no kidding. when you said you were going to sell the "shell" you meant "some of the shell"

 

The thing is- even though there's only a "little" left shell, I think I've installed more than half that stuff on race cars- rockers, windshield frame and rear quarters. Sum of the parts really are worth more than the whole.

 

subscribed

 

LOL, as soon as I started cutting I had two people want me to cut out rocker panels. They are going to chpmnsws6. Fo free.

 

Damn you and rust free vehicles!!!!!! I would KILL to find a car like the one you bought to tear apart...

Although I would have probably chosen an S2k or Vette drivetrain depending on budget
...and I wouldn't feel so bad cutting one up.

Awesome project none the less

 

We usually see rust here as well. Fortunately this was caught in a drug stop coming from rust free California. Rust free does make it easier to disassemble, though.

 

This is way cooler than the Borgward swap. Subbed for Saabata badassery.

 

Other than killing a perfectly good NA, I really really am diggin this. Sub'd

 

Picked up the SAAB today. Here it is in the sunshine for the first time in about 20 years. John was confident that the tires would hold air. There was a fist-sized hole in one rear so I thought he was full of it but it held up. Must have just been the tread cap. I was also surprised that the brakes weren't frozen to the drums. All four wheels rolled without incident.





Loading onto the trailer.



Ready to head home. The back of the truck is filled with three hoods, three doors, two trunklids and five fenders. I'll be changing out some of the parts with better ones in the future.

 

When I got it home I immediately wanted to clean it up. Twenty years of mouse nests makes for quite a bit of smell. The seats were removed and promptly tossed. Here is the floor.




After shoveling out the interior, I shop vacc'ed it and then loaded it back onto the trailer for a trip to the car wash for a good power washing, including the interior. I also hit the engine bay because I hate working on greasy stuff and hosed off 20 years' worth of dust. After returning it to the shop I got out the heat gun and scraped off the tar sound deadening sheets from the floor and trunk. They were full of mouse smell and the water went under them in the channels, plus they needed to come out anyway. The floor is surprisingly rust-free which will help when I go to weld in the new Miata floor and trans tunnel.





I drilled holes in the floor and plan to pull it outside again tomorrow for a good scrubbing and hose down on the inside. It already is ten times better than before.

 

Engine bay shots? Cute little car.

 

I'll get some tomorrow. The open area between the inner fenders are 2" wider than a Miata bay and it is at least 8" deeper grille to firewall. Well, that is after I cut out the doghouse footwell and move it back, but the top vertical portion of the firewall is. The rest will when I put in the Miata footwells and firewall. I could V8 swap it easily with the room in here.

It's a little haggard but I have a lot of spare arts that will replace bad areas. I have a bunch of glass that came with it as well.

 

Thats a suprisingly clean tub!

 

Yeah, the only thing that is bad is the lower body where the chrome bolted through. If I didn't have a "deluxe" I probably would have had less body rust. The deluxe had the chrome and a tach. That was pretty much it.

The title is dated April 1974. She paid $2,760 for it.

 

Dude all that mouse crap is nasty as hell. Looking good so far though

 

I am definitely in for some more pictures! This is extremely interesting stuff.

 

Agreed; I was a little discouraged when I saw the first picture but it did clean up better than I expected.

Good luck and godspeed.

 

that car screams acid dip and respray, does it not?

 

Wow wrong thread I posted in lol.

Anyways I agree with y8s.

 

Well, I didn't take any pictures today when I had it out to wash the inside out again. The main reason is I inventoried the spare parts that came with the car. I will be replacing both doors, three of the four fenders and the trunk lid with spare parts that are in very good shape. So, a freshly washed pic wouldn't be worth much.

I have been disassembling the front end to start. A couple of observations:

I haven't worked on a 40 year old car. Ever. Even in my youth they weren't 40 years old.

Fasteners DO rust to the point that they will not come off and simply break

I hate the Swedes for not using hex head bolts and for using Phillips head bolts everywhere instead. The fenders, the doors, everything under the hood is held in place with Phillip head bolts. I'm sure some genius back in '68 thought they could speed up assembly using them but didn't think about maintenance in the field after a liberal application of road salt. It's bad enough trying to break free a 40 year old hex head. I actually took the front part off of my hammer-style impact driver for screws and used it on my regular impact for some larger #4 Phillips. Did you know that they make 5/16-18 bolts with a Phillips head? I didn't but I do now.

I also snapped the tip right off of a big Craftsman #3 Phillips head screw driver. Never mind that I had a 1/2" ratchet and a deep well 1 1/8" socket over the handle but that was the only way to put force into the screw and then have enough leverage to turn it to break it loose.

Here's how it sits today.