Got my manifold, turbo and downpipe flanges ordered from Wiertech. Also got my stainless weld-els there as well. They are only $4.15 each. They are Schedule 10 instead of 40 but will be plenty thick and easier to form and cut.

Going to do the bottom mount modified log this go-around.

 

Built shroud to completely seal radiator and intercooler. It's sealed up tight. I still need to get some panel nuts to screw the top down. That way I can get at everything by just unbolting the top plate.




Intercooler installed. I wanted to V-mount it but it didn't work out. Even so, as tight as this shroud is to the grille I don't see any cooling problems and the over the radiator routing of charge pipes is a clear shot to turbo and throttle body.

 

you're not done with the entire car? lets put a little effort into this...

 

Spent 10 hours in the shop today but it doesn't look like it. Lots of tedious things done. Finished making brackets that run the length of the front of the dash and welded them to the dash, drilled and tapped holes in the SAAB so the dash is mounted with eight bolts. I can pull the dash in two minutes. Not in pics but welded up endcaps to finish off the ends of the dash. Still need to do two side panels that go down by your legs to hide the heater box. Also installed factory gauge cluster.

 

What an awesome build thread! where abouts in Nebraska are you? Id love to see some of your creations first hand.

 

I'm between Ceresco and Valparaiso, about an hour west of you.

 

I'm thinking you need some custom gauge faces from RevLimiter that are a little more retro to better fit with the overall theme.

 

BECAUSE RACECAR things that don't affect performance won't be changed if they require additional cost. I have another stock cluster with the normal black faced gauges. I don't know if I like the white face or black face better on this car.

 

What series will you be competing in?






Just kidding. I understand and it's really the position I should also take. But I won't.

 

While this is an extensive project, labor-wise, the intent was to be a budget swap. It has crept up but I'm trying to keep it to a minimum.

What I don't want to happen is what happened with the V8 Miata. It was going to be a track car but it got too many niceties, perfect paint, etc and got too expensive to risk.

This will be cheap enough that if it gets damaged I'll be sad but not devastated.

 

Modernbeat's 1963 Saab vintage rally car.

 

I really like the fab work and how nice and simple, but effective you are keeping everything. Great work! There is definitely some thinking behind the process!

 

I can not believe I just discovered this thread. Very nice work John, I mean Damn! I can not wait to see the finished product.

 

He can probably run it Performance Touring. I'd love to see it there, actually.

 

 

Spent the day on the SAAB. Pulled motor/trans, pressed out old bushings, installed Energy Suspension polyurethanes and started on flaring the fenders.

I have no idea why the photos turned out so dark. Anyway...

Stock front fender



Sectioned, flared and re-welded. There is a ton of work yet to do but it's roughed out.

 

It's dark because your camera was adjusting to the light shine spots and compensating. try doing your pre-photo-snap auto-focus/light-meter half-button-press (and other hyphenated fun) on the darker areas instead of on the fender. it should meter you a brighter exposure.

Remember, digital cameras are limited to a finite number of grays and unless you override defaults, they will strive to keep everything within that limited dynamic range. A good rule of thumb that your camera obviously knows is "it's better to lighten a dark photo than to darken a light one" and its corollary of "overexposure of white areas is lost information".

if your camera doesn't adjust by itself, you can use the exposure compensation and tweak the epoxure. it usually looks like a +/- or eV or something.

examples:
photo taken of bright screen. my phone meters on the center of the image, not the focus area.


photo taken of mostly keyboard. note that the screen is blown out and super bright, but the keyboard is more visible:


You can sometimes change the weighting of the exposure but not always. it's usually easier to obtain focus/exposure lock on the specific area you want and then hold the shutter half way to hold those values and move the camera to point at the whole area you are photographing.

TMI, baby.

 

Got one of the rears tacked up today. Had to stretch it about 4" so had to cut quite a ways up.



Tacked in place. Wheel is at full travel.

 

When you tackle a project, you really tackle it. I would of given up after that first photo.

 

Holy crap, I'm impressed. This is going to be such an awesome car.