Glad to see I could provide the right amount of continued inspiration to get you going again.

 

Debating on doing the white stripe like the second one above. Even thought about the "lower door" skinny-wide-skinny stripe like on Mustangs etc. Probably hold off for now, if they do go on they will be in vinyl anyway.

And thanks for the last one. Reminded me that I have to dig out that little piece of nose trim for paint. Getting all of the small bits sanded, primed and packed up now so I don't forget anything.

I wonder what he has for a motor in the last one. The hood pins caught me off guard as the hood tips forward but then saw the hood scoop.

 

And no, I haven't been slacking. Put in a solid 40 hours in the last five days. Just nothing to take pictures of. Sanding, painting, filling, repeating.

 

http://www.tonikoskinen.com/saab_96_projektit.html for the Finnish project page

 

Hood, trunk, one door, fabricated dash and two rear fenders are "done" done. Final sanding with 320, no scratches or pinholes. Will do remaining door and two fronts tomorrow.

 

Stein gets a new avatar.

 

LOL

BTW, I have almost used up the two rolls of paper that I got from you and have fondled your sanding blocks more than my wife in the last month.

 

And you've probably got a few pounds of bondo dust and primer in your lungs too!

I'm just proud to have helped the casue.

 

I am coughing a bit. Masks are for wussies and people that want to live a while longer

 

 

Not much to report this weekend. Went to a farm sale and they had a pallet full of 25-30 quilted moving blankets which I purchased for $25. Will be nice for wrapping all of the parts for the four hour journey to the paint shop.

 

Loaded everything into my truck and enclosed trailer last night. Leaving for KC at noon today. Should have it prepped and sealed tonight and painted and cleared tomorrow.

Decided on going with matte finish black for the whole interior and the dash. Miata carpet and stock SAAB door panels and rear panels are going back in after spraying them with black vinyl and fabric paint. The car is still going to be Grabber Blue. On the exterior I am going to paint the grille, door handles, trunk handle and latches black as well as blacking out the rockers. I'm thinking of now doing a black stripe on the center of the hood and possibly a narrow/wide/narrow stripe on the lower section of the door. Might need to break up all of that blue. I'll wait on the stripes and put them on with vinyl later if needed.

Should have lots of pics Sunday night.

 

^ Exciting!

 

Sunday? Sunday is good.

 

Jut got home a bit ago. It went extremely well although it took every minute that we had this weekend.

Got there about 4:30 on Friday. Unloaded and started masking to paint the interior to paint matte black.



Painting the interior.



Interior done. Also painted all of the trim pieces that are going onto the car the same matte black.



John scuffing before sealer.



Panels and doors sealed.



Masked off the interior to seal the car while the panels are base/clear coated.



Panels done. They came out nice.







Next we painted the car.



Car done.





A few shots outside. Looks lighter in the outdoor pics than it really is.







Loaded up and got home about 8:30 Sunday night.

 

so fresh and so clean

wow

great job congrats

 

 

Oh sooo nice! Keep up the good work, I really enjoy this build thread! Props!

 

It just occurred to me and had to check. I got it painted a week shy of two years since I started. I estimate 600 hours into is thus far. I should be able to finish it in less than 200 hours.

I'll be out of town this week but first order of business is to get it back in the shop onto jackstands again, get the motor in and lay out the wiring harness on the floor so I can see where I need to start drilling holes for the harness to pass through the inner fenders to the motor. As the Miata inner fenders are outside of the SAAB inner fenders it will allow the harness to lay in its stock location but still be tucked.

I'm installing the entire Miata harness in its entirety as it should drop right in and I'm not willing to invest the time to strip out the harness to remove airbag wiring, etc. I could probably strip out 15 lbs if I did, but I want the wiring to be as painless as possible as I hate doing it so the whole thing is being dropped in as removed.

I'll have to do some actual wiring for the head/tail lights to interface with the SAAB parts but other than that it should be plug and play. I'm hoping that there is enough wiring in the harness that is in the back half of the car to the fuel pump, tail lights, etc to accommodate the wheelbase stretch without having to splice into it.

Next is fabricating the turbo manifold for a WRX TD04 turbo and modifying a Flyin' Miata full 2.5" exhaust to fit. The front half and rear half will be retained as complete as possible and just join them in the middle as the wheelbase has been stretched. I'll have to rework the downpipe to fit the TD04.

I have to do the same thing with the fuel/return/brake lines. All of the bends will fit as stock as the front and rear subframes and subframe mounting locations are intact. Just need to splice in about 10" underneath where there is a straight run along the frame rails.

That's kind of it for the big stuff. Of course there are a bunch of little things that in and of themselves aren't big jobs but they add up.

 

Looks great! lookin' forward to seeing the rest.