Tommi’s Saab Site

Today we finally finished welding the passenger side of the car. Just a few pieces left.

First I cut off the rusted side panel bottom section.

Fitting a patch for the beam:

Patched! There will be three layers of sheetmetal at places, so no need for 100% welds.

On to making a new bottom for the side panel:

I think that often the best metal for an old car comes from another similar car. The steel is same quality, thickness and has the same bending/stretching characteristics as the original. Often times modern sheetmetal is tougher/harder than the original, which can be problematic when you try to reshape a patched area.

Also 96 has some parts made of very thick sheetmetal – one can’t use a 1mm plate to patch a 1.3 mm plate etc. so you would need various sheets at different thicknesses in stock.

There’s plenty of junk Saabs left – the above piece I cut from the roof of some 96 stroker – just find a rust free spot. (…also, recycling is much cheaper than buying new sheetmetal!).

Finding the basic shape.

The patch in correct shape after 3 hours of fitting and banging and bending and fitting and…

After cleanup:

And then the inner fender:

Seems to be something missing here… Patchmaking in progress.

Done, finally!

A small sand blaster is great for cleaning up slightly porous welds and other tight spots.

And the primer: