingwheel@verizon.net

Web: http://www.vikingwheel.com/

Photo Credit: Saab History

Today, I have rescued a 1992 Saab 900 Turbo 5-speed here in the Washington, D.C. area from a nearby local resident. The car is white and looks similiar to the one above which is actually a photo of my first Saab, but without the SPG skirt kit & SPG wheels, painted vent cover accessory as well as some other bits.

Tomorrow, I will be embarking on a long journey up North to New England where the car will be resting in the safe hands of a colleagues shop who is a professional Saab mechanic from then until and some time before the 2008 Saab Owners Convention in August.

During this time, I plan on removing, repairing, reinstalling and just about everything else that can be done on the car in order to get it up to tip-top shape between now and then.

Please wish me well on my 8 hour journey from Washington, D.C in between impending snowstorms., with a quick stop at Sports Car Service in Delaware for some tires en-route to New England. I am hoping for an uneventful, smooth and safe drive.

In the meantime, please expect that there won’t be many if any posts between now and this weekend.