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You are doing WHAT to a 1968 SAAB?

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Stein said:
Started on the worst door. I've been told that blocking something that size is very difficult. I took that as a challenge. I wish I had a longer long board. Mine's only about 15".

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just make sure to work in a x-hatch pattern, 45 or so degrees, keeping the blocks long side parallel to the lower edge and body line and you'll be fine.. :D
 
Smoothed the firewall tonight.



Got one door done.



Only one door left and it's close to being done - maybe an hour or two left on it. Then I need to start doing some touch-up on all of the parts of the car. I will have everything done that I can do by 1/1/14.
 
Bear in mind that I'm just putting a light coat of primer over the finished parts so it looks blotchy. At $20 a poof can for automotive self-etching primer I'm going to wait until I can spray it with a gun to get full coverage. It's too expensive to do it this way.
 
Cool work you did there. Subd to watch this get finished and hopefully vid of it cruising around passing people with wtf looks on their faces. Haha
 
Nothing photo-worthy but I logged 5 hours yesterday and 12 today just filling pinholes and scratches, build priming and sanding to 320 grit. Got one door and three fenders completely done. I have all day tomorrow in the shop so I should be done with major components. I don't have a firm date for paint yet. Hoping by the end of January.
 
if I give you back the 250 will you buy the mini lites?
 
Confirmed today that the car goes for paint on 1/24 so I have a hard deadline!
 
Stein said:
Car is a 1968 SAAB 96. It was originally a V4 FWD car. In the past I've built a couple of Miatas, plus turbocharged one and did a V8 swap in one. The Miata is a fantastic handling small car, just lacks power to be a hoot.
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Any info you would care to share on a Miata build would be appreciated. I plan to put a LS1 into my wife's 92 Miata someday. Have the motor and car,
will just need better rear, engine cradle..blah, blah. PM me your thoughts so I don't have to clutter your thread anymore :whistle:

Thanks
 
big pappa b said:
Any info you would care to share on a Miata build would be appreciated. I plan to put a LS1 into my wife's 92 Miata someday. Have the motor and car,
will just need better rear, engine cradle..blah, blah. PM me your thoughts so I don't have to clutter your thread anymore :whistle:

Thanks
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There are quite a few build threads at miata.net. There is a section that is just engine conversions at http://forum.miata.net/vb/forumdisplay.php?f=38

There are several LS1 Miatas on there, even a couple of twin turbo LS1 Miatas.

For the rear most use a Ford 8.8 IRS fron a V8 Thunderbird.

The LS1 is harder to fit due to the width and header selection is tough to route but it's not as bad as you think.

The 5.0's fit easier. Don't even have to cut the frame rails or firewall at all. Headers dropped in from the top. Easy peasy. Here's mine.

 
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.

 
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.
 
Red looking good!

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Martin
 
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
 
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