Project 'B161'

Hi guys,

I've got a project up and coming. My old man collared me after a few ciders (9 pints of sam Smith's Cider!) and asked if I would like to help restore 'B161'. I said yes seeing as my dad has owned it since 1988 (car is a '85) and it is awesome motor. My dad loves them and has done since he was in his late teens. I love them too.

So we got B161 from a barn he'd been storing it in at his house brought upto a coach yard where I working with all intentions of starting the work. A year passed and still no work started! lol. I left the company so we moved the car again to my friends place. Again, we said we must start on the car!! So, we bought a donor car! Progress at last!! Or so we thought.

My new job meant I have less time to travel over to the car to do any work and my dad had retired, bought a narrow boat, renovated it and is now touring the UK!

We have just moved house recently and now I have a good driveway and space for one of the cars to be kept here! So, I'm bringing the donor, C reg, car home to strip and then probably scrap the shell. Then to get B161 here and finally start the work!

Here is a pic of said cars.....

The saab on the left is also my dads. I had borrowed that one when my Audi 80 popped a spark plug out of its cylinder head. Only, as I was, ahem, driving steadily along the dual carriageway, the turbo headgasket blew and caused the turbo to blow too. So myself and a mate, rebuilt the engine. 252k miles on her, APC mod, 3bar fpr and she is pushing out 192.6BHP!!! Not bad for an old gal. 175Bhp new!

The middle one is the DADDY. A flat nosed Saab 900 Turbo T16 T3S. A total flying machine! All it needs (I say all! lol) Is full engine rebuild, gearbox rebuild or recon and some welding in the drivers door area. Apart from that the rest is cosmetic. Only a handful of very smal surface rust spots to flat, fill and paint. Oh, and disc n pads all round now due to being stood a while. So everything will get stripped and replaced/cleaned/repaired.

The C reg is mainly only for the engine and box as a temporary measure into B161 whilst the engine and box are rebuilt. B161 has an engine which rare compared to the C reg one. Both 2.0 T16S but B161 has what is called 'Hairy Cams' in a standard by Saab. They make hell of a difference in performance! They only used these cams for 2 years in selected cars.

So, I just need to move my shed forward 3 feet and the space is ready for the demolition work!

Here is a pic of the work i did on the rag top:


As well as owning these saabs, he also has a red 900 Turbo rag top and an Audi S8 D2. Shame he won't leave me the S8!

Dan

Quick update, moved my shed forward and now have both the hardtop Saabs at home. Just bought an engine crane and stand in preperation for removing the engines and boxes.

Only thing i've done to the cars since arriving here is strip out all the interior on both of them. Thus has revealed the true extent of the welding that needs to be done on the O/S/R arch. But shouldn't be too difficult to do.

Also bought a cheap VW Golf MK3. Although it has T&T, it does require some work for its next test which is due soon, so will be doing that before continuing with the Saabs.

Dan