more more sanding

I WAS going to make a new myspace for the saabette, and move all the blogs over there...but Myspace makes it exceeding difficult to copy blogs...so pppbbbblllttt...I'll find another blogspace that is more backup friendly and myspace loses my "business"
sanding sanding sanding. I found a source for the windshield gasket, so I got to break up the monotony of sanding with removing the windshield. I have all of the sanding done except for some little spots here and there. I'll take care of those this weekend. Hopefully this weekend, I'll have the first coat of primer on too.

I say first coat, because first I'll seal it, then hit it with a high build primer. I'll then carefully sand the high build primer until the surface is perfectly smooth. That may take a couple of attempts.

I like the jawbreaker effect sanding it. There is blue topcoat, rust color primer, white somethingorother, and brownish fiberglass.

more sanding

late saabette update.
I sanded. The passage of time measured by the gradual flow of sand...ing. Leaded dust gently exchanging it's 30 years of stored potential energy for a final kinetic rush to its lowest energy state. The heat of friction releasing stored poly esters dormant since their casting in a far away land. Perhaps they will be carried back by the air currents to their home in sweden. Perhaps they will mate with the chemicals in the air above pasadena to form super esters. Perhaps, in time they will coalesce into super ester life forms, reproducing with squirts of catalyst into super ester resin, hardening exothermically into baby esters. Many millenia after the passing of the human race, they will rule the planet. By that time...i should be done sanding...i hope...

sanding!

first day of class was today. I put the body of the saab on the trailer. Body=fiberglass shell from the windshield back. Put the trailer on the back of Janna's Corolla and headed off to San Jac south. It actually stayed on the trailer! I took off all of the extra parts (turn signals, tail lights, mirror, sun visors) and scraped off all of the body glue. Those wacky swedes actually glued the body onto the chasis. Then I got to sanding. I basically finished an area about 18x24 inches....oh boy! and 8 more hours of sanding next week! . Plus there are a handful of cracks that I have to glass in. Then just spray on some sealer, and filler primer...and sand some more...then more filler primer...than sand some more...and if i'm lucky...a hit with color and clear...then more sanding....sanding is my life.

rear suspension tweak

I worked on the saabette! I'm so proud. I took the rear axle off...AGAIN...took the rear wheel bearing out and put them in correctly this time...with the spacers installed..doh! I also managed to get the center bushing...um...centered. I had someone else do it, initially, and they didn't quite get it...which threw the rear alignment out of whack. This is one of those jobs that is a 15 minute job once you get on the right path...but is 5 hours long by the time you've failed several times, broken a tool or two and been to the store. It must have taken about 3000 psi to budge the little bugger. I finally got it with my giant vice, a 3 foot cheater bar, and some carefully positioned half inch steel chunks. I'm fairly certain that I cheated death. At anyrate, its all back together and looks pretty good. We'll see when I go for the first test drive.

That little project was a big black cloud over me, knowing for months that i'd have to get it done...now it is. So hopefully that opens the door for wiring! I'll start up the class in the spring again and start painting the body. By the time I get the body painted I should have the interior wired and plumbed so I can put the body on...that will be very weird looking...I haven't seen the body on it in years.

Well...not much new in the world of saabettes. Its hard to get anything done when you only work on it 2 hours a day twice a week. I'm going to finish up a few more things and bring it home for the summer to do the brake lines, gas lines and wiring. Then I'll get into the saturday class and start work on painting the body. I think I found the paint codes, and i'll probably get a paint chip and find a matching metallic, or crystal paint to add a little more depth to the paint job, while maintaining the same color.

I did finally get the doors hung. gah...that was fussy work making a new hinge pin with an interference fit with the hinge.

All i did was get a #8 bolt of the right diameter. I can't remember what size it was...I think it was metric. It was a perfect fit for the hinge. I welded the bolt to the chasis so it wouldn't spin, and viola, new hinge pin.

finished chasis paint

can't remember where I'm at with saabette stuff. let's see, finished painting the chasis..put the car back on its wheels...what else? I brought in the doors for fitment, and by golly they FIT! The rear axle is out of whack though, I *think* the axle itself is bent...which would mean a trip to the frame machine for a good ole fashion beating. It could alternatively mean that the mount is slightly tweaked...which, actually, has the same solution. So either way, the saabette's rear end is going to take a beating...I know some of you will be very jealous...
I found a problem putting one of the doors on, that I'm surprised I hadn't noticed before. One of the hinge pins was loose. Given the wear on the pin, it's been loose for 15 years. No replacements are available anywhere, but I can get a slightly larger pin and drill out the hinge for it. Oh well...one more thing.
Let's see...i think I have a picture here somewhere..wow...dusty camera!

saab update 11/15/06

put some work into the saab lately. got the trunk and rockers painted. Man those rockers took a lot of work, but they look really good now. Unfortuneatly, i'm afraid that all that work is going to get broken off by a jack stand or good rock hit or something. I really wish my metal work had been better. It's solid. More solid than stock actually. But it wasn't straight so I have a lot of fiberglass filler on it. The guys at school say that the stuff will be fine, but I worry about it. I suppose I'll know how to do it better next time..

I also put the steering arm back in with new tie rod ends, and remounted the suspension with new bushings, and ball joints. I cleaned and painted some of the components to make them look pretty. Those springs are absolutely deadly to install. I only got one of them installed next week, and then realized it was upside down. I didn't think it would make any difference, but the winding of the springs and design of the spring cups makes it slip off the top cup if it is installed upside down...drat!

To install the springs I have to take the upper A arm completely off, compress the spring, install it, and put the A arms back on. gah...and if you have the spring compressor in the wrong spot it binds when you let it out, and you have to start all over...bloody freaking fussy engineering.
Here are the pictures...