Mad-Machine

I blame my OCD for this. I saw a bunch of nice pictures of what other people had done to their valve covers and mine was looking very scruffy with a lot of flaked paint and oxidation.

What happened next was out of my control.

It started off with just the plastic cover that goes over the intake. I thought it looked rather plain in basic black. As my car is already black, I decided to match it to the DI cassette in a nice gloss red. The I cleaned it totally and sprayed it.. and made a complete disaster of it. Even degreased, little pinpricks apeared through the paint and of course I had a small problem with pollen...

Day two, I strip the paint and try again. This time it works wonderfully.

However, I can't put such a nice cover on such a nasty looking engine. Out come the Torx bits (I hate those things) and off comes the valve cover. It was leaking some and I discovered that a couple of the bolts holding it down were barely even hand tight.

I took a hand wire brush to the oxidised parts and got them looking good, along with removing the rest of the flaking paint. To degrease it, I shot it with brake cleaner first.. and that bubbled a lot of the paint that had been hanging in there till now.

So on went the stripper.. got most of the paint off, but not all. So, half an hour with an assortment of drill powered wire brush bits got me a nice clean valve cover, compleatly stripped of paint:





Next, I was faced with a decision: What colour paint. Black is always in fashion, and I did not want to do blue.. so I went with a graphite, but in Rustolium's "Hammer" finish. Not smooth, not crinkled or wrinkled, just nicely textured.

tanc

Nice keep up the great work.

Mad-Machine

Thanks, I got more done. I guess I should not be allowed to be home alone and bored.



Did the strut bar, airbox, fuse cover, ABS cover, Cruise Control Cover, Electrical breaker cover, and the charge pipe up from the intercooler. Also did a hell of a lot of cleaning. I have to admit, I really like Rustomlium's "hammered" finish. I wish I had known about this stuff back when I had my tib.



The "turbo" badge is from an older "classic" Saab 900 turbo. You can also see the Airbox.



Fuse Box. Black Hammered looks so nice compared to the stock black plastic.


Cruise Control Cover

And for shits and giggles, I removed the restrictive 2 inch diameter air intake snorkle on the airbox and built a 3 inch diameter one that actually pulls cold air from under the car.





I haven't driven the car yet since I did any of this. I found the source of the clunk the car had in the front end. Unlike BMW, Saab uses a lot of aluminum in their car too keep weight down (this why the 900 weighs 2900 instead of the BMW 328 weighing in at 3200). While removing the stock strut bar I found that the top of the strut was cracked. This is the mount/bearing housing that bolts to the car. I am awaiting two new ones at $56 a piece.



That crack goes almost all the way around the mount. It was probably not too far from total failure. I would have hit a bump and got to witness the strut coming up through the hood. Honestly though, for a car that only cost me $900.. it cannot be beat.

And oh, I discovered why these cars have engine issues. Sludge. They are VERY prone to sludging if you do not use top shelf oils and stick a regular and frequent change schedule. Probably has a lot to do with tight tolerances and the heat of turbocharging. I will be pulling my pan in two weeks to check it when I replace the clutch and transmission.

01tibby

lookin good man. i might give that hammered finish a try.

Mad-Machine

it has a real nice texture and it is very forgiving of how smooth (or not) the material you are painting is

Ericy321

It also does an awesome job at hiding flaws. Even if you are a horrible painter you can still make it look good.

Damn, that thing is looking good man. Love how its coming along!

UrS0NvS

looks like i'll be going with the hammered finish also. didnt care for the shiny silver i got on mine right now on my beta 2 cover. it gives a sorta "cast" finish. I like the look of cast, just don't like the weight of it.

lookin' good bud fing02.gif

optimoprime

nice work. not my taste in cars but the work is done well

Mad-Machine

Thanks for all the kind words. Each successive car I buy and work on gets better than the last. I figure by the time I die of old age, one of my cars will be presentable!

Honestly, I always considered the Tib to be sort of saab like. Mostly in that HUGE trunk like area and hatch, but I always felt there was that connection.