The Car
Update:
2009-09-29
Just got back from Pocono Raceway last night. Unlike last event's pre-race drive from the lift to the trailer, we managed to get some laps in on the car before Nelson Ledges. The car performed well at Pocono overall but some evil showed it's head early and late in the day. We're back at the shop tonight with a pair of pliers and a blow torch to sort it all out. The car/tires held up great in the rain and (when running) our machine held it's own with cars costing well over 2-3 times it's price...
We will be at the Barn until further notice. Bring a large hammer. Train leaves for Nelson Thursday evening with or without you. Free t-shirt with admission.
Here is the play by play of our cars build from it's origins in the the wild to the last time we got around to throwing stuff up on this page.
Skip to the bottom if you want to see the more recent work....
2009-05-17
Ok, so just like not managing to register for the race itself, we kinda blew it on this paperwork too. It's not like one of us had everything ready all winter, or that all paperwork needed to claim an abandoned vehicle sat, neatly organized, in a blue folder, and labeled "71 Saab 99" in a file cabinet behind his back.
(Hey, you didn't fill the forms and turn em in either now did ya)
Looks like we're going to have to grease the wheels on this transaction too. For the price of FREE.99 we're willing to jump through a lot of hoops...
Here are some snapshots of our machine in the wild. Notice that there is a very real tree growing inside.
Oh, and we're dropping the gauntlet. Our car is on pace to come in at under $400 people
2009-05-19
The car made it's way to a new kind of graveyard where projects go to die. This was to be the first time Josh was pulled over while transporting the 99. The officer seemed to think it was suspicious to drag a car with 4 flat tires out of the bush. He left quickly, however, when we tried to take a picture of him for the site.
Before the Lemons car can get the attention it doesn't deserve, Josh insists we remove the RX-7 Shell that currently blocks the garage. Billy waists no time and tears into the poor Mazda. The motor will be used in our next ice racing Saab 96. Hello 12a you wacky little thing...
2009-05-25
Monday night after work a small crew gutted the 71 more or less down to a shell. Kip stripped down the dash and gave the touchup paint he found in the glove box a try. Without a heat gun, Josh got creative with some shop lights to heat up the sound insulation before removal. After Glen got that last dent out of the drivers door the motor was able to come out with no problem. Did we mention the car fell on Josh? No? well, nevermind
2009-05-27
Wednsday afternoon We powerwashed the tub and it was on it's way to Eric's. We just didn't warn Eric. Sorry Cindy
2009-05-30
Josh's family came up to visit and lend a hand. Josh and his pop scraped the garbage out of our doner 4 speed and presserwashed the heck out of it. They found all kinds of crap including pieces of acorn in the upper oil pan. We wish every night could end with a great dinner as reward. Thank you Sue for cooking for all of us.
Its time to go over a bit of our plan... Here's our ace. This 1990 Saab 900 16v base model was totaled last winter with no insurance coverage. The junk yard offered $168 for it. We stripped the car, saved the rear quarter for our circle track car and put the engine, drivetrain, and rear axle away with dreams of lemons. (We got 50 bux back from the scrap guy when we were done btw) Net cost $118
Here were the other potential candidates for our shell. Josh found the rare 1978 99 Turbo in New Hampshire. The guy wanted $500. When Josh passed, the guy said come take it away and it's yours. The car was rotted to the core and the engine was destroyed. Sometimes you get what you pay for. We originally thought about using a 96 shell. We found these in the catskills for $200 but the deal came through too late for the race. The RX7 swap will have to wait. The 1975 came in last and we almost decided it was better lemons material (uglier) but an inspection found significant structural rot which killed it. For $100 it's the only car that ran (temporarily) when it came in.
2009-06-01
Monday, with the end of the month at the dealership out of the way, Josh pulled a late night at the barn. He washed the 16v, then drained the fluids from the motor and both trannys and dropped the 5speed off the motor. What came out of the 4 speed was something like mud and smelled like death. Did we mention we don't know if it's any good? Should we crack further into the housing to inspect? Eric's call: no chunks of metal on the drainplug magnet=no problem. Josh pulled the inner drivers from both trannys and swapped the modern 5speed drivers into the 4 speed housings. The right side driver had the common failure point (a notch worn into the contact surface that causes a horrible shutter under power). His solution, put it on the left side and not the shutter only happens in reverse. With all parts ready for reassembly he called it a night.
2009-06-02
Kip came up Tuesday and helped Josh get the 4speed back together and bolted it up to the 16v. He put the 8v pulleys on the car to help it fit in the engine bay and the clutch came off for inspection. Eric suggested we use the aluminum cover/filter from the 5speed so that got swapped in as well. They finished up by getting the shell back on the trailer and ready to go to Full Tilt Fabrication in Westfield for it's roll cage.
This was to be the second night Josh was pulled over transporting our car. This time he was followed for 5 miles before the blue lights came on. The good trooper came to the window with a smile and said "I just had to ask, what is this thing and what are you doing with it..."
Meanwhile, Eric's brain was cooking away at timing for our race motor. He was determined to scrap the EZK system in favor of returning the car to mechanical advance. This would prevent the car from pulling timing to protect its worthless (worth very little?) self. After a few minutes he went to work dismantling both distributors and began to create his little Frankenstein.
2009-06-03
Welcome to CAGE-IN-A-DAY! That's right, Josh brought the shell over to Full Tilt Fabrication at 10am on Wednesday. Mike, the shop's owner has done several jobs for Josh in the past and is without a doubt an artist. He and Josh had the car back on the trailer at 3am, fully tubed. Josh had it back to the barn at 4am and after a shower got a few hrs sleep before work. OUCH
2009-06-04
Half the team came together tonight to get the rear axle in the car. Kip pulled the fuel tank and stock axle. Eric greased the suspension mounting points and with 4 sets of hands the new hardware went in without issue. It was almost too easy. We had to double check the badges to make sure we weren't working with honda.
2009-06-07
Kyle from Bertera Motorsport came by the barn to lend a hand with the front suspension. There was as much tire kicking and bench racing as anything else. He and Josh did get around to pulling the old hubs, axles and e-brake assembly and began swapping out the upper a-arms to work with the 900 springs. Glen dropped by to skin the hood and trunk. Light is good.
2009-06-09
Back on the car for an hour or two. The updated upper a-arms went in. Check out the difference in springs between 99 and 900. No one was killing in the removal of the old spring but props to Glen for putting himself on the torch to get it done. Eric dropped by to report that he was almost done hacking the distributer. Could the car be running this weekend?
2009-06-10
It was a great night for the ABJ team with SIX drivers and crew under the same roof for the first time! The heros of the Night were Tim and Glenn. Tim mixed and matched supention components from our 900/99 to perfection, salvaging the best 20 year old tie rod ends money didn't buy. Glenn came in the picture late but with fury. He fabricated an awsome mount for our little radiator. Runners up Eric and Kip put together the parts to our hybrid distributer and began fabricating motor mount brackets for the engine. The fuel cell and motor mock up are on the chalk board for tomarrow if anyone wants to lend a hand.
2009-06-11
Our ATE rebuild kit arrived fresh from the basements of Ebay. Unfortunately it was missing some gaskets. Kip made do with what we got and now we have a partially rebuilt brake master. After test fitting some belts we came up with the lengths we need for our in-line waterpump and alternator. Hopefully we get lucky. Front suspension is fully mocked up. Speaking of suspension, Josh realized why no one could swap in the longer 900 bolts in the rear axle (no matter how big a hammer they picked up.) The larger 900 axle/anti roll bar are metric. In 71 saab still used some SAE. Turns out that included the rear suspension bolts. Add a trip to the hardware store.
2009-06-12
Todays shopping included a few lengths of belt and a 'merican bolts for the suspention as well as a quick release hub for the steering wheel.
2009-06-13
The frame for the fuel cell went in without too much cursing. None of the belts for the water pump were a sucessful fit. Back to the parts store.
2009-06-14
Picking up the pace today. Eric set about modifyign the 99's fuel rail to allow for clearance of our alternater which in turn would allow for clearance in our belts. This was all for not however when Josh came back, reporting that the waterpump belt we need does not exist on this earth. Kip and Josh finished up the window net and mocked up brake lines to send out to our hose guy. Late in the night, after staring blankly at the motor for who knows how long, Josh came up with a solution so simple it could have been plan A. From the scrap pile he pulled an unused tensioner and clamped it to the motor mount bracket. Perfect.
2009-06-15
While out at DSG on business, Josh had a chance to scope some competition. This 504 has the larger motor that was much more common in later models. Either these guys are getting ready to kill a very rare car or someone took a page out of our playbook.
2009-06-16
Johnny Brazen stopped by to finish up some welds on the cage. Josh bolted down the fuel cell and got the firewall in place then took a moment to reflect on just how much there was left to do.
2009-06-17
Our Crew cheif Chadwick VonWeissenhimershmit came up to lend a hand. He and Josh huffed Rustolium late into the night.
2009-06-18
Kip came up and motivated a dry fit of the motor. Behold in all it's glory! Josh began modifiying the motor mounts to allow for lower placement while kip marked off areas of the firewall that could use a good hammer massage.
2009-06-19
The fine guys at Spartan let a few feet of 1.5" alumized tubing fall off the truck. We guess when you own the place and it's your truck thats OK. The big news is that the motor was back in for good. With any luck it won't be back out till its due for a belt replacement.
2009-06-20
Eric started on the wiring harness on father's day. He quickly tore into little pieces what Josh had spent hours carefully stripping from the 900 in one complete piece.
2009-06-21
We began the coolant system piping tonight. The original idea of using metal for the straight sections mushroomed out of control when we started playing with the bender.
2009-06-22
Eric started in-car wiring tonight. It was awsome how much of the stock 99 harness matched up with the 16v. You could almost hear him chant "least splices possible... least splices possible..." Josh pulled off the brake master again so the fuel filter housing could be attached. A plan is forming to create space for the the intake manifold and brake resivour to live in harmony. It involves a heat gun and someone's thumbs.
2009-06-23
The last clamps went on the cooling system tonight. It was agreed that the roof idea would have saved 10's of hours of labor but damn it looks slick. Kip masaged the brake master resivour with the heat gun and a flashlight until it fit without interferance behind the intake manifold. Eric found a new clearance problem: the axle/drive combo it too long. It looks like we're going to have to pull axles apart to mix and match....
2009-06-24
Josh used some company time this morning to work on power for the lemon. He pulled two broken jump boxes from the junk pile and pulled out the guts. One had a shattered case and the other "wouldn't charge". We may luck out.
With the batterys on a charger Josh started to relocate the filler tubes to work with our fuel cell. Time to cut and paste...
2009-06-25
Big night for Team ABJ. Our new team member Jim showed up with our "new" seat. The guys fit up the late model 99 bumpers. We started to reinforce the engine bay. Check out Eric's trick starter switch! He recycled it from the stock 900 ignition switch.
2009-06-26
Eric finished the engine bay wiring (so he thought) with a few leftovers hanging from the engine hoist. Josh recycled the stock 900 brake light, mounted the 9k radiator fan and grounded the motor. He also got the air box on, front and center.
2009-06-27
Josh mounted a class ABC extinguisher, and secured, wiretied and grommeted the engine harness, battery cable and fuel line. He managed to cut one of Eric's wired instead of the blue ziptie he was aiming for. So much for zero splices...
2009-06-28
Another HUGE night. Josh forgot his camara again so use your imagination. Chad came up to lend a hand and between the two of them they buttoned up the last of the cooling system, routed and secured the feed and return lines from the fuel cell, mocked up the coolant overflow reservoir from the 900, mounted a new 82degree fan temp switch, and set the hood pins. Oh, and they drank Bacon flavored beer. Thanks Steve. We think.
2009-06-29
Picked at the punch list tonight. Mike from Full Tilt Fabrication came by to check up on us. Josh shaved down the engine block to fit the old style oil filter housing and pressure sensor. Kip welded up the rest of the front reinforcment bars.
2009-07-07
Tuesday morning in good 0l' Springfield MA. Our hopes of shaking down the car at NHIS today were dashed when a rusty fuel return line stopped us cold last night around 2am. Thanks goes out to everyone who came out to the barn to help pull the car together. It was close. We'll try to get the last week's progress on the page soon but basically it came down to a few sleepless nights and some hero work from Jeremy on the header, Berry on the brake lines, and Joe from Spartan banging out the exhaust in about an hour. Pictures/sleep to follow...
2009-07-10
Its the last day before the race. I could get in to some of the stuff we did but at this point theres no time. Here are a few images of our turd to get you by. The first shows a last minute brake line upgrade. The second is our turd freshly polished. The third is just after a cannonball run through suburbia and the last is Eric figuring out why the master cylinder failed....
Now go to the Gallery To see The CaR in action
More bruised. More battered. More badness.