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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Day 10-12

Christmas!

No work on the car, but I did have these two tidbits to share. . .

  1. note to self - don't work on fuel system the day before hosting a big Christmas party.
  2. As best as I can tell, this is the original color of the car.

Day 13

Removed the top support bar / radiator fill tube, and wiper fluid canister and hoses.  Removed the alternator, radiator, and the engine compartment wiring harness, relays and other front-end electronics.  Removed the throttle linkage, gas pedal, hood latch, and freewheel handle.  Removed the heater hoses and charcoal canister.

There is all sorts of room in there now, and the engine and transmission are almost ready to come out!




Day 8,9

Removed the dash.  This was a long process because there were many electrical connections that had to be documented / tagged before the assembly could be finagled out.  Lots of time spent on my back with vertical floor seam sticking into my back and my feet sticking out the vent window openings. 

Here is a view of the dash-less car.



Removed the remaining bolts holding the fiberglass frame.  There is no way these would have come out without taking the dash off first!


It also took considerable time to break the fiberglass body away from the firewall assembly as there was a continuous bead of sealant in this area, and no easy way to get between the panels to sever it.

Removed the body panels and stored them under tarps in the back yard.  There is one tarp layer underneath everything and two layers on top.  Here are some views of the topless car and stored panels.















Removed the wiper motor and drive assembly.  Removed the speedometer cable and headlight raising mechanism.  Removed the, gear shift linkage up to the firewall.  Removed the rear wiring harness back to the fuel tank compartment.  Removed the fuel tank and filler connections.

And last, but not least, discovered that the missing cap to the brake fluid cannister still is with the car.  It had just slipped back behind and between the bottles.



Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Day 7

I am taking the night off to rest and get this blog up and running.  There are still some photos to take and embed, but the basic layout and formatting seems to be working now.

Some of last night's observations:
  • The main fiberglass body panel has a very loose fit to the steel body frame at the rear of the car.  Apparently this was a chronic problem in the past, allowing water to penetrate to the interior of the car as there are multiple layers of various sealants in this area.  Something to keep in mind when refitting the shell later.

  • Although there is still heavy undercoating on everything, there is less than expected rust damage visible in both the front and rear fender wells.  The engine compartment is also not fully observable yet, but also appears to have very little damage.                 

  • Unlike the many other repairs to the body, I have not seen any observable signs, yet, of joints where the rocker panels may have been replaced.  I am beginning to accept the possibility that they may be the originals.  I don't recall the originals being faceted on my previous '72 though.  Any of you fellow S3 owners want to make an observation on that one?
  • There were numerous signs last night that portions of the fiberglass shell have had repairs performed in the past.  Many non-matching or missing bolts and screws, random connection points, etc.  The nose of the car has obviously been removed in the past, but the rear shell has not.  As I was curled up in the rear wheel well last night struggling to remove a hard-to-reach nut it ocurred to me that as difficult as it was to remove, it is amazing it is possible at all given that that nut has been there for at least 38 years!

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Day 6

Purchased required socket, removed doors and nose.  Had to grind / cut / bend off retaining bolt at floor for passenger side safety belt.  Driver side was so bad the bracket had rusted in half.  Connections at rear fender wells are jimmy rigged.  Had to cut one of them off.  There are two bolts at the rear bumper to the body that are not mentioned in the manual.  To get to them you have to remove the rear wheels and reach through the rear fender well past the mufflers.  Had to search for 40 minutes to find the last four body connections.  To get to them you have to bend down one of the metal body panels and remove the entire dash.  So it looks like the dash is going to have to come out sooner than expected.  That will take some time as I plan to document well with photos each step of the removal process in the hopes that will make reassembly go smoother.

Here are my cool kids posing with the new cool car. . .


Day 5

Moved the car into the garage.  Started checklist for fiberglass body removal.  Step one involved removing large nuts on door hinges.  They can only be accessed with a socket in a size I don't have.  Proceeded anyway with all other possible steps.  Still need to remove doors and connections behind them and drill out all rivets.  Rear hatch and vent window glass, more apholstery, passenger seat, seatbelts, and rear view mirror/visors removed.  All misc. loose trim/apholstery parts moved to storage.  Drivers side door strike has stripped out screws.  I will have to drill them out.

Additions to the known problems list;  Passenger side rear light lense is also cracked, missing cap on brake fluid resivour, hose from gas fill assembly to charcoal cannister is broken under dash.  Mounting brackets for fiberglass at front wheel wells are missing.  Radiator fan blades are broken.  There is some sort of plastic piece at the rear hatch latch assembly that remained only in remnants.  Engine hatch connections are jimmy rigged and need additional attention.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Days 1-4

Preamble:

Since owning a '72 Sonett III in my youth, I have wanted another one! I finally cajolled my loving wife into allowing me to get one. The car in question is a '71 Sonett III with early mag wheels, purchased from a man in Oregon who never got around to the restoration and needed his garage back. It is (used to be) orange (it is about half primer gray at the moment). Oregon plates in the trunk start with the letters JMX, so I have decided the car must be named Jamie. Jamie is in need of lots of TLC, actually she needs a life-changing experience!

Day 1:

The car arrived on a transport truck this morning. I am not sure how they got it up there, but it took myself and four neighbors to get it down off the top level of the auto transport as there were (supposedly) no brakes. We discovered upon pushing the car into the driveway, that there is still some traction in the emergency brakes.

A quick survey of the car and the loose parts in the interior revealed several interesting things upon my return from work.

Frame:

There has been extensive damage and subsequent repair work to the drivers side fiberglass, most notably at the rear vent pillaster and wheel well, but also at the drivers door and around the pop-up headlights. The rocker panels on both sides are complete losses despite the fact that both sides were rebuilt in the past, apparently using a metal break for repeated folds rather than bending a curve in the metal. There are very large holes in the floor pan on the drivers side and (as expected) in the trunk along the sides of the floor and under the battery.

All metal observed, including the door frame assemblies, is covered in a heavy coating of rust. I have not been under the car yet to see the condition of the steel under there. The worst of the rust damage appears to be around the seams between body panels (again as
expected).






Trim:

All the trim from the nose of the vehicle (corner lights, grille, bumpers, fog lights etc) have been removed. The corner lights were located in a plastic crate in the trunk, but the front bumpers are MIA. Parts that potentially form the grille were also found in the trunk, but verification is still required on that.

The door trim, handles, etc. and most of the interior carpeting has been removed, but appears to be present. The carpet and apholstery were all planned to be replaced anyway, but it is good to know that the originals exist for patterns for the new. The seats, seatbelts, and lumbar supports exist. The driver side seatbelt tentioner is broken, however.

The window glass all has original Saab markings except for (ironically) the passenger door. There is even a spare vent window included. The gas cap and passenger side windsheild wiper are missing, as are the wiper fluid nozzles.

Drivetrain:

This is a big unknown. There is lots of oil covering everything in the engine bay, but all the requisite parts appear to be present and in their correct locations. No indication of rodents or other damage to wiring. I have not yet checked to see if it will shift. The brakes are inoperable, most likely due to lack of fluid.

The plan is to do a complete body-off restoration of the frame, dissasemble and build back up the engine and transmission as required, and (eventually) new paint and interior.


Day 2

Took some photos of the car and tried to start a blog to share progress with others.  Both attempts were fruitless.

Day 3

Commenced Operation Bicycle to find new homes for all the non-automobile wheeled vehicles currently in the garage.  This involved adding corregated fiberglass panels to the ceiling and two walls of the front porch.  The lumber pile was re-oriented, and retaining walls added to hold back the dirt and provide a flat floor area.  The pile of unused bricks found a new home as a floor to finish off the area.

Day 4

 Completed Operation Bicycle, moved the bikes to their new home, and cleared the garage of remaining tools / junk.