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Re: 99 Restoration
Posted by Larry West (more from Larry West) on Fri, 3 Dec 1999 11:23:08
In Reply to: , Kok Chen, Sat, 17 Dec 1988 12:00:00 

>Just added myself to the digest after 10 years of being away -- used to
>read this as a news group back in the '80's, when I had my last Saab 99.

Glad to see you back!

>bearings, etc was the extent of internal engine work, left water pump in
>place/intact (looked ok), replaced timing chain). Compression and power

Shoulda rebuilt the water pump. Especially if it has been sitting a while.

>Has anyone on this list had any experience with trying to outfit a '99 with
>a '900 interior? As far as I can tell, the front seats will go in no

Ok, first, I'm going to assume that you were smart enough to get the 
3-door leather to go in the 3-door EMS. Unless you got one of the 
vanishingly rare 2-door 1978 EMSs (I don't think there were any...)

Front seat mountings were changed in 1981, then the position was 
changed again mid 82 or so. You should be able to pluck the seats 
from the rails and use the 99 rails, though.

The back seat: The seat cushion should cover the wheelwells. No bare 
vinyl on a 900. The mounting is totally different. Early seats (up to 
1980) had big hinges in the seats, the later seats (81-) has pins on 
either side of the backrest that got clipped into the bodywork.

>The sidepanels for driver/passenger door are near plug-n-play, but the rear
>left/right inserts are quite different. I may need to re-use the orginals,
>which are ok but need new plastic trim pieces (around the

Doors should be P'n'P. I did that on my 99. 79 900 panels on an 80 
99. THEY went on fine. The rear parts, though, were somewhat 
different. But, I was putting 3-door panels in a 2-door, so I have to 
cut away a LOT of polyurethane foam to put the panel in the same 
place.

>The front right dash board cover is starting to peel back from the

My 99 doesn't suffer from this, but the common repair is to wedge a 
piece of black (or red if you like accents) 10-guage wire between the 
gasket & the vinyl. This tends to help keep it in place.

>Additionally, I'm looking for advice on whether it's possible to convert
>the rear seatbelts from lap only to three point? I don't recall whether the

Piece of cake on a 3-door. Just go to a scrapyard and get the outer 
rear seat shoulder harnesses from any 1983 or later 3-door 900. The 
mountings are all there. This would not work, though, if you had a 
two-door like I do.

>       Complete set of original seatbelts, front/rear

Personally, I'm going to the 900 style belts all around in my 99. The 
Older Klippans (where the belt had no clasp, but you stuck it under 
the latch) do not provide the resistance to 'opening up' (loosening) 
that I have enjoyed with my 900s. I had to replace the passenger seat 
with a later style, that's when I noticed how much better they are .



My two cents: ditch the whole AC setup.

>       Does anyone have a diagram of what all the panel
>       knockouts on the EMS were for? This car has:

 From the left: Lights, Extra (fog lamp), panel rheostat, hazard, 
blank (elect. mirrors on GLE) ,steering wheel, blank (Elect mirrors 
on GLE), cigarette lighter, vent fan, A/C fan, Rear Defrost, A/C temp

>       Radio console/box - did they ever make one? I have
>       a car-audio-shop special which is not so useful.

There were several. Most common is the 'pod' that hangs from the dash 
and includes an ashtray. There were others, including a really nice 
3-DIN unit that they sold in Sweden in the middle 80s. I've got one 
of those, and no, it's not...

>       Cruise control kit

Nothing OEM here. Just go to JC Whitney and get one of the ones that 
measures speed off the tach. Had one of these on a 76 99 GL for a 
while GREAT system. You calibrate it to your 'set' speed, then you 
use the knob to go above or below that. No brake or clutch switches, 
either.

>       Power mirrors?

99 turbos & GLEs had them. ALso 900s of the same years.

>       Power locks?   (can you use either/both from a '900)

Only with the 900 doors. I got a pair of 900 doors for my 99. 
Including the later mirrors. The -80 doors tend to crack at basically 
where they put the reinforcement for the 'aero' mirrors.

Larry West
NJ Saab Owner's Club

Posts in this Thread:
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