.:monday, august 24, 2009:.

I finally decided to join cardomain and start a build thread on my project car.  She's a 2005 Saab 9-2x 2.5i (linear).  She's a naturally aspirated awd 4-bangin' boxer with a 5-speed tranny.  I bought her back in October of 2008 and all I can say is that I love her.  She's a great daily driver which is great since I have a family to haul around.

Currently, here are the mods she's got:

- Evotion muffler with custom 2.5" cat-back exhaust

- 18" Rota Tarmac 3's wrapped in Hankook Ventus S1 rubber - sold

- Eibach lowering springs - sold

- SPT transmission mount

- Gold painted brake calipers

I've got some big plans for her since I just started dabbling in the show scene and the mod bug bit me in a bad way. lol. I'm trying to achieve a very clean aggressive look for her.  I was seriously thinking of going with that "hellaflush" look but with the streets in my city, I wouldn't take chance.  I would be scared of blowing a bead and kissing my rims or my car goodbye.

Anyways, here are more pictures of her:

Sorry about the crappy cell phone pictures.  I didn't have a digital camera at the time and I just used my blackberry.

I plan on keeping this journal as up to date as possible with all my purchases and stuff over the winter...hopefully. lol.  The next page contains my upcoming mods for the car.

.:September 14, 2009:.

Not much progress has happened on the vehicle due to school starting and such.  As of right now, the car is up on jackstands awaiting the coilovers.  I managed to roll the fenders over the weekend with a rubber mallet and a heat gun and everything went great.  I just realized that I shouldnt have sold my stock rims because I wasnt on planning using the car over the winter at first, but now with school I will need the car to get from work to school.  Total facepalm moment.  Oh well, I guess Ill have to adjust my schedule.

Also, my new classmate challenged me to build the car with a student budget and see how well it would do as a daily driver and as a show car.  So after much research I decided what parts to get and what not to get and I updated the list accordingly.  I will be basically sticking with one company for parts, Megan Racing.  The reason why is because they have some cheap products that would suit mybudget accordingly and just to see a fully decked out Saab with Megan parts that has been trouble-free would just floor all the guys who talk trash about their product line all day and night.  Lol. And you never know, it just might grow on me.

.:September 22, 2009:.

As of last night I managed to rip out the stock shocks and eibach springs out of the vehicle.  I will be selling the springs as I have managed to find a set of used coilovers for the car.  I managed to purchase a set of HKS Hipermax Coilovers for $300 CAD.  I also found someone to purchase the eibachs as well so that helped pay for the coilovers.  I'm currently awaiting to order the rims for the vehicle.  I will be going with a set of 17x8.5 Rota D2's.  They have a +20 offset which will make the car look nice and flush.

On another note, my engine setup has changed.  I will be going with an n/a theme rather than forced induction theme.  With all my money going towards school now, I had to change things up a lot.  So I also managed to get an ARC super induction that I will custom fit into the engine bay.  I purchased that rarity from the same guy who had the HKS coilovers for sale.  It was a very pleasant surprise. lol.  I purchased that from him for $200 CAD.  Which is a hell of a lot cheaper than what he paid for brand new.  I am very happy with what I'm finding used and saving a lot of money @ the same time for great quality parts.

I'll try and post some pics up once I get everything installed this weekend. :D

.:September 25, 2009:.

So after I put my daughter to bed I went out and worked on the car for a bit.  I decided to go out and toy with the new stuff I got for the car.  I installed the ARC Super Induction Box and that went well.  I realized that I will need to cut off an inch or so off of where the MAF sensor is mounted due to the fact that it is rubbing on a power steering line.  Which is no biggie to me anyways since I was going to  make a custom air intake.  So now I know what exactly I would need to buy in order to make the intake. 

Next were the coilovers.  I didn't get around to installing them because the seller decided to tell me when I met up with him that the rears and passenger side struts are blown.  So I was really disappointed because I wanted to see the stance of my car, but oh well.  They are JDM HKS coilovers and I was worried that I couldn't get them rebuilt.  Thank goodness that the seller spoke to HKS USA already and they told him that they could rebuild them.  How much it will cost me, I don't know.  I gotta ship them out to an authorized HKS dealer then they will forward them onto HKS USA.  Then when they complete rebuilding them they will tell me how much my bill is.  Yeesh...I'm kind of worried. lol.

Anyways, here are some pics for you guys.  Enjoy!

my car on jackstands...she'll be that way for awhile. :(

pictures of the ARC super induction intake box

pictures of the HKS hipermax coilovers--which I got $100.00 cheaper since they were basically all blown. lol.

pictures of the ARC super induction box installed.  Makes it look a lot nicer. :)

As you can see, there's a little bit of a fitment issue.  Nothing that a little modding couldn't fix.

...and that's it for this entry folks!!

.:October 11, 2009:.

Well, not much of an update really.  I managed to trim the maf adapter on the ARC intake  box so that it's not rubbing on what seems to be the power steering hose (look @ pic in above post), rolled my front and rear fenders and...right now that's about it.   I need to pic up a 1/2 inch ratchet so that I can adjust the rear coilovers to the desired height I want.  i also put an order in for my rims, which are XXR 002's in a 16x7  size.  They are a great lightwheight rim that look awesome.  I love that old school look.  The reason why I decided to go with an almost stock size rim is because I am going with an n/a setup and need to keep the weight gain on the car as low as possible with all the mods so that I can make use of most of the power.  I'll be putting out.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to hit my minimum goal of 200 whp.  I think that will be a very street-friendly number considering what I will need to do to get to that number.

Here's a pic of the wheels I ordered.  The specs on them are 16x7 with a +38 offset.  According to 1010tire's offset calculator, they will be 4 mm more flush with my fender.  I was  thinking of going with the 16x8 with a 0 offset, but according to 1010tires.com's offset calculator, they would stick out another 2.5 inches from my fenders compared to my 18x.75 Rota Tarmac 3's.  The Tarmac 3's were about a half inch from being flush with my fender and I don't want to pull my fenders, run extreme camber and possibly mess up my wheel bearings just to accomodate an extra 2 inches.  I think I will grab a set of 10 mm spacers and use them in combination with my Ingalls camber bolts to achieve a nice flush look.  I'm not looking to get hellaflush, just flush. lol.

The above picture is also a reason why the progress has slowed down a bit.  I'm not ready to work in this weather yet!! lol.