The Other Showroom: Current / Past Rides (Pt II)

2004 SAAB with 57K miles....must be nice.

Sir Psycho Sexy wrote:

I've honestly always loved those things. I think their styling is perfect, and Saabs have very clean, logically set up interiors.

I've never owned one before, but this one was just too nice to pass up.
Hopefully, it's as good as it looks...LOL

Nice cars from what I've been told. I had a chance to buy a mint Saab 9-3 Aero wagon w/ manual. Guy wanted a bit more than I had to spend. But here's the thing about Saabs: if someone asks, you have to say, "I drive a Saab..."   

SAABs are nice i know Dave will like it.

AA wrote:

Nice cars from what I've been told. I had a chance to buy a mint Saab 9-3 Aero wagon w/ manual. Guy wanted a bit more than I had to spend. But here's the thing about Saabs: if someone asks, you have to say, "I drive a Saab..."   

LOL... 

The SAAB is a B'day present from my wife. I'll be 62 in just a few more days... May 3rd.
She grew weary of hearing me bitch about that stick shift in the Vette.
Sometimes it pays to bitch   

haha....

AA wrote:

Nice cars from what I've been told. I had a chance to buy a mint Saab 9-3 Aero wagon w/ manual. Guy wanted a bit more than I had to spend. But here's the thing about Saabs: if someone asks, you have to say, "I drive a Saab..."   

I think of Saabs like I think of VWs. It's kind of about your attitude about driving it. It can either come across as really cool or really really lame   

Sir Psycho Sexy wrote:

I think of Saabs like I think of VWs. It's kind of about your attitude about driving it. It can either come across as really cool or really really lame   

I try to be cool, but it ain't easy at 62.  

Classy SAAB! Blue paint, blue top, and are those blue leather inserts on the seats?

man,look where the ignition key is!...next to the shifter .That`s how u know that's a SAAB.

IBx1 wrote:

Classy SAAB!  Blue paint, blue top, and are those blue leather inserts on the seats?

Thanks & yep, blue leather, special ordered.

Dave, you've got two pretty nice GM cars right there! Now you need a white car to put in the middle. 'Merica!

Thanks guys for this thread on other rides. Enjoyable to read.

Darn, I long for another convertible but now live in Canada. Back in the day and I was about age 4, talked Dad into buying a new 1955 Old's Starfire Conv. It was the first but not the last of family daily driver convertibles into the 60s. Somehow I managed growing up in open top autos without seatbelts. Then I had new 1974 LeSabre convertible, then a new 1976 Eldo convertible.

Remember one road trip late 1959 in a new 1960 Chevy white convertible on a California north coastal highway, top down. Me, the little guy in the backseat with my sunglasses, black cat on my lap. Black cat liked the convertible top down experience but hated when we traveled by private plane from SF to Vegas monthly. Black cat hated the airplane engine noise on take-off. Later had a little dog, Mitch, he loved the top down experience in the Eldo convertible.

Nothing better than driving top down on a coastal highway or mountain road with top down at night and stars above. Consider myself lucky I experienced a time in auto history when full size family convertibles were not that unusual.

Excellent pics of the Saab convertible. Enjoy.

Thanks, Al for sharing some of your rag-top experiences.
I never really cared for convertibles all that much until I moved to FL.
Now, it would be hard to get me in anything else.

AA wrote:

Dave, you've got two pretty nice GM cars right there! Now you need a white car to put in the middle. 'Merica!

Do white seats count for anything?   

Nice Saab Dave! I learned to drive a stick in my dads '99 Saab 9-3 Convertible and its a nice little car to zip around in! I love the little changes they made for your bodystyle!

Havent ever posted anything about the car I spend most of my time driving so I guess I owe it a mention. My daily driver is a 2003 Pontiac Vibe AWD with 118k miles. It sat out back of my dads shop for a year after they picked it up for $200 off a guy who didnt want to pay to have it fixed when he thought the transmission was broken at only 90k mi. It was headed for the junkyard but I wanted to put the Riv away for winters but didnt yet have a job so I couldnt afford to buy something. My dad told me to check out the Vibe since they were about to scrap it anyway. It ran, but idled high and wouldnt move when you put it into gear. I investigated a bit and ended up dicovering the flywheel was just flopping around and not actually doing anything. Turns out the previous owner, with the high idle(~3k RPM) had just not thought twice about having that problem fixed and instead let it slam into gear until the Flywheel bolts sheared off in the Torque Converter. The high/rough idle ended up being the result of vacuum lines that were routed incorrectly. After that was straigtened out and some new flywheel bolt, its run and driven flawlessly since. Aside from regular maintenance, it has cost the $200 for the car (courtesy of dad), $40 for the flywheel, some Winter tires, a good buffing and detailing, it needed nothing! Im now at 118k miles and my repairs have been a front caliper ($38), a front Wheel bearing ($58), a rear wheel bearing ($109) and some all season tires for my summer rims that were free from a customer of my dads with a VW Beetle who didnt have anyplace to keep them! Its tons of fun in the snow and its 1.8L Toyota motor has been bulletproof! Joint veture between GM and Toyota was a good one! Earlier this month drive 1400mi to Charlotte, NC and back getting 30.1 mpg for the trip. Its not fast by any means, or luxurious but its a comfortable car and can be fun if you drive it right!

After cleaning it up:



VW rims and a stripe!



This winter with steel wheels:



And heres earlier today with the VW wheels now plasti-dipped black and with Pontiac Center Caps!

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Lighting was weird so rims didnt show up from farther in pics:



Yesterday I added a '96 camaro with a 3800 V6 with 109,000 miles originally from Arizona. Needs some work but will clean up nicely!



It stalls out at idle and theres no pressure in the rail after stalling. I was thinking fuel pump? The Fuel guage is also pegged well past full.

It will be another project alongside the Riv the next month or so and then it will probably be sold. Maybe to fund another project, like something with a V8

@Dave:
Considering your posted age (20), I assume you are either a student, a working man or both. That Vibe is a perfect DD for your needs and considering what you have in it, you have yourself a keeper. BTW...Thanks for the compliment on the SAAB.

The black wheels definitely add a lot of character!

Here are some new pictures and updates of my 80 Camaro.  I converted to 98-02 Fbody LS1 rear calipers from the old drums and put a PTFB Comp suspension on it.
 

 

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Wow that's slick! You have F-Body calipers in the front too?

Just the original ones. I'm looking at either the LS1 fronts or Corvette C5 fronts. All going to depend on clearance with the new wheels I want to get.

I think you should stick with the LS1 calipers regardless of the wheels. Maybe even get them from the same car if you can.

Really wouldn't matter to me which one of the calipers I went with. I would also be getting all new parts so getting everything off of the same car wouldn't matter.

Yeah you gotta keep it in the family. None of the Vette stuff has a home on that black beauty. I'll even do the search for you

http://www.amazon.com/Callahan-Performance-Brake-Caliper-Assembly/dp/B00E1SLXZ8/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1398875088&sr=8-3&keywords=2000+camaro+calipers+callahan

that 80 is SICK