Picked up for the princely sum of $900 from a broke just out of college student. She came with a number of door dings, small dents, and scrapes that would be appropriate for a car that had spent most of it's life in and around Washington DC. It's manual transmission also lacked a working reverse gear, a fact that would come back to haunt me come inspection time.

Bringing the car home, I noticed no untoward traits other than the lack of reverse. The car drove straight, had a nice stable ride, and generally felt "nice" compared to my stiffer and buttoned down Bimmer. This was the exact reason I bought the Saab, it was a car that we could take places without getting beaten up by bumps in the road.

All was well until inspection time. The car passed 99% of the test with flying colours. Emissions was particularly impressive, only giving out small precentages of what the State of NJ allowed. All that fell apart when they went to check the suspension.

Here in NJ they have a "shaker" that tests the suspension for bad shocks, bushings, and other broken parts. Even with a mild "thunk" in the front (later found to be a cracked strut mount) the drive wheels of the car passed. When the inspector went to do the rears, he pulled up too far and needed to back up... and this is where the car failed inspection. Seems you have to have a working reverse gear or it is a "safety" issue. Even he mentioned that they never check for reverse, but because he knew it didn't work, he was obligated to fail me for it.

$350 in a used transmission and another $350 in an uprated Viggen spec clutch cured that.

While waiting for the transmission to come in, I made the big mistake of looking at the dents. I thought I could knock them out, smooth them over, and touch up the paint.. WRONG!

I got the one on the hood done, you could not even tell it was there.. except for the touchup paint didn't match and was indeed quite obvious. This is where I had the great idea to repaint the car myself.

All down to factory primer, all the dents, nicks, and dings taken care of, this weekend (july 20) she goes in for a shot of white paint. I have owned black cars before, I did not really want another. All you do is wash and wax them.. and then half an hour later they are filthy again. I have never owned a white car and that lack of pigment seems rare on Saabs.. so there we are.

As the car was bought cheap as a commuter car to take the strain off of my BMW and as a comfort cruiser, I did not want to put a lot of money into paint. I wanted her to look nice, but I did not want to spend thousands. Rustoleum to the rescue. Dilute with 10% Acetone and you can spray it. I will let you know how it works.