My girlfriend, the gearhead (hurr)

I took my girlfriend out in a dirt lot today with Ulla to teach her to drive stick with the worst of expectations. Yelling, crying, grinding (and that's just from me!)...

But, I was pleasantly surprised. She can drive almost (ALMOST) as well as I could when I brought Ulla home.

Yay, Ally.

Saggypants McHeadliner

Shortly after picking up Ulla, I tired of the sagging headliner fabric blocking parts of the rear view mirror and the passengers complaining for lack of headroom...they had plenty of other things to complain/worry about at that time anyway...so I took down some of the loose fabric, behind the sunroof area. No orange dust on my head!

Replacing the headliner has not been a priority, but I'm planning on the near future now.

But, that's not the point of this post.

The headliner fabric on the sunroof was really starting to bother me. If the sunroof is closed, it sits on my head, and I don't like that, so I removed that, too. Thankfully it came down easily, and with minimal orange dust. What I found under it though was pretty much awesome (see pic).

The condition that the sunroof is in underneath of the fabric was pristine, and has this odd, utilitarian look to it. I kinda like it, and so do other people. It reminds me of a number of early 1980's BMW's that I've seen over the years. I don't know if an un-upholstered sunroof was an option, or just a popular thing to do among the community, but I'm taking it for my own and leaving the fabric off. I'm taking the sunroof out to clean it up some and re-seal it so it stops rattling, but other than that, that's it, no fabric. My first customization instead of just restoaration.

The first thing that says she's "my car."

Cheapest, and best, repair EVER!

Never have I been happier for the corner hardware store than I was today.

I've been having trouble with a creepy/climbing idle since I replaced the AIC valve, and been getting very frustrated. I've flushed and cleaned the AIC valve with carb cleaner and WD-40, the throttle plate, throttle sensor, dashpot, and any number of other thing sI thought it could have been.

After adjusting the idle manualy every time I run the car, it finally dawned on me...I'm a freakin genius.

The screw that controls the base idle on the throttle was missing the two nuts that lock it in place. Every time I drive Ulla, the screw works it's way in from the vibrations of the car.

Trip to the hardware stor and 33 cents later, I have a new bolt and 2 nuts holding it in place, and she's been idling jsut fine since.

She's got a couple of months on me

I finally got around to looking at the door tag...

We've joked since I bought her that Ulla and I are the same age.

It's finally official, Ulla is older than I am by a few months...she was built in February '86, and I wasn't born until August, so I guess that means she's the older woman.

It's the simple things that show your pride.

I almost forgot to mention this, but the day before the gas door came in, I got my new keychain in the mail, another eBay purchase.

Back when I was little, my father always had one of those leather keychains with the metal hanging part, and the enameled logo on them, for every car we had owned. He kept them to remember where he came from, and how much work it took to move up from 30 year old rusted pickups, to the rebuilt Monte Carlo, the couple model years back work truck, and finally, the first new car my parents ever owned.

So, when I saw this little gem on eBay, with vintage Saab airplane logo, I knew that this was something to pick up.

I'll never forget the time I spend every day working on Ulla, and I'll never forget how much work and sacrifice my parents went through over the years to get to where they are today.

Finally, better fuel economy than my old 350 V8

Another eBay purchased showed up in the mail today, just before I left for the day, and I couldn't have been happier.

My new to me used AIC valve arrived, and I didn't even bother to go home to put it under the bonnet. I did it in the post office parking lot.

What can I say, this was important and I was excited...also, it's a pretty easy install.

First, let me tell you about the last owner. Aside from obviously buying the car as a cheap beater, he didn't care for it and had no concern with doing things right. He had bought a new AIC valve from a salvage yard, but never bothered to check the numbers, and as it turns, out, they did not match. So now, I have an extra valve that I don't need...expect to see it on eBay soon.

After bolting down the hose clamps and hooking up the connector, and hooking the MAF sensor back up, I turned her over and had my first "AHHHHhhhhhhhh" moment (sorry, that was supposed to be a *sigh*).

For the first time since driving her home, she was purring like a kitten, running at the proper air/fuel mix, and the check engine light was off.

This was amazing. The check engine light was off. Ulla was no longer broken.

Finally, she was a really car. Idling softly, not popping and whining. I had throttle response, I could feather it, I could shift between gears smoothly, and I couldn't watch the damn fuel gauge go down while I was driving.

Even without a working odometer, I was able to keep a general idea of miles driven and MPG being churned out. My best figure was about 18 in town and low 20's highway. That's not good...I've driven full sized pickups with that kind of mileage.

We'll see what kind of mileage I get now that she isn't struggling to stay running anymore as it is.

Cost of AIC Valve: $25

Righty-Tighty, Lefty-Loosey

Never before have I been more thankful to be working on my car in the privacy of my own driveway.

My latest eBay miracle was finding a mint condition fuel door from a black "classic" 900. So, when my new gas door showed up in the mail, I couldn't have been happier for something so simple that would make Ulla look so nice.

Apparently, the fuel door is one of the worst offending section of the classic 900 for rust, but I have a feeling mine was pretty bad, even for rusted gas doors in general.

With the spring and hinge intact and in great shape, this would be nothing more than removing 2 screws, and putting them back in with the new door.

If only I could remember the old adage recalling the direction to turn the damn handle.

After nearly 20 minutes of turning and gripping and swearing, I finally smartened up and got the screws out and put the new door on, easy as I thought it should be.

After the door, this was the worst looking aspect of the car, even worse than the cracked and taped lenses on the tail light.

Cost of gas door: $18

I bought this gas door on eBay from Matthews Foreign Car Parts of Birmingham, AL.

Junk in the Trunk

I honestly can't remember a time when my car/SUV/truck wasn't full of stuff.

Back in high school, i kept a collection of instruments in my truck for helping with beginning orchestra at the elementary and middle schools, often buried under the tower of Mtn. Dew bottles in the back seat. When I got the SUV early in college, that became my new storage unit and trash bin. I knew I could move an entire jazz band's worth of people and instruments in my little Dodge Dakota, but the SUV could hold 13 people at 3AM going out for food without unpacking the back end...

I feel like I was kinda stupid back then, but then I realize that was only a couple of years ago.

I've been trying to keep the back seats/interior clean on this little 900 so she always looks half way decent. Unfortunately, that means the trunk is always packed, but the things I can fit in there are amazing! I wish I had a picture to prove it right now, but a couple of months ago I was playing in several ensembles at once, and had stored in the trunk:

A bass guitar, in oversived case
An Alto sax
A clarinet
A flute
A bassoon
A bass amplifier
Assorted spare parts for Ulla.

Now that I'm not playing in everything, you'd think the trunk would be empty, but no. Now, It's full of more spare parts, and just extra crap I don't bother to move.

I love the storage in this car.

My poor Haynes manual

When I first tried to work on the brakes myself, thinking it was just pads, I bought a Haynes repair manual (no where near as complete as the Bentley from what I hear, but useful for the inclined) from the shop downtown.

Since that day, my poor manual has gone through hell.

I've forgotten it sitting in the driveway and backed over it.

I've wiped my oily hands on it, on more than one occasion, and more than one page.

It's been blown off the car roof by wind. Right after that, it was caught by a few pages in the middle, almost tearing out the section on manual transmissions.

And, on a particularly abusive evening while performing Ulla's first oil change in my driveway, my manual was covered in mud as the rain poured off of the bonnet onto the ground/manual/dirt.

This manual has so far served me well and deserves to be recognized.

Cost of manual: $15

Putting the spark back into life

Back when I bought the battery, I decided to pick up a new set of spark plugs, and then promptly forgot about them for a week. The cables looked good, so I didn't bother with those, but as bad as the oil was when I changed it, I figured the plugs had to be in need of a change.

Keeping with my attitude of going original, I went for Bosch Platinum spark plugs, because so far, Bosch=Saab Original Equipment, and even on the off chance that it isn't, Bosch still=quality parts, so no worries there.

Thankfully, I found a plug spanner in with the rachet set, so I didn't need to buy one of those, but I removed the valve cover on the engine and removed and replaced the plugs one by one.

Something I found out in this process was that:

a)the old plugs were Bosch Platinum, which gives me hope that previous owners cared for Ulla and,
b)the old plugs weren't that old, which added to the hope that previous owners gave a damn for regular maintenance.

It wasn't a huge improvement, but after swapping out the plugs, she purred a bit more, and fired right up.

Cost of Plugs: about $10

First Post!!

This is my first post, but I will be back dating posts to give the general timeline of this project.

Backdated posts will be written as if I'm looking back, but posts after this one will be me writing about what I'm DOING, not what I DID.

I bought Ulla, my 1986 Saab 900S in April 2008 for $500. I found an ad on Craigslist just minutes after it was posted, drove an hour up to look at it, talked the owner down from $800, got the title, and drove home at 11pm.

Aside from a 15-minute lesson in a dirt lot, this was the first time I had ever driven a manual transmission.

Since that night, I've learned a lot about Saab, the 900, eBay, and the mechanic down the road.

I couldn't be happier.

Keeping a Binder and funding the restoration

I've decided to keep a binder of everything that I have done to, or do on Ulla.

Right now, all of the receipts are in a folder, but I think I'm going to put them in a 3-ring binder to keep track of everything.

It'll be nice to know where my money has gone.

Also, I use the term "restoration" lightly, as I'm not doing anything to make her a show car, just an awesome daily driver. This is my only car, so I can't treat her with kid gloves, but I can take care of her, and put life back into this sedan.

I started selling some of my stuff on eBay that I don't need, which is where the money for this has been coming from, while I look for a career.

The things you can do with extra paint - Touch-Up Special!

This is the "Ulla Dance Again" Touch-Up Special!

Something I didn't mention way back when on the posts about replacing the door was what I did when I got bored literally watching paint dry.

I actually had to buy a second can of black paint because of this, and had to paint the door again the second day, because I ran out the first night. I went around the car with the can of paint and touched up places on the body that were rusting or had been chipped, etc. Partly to make everything look a little nicer until I get around to covering my car in Bondo (I know, not the right way, but an ok way), and also to keep the rust from getting worse, at least as quickly.

The rust on the Bonnet, undersides of the doors, and the gas door all got painted, as well as inside the bonnet, along edges that were chipped, and any other black spot on the car that looked less than it's best.

This is also when I borke out the chrome paint on my first non-window trim application.

My poor grille was cracked on one side, beaten by weather, bugs, rocks, sticks, etc, and generally looked like hell, which you can see in the first picture.

So, I put some cardboard behind it, taped off the headlights, and painted the grille with the chrome paint. (see second picture)

This is arguably the most drastic change to the appearance of the car with relation to the relative simplicity of it. It looks SO much better...a friend of mine said "It looks factory now. Like, you bought a well kept 1986, not a $500 something or other." Even though it still has the crack on the left and is clearly damaged, it looks better, and makes the entire front of the car look better, and now that the door has been fixed, the entire car looks better.

Canned Chrome (Door part 2)

I finished installing the door after it had started getting dark, and I was able to put my burgundy door panel back ob the new door...aside from the black window trim and door handle, it looks like it came with the car...

...now to make it look like it came with the car.

When I was out to buy my paint for the door, I saw another can on the shelf that I thought I could do some good with. I bought a can of chrome spray paint.

As night was falling, I was racing the sunset to tape off the door before I couldn't see to do it. I started with the handle, taped it off, and painted it to test the chrome paint. It's no mirror finish of course, but it looks pretty good, and it can be wax and shined. At least it matches the rest of the car now. And with that test out of the way, I taped off the window.

I finished just as the sun was leaving completely, but I had enough orange street lamp light to pain the window. It looked wonderful in the darkness, and looked ok in the morning. Now that it's cured though, it looks just fine, and matches the rest of the windows.

I think I'm going to use the rest of the chrome paint around the windshield and back window trims, too. They've gotten worn and grungy looking over the years, and I think they were chrome originally, so it'll look better than nothing.

I do plan on doing this or having it done right later on (all of the window trims I'm painting), but for now, it looks decent and protects it, too.

Cost of Chrome paint: $5

"Hey, there's a semi outside. I think it's for you." (Door part 1)

Probably the most excitement my street has seen in quite awhile was the semi truck that pulled up out front of my house to unload a shipping crate onto my front porch.

Inside was a passenger rear door from a 1993 Saab 900 sedan, blue.

It was gorgeous. Except for the Digimon sticker on the window.

The door was purchased on eBay from A & C Auto Parts and Wrecking Co, Cleveland, OH for $50, plus $160 freight shipped. They were parting out the whole car, and I had hoped to buy some other parts from them, but I didn't have the extra cash at the time. To be funny, I almost had the door shipped to my girlfriend at her campus post office. If it didn't have to be signed for, I would have, but...no such luck. This is the first of many eBay purchases for Ulla.

I went out right after it showed up and bought high gloss black spray paint and taped off the door with painter's tape and newspapers, took it outside, put it over a couple of saw horses and painted it, and left it to dry over night.

The next morning, I painted it again and then moved it into the sun to "bake."

After the door dried, I went for it...I cut the wires leading into the badly smashed up door on Ulla, unbolted the hinges, and yanked it off...my poor car, so sad. The two doors next to each other was bitter-sweet since the old door was smashed and rusted out, but the paint was still glossy and the trims were chrome. The new door was mostly rust free and had not a single dent, but the paint obviously didn't have the shine to it that the rest of the car had, and the trims were black. Oh well...that can all be fixed.

With the old door out of the way, I held the door off the ground with a floor jack, and used that to help get the door in place, but of course it can't be that easy. I hit the lower hinge and closed it.

Do you know how hard it is to open a strong hinge with no weight on it? It's hard. And it hurts when your hand gets snapped back in it...twice.

After getting the hinge back open, I moved the door into place and with the luck to end all luck, I was able to line everything up to get the bolts started into the hinges. Then it was just a matter of adjusting the hinges so the latch plate would catch without bashing into anything.

As soon as the door would open and close, I remembered there was no wiring hooked up, so I hooked up the old wires to the new simply by matching colors. As it turns out, this didn't work as I had hoped...but mostly. Everything worked just fine except for one thing.

The window switch was backwards.

Aside from the fact that it's different from every other window, it's really only a minor annoyance, not something that's actually a problem. I have yet to fix it.

Cost of Paint: $5

Cost of door: $50 (plus$160 shipping...)

Battery

The previous owner of Ulla only had her for a couple of months (which should have been my clue that there was more than a little work to be done on her), and never had anything done, except for reattaching a hanging exhaust (more on that whenever I get to doing exhaust work). One thing I noticed was the battery, which was corroded and old and looked kinda sickly, it had markings on it from a salvage yard.

My battery was put into the car USED.

Honestly, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't that an essential part of the car, you know, a good battery? They aren't that expensive. $50 for a cheap one from Meijer. I know, I put one of those in my grandmother's car. Worked just fine.

While I was out one day, I stopped at the local Autozone for a new one. I brought it in and set it on the counter, told them the year/make/model/engine of my car, received the usual odd look for owning a Saab, and then received another odd look.

The battery wasn't even the right one for the car. It's not like it's makes a huge difference really about the terminals being inset or sticking off the top, or what have you, but the one in Ulla was a significantly lower cranking amp than was recommended.

Whatever.

I bought a new Duralast battery (not what I really wanted, but not bad I suppose), and put her in in the parking lot before I left.

Looks nice and shiny under the bonnet, and she starts right up every time.

Cost of Battery: $85

Headunit

A couple of years ago I bought a nice Blaupunkt head unit for my last car.

I'd been thinking about putting it in Ulla since the day I brought her home, and I finally got around to doing it...because I finally got the Clarion unit OUT of the dash using a butter knife.

There was no removal tool, and I wasn't going to wait for one to come in the mail.

I cut the wiring harness from my old car from the Blaupunkt harness, cut out the Claion from the dash, and hoped to God I could gook the wires up to the Saab wiring. Thankfully, my car came with all of the original manuals, including the audio manual, with a wiring diagram.

After hooking everything up, i found out that the metal sleeve from the Clarion was about 1mm too small (go figure) for mine new stereo to fit, so i just took out the sleeve and fit it in the dash, and thankfully it set in there just fine, flush with the dash.

When I started her up to test the radio, everything worked great, and sounded fantastic. One of my favorite features of this radio though is the ability to run without the car being keyed on, meaning I can use it without having any other accessory systems on.

And a wrench that doesn't fit.

Since I have no idea how long the fluids have been in this car, it's probably a good idea to drain them all and replace them. the transmission was drained and refilled when the clutch was done, and the brake fluid was flushed when the front brakes were replaced.

Obviously, the most important thing now is an oil change.

I picked up one of the oil change kits (5 quarts oil and a filter) from Autozone for $15, and I got a Bosch oil filter (I'm finding that I like putting Bosch into Ulla, both because that's what came originally, and it's high quality) and Valvoline Max Life Synthetic Blend motor oil. It's recommended for high mileage engines, and I've been a fan of symthetic blend for a while anyway.

I also picked up one of those oil collection trays to drain my oil into, but that ended up doing more harm than anything.

I crawled under the engine compartment and drained the oil. My Haynes manual was down there with me to make sure I pulled the right drain plug, and not the transmission oil basin. I let it drain into the tray while I went topside to fit the filter wrench so that I could remove the old filter (blue, printed SAAB on the side...any ideas how old this filter was, or where it came from? Dealer?). The wrench was for a much larger filter, and therefore, did not fit.

It took double sided tape and a strip of roofing shingle to make it fit to remove the old filter.

After I knew the wrench would fit, I crawled back under to check on how it was draining, and oil was running out of the cap on the side of the tray, that I checked 3 times. All in all, about a quart and a half of oil spilled right into my lawn and driveway. I sprayed the drive down afterwards to disperse the oil, but I'm still not happy about dumping that much into the soil.

By this point, the dark clouds overhead have gotten darker, and have started to rain on me. Since I'd already drained the oil, there was no way I was stopping now. So, with the hood propped at a 45 degree angle, and 2 umbrellas over the rest of the engine compartment, and a beach towel over my head, I trudged on.

Next, removed the old filter, wiped everything down, oiled the filter seal, and installed the new filter. Crawled under, replaced the drain plug. Filled her with oil, let everything drain in, then started her up.

All in all, a job mostly well done, and the first time for me ever changing my oil entirely by myself...I know, I'm 21, this shouldn't be anything special, but it is. But I was wet.

Cost of Filter and Oil: $15

Give me a brake...

When I bought her, I knew Ulla needed brake pads, because they were worn and giving out. I bought a set of Duralast pads from Autozone and attempted to replace them myself.

Normally, pads would be an easy, quick thing to do, but I couldn't figure out how to get the calipers to release, so as I take after my parents, I did what they do when they buy a new car: I ordered a Haynes repair manual.

Manual came in the next morning, but try as I mgith, I still couldn't get them to release, so down the street I go to the mechanic who did my clutch.

First estimate for pads and rotors (special order, of course): $300.

Dropped her off, got a resounding "that's a neat little car" from the guys at the shop, got a call the next day saying I needed calipers (that's what I get for not knowing more aobut the car when I bought it).

Second Estimate for pads, rotors, calipers (rebuilt, special order, etc): $875.

Fine. Expensive and it took me some time to get the money around, but I decided that this would be a decent car after all of this, so I had it done.

Finally, after the 4th of July weekend, they tell me that it'll be done later that day, and it isn't. Call from them the next morning goes something like this:

"You need a master cylinder"

"How much?"

"Another $260 (or something like that)"

"Go ahead"

I finally got Ulla back, working, running, driving, for about $1200, but entirely worth it. By this point, I had decided to keep her around for a good long time and fix her up. As my mother put it, soon enough I'll have a brand new 1986 Saab 900.

Front Brakes: $1200

Total to date: $2425