In reply to Dusterbd13:
Soul sucking appliance is something I've heard on GRM but never understood until this blue car came into my life. This blue Saturn is the Antichrist of cars and must be banished from my driveway.
In reply to Billy_Bottle_Caps:
Heck yeah, Might even make a profit!
A subtle upgrade.....
Meh...
yank....
Meh...
More...
The accident that caused the front fender to shatter also did some minor damage to the rear bumper and quarter panel. While not really worth repairing, I did so anyway.
Did I mention Saturn's are stupid simple to work on? ... let's take a look...
Yeah it's a scratch... but watch this...
Scratch gone!
And now for something completely different....
Since day one the car has been somewhat squirrely when taking a corner at speed. At first I figured it was because its a Saturn and not a Miata... but just in case, I had a look.
This is a shot of the left front ball-joint castle nut... Notice that the cotter pin is not engaged when the nut is torqued down. Hmmmm... Anyway when I went spelunking under the car the castle nut was loose and had backed off until the cotter pin stopped it from going any further. The loose ball joint was what was causing all the ruckus. Since the lower control arm/balljoint are fairly new, I did a Jimmy fix.
A few washers under the castle nut was enough to get the cotter pin to engage when the nut was torqued down. This is clearly a manufacturing issue as this ball-joint stud is slightly longer than the opposite one....
The successful body panel transplant has transformed a mediocre blue Saturn into semi respectable transportation. A nice car for perhaps a student driver or retired toll booth operator.... not too shabby and not to flashy. Unsatisfied with the demographics, I decided to take the car to the next level... something that would appeal to a librarian or museum curator.
The car originally arrived at the Fujioko headquarters garnished in silver/gray pin striping. While I'm not a fan of pin striping, the subtle lines seemed to tastefully transform the blue Smurf turd into an automobile like shape..... so fixing the pin striping was the next step in this saga.
The original pin striping stopped where the new panels meet the old panels. 
120 feet of silver gray pin striping was sourced from the Internet. $28.00 latter the pin striping was ready to install.
The old pin striping was warmed up with a heat gun and scraped off with a fingernail. The glue residue was then cleaned with a goof-off type product. The surface was then prepped with rubbing alcohol.
Fast forward a bit and the striping is applied and trimmed. The only thing more boring than a blue Saturn is watching someone put pin striping on a blue Saturn.
In the morning, the Saturn is the easy choice for the daily commute. Just jump in and drive, no shuffling cars in and out of the garage or any of that craziness. After a few weeks the boredom overwhelmed me and I had to make a special effort to get the Miata out.
I was surprised how fast the 1.3L 63HP Miata is when compared to the 100HP Saturn. Hmmmmm.....
More to come!
The old panels had obviously outlived their usefulness and were ready to become landfill fodder. Just when I was about to start cutting them up, a random thought occurred.... Why not make this someone else problem?... So the panels were creatively lined up and photographed. A well written Craigslist ad was placed and within 24 hrs the panels were gone. I love it when a plan comes together.
My new daily makes me understand your lack of enthusiasm for this car. Sadly mine would be seen as an approvement over my last DD by most!
Wow...I now find myself wanting a Saturn... 
In reply to The_Jed:
In reply to dropstep:
When you reach meh point... you have hit bottom. Welcome to automotive hell.
The next time I need a winter beater, I will consider an old Saturn. Probably.
Maybe.
The trailer hitch and the berkeleying wiring.....
The hitch is a drawtite that I pulled from the deceased wagon. It's a bit rusty but still solid. Allow me to briefly sidetrack the topic of the sedan hitch and comment on what a pain in the ass it was to put the hitch on the wagon a number of years ago. Putting a drawtite hitch on a Saturn wagon is an 11 on a 1-10 scale of difficulty. On the other hand, putting the hitch on the sedan was easy peasy. The greatest untold secrete is to drill the holes on the unibody spotwelds. There are a number of spotwelds in the trunk area and four of them perfectly line up with the holes on the drawtite hitch.... you just got to find the right ones....
With the holes drilled and the hitch cinched up to the sedan trunk floor, it was time to mate the bast*rd saturn wires to a standard four pin trailer harness. Now why the berkeley would an American manufacture use European lighting scheme? Saturn's cannot be directly wired to the trailer harness, instead, you need to use a solid state adapter to convert the European bullE36 M3 electrical to the simple American system. Now I have actually been to the Saturn plant in Springhill TN, and it was down home American all the way. this just totally pisses me off. This is exactly why Saturn went out of business.
So that was a bit of a rant, I apologize. ...The wagon already had one of these solid state gizmos buried under a bunch of nasty garbage somewhere in the tailgate area and it seemed simpler to just go ahead a buy a new one.... so that what I did.
The new solid state gizmo was painstakingly wired into the sedan harness and long story short it didn't berkeleying work. I'm pretty good with electronics and build complex machines on a daily basis.... wiring the converter was a walk in the park and it didn't berkeleying work! At this point I just tore into the cargo bay of the wagon and pulled the known good converter and wired that bast*rd in..... /rant
The deceased wagon donated its Drawtite hitch so the blue Saturn could be the new garbage scow. 'the circle of life'... or something like that.
$%$#@^&&^%%&&&&()))&^^%%$#
The defective converter spliced in to the Saturn harness.
If the wagon could talk, it would say....Bahahaha! you're the new garbage scow!
I hate those hitches. I had one on my beater wagon a few years back. The muffler side was a bitch to install.
If I put on on my SL2, I'm just welding a receiver straight into the bumper beam. Should leave me with a reasonable departure angle as well.
In reply to ProDarwin:
The muffler on the sedan also gets in the way. Fortunately the muffler strap was broken and I was able to shove the exhaust aside.
The hitch is pretty handy and its like having a half ton pickup that gets 40 MPG.
fujioko wrote: In reply to dropstep: When you reach meh point... you have hit bottom. Welcome to automotive hell.
Since i got it driving right i still dislike it. May be gone for a bad decision on saturday
All "new" fords from a certain point need a converter. You cannot just use the ol y-splice plug in to get a trailer connector... :(
The timing chain.....
While the car runs terrific, the engine was making a light rattling sound that I could no longer ignore. The noise was obviously the timing chain in the beginning stages of going bad and it was time to address the issue.
Replacing the Saturn SOHC timing chain is not easy but is also not to difficult. Figure its just slightly more involved than a timing belt replacement.
let's take a look...
This is the lazy way to loosen the crank bolt.... Just bump the starter and the bolt will magically loosen. This method is sometimes controversial depending on the audience.
Fast forward about three hours and the offending parts are laying on the work bench.
After some investigation, it was determined the tensioner was NFG.
Although a tensioner is probably available, I went ahead and replaced everything.
A lot of the procedure is done through the passenger side wheelwell. Plenty of working space 
Putting the timing cover back on is possibly the most difficult part of the whole job. I have found that fitting the old crank sprocket from the front helps align the oil pump with the crankshaft. Its a bit fiddly but certainly a lot easier.
The exhaust manifold was pulled so a visual inspection of the pre-catalyst could be made. The pre-cats sometimes melt down.
pre-cat look fine.
Engine back together and running again. The timing chain noise is no longer an issue.
Rust protection experiment......
The blue Saturn has some minor surface rust that needed to be dealt with. I figured this would be a great time to mix up some homemade protection and try it out.
let's take a look....
Ingredients for DIY rust/metal protection. Mineral Spirits, Genuine beeswax and non detergent motor oil.
Bag of FREE beeswax!
The Beeswax was dissolved in a half gallon of mineral spirits over a course of a few days. Once the wax was fully dissolved I plunged in the coffee peculator thingy and warmed the stuff up to about 90 degrees. At this point a few splashed of non detergent motor oil was added to the mix and stirred well.
The elixir was loaded up in a cheapo sprayer...
The rear door threshold was sprayed....
The entire underbody / chassis was sprayed.
Everything was going great and I was getting pictures but then the unthinkable happened..... The neighbors dog took a giant poop in my driveway and the stuff got mixed in with the gravel.. Sorry but no more pictures of the underbody.
For grins and giggles I sprayed the door on the wagon to see how this stuff looks when dry... The photo was shot approximately 30 min after the door was sprayed. The mineral spirits had evaporated and left a thick coating of wax/oil on the door. I then blasted the door with the garden hose to see if this stuff would wash off.... nope. Next, I took a rag and with much effort I was able to rub a spot clean.
A second coat was applied to the door...because that's the way I roll. Note the door was still wet from the garden hose.
After the second coat of wax/oil had dried for about an hour ... this stuff is pretty thick!
We'll re-visit the door on the wagon in a week or so... stay tuned!
Nothing really to report on the blue Saturn, it runs great and gets from point A to point B. I may have mentioned Saturn's were stupid simple to work on and yet I refuse to work on the wagon...hmm
Anyway, it occurred to me that the wagon would make a great winter beater ...So I had a look long hard look at what ails the wagon.
The list;
Fix broken exhaust
upper motor mount
lower motor mount
front struts
power steering pump
front tires
muffler
drivers window regulator
spark plugs
and of course something must be done with the interior....
There is a lot more wrong with the car however most of the minor problems can be managed if expectations are held low enough. The challenge will be to address the above issues for less than a hundred bucks.
Lets get started!
After a bit of coaxing the wagon managed to amble up the ramps. The obnoxious bark of the un-muffled SOHC engine is a terrible thing to listen to.
This is figuratively the straw that broke the camels back. A simple repair?... perhaps. Keep in mind there are other problems.
The interior is soaked to the brim with hydraulic fluid... here we can see some fluid oozing through the floor... At some point this will need to be addressed.
Of course the exhaust manifold to head pipe bolts are rusted to a point where its necessary to remove the manifold along with the catalytic converter. A lot of junk on the front of the engine has got to be removed but the manifold and cat will drop out from beneath the car..... it ain't easy though.
After a half hour of wiggling and whatnot the exhaust is out... There is no way that this assembly will ever go back in the way it came out...
The manifold to head pipe nuts eventually came off....
Now this is interesting... the cat is totally gone. This car has been family owned since day one and the converter has never been touched since the car left the factory in Springhill Tennessee.... really.
I'll bet the muffler is packed with the remains of the converter... that would explain a few things...
Since the converter was way past NFG a section of Volvo driveshaft was welded in its place.
Fast forward a bit and the car is reassembled and running again. At this point the car is road worthy but I'll go the extra mile and fix some more stuff.
Cost $0.00...
Stay tuned!
Fix'n up the wagon is akin to a Cuban restoration, but instead of using Soviet built LADA parts I'll use stuff that is potentially better than crap currently on the car.
The local Pick and pull in Mason usually has roached out cars that were driven to the point where the wheels fall off. On the other hand, the Pontiac Michigan Pick and pull has cars that were maintained up to the point they were scraped. I wasn't up to a road trip so I took my chances with the local yard.
Let's take a look....
The pick'ns were slim and I walked past this first gen Saturn several times... then I noticed it was sort of an El 'Cheapo wantabee. Black fender on a red car... Hmmm someone put some effort into this jalopy...
Here in the rust belt, suspension parts tend to rust pretty quick. There is a good chance this blue strut is relatively new. Booyah!... that's a score!
$2.50 air filter... Actually this will go in the blue Saturn and the dirty one will go on the wagon.
$49.98 for two struts with springs and top hats. The blue paint suggests these are about five years old. ..not to shabby.
Somewhere else in this build thread I mention the wheels I scored for dirt cheap at the Pontiac Mi Pick 'n Pull....Whelp, here is one of 'em. The tire is virtually brand new. I think I gave something like $19.00 per wheel. Unfortunately the cheap wheels are 14" and the wagon has 15" steelies. Meh, 14's on the front and 15's on the back is a bit hodgepodge but I have done worse.
The $2.00 belt is paired up with a brand new $19.00 idler.
The dog bone on the wagon has seen better days. The $4.99 replacement ain't perfect but it's sure the berkeley better than the one I pulled off.
Saturn's are stupid easy to work on... All the new(ish) parts were installed in less than 90 min.
Stay tuned!
Hows the DIY wax undercoating holding up?
The "stupid easy to work on" part almost has be wanting one! I am enjoying this, though, I love cheap junkyard restorations on beaters!
In reply to CarKid1989:
Good question....
On the Blue car, the Wax/oil is holding up well but tends to collect dust.
The crap I sprayed on the side of the green wagon was really thick. I eventually removed the coating with great effort. WD40 seems to be able to melt through the coating and helps with the removal process. The paint on the wagon was not damaged by the coating or the process of removal.
The experiment was taken to the next level and I coated two snow plow blades. I'm sort of waiting for some snow before I can evaluate the durability.
Rust seems to be in check, but the dust is starting to get thick.
For fun, the rear bumper was coated to see if it would stop snow from sticking. Unfortunately the car was not driven during the last snow storm so the experiment is still pending. Mud and other crap seems to stick though
In reply to sethmeister4:
The S series is stupid easy to work on and cheap to keep ... I'm a big fan of that!. Anyway, I'm going to get rid of the blue car and pick up a nice clean wagon. Although the sedan is acceptable transportation it lacks the personality that can only be found in a wagon.
I do the Cuban restoration thing with my Crown Vic. I snagged an idler arm, center tie rod and outer tie rods, all still connected as one assembly from an '02 Vic with 60,000 miles on it from the local pick and pull. I also grabbed the watts link and rear shocks and springs from a coil-converted, low mile Town car.
I love hitting the 'yard on 1/2 price Wednesdays. 
Really enjoying this thread!
Have you ever owned a Crown Vic?
If not, scope one out the next time you're at the boneyard. They are ridiculously easy to work on too. Much easier than my Mark VII lol.
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