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Project Log
Date |
Description |
$$$ |
Hours |
| Totals> | $-385.71 | 89 | |
| 24-Jun-02 | Cut the Monte Carlo brake discs (front) on the Sports Car Service brake lathe, to clean the rust and pits off. They look serviceable now. | 1 | |
| 11-Jun-02 | Sandblasted and painted: front brake dust shields, front brake disc hats, one front spindle. | 4.5 | |
| 10-Jun-02 | Sandblasted and painted: one rear brake drum and axle cap. | 1.5 | |
| 26-Apr-02 | Cut out rusted metal and stuff. | 1 | |
| 08-Apr-02 | Cleaned up some of the spots on the newly painted brake calipers where the paint
wasn't supposed to get. Wire-wheeled on the passenger's side front wheel well a bit. |
1 | |
| 07-Apr-02 | Sandblasted on the other brake drum. Painted the already sandblasted brake drum. Painted the brake calipers. Scraped undercoating from the passenger side wheel well. Click here for pictures. |
4.25 | |
| 04-Apr-02 | Sandblasted on a brake drum. | 1.25 | |
| 03-Apr-02 | Finished sandblasting the brake calipers. | 2 | |
| 31-Mar-02 | I spent my entire day's worth of Sonett-time on organizing all the dang parts. It took forever but at least now I have a better idea of where things are and what I've got. | 7 | |
| 28-Mar-02 | Purchased a package of 50 silicone O-rings, (of which I need only 4) to rebuild the
front brake calipers. Anybody need a few O-rings to rebuild their calipers? They are the
same Lockheed calipers as the MGB uses. Purchased at McMasterCarr |
$12.82 | |
| 21-Mar-02 | Continued sandblasting brake components. | 1.5 | |
| 18-Mar-02 | Scraped more undercoating. | 1 | |
| 15-Mar-02 | Finished converting the c900 sport steering wheel to the Sonett hub. | .5 | |
| 14-Mar-02 | Scraped more undercoating from the passenger side front wheel well. Tried using a
propane torch to make it easier. It is easier that way, but it is stinkier too. Started to convert the c900 sport steering wheel to the Sonett hub. |
1 | |
| 10-Mar-02 | Great weekend! We made a lot of progress. "We" meaning myself, my
brother-in-law Jeremy, and my father. With their help, the majority of the bad rust spots
were "excavated" back to good metal. I removed the wiring harness and we tried to pull the handbrake and cables out, but couldn't. I'll have to work on that some more. Then we took the chassis and turned it turtle. Jeremy brought his pneumatic cutoff wheel tool which made cutting out the rust much easier and faster. He worked on cuttin out the trunk floor, the floor in front of the rear axle tunnel, and the rust spot behind the suspension tower in the drivers side front wheel well. My dad worked on cuttin out the rust at the floor to wheel well joint (passengers side), the rear wheel well to rocker panel to side panel joint (driver's side), and worked on the trunk and rear axle area a lot. I worked on removing the rust from the passenger's side wheel well primarily. There's a lot of bad rust and this is going to be a big job but... so be it. Click here for pictures. |
6 | |
| 07-Mar-02 | Scraped more undercoating from the drivers side front wheel well. Click here for pictures. |
1.75 | |
| 06-Mar-02 | The rear axle droop limiter straps were removed earlier in the week in a spare moment. I worked a bit on building my sheet metal bending brake. I've got the base plate/clamp piece mounted securely to the bench. Now I need to come up with a way to pivot (on the proper plane) the bending plate, get that built, and then mounted. But since this is "tool" work and not "car" work. I'll not add in that time to the total hours. Scraped undercoating from the drivers side front wheel well. Click here for pictures. |
1.25 | |
| 24-Feb-02 | Removed fuel line and brake lines, all but one of which snapped in two at a rusty
spot. Removed battery cable and wiring harness from the rear half of the car. So now all the wiring is hanging out by the dash/firewall area. Removed rear suspension entirely. The only part left to come off are the fabric droop limiter straps. The only parts left on the car are the handbrake and cables, some left over exhaust hangers, and the wiring harness. The handbrake and exhaust hangers will come off but the wiring harness is likely to stay. |
3 | |
| 23-Feb-02 | Removed everything else from the front third of the car. Windshield wiper motor,
headlight operating arm, charcoal canister, heater core, heater fan, mouse nest, clutch
and brake master cylinders, their respective resevoirs, etc. Also detached all the
electrical stuff from the chassis, but left it hooked up to the wiring harness. Removed the dashboard and steering column, but left the wiring harness hooked up as much as possible. I may try to leave it in while I do the rest of the restoration. Had a bear of a time getting the pedals out. Ended up cracking part of the tube in which the pedal shaft sits in the chassis. I had to grind off one of the pins and then to get the pedals off the pedal shaft I had to use the torch to get the pedal glowing hot. Removed the seat rail sliders and the gas tank. So everything is out of the front two thirds of the chassis. Only the rear suspension stuff is left to remove. Hopefully tomorrow. |
9 | |
| 18-Feb-02 | Suspect I was right. The steering rack was still stuck. A lot of time under the dash
combined with some vice grip, hammer, pry-bar, and screwdriver action eventually freed it
up and the steering rack was removed! Yay. The new sandblast nozzles (1/4" ceramic) I ordered from eastwoodco.com arrived. |
$21.00 | 1 |
| 12-Feb-02 | Removed entire left front suspension. Did not re-attempt removal of steering rack... suspect it is still stuck. |
1.5 | |
| 11-Feb-02 | Set up Jeremy's sandblaster (borrowed) and Anita's air compressor (borrowed). I tested
the blast cabinet but realized that the nozzle was completely worn out. Removed entire right front suspension. Attempted removal of steering rack but it appears to be siezed on the steering column. |
2.5 | |
| 03-Feb-02 | I undid the rest of the car from the engine and transmission. I cut out the
upper/front chassis crossbrace, for ease of engine removal. My friend Jeff brought over an engine hoist and we pulled the engine and tranny out with no trouble. Then we seperated the engine and tranny and mounted the engine on the engine stand. Click here for pictures. |
6 | |
| 02-Feb-02 | Undid the nuts holding the exhaust headers on. Had to use the torch! | 1 | |
| 19-Jan-02 | Leaving in an early morning snow storm, my lovely wife and I towed the Sonett to my
brother-in-law (Jeremy) and sister's (Miranda) house in Durham, NC. Thanks to my Dad and brother-in-law's help, we removed the body and interior from the Sonett. The body now resides in Jeremy and Miranda's back yard. It will remain there, covered by a tarp, until I am ready to put it back on the chassis, which I hope will be soon. Click here for pics. |
6 | |
| 10-Jan-02 | I fiddled with the Monte Carlo brakes that I've got. Taking a look at them to see what
needs rebuilding and replacing. Things are pretty rusty but the important parts look like
they'll be OK. I removed the right rear brake drum in preparation for mounting the Monte Carlo drum when... I saw it. Rust. Where I hadn't seen it before. Where the rear axle tunnel joins the passenger compartment floor and the trunk floor, there was no metal left. The mount for the rear axle center bushing is tearing away. Soooo... the scope of this project has been changed. Now I am going to restore the chassis. So the first thing to do is remove the body. Then I can pull the engine and transmission and flip the chassis upside down so I can get at the rusty spots. So be it. |
2 | |
| 09-Jan-02 | Purchased: 3ft rubber fuel hose. 1 Can of starter fluid Clear View replaceable element fuel filter. 3 replacement fuel filter elements. 2.652 gal 87 octane fuel All this in preparation for trying to start the engine for the first time. I installed the rebuilt FoMoCo carburetor on the Sonett (temporarily, I need to make a gasket for it). I hooked up the battery borrowed from SONEAT. I poured the water/Redline WaterWetter/Glycol mixture drained from SONEAT into the coolant resevoir (recycling is cool). I soldered a 2" piece of copper refrigerator tubing to the bottom of an International Coffees can, this is my fuel tank. I vice-gripped the can to the tent frame, this (gravity) is my fuel pump. I hooked up the fuel hose to the carburetor and to the International Coffees fuel tank. I clamped another vice-grip to the hose, this is my shutoff valve. I filled the can with the 87 octane. I cranked the engine a little bit to get some oil moving in there. I opened the fuel shutoff valve (removed the vice-grips from the hose), shot a blast of starter fluid in the car, ran to the open driver's window and turned the key... Vroom... Prrrrrr. O M G Click here for pics. Damn thing started and idled on the first try after not having run for who knows how many years! I shut it off. I don't know why I shut it off. I think I was scared or something, or just shocked. I turned the key again... Vroom... Prrrrrr. J H C I called my neighbor... "It runs!" I called my wife "Listen to this!" I called my parents "Hey, listen!" After settling down a bit I let it run for a while and checked things out. Seem to be fine. It idles just fine but I don't think it'll accelerate yet. No matter. There's time for tuning later. Accept this triumph. Since the engine runs it is time to start on the hydraulics. So I jack up the car and put it on four jackstands. Then I pull off all the wheels. Dagnabbit. All the lugs on the left rear wheel are frozen! I haul on the T-handle lug wrench. I twist the T-handle lug wrench. I bend the snot out of the T-handle lug wrench! Tit for Tat. So I sit on my ass, put a foot on one end of the lug wrench and both hands on the other end and haul on it. I shear a lug bolt. Heck, I shear all five lug bolts. Click here for pics. |
$19.04 | 3 |
| 06-Jan-02 | Rebuilt the original FoMoCo carburetor with the rebuild kit that came with the car. It
looks really nice now. Unfortunately, rebuilding it didn't fix the fact that it is
excruciatingly small. I also started soaking a spare engine cover release cable in WD-40. |
4 | |
| 05-Jan-02 | Pulled the trunk latch out and tried to restore it. Made it unuseable instead. Fortunately, I had a really nice one in a box of parts. | 1.5 | |
| 01-Jan-02 | I built that tent frame. It is all good now. I've got some leftover conduit though... I wonder what I'll do with it? | 4 | |
| 30-Dec-01 | Today I built a parts shelf for all my parts stuff. I put all my Sonett parts
on it. I'll not cost the expense of the shelving to the project because it really is
more of a home improvement, but I thought I'd mention it. I did however buy some electrical conduit to make a tent frame out of. The Sonett has a tarp on it to keep my cats off of it and now it needs a frame. The tarp and frame materials cost--- |
33.44 | N/A |
| 29-Dec-01 | Brought home from my parents house in Wilmington, DE - a Pile Of Parts. I
grabbed a set of 4 brake calipers, 2 brake rotors, and 2 brake drums from a Saab 96 MC
850. This is what is going to allow me to use my pretty Ronal minilite style wheels
off my old 900 (as seen here) on
the Sonett. |
N/A | |
| 27-Dec-01 | Purchased V4 gasket set from Sports Car Service. | 98.00 | N/A |
| 15-Dec-01 | Sold my '86 Saab 900 Turbo with 180+ thousand miles on it to a neighbor, to fund this Sonett refurbishment. | -$1500.00 | N/A |
| 06-Dec-01 | Won an auction on Ebay for a pair of Schroth Autocontrol harnessbelts from Sebastian
in Rhein-Main, Germany. Step one in the safety improvements for this car! Click here to view the archived auction. |
$217.00 | N/A |
| 02-Nov-01 | My very understanding parents hauled an entire Viggen-load of Sonett parts from their basement in Wilmington, DE to my garage in Blacksburg, VA. Dad was pleased to be getting rid of my Sonett parts stash that I've been storing there for years. We unloaded the Viggen and now all the parts sit in boxes on the floor behind the Sonett. It is now that I see what I need to do with the free lumber I acquired earlier in the week from a friend who was moving into a smaller place... build shelves for all these parts! | 0.25 | |
| 30-Oct-01 | My lovely wife Annalisa and I sat in the car (she in the driver's seat) and made "Vroom Vroom" noises. Now is when we realize that there will need to be some modifications done to the seat rails so that she can reach the pedals. | N/A | |
| 29-Oct-01 | Vacuumed trunk and passenger compartment. Gave a cursory cleaning to the vinyl
in the passenger compartment so that I can sit in it without feeling icky. Click here for pics. |
2 | |
| 28-Oct-01 | Towed to Spray-n-Wash down the street. Pressure washed the engine bay and
exterior. Moved car into the garage where SONEAT and the trailer used to live. They went for an extended visit at my good friends Robert and Gwen's garage. |
$3.00 | 2.5 |
| 27-Oct-01 | Made temporary cardboard rear quarter-windows to keep the SNOW out. (VA Tech lost to Syracuse, damn.) | 0.25 | |
| 26-Oct-01 | Purchased 1974 Saab Sonett III Click here for pics. |
$650.00 | 3 |
| 25-Oct-01 | Purchased "Full Chassis Restoration Kit Original" from eastwoodco.com Consists of anti-rust coat paint and chassis black spray-bombs. | $59.99 |
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