I made the finishing touches on project Saab two-barrelification, and now it's ready to roll. Patreon: / agingwheels Merchandise: teespring.com/stores/aging-wh...
I was just about to comment on that, it's big enough to stick a knäckebrödsmacka through. Congratulations on discovering the rust, other than that the car looks great. Happy to see one driving around.
Might i suggest trying to get in contact with ThisOldTony who has his own youtube channel for everything related to tooling and manufacturing custom parts or whole machines? Maybe he could help you in a collaboration for a new baseplate?
In the early 80s I was working in the Middle East in a port city. A friend bought an old small Honda Civic. It was quite rusty (salty tropical air) with holes in the floor just like your lovely Saab. It was a great little car though, zippy engine and fun to drive. One day, we were returning from work in it and got involved in a very slow shunt in a traffic line. No one hurt, but the Civic just collapsed in the middle in a shower of rusty flakes. Never seen that before or after, but I guess it happens! Lucky you rolled back the carpet. Maybe they can weld in a plate or something?
Most old hondas only half a front chassis. once the floor goes youve got nothing holding the front to the back. I have seen many honda crashes with the front end in one place and the passanger half in another..usually with a blanket over the passenger side to cover the dead. older hondas are really bad in crashes.
Ask AvE if he'll mill you a new carb base plate, he's got a 5-Axis, he can do it. Edit: He probably also has any fitting you could imagine available for the PCV and Booster lines.
I was brought home from the hospital (being born) in a 1970 model in New Jersey. 10 years and four states later, we sold it here in Omaha. Flash forward to last year and see that it lives three blocks from me, beautifully restored! That engine noise takes me back. I can still remember that Saab smell. Great video.
Buy a cheap tarp to put under whatever youre stripping. Afterward just fold it up and toss it. Basically eliminates cleanup. A big garbage bag can be used for smaller parts (test the stripper on the tarp first as ive had a couple dissolve on me:)
Man, that sound takes me back! Me and my twin brother had one when we were 18. It was hillariously easy to go sideways round bends on the dirt roads by the means of left foot breaking.
Lovely car. For a while, in my teen years, I was a Saab mechanic and I never got a chance to see one of those 2 cycle Saabs running/ driving. Keep it up with the repairs. She's a beaut!
Gotta' tell ya' how much I've thoroughly enjoyed watching this series on your 96. Brought back memories of my previous Saabs. I've had a 93, two 96's, one a Monte Carlo that I rallied for two seasons, rolled once and a 99. Once the carb and water pump issues were ironed out thought you've got a good driver until revealing the rusted pan under the carpeting. Broke my heart. Sorry to see that but w/o a supplier for floor panels, other than a donor car, there's little help.
Congratulations 'old bean' ! Nice cameo of your Dad. You both did a 'cracking' job on the bonnet. Meanwhile here in Arkansaw, my dear Saabrina is undercover. Waiting for spring while I gather parts. Cheers!
Ours was bottle green and died in 1979, when it was T-bones on a summer vacation driving through France, I was five at the time. I loved the sound of the engine and regularly fell asleep on the back seat when we drove around.
AS an 18 year old I had a Vauxhall Viva (UK). It was the early 70's. It was my first car and I knew nothing. Within 3 months I had discovered the huge holes in the front wings 'repaired' with wads of newspaper and Bondo. This was at the same time as I discovered the floor was rusted out completely by listening to Sabbath on my new cassette radio and headbanging in the car. It's a singular feeling barreling down the M1 motorway at 70ish and you feel the carpet deform under your feet as the floor is ejected from the car. My best friend Barry gave me a screwdriver and a magnet when we got home and we went on a car based archaeological dig. That car was a death trap and of course the bloke I bought it from disavowed any knowledge of the issues. It's fun to watch you struggle with these 'ahem' treasures but I love my 2003 Honda Element which I bought from new and has been utterly boring in it's reliability and structural integrity. Keep up the good work. Watching you struggle is an absolute hoot.
Sounds fantastic! I’m glad your Saab is reliable enough to drive now and it is looking a lot better with the repainted ‘bonnet’ ;) I admire that you’re driving it and improving things when you can. It’s good to still be using it as intended. I look forward to seeing you work on this car and the others. Despite your amateur level of experience, you do really good work and it seems like you truly do learn from what you do.
Tremendous fantastic great work, Rob! I enjoyed following and watching this project since day 1. Super cool to see how it all turned out very nice in the end. Well deserved credit for the effort and time and dedication you put into learning about the engine rebuild on your own. Can't wait to see how Project Trabant goes!
Back in the 70's, I had a 1967 Firebird with a 326ci V-8 2bbl. I found a 4bbl manifold and matching carb and threw it on. I was hoping it would do doughnuts and torch off the tires! NOPE! LOL. At best, it had a bit more low end grunt. Bummed out. Learned later that all I had to do was install 4bbl. heads, and cam! Didn't go there. Oh, like your SAAB, it sounded bad ass when I floored it!
Finally!!! The thousands of times I hit the refresh button for this video, it finally paid off, lol, love your videos and your sense of humor, loved Tyler's (now Fred's) burnt Ferrari video, the trabants are interesting vehicles (my father-in-law told me about them) and really all your stuff is pretty cool even if it's not supercars, keep up the good work and have a good day
Wow, great videos on fixing a real great little car! I had 4 of those as my first cars from -94 to -99. And i rebuilt engines in the same curious way. A friend of mine would have torn his hair out! He was constantly going on about the poor and dirty conditions in which we were building our engines. Me and my brother both built 130 hp engines with 2xWeber DCOE 45 carbs on moosehorn-intakes. I love your sense of humor too. Made me giggle several times. I feel we would make the best of friends, haha :) I will use this as a source of inspiration to finally getting around to fix my own 96. It has been sitting in a tent in my backyard far too long.... Keep on Saabing!
That looks like a fun car to ride thru the flint hills! Or anywhere! Come get me i'll pack a picnic! So enjoy you&your videos. Thankyou for taking time to record& post you😁
Nice car! I have had 2x Renault R8, Fiat 600D, Mercedes W123 240D, Honda Prelude 1st gen and Alfa Romeo 146 boxer. Saab 96 is one of my dream cars! Keep up the good work, you do have talent!
I relize your asking for forgiveness from the mass of saab Nazis watching about the mismatch hood paint, but you an your dad did a great job, it looks ready to show the world a great subject of a 96 saab. what a wonderful job you did, its lookin an sounding great, thanks for uploading this. great survivor.
Cold galvanizing compound for the rust. It will loosen and lift up existing rust and not allow more to form. Just re-apply when the rust lifts up after a few days or weeks.
I enjoyed the videos - moreso since my first car was a 1968 96 monte-carlo and I owned and worked on several since then. One suggestion I have that I did on a later 96 was to replace the exhaust with a single (larger) center pipe system. Requires a new set of headers but I found a sonnet mechanic who welded an additional ~3 inches into one of those headers (since the 96 engine sits higher than the sonnet) effectively lowering the point at which the two-into-one scavenging effect happened, actually giving it a slightly better low-end torque as well as allowing the engine to breath easier. Not sure if / when you may read this - but great job on the videos. (I actually still own a walnut monte-carlo steering wheel and a set of honeycomb sonnet rims on the decreasing chance that I will ever again own a 96 to customize). Best of luck! Jim
I once fited the exact same carb on my first car, a Datsun 1600 (510) in Australia. I pulled it from a Ford Escort and found an adapter plate on some other wrecker Datsun, even had the same air filter. It definitely made a difference on that car...damn I wish I still owned one of those
I had one on a Gemini, on an adapter plate. More power, smoother running and nice sound. Eventually I upgraded to a pair of 40mm IDFs. Man, those really woke it up, and what a glorious noise.
Saw a guy on TV who didn't have a floor in his car and he didn't seem to have any problems with it - however he was a cartoon and lived in the prehistoric era.
Ever want to see a real life school bus conversion like the one you mentioned in your truck camper video? Come a few states over to Indiana and drive mine :) only caveat is it’s not finished yet, but it’s a work in progress...
Nice job, Robert! The best part of putting twin Webers on my old Celica is definitely the sound. It sure didn't make it fast either :D If we're ever in the same state we should take a drive!
New subscriber here. The Trabant engine rebuild got me hooked. Really great channel and your right the odd stuff is whats of interest (at lease to me). Cheers.
Something like POR-15 may help with rust. My dad and I used it on our '63 Ford Falcon Futura convertible. Chemically bonds to the rust and stops it spreading. There may be newer products too, this was the late '80s...
Try POR-15. The system will leave a glass/cermaic like coating that strengthens the panels and stops rust. Then you can prime and paint it. As far as I can tell only the actual paint is special. The degreaser is like simple green and the primer is normal high build primer. The silver will do a better job filling in holes.
I enjoyed the Trabant rebuild so much I just had to watch this. In fact I enjoyed them so much I forgot to "like" them, apart from this one , oh, and I've subscribed as well. Keep 'em coming.
I do have the vacuum plate for your carb setup. The original one. But too bad, shipping is too expensive, othervise I would donate that piece to you! Keep up the good work!
For future reference, you can somewhat easily remove old paint using WD-40 and light abrasion, like one of those sponges with the rough side. That seems to be pretty useful.
As an owner of a 1973 96 here in the uk i would just like to say the bonnet panel gap won't ever be great, mine isn't it sticks up about 3/8''. Shame about the state of the floor mine is solid throughout but has the same cosmetic issues to the exterior like yours. Got a shed full of spares so if you ever require anything I may well have it.
I had a 74 2002 in 88 to 89 inside the boot and wheel wells and around the quarter with the side surface mounted gas cap; scraped up all loose rust. used liberal amounts of "rust converter" on any oxidized steel. primed, sanded, primed and used krylon grey/silver on the visible quarter panel. had to bondo the trunk floor to keep rain water from splashing up into the trunk and submerging the full size spare in there with more than a gallon of disgusting gutter water. without restoration, a chemical and fibreglass war with corrosion can be waged, that will keep the wind from howelling when the saab gets up to its remarkably intense velocities, until the time that you want to have a whole new floor pan installed in the classic.
