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Rusty, I took a look at the horizontal grid line with a magnifying glass, but I didn't look too hard at the vertical sides, so I will do that next. Thanks!

Hello, I have a '97 Saab 900 on which I'm trying to get everything working. The electric rear defogger grid works with the top 9 rows, but not with the rest. I took a test light to each grid to make sure this was the case. I have also found that the test light on the driver's side of the grid (on the 9 working rows) is very strong, but on the passenger side, it is very weak. I found that towards the far side of the 9th row, there is no light at all and any grid lines below that will not light up at all. My assumption is that there is a break in the grid towards the edge of the 9th row. I have not found any obvious breaks in this area, but a few areas that have some minor scratches that do not appear to go thru the grid line, but I don't know for sure. I tried a repair kit on these areas with no luck. My question to any electrical pros are: 1) Why would the working 9 rows show a very bright test light response on the driver's side, but very weak on the passenger side? 2) Given what I've mentioned above, does anyone think the problem is simply a break in the grid, or could this be another problem? Since I do not see any obvious breaks in the grid, what else might this be? Any tips or help is greatly appreciated! -Chris

Not from me, but from a post on the forum from about 6 years ago: Have you tried George Bachleda at Olcar Bearing Co. 135 James Creek Southern Pines, NC 28387 Ph: 910-693-3324

Thanks for the kind words, Randy. Although I'm anxious to finish this car and am not exactly sure how it will turn out, as I've never painted a car, I do look back at the photos from when I started and realize how bad the car was and how much better everything (so far) is now. I continue to be amazed at all the other cars on this site and the absolute craftsmanship and artistry that some of the other cars have, and that motivates me to try to go the extra mile (for my skill level) to try to get results that are at least somewhat close to the pros here. Cheers!

For Sale- An NOS 1963 Oldsmobile 88 98 Jetstar or Starfire Left Front Fender Extension. Part #586927. Asking $50 + shipping, or Best Offer.

ATLANTIC CITY SPEEDWAY - speedwayandroadracehistory Scroll down a little on the above link and there's more info.

Hello, I recently found a 1960 Stude 4-door Lark wagon. Has a V-8, Twin Traction, and power steering, all original, but has been sitting for at least 20 years. Doesn't run; needs a full restoration. Is this anything particularly rare or special, or just something that's not really worth any time except for the hard-core Lark Wagon guy, which I am not. Thanks for any commentary.

Everything looks reasonable with the body panels, so I took them all off yesterday. Next will be body removal (yet again). I will have quite a bit of small primer touch up to do, but should easily be able to get that all done in a couple hours on the next warm weather day that I have time (which may be a while).

Thanks Jeff!

On a roll now, was able to apply all fasteners to the front fenders. I made more adjustments to the passenger door and got it slightly better. Will still need some more work, probably raising the rear fender slightly and shimming the top hinge slightly, as mentioned before. I then went back to the front fenders and matched the bottoms up with the bottom lip of the rocker panel. Since I had to replace all this metal, there were no holes for the fasteners in these areas, so I had to set the fender for door gaps the best I could, clamp it in place, then drill holes for the fasteners. I had about 75% original fasteners, but used 25% repro stuff, as the originals were broken or too far corroded to reuse (Photo 1). I also fit the taillight plinths, and they fit very well. Next, I will need to bolt on the front valance panel and double check the grille (it fit perfectly last time), then I think I can be confident that after painting, I can reassemble this car and everything will fit as well as just about any other MGA I've seen on the showfield (which isn't that great!), so I think I will be within factory spec, but nowhere near Pebble Beach spec, like some of the other great resto work I've seen on this site. Here's the almost completed body mock-up (Photos 2 & 3).

Today I continued with fitting the body parts to the car. Started on the driver's rear fender (Photo 1). Was able to get all body bolts in and got a pretty good fit on everything. Did have one issue, the top lower edge of the fender where it meets the door and top of the rocker panel sticks out a little (Photo 2). This is because the bottom of the fender is a repro patch panel and needed a large amount of cutting, welding, and bending to get it to fit reasonably and I guess it's not going to turn out perfectly. Since there is another panel that secures over all of this in the door jam, one choice will be to tack weld the top inner lip to the inner rocker panel to get it flush with everything, then it will be covered and will not be seen. Any future removal of the fender will require a quick grinding of the tack weld, however. The other option is to install the door jam cover panel now, get it as tight and flush as possible, and it may pull in the fender lip in enough to be within tolerance. I'll probably try the non-weld option first, since this will need to be done anyway at some point. Next, I moved on to the passenger front fender. Here's a photo with the inner brace installed (Photo 3). This fender fit great, although I am having a problem with one of the bolts being a little cross-threaded or boogered up a little. I chased the thread on the bolt, but the captive nut is also a problem, so I'll chase that when I remove the fender again. I then worked a little more on the door and on the passenger rear fender. I was able to refit the lower portion of the fender and move it a little closer to where it should be so the gap is not as bad by applying some force and a little bending torque to the whole front of it, but I was able to get it in and it looks much better. Probably within tolerance now, but not perfect. I got the door gaps quite good at this point, but the gap at the top front is a little wide and the rear top of the door is a little high compared to the rear fender, as you can see in the photo. I'll be able to make it a little better with more door adjustments, but I may have to shim the hinges to get the rear of the door to drift down a little and make it a little more even as there is not much room to lower the door anymore. I will also try to raise the rear fender a little at the same time, which should get in within tolerance at least (Photo 4).

Got in a few hours today, made decent progress: 1) The fabricated bar and lip combo I made to replace the rusted out original metal at the bottom of the spare tire storage aperture was about 1-2 mm too tall. I taped off roughly where the edge should have been (Photo 1) and was able to grind off the excess metal. I then deburred it and I'll put some primer on shortly. The "long" lip was hanging up in the middle of the battery cover, so I could not push it all the way back and secure it with the two fasters on either side. Here's the fitment after I fixed the lip (Photo 2). 2) Next, I focused on the passenger rear fender. I installed the two inner supports first (Photo 3), then installed the fender and attached all fasteners. Everything went on quite well, but I do have a problem with the gap between the very front bottom of the rear fender being a little far from the rocker detente (Photo 4). It's about 1/2" too short. I may be able to force it over a little if I loosen up all the fasteners, and then I may have to make some new holes/fill some old holes, as I was able to get it over more during previous fittings, but those did not include attaching all the fasteners. Not much room for adjustment after all the fasteners went in. I could also weld on some new metal if a re-fitment doesn't work, so I'll wait until everything else is fitted to see what I'll do about this. This is what happens with repro garbage. 3) I was able to finished sanding the hood. It looks great, but primer is too thin/showing thru at about 30% of the edges, so will require some more primer.

Got home early, got in last night, so had today available for more car work. Not much time with the MG, but was able to rough-hang most of the body panels on the body today (Photo 1). Noticed a few issues right off the bat. First, the hood still needs to be sanded a lot more and is already thin on primer in some places, so I will possibly have to spray the hood in primer again or maybe be able to just do a portion of it. Will be easy to sand, at least. I also noticed that there are multiple areas with chipped primer on the edges of the doors, due to some contact whilst fitting everything last time. Will be easy to just touch these areas up and lightly sand. I'll probably sand the hood tomorrow, touch up the chipped primer on the doors, then start to do final fit of the panels over the next week or so. Will probably take a while to get it right and will probably find more small problem areas, but at least still making progress.

Last post for at least two weeks while I take care of some other things... Didn't have much time today, but I got all the body bolts in and tightened them down. Had no real problems, but did have some slightly stripped bolts that I had to clean up with a die to make them function properly. Everything looks good body wise. I then hung both doors, since it is fairly easy to do. Have them in rough position, but will dial them in once I get all the fenders on (Photo 1). Photos are still pretty boring since this is the third time I've built the body up on the chassis, but at least it looks more like a car now.

Huge sense of relief today, as the issue with the inner body bolt holes not lining up has been bothering me since the last time I built up the chassis quite a while ago. This morning, I was able to get all four body bolts in their respective holes without crossing any threads. For the front portion, I tried a number of techniques from clamps to lifting the body up and trying to coax it inward a little, but what finally worked was hanging the body about 1" from the mounts and wrapping a ratchet strap over the body and around the bottom of the chassis (Photo 1). I then inserted the body bolt to see if I could get it to catch on the threads, without crossing the threads, after cranking the ratchet strap a little at a time. Luckily, I was able to get both sided bolts to "catch" without having to crank the ratchet strap all that far. Once I got both bolts hand tight, I tightened them a little more with a socket wrench. I left them fairly loose, as I still had to do the rears (and will have to do all the other body bolts on the car). I then removed the strap and everything seemed okay (Photo 2). For the rear middle bolts, getting the front into alignment seemed to have helped, but they were both still off by maybe 3/8" of an inch. These were close enough that I was able to eventually use a small 1 x 4 board to wedge the body over just enough to get the bolts to "catch" by hand. I then tightened them a small amount to get them secure. I ended up quite nauseous as I must have gotten on my back to check and work things, then get up to go to the other side, then to the back to make adjustments, and repeat about 30 times, before I was able to get the two rear middle bolts in. Had to stop for about an hour and eat something before I felt better. I'm going to call that a big victory and work on some other projects this afternoon; that was not fun! The other body bolts should be quite easy now.

Found 2 hours to work on the MGA today and made some good progress. None of my friends are able to help me anytime soon, so I have to do everything myself. I took the body off the sawhorses and laid it up on the chassis highpoints using the same boards (Photo 1). I was then able to use an engine hoist and suspend the front end so I could slowly and carefully lower the body onto the chassis (which is almost the same thing I did last time). I had to make a lot of adjustments and movements from the front and the back, but I was able to get it about 6" higher than the body mounts (Photo 2). The reason I left it "in the air" is because last time I fit the body, I was not able to line up the two body bolts in the front middle and rear middle of the body to the chassis. The far front and far rear groups of bolts fit perfectly. So, same thing with this round, as I expected, so I am going to try to sinch in the body slightly with a come along strap and then slowly lower the body to see if I can line up the bolt holes correctly and get them threaded properly, then tighten them down. They are too wide by about 3/4", so I should be able to flex the center of the body slightly to make it work, since there are no cross-members in this portion of the body. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny and up to 80 degrees, so I plan on spending all day getting as far as I can on this, as I probably won't be able to get back to it until about Mar 11th or so, due to other responsibilities. Hoping to at least place the body on the chassis and get all the body bolts in, which is easier said than done. If this goes quickly, I'll start attaching the other body panels again and see how everything fits. I still have to do some very minor primer touchup and sanding during this, before I'm ready for paint. If everything fits well, next step is a meticulous cleaning of the garage and I will begin the process of creating a paint booth. I really need to get this car in paint this year, but it will be challenging due to many other commitments, vacations, and part-time work I've taken on. However, I do plan on doing two tours and the Gettysburg AACA event, so that should be a lot of fun.

Hard to believe that workers were able to build these cars new in a similar manner at such a high rate and with precision back in the early 1930's. Talk about laborious. ...although I wouldn't call you a worker, but maybe a wood magician or forest sorcerer to be able to recreate all these wood pieces. Really enjoy the photos and descriptions of how this work is done. Incredible work!

Here's the chassis under the body...yet again. Can't wait to get this thing painted and dropped on the body for the final time.

It seems the more time I have, the less time I have. Got in a good run with the MGA recently, and hopefully can continue to make some progress. I re-primered the areas that needed attention, as shown in my last post. Over the last two days, I was able to complete sanding as well. As usual, I still have multiple areas that need some more primer, but most of them are so small I can just touch them up with a small paint brush. So, moving on to reassembling the car for the third time to make sure everything fits properly. First, I put the body back up on saw horses, so I can move the chassis underneath (Photo 1). Next, I unearthed the completed chassis, which I had covered with multiple covers and sheets...which did nothing to protect it from the sanding dust (Photo 2). I got it out in the daylight and sprayed the whole thing down with compressed air (Photo 3), which helped, but the chassis will need a very thorough detailing when I'm ready to put the painted body on. Some areas will probably need some re-restoration, as the rubber and some of the plastic has some spotting on it, which seems a little difficult to remove at this point. Would have been nice to have another bay to put this thing in so it wouldn't get so filthy, but I have no additional space. As a final insult, I was going to use my Jeep winch to tow the chassis into the other bay under the body by using a fulcrum in the garage, but of course, my winch electrics broke, so I had to wheel this thing in by hand...with the driver's side front tire completely flat with a blown out inner tube valve. Grabbed the spokes with one hand and the top of the good front tire with the other hand and got to work. I'll have a sore back tomorrow. Next will be either getting some friends to help me drop the body, or I'll have to do it myself with my engine hoist and a lot of patience, since my friends are all busy 24 hours a day, usually.

Model, C5 (x7), Body: 4 DOOR SALOON / Engine : without parameters, mechanical, emission control, CANISTER DEPOLLUTION ABSORBER - Catcar.info Looks like it is an Electro Valve. Part # V 7595146 80. If the link above doesn't work, try a google search with the part number.

Finishing up the trunk sanding. Still needs some minor touchup primer in a few small rough areas. Decided to clean up an area outside of the trunk at the driver's side rear of the body. This area was rusted out and needed a lot of welding of thin metal I also applied some leading to smooth it out and solidify it a little more back maybe a year or so ago. Today I applied some body filler over the whole area as it was just too rough for me with everything patched together somewhat sloppily. You won't be able to see it, but just wasn't pleased with it. Now if looks much better with the sloppy welding/leading covered up (Photo 1). Next step is to wait for a 50 degree plus day so I can do the primer touch up work.

Glad your wife was safe, Saabs were very safe cars.

Wow, never thought I'd get a response, not many AACA Saab folks. I have a 1997 900 SE 2.0 Turbo I bought as a junker for very cheap in 2021, as it had really good bones. It was ready for the crusher. I wanted something 25 years old that I could show and tour with the AACA for cheap, as I don't have a truck and trailer and it's difficult to get my better, older cars to shows and tours. I got carried away with the Saab and didn't want to give up, so unfortunately, I put in a LOT of money trying to chase down all the things wrong with it that I couldn't fix myself, then a series of events beyond my control had me seizing the engine, so had to get a replacement engine in 2022. I had 135 items on my "to fix" list at one point, now it's down to 15. It's not a restoration, more a salvation. It's coming along pretty well now; working on getting the heated seats working/repaired, which is another can of worms. The goal is to have everything work on the car and have it presentable or better. I love the 2011 9-5, thought it was an amazing design. I was so disappointed when Saab went under, what a waste of a great car. Read a lot of books on Saab recently, pretty neat story. Seems Saabs are very popular in the northeast, like you said, but also Oregon and Washington. You must have some great experiences working with Saab. Do you go to the Saabs at Carlisle each year? I went the last 3 years, they convinced me that buying a Saab would be fun. Very fun, but expensive, in my case. Love those Volvos, too, but feel bad for Saab, so I was compelled to buy it because it's weirder and an orphan, and the North American Saab Club was very convincing. -Chris

Is this part wagon-specific, or would any 49-51 potentially have it?

Quick update. Have very little time, again. Have continued with sanding the trunk area. Looking pretty good now, but still have a few small areas that need a little more work. With one more day of sanding and filling in a few ugly spots, I'll need another 50+degree day for a 5-minute primer session and I think I can call the body done and ready for third (and hopefully final) test assembly. No photos, as it's more of the same. This is the super-boring part of this blog. I hope that once I start the third test build that things will get a little more interesting. Will be shooting to have everything ready for paint by, let's say July, but hopefully much earlier.