Back in September I removed the entire Saab interior to get some required welding done for the German TÜV. The holes in the rear wheel arch and floor were fixed – enough to pass and get the required stamp for 2 years. But there were still plenty of spots with minor surface rust inside the car. So while the interior is out, I decided to remove as many rusty sports as I could. Needless to say that this creates lots of dust. Even though I was wearing a decent respirator, I had to take a few breaks and use the vacuum cleaner. After a few hours I started to accept that I will not be able to get it perfect.
The performance issue the car has only starts when the engine is really warm. Luckily I got the private number of the owner of HFT in Windeck in the meantime. He kind of retired and closed the official business. It was a nice phone call and he gave me the recommendation to check all rubber hoses, parts and connections for the Turbo and APC. A good opportunity while waiting for the rust converter and paint to dry. While some rubber parts have minor damage at the ends – I could not spot any cracks, holes or obvious damages. It was a tough decision if I should reuse the parts or invest in new parts from Do88.com. But in the end – this is my son’s car, so why should I….
… but then again – why shouldn’t I once I am here? It would take a few days until the parts arrive. The professionally cleaned carpets and freshly powder-coated door sill scuff plates came back in. So did the lower part of the rear bench. The metal holder of the upper rear bench is bent and the leather of the driver seat also needs some TLC. Stitching leather is nothing I am good at. Two companies I requested for the repair turned me down – they would full replacements, but not repairs.
While standing in front of the car contemplating what to do now, I could not help but to stare at the rusty spots on the front cross-frame – which holds the grill, headlights and cooler. This just doesn’t look good and should be addressed. But in the end – this is my son’s car, so why should I…..
… but then again – why shouldn’t I once I am here? As I need to replace one of the indicators I broke a while ago, I would need to take out the headlights anyway. This revealed even more rust. The front bumper just has two bolts and is quickly removed. This gave unrestricted access to the old AC heat exchanger – that sits in-front of the radiator. Both are bolted to the cross-frame. My son bought the car with a removed AC compressor – the remaining components were left in the car. While inspecting those in the right front wheel arch – more are more rust was found. It was quickly clear to me – that I had to remove the entire front section. This revealed a dodgy welding repair of the water cooler – and more rust. All of these parts should be sandblasted and powder-coated. But in the end – this is my son’s car, so … ah come on.
The Pulverbar in Weilerswist takes care of this. A place I can only recommend – but of course – this will take a few days. Enough time for me to remove the rust on the non-removable parts. A variation of tools came to use for this. A bunch of wire wheels, a small band grinder – but mostly 50mm Clear-Strip-Discs (CSD). While the last one is perfect to get paint and rust off – it is most likely also the reason why I ran into issues later. After cleaning everything with MIPA silicone remover I applied rust converter. For the Mini and MGB suspension parts I did in the last year I tried a few products so far. I started with Hammerite (more on this to follow in a future post on Miffi). The MGB rear-axles was treated with Owantrol followed by Brantux Korrux 3in1. But I had none of those left – only a can of Presto Spray-on rust converter I used years back for a bicycle overhaul.
After spraying on a three coats of Presto I had to wait. At 20 degrees Celsius – you need 6 to 8 hours according to the datasheet. But it is currently much colder – just between 7 and 12 degrees. After two days the surface was dry and hard. I cleaned everything again before applying black Hammerite metal paint. It initially looked great, but in hindsight this was really questionable choice. After this was I could not get to the garage for a week. But I did order two cans of the original Saab 204 grey paint. Even though none of the areas is really visible – I wanted to give it a nice finish.
This did not turn out as expected. When I returned last Sunday, it was clear that I screwed this up badly. The paint had crinkles or immediately came off. It was a complete Desaster. Doing some research there are a few things that I might have done wrong.
A) After using a CSD the surface can become too smooth. That would explain why the areas that I cleaned with the wire wheel do not look at badly.
B) I got some suggestions that I should have used demineralised water to clean the areas after applying rust converter. Presto does not state this and it might apply more to rust remover
C)Hammerite metal paint is not a primer or might not be compatible with grey paint bought
Next up is to clean the entire front again and remove the paint I put on. This time I will use 120grid sandpaper for the most part. I might use rust converter (Brunox Epoxy) for hard to clean or hard to reach areas. While I now have two cans of MIPA 1K epoxy primer – I believe I will use Brantox Korrux 3-1 in grey this time. To be continued
Fixing C6622 
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