For today's installment, we took a field trip to Pull a Part. Because I'm a moron, I thought it was in a different place than it really is, so we got to tour some of Cleveland's west side on the way there.
I also learned that if there's a fairly specialized car, such as a 9-5 Aero, that you want parts from, you need to get there THE SAME DAY the car shows up on property, or you miss the good parts. Also, it seems that the cool kids bring wagons with toolboxes, battery powered impacts and sawzalls . We looked pretty noobish with a soft cooler stolen from the garage as our tool/parts carrier.
When we got there, there was a guy pulling the rear struts on the one remaining 9-5. The specific parts we wanted (magic Star Wars cupholder, TD04 turbo, HomeLink mirror) were, of course, gone already. We started chatting with the guy, whose first Saab was a 900EMS he got out of a neighbor's yard for $50. Sounds like a trend, bgkast!
He said he got here the day after it arrived, and his buddy had already pulled the turbo, SID, cup holder, and a few other things.
So my son asks "Didn't you set up that email notification thing a few weeks ago?" Yeah, thanks Nick...
However, we did get a few things. Driver's visor to replace the droopy one, battery cover, and a front undertray.
I also grabbed the projector headlights and the self leveler, as an impulse buy. One of the housings has all the tabs broken off. It looks like the same housing as the standard lights, so I may try to move the left one to another housing. Not sure if these will end up on this car or not.
After we got home, we finished up de-varnishing the pistons and rods.
That ChemDip stuff eats gloves .
I also did a quick wire-wheel, prep, and POR15 on the area under the battery box.
Final lesson for the day: when the POR15 people say 'thoroughly clean the channel in the lid of the can, because it will stick itself closed' , they're not kidding!! Ended up ripping the lid off with vise grips.
The blue cap is covering the uber-badass battery ram-air cooling duct. Good for at least 50hp, I figure .