eventually i'll catch up on back topics.

Ulla is officially a three season car...we had our first nice day on saturday, and she was loving it.

Started easier, idled quicker, quieter engine, less noise over all.

Drove around with the windows down and the sunroof open.

HAVEN'T FORGOTTEN!!!

I promise I haven't fogotten about this blog, and I will be updating again soon, with the other half of the trip north, and my new ignition coil, and probably some more stuff.

Things have been hectic, but I'll be back soon!!

Road Trip!!! (part 1)

Formerly known as the "Iron-Man" of college/fraternity road trips,
you can imagine how I felt not having an entirely reliable car and being stuck in my small town in Southwest Michigan...it was nothing for me to put 1,000 miles on my old car during a weekend road trip (Saturday/Sunday...no 3 day weekends for me), and at my most awesome (read: brain-dead from too much time in the car), 1,000 miles in 12 hours, and 2,000 in 29 hours.


That's been part of the motivation for fixing up Ulla...I wouldn't be able to survive until I could flat out afford a newer car again.

So, with all of the work that's been done, including the recently acquired tires, it was time to head out for Ulla's inaugural (reborn) road trip, and who better to do it with than my girlfriend, Ally. And when better to do it, than when neither of us has anything to do (right before she gets too busy to do ANYTHING), and where better to go than Northern Michigan?! Well...I can think of other places to go of course, but I was certainly excited nonetheless.

Saturday morning, Ally and I finished loading up Ulla for the weekend, got breakfast, and were on our way, making a brief stop a few miles down the highway to pick up bagels from Panera for Ally's family. The drive up was fairly uneventful, especially south of Clare (the lower Michigan definition of "Up North"). We stopped for gas an Jimmy John's around lunch time, check fluids and tires, and headed back onto the freeway. After some more driving, we hit our first unplanned scenic stop, a rest stop on I-75, just south of Mackinac City. First off, when we pulled into the rest stop to stretch and use the bathroom, a man in a late model Volvo stopped me to say soemthing.

"That's a nice looking car you've got there. I used to have one just like it. I gave it to my son with 140,000 miles on it, and he put another 30,000 on it before selling it. Best car I ever had."

So of course, I took this chance to tell him about restoring her and this being the first major trip, and the new tires the day before and such and such, and I felt proud to be there at that moment. Here I was, next to this 22 year old car that I bought for $500, taking compliments on it. It was certainly a highlight of the weekend.

After Using the restroom, we notice a drive up scenic overlook in the rest area, so we pulled up there, parked Ulla, and get out to look around and take pictures. It was a beautiful sight, and it was only the first of many in the beautiful northern section of the state.

Back on the freeway, we stopped next in Mackinac City for my first true tourist moment. Ally had mentioned a shopping center called Mackinac Crossings, which consisted of the main outdoors outfitter store (like a Cabela's or Gander Mountain), and several smaller shops, including the Made in Michigan store, which had products from around the state, like maple syrup and cherries, and even Oberon, a summer ale from Bell's Brewery in Kalamazoo, MI (My area of the state).

As much as this weekend was for Ally to see her mom and get some stuff for school, it was a weekend for us to get away and do pretty much whatever we wanted, and for her to show me around Northern Michigan. So, like I said, I was doing my best to be as much of a tourist as possible, or a "fudgie" as it were (people from lower Michigan that head "North" for fudge-and tourist-y things-, which the northern part of the state is oddly well known for).

My next awesome event (and last for this half of the weekend) was coming up shortly after leaving Mackinac City; crossing the Mackinac Bridge into the Upper Peninsula. I had crossed the bridge before, New Year's Eve and New Years Day, when bringing Ally to a party, and taking her home to next day, but that hardly counted...I picked her up at night, and took her back in a snow storm. Even if I hadn't been scared to death and wanted to, I couldn't have seen anything.

Heading onto the bridge was an experience, let me tell you. Watching it rise in front of me, and driving onto the roadway...seeing the clean waters and clear skies, beautiful landscape infront of me, the island to the right, the ferry chugging along...I even drove on the metal grated lane, just because I could. I didn't do that for long though, cause it freaked me out.

After crossing the bridge and paying the toll, I did something that was probably not the best idea, but I stopped on the other side to take a picture (first, at top of post). There I was, in the middle of what was still a freeway, around 5pm, stopped to take a picture.

The next hour was vast trees and nearly empty highway, cruising along with the cruise on. We got off at Ally's home town, made our way to her house, and pulled up out front, and Ulla had made it roughly 400 miles straight north, without a single issue.

*note* additional pictures from the trip can be found here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/leersobie1986/sets/72157606701337943/

Detour: Car Show

Heading back home from getting new tires, I decided to stop in and see my mother for a few minutes. Too bad for her, My girlfriend (Ally) and I were detained by a Detour sign in the middle of downtown Battle Creek. The detour was around a 2 block section of the street that had a cruise in car show, so, of course, we had to stop. I will have you know though, this was Ally's idea...I just simply had no objections whatsoever.

We parked Ulla in a nearby parking lot and headed down to the street, camera in hand. These are just a couple of pictures we took, but damn was there a lot to see in such a small area.

It was nice to see so many beautiful cars and to share this with my girlfriend, and it was even better to watch her get excited about some of the cars...be it the Dodge Dart Stinger with the bee on the grill that grabbed her attention, the VW Beetle that was "just so cute", or the Jaguar E-Type that she would have fought the owner for in a cage match, she had just as good of a time as I did.

I decided that by next summer, I want to have Ulla to the point where I'm not embarrassed to show her off and drive her up tot he St. Ignace car show. I don't plan on her being a show car, or having her judged, but something that looks and drives nice, and has one hell of a story.

We also decided officially that Ally wants a little eurocar, too...maybe a Saab, maybe a Beamer or a Benz, or even a Volvo, but what she really wants is a VW, maybe a Golf, or a GTI, or a Jetta, or something that strikes her. I'm so proud.

Who knew so many things can be fixed at once?

This morning, I finally was able to get new tires for Ulla. The old ones (first picture) were as bald as a naked mole rat, and were just as worrisome to have around.

Only two of them matched (in make, but not tread), nothing was balanced, and one of the rims had a bend in it. She shook over 55mph, squealed around corners at 10mph, hated stopping, and one of them had to be pumped up every other day to avoid going flat. I'd make jokes about having racing slicks, but i think those would have been safer to drive on.

I've had several estimates over the last month, and no matter what I did, I couldn't find anything that could be my old tire shop back home, run by a friend of the family. Boland Tire of Sturgis, MI was where my last tires came from (paid for by my parents, years ago), so when they gave me a price of $275 (out the door, lifetime rotations, etc) for a Bridgestone made tire, and none of the "discount" places could come close, I went there without hesitation. The money I spent on gas driving an hour to Sturgis still put me under the other estimates, and I felt more comfortable going there.

An hour after I dropped it off, I came back from visiting people I hadn't seen in a while, and my car was already done. After paying the bill and going outside, I found a shiny new set of rubber (second picture), and to my surprise...they fixed my bent rim. It wasn't anything serious, jsut a bent outside lip a couple of inches long, probably from where someone hit a curb, but...they fixed it, and I couldn't even figure out which rim it had been on (until i did...third picture).

Needless to say, when I finish her up and decide to put a set of proper touring tires on Ulla, I'll go back to them, no question.

On my way back home that evening (with my girlfriend riding next to me), we realized something that I knew would happen to an extent, but we never could have imagined the impact these new tires would have. Ulla handled like a new roadster! smooth ride, less road noise, straighter tracking, and most importantly, no more shaking at higher speeds! I drove part way home on a freeway, just to try her out, and the ease of acceleration and top speed was astounding! Never again will I neglect tires. Never.

Finally, Front Speaks

After putting the Pioneer 6x9's in the back, I basically had everything faded to the back to avoid the popping from the front speakers. Last weekend, after a wedding, I headed to Wal*Mart for a late night "dammit, I forgot to pack THAT?" run. While wandering around the automotive section, I decided to look at speakers, and found a badly damaged box of a pair of 5-1/4" Pioneer speakers...box was beaten, but the speakers looked ok, so I tried something out.

I found an employee and asked for a discount for the damaged box.

15% later, I had a new set of speakers to put in the dash.

Practically as soon as I got back the next day from the wedding, I had the speaker grilles out and the old speakers removed...I was in awe of the fact that these speakers were, literally, made of paper...britle, cracked, paper.

After measuring and finagling, I took out my trusty rotary tool and started hacking away at the plastic on the back of the grilles until it was all gone and I had an essentially flat piece of plastic, lined up and rilled a couple of holes, and attached the rather large Pioneer speakers to the grille...it was all I could do to avoid hitting things in the dash with the speakers, but I made them fit. I did have to add a couple of screws that can be seen once they're in teh dash, but they're black screws, so they blend, and i plan to recess them in sometime, just not right now...I'm not terribly worried about it.

After fitting the speakers and reinstalling the grilles, I tested the new and improved stereo, adjsuted the fade, and cranked her up, blaring the local classic rock station for all to hear.

My stereo is now complete (until I decide to run new wiring, and maybe add an amp and sub box), consisting of a Blaupunkt head unit, 2 Pioneer 6x9's, and 2 Pioneer 5-1/4's, and all of the speakers fit the original designs, leaving it visually untouched.

My First Performance Upgrade!

That pile of plastic under the hood where a something less restrictive should be was starting to bother me, especially after reading about the cool custom intakes others have done, the K&N Intakes not made for Ulla, and the Swedish Dynamics intakes that I couldn't justify spending money on at this point when so many other things need work...like the tires...and a lot of other areas.

That said, I went down to the local Auto Zone to spend a few bucks. If I couldn't justify the Swedish Dynamics kit right now (both for lack of money and lack of certainty that it would be worth it), I couldn't see spending the money on a K&N filter for my little experiment. So, I went over to the isle with intake parts for the rice burners, and picked up a black rubber connector/clamp, and a Spectre Cotton Fiber cone filter.

After paying for my elaborate list of parts, I headed back home, pulled Ulla up into the yard under the tree (giving me shade for the next 20 minutes), and started pulling the plastic tub, air horn, and gigantic cylinder air filter from under the bonnet. I still can't believe that the 2 inch wide opening on that pipe went into an air box twice the size of my first fish tank.

Now came the hard part...the black rubber clamp was used to strap the cone filter to the MAF.

Ok, install done.

All in all, i think I still had 5 minutes of shade by time I started Ulla back up.

I'm not going to lie, more than anything, I feel cool for doing this. It's neat to look at when you open her up and I got rid of a fair deal of plastic under the bonnet. That said, I have noticed some improvement in performance. The new intake (loose term for "filter on throttle") is significantly less restrictive, and allows itself to be considered a "cold air" type. From what I understand, More Air = Better. Also, even though I don't have the added benefit of hearing neat sounds from a turbo through the filter, there is a decidedly different sound from the engine now. Not better, not worse, just different, and I like different.

Even after a couple of weeks now (remember, I don't always type these when I do the work), I haven't noticed any problems with the intake, and nothing has shifted since I installed it. One day, I may go for the Swedish Dynamics kit, but for now, my $20 Spectre "kit" is all I need, and still looks jsut as impressive when I open the hood as the day I put it in.

WD-40 is a fantastic product

I've known this for years from my father, but WD-40 is awesome.

A healthy dose over pretty much everything makes things move/work better.

Switches, keys, connectors, anything.

On a cold winter in August.

The most frustrating part of fixing up the engine was when I changed the AIC valve and replaced the bolt on the throttle, she developed a new problem. When I would turn her over after the engine cooling, she would hunt and stall idle extremely rough for a honest 15 minutes, or a good 5 rough minutes of low stress driving, before finally warming up and being friendly. It's like having another me without my morning coffee.

Since, I had decided to replace a number of parts anyway, I found a MAF sensor on eBay and purchased it (also came with a Jetronic box from an '86 SPG) for $20, figuring that if nothing else, I'd have a newer one on the engine. Turns out, it seems that's exactly what I needed for my little warm up issue. I kept an eye on it for the next day, seeing how Ulla responded to cold starts, warm starts, starting up after going into the store...no problems. Now, after sitting overnight, she takes a mere minute to warm up and be ready to go, and I couldn't be happier.

On a personal note, the eBay user I bought the MAf from has been an wealthspring of knowledge and parts for me, and I'm working on purchasing a shipment of parts from him for my baby. I cannot recommend eBay user 1redaero enough.

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.