SAAB-aru 9-2x Aero Interior & Headlights

[TTQ B4U]

So a fellow Racing Forum Member has had this car for about 2 weeks and is going to use it as a daily. It's a 2006 with a lot of miles and owned previously by someone that enjoyed smoking in his car and had a dog that shed a lot! Both added up to a huge need to clean it up so that the new owners significant other would finally ride in it with them http://www.columbusracing.com/ubb/tongue.gif

Keeping budgets in-check the interior and the headlights were the two areas targeted to begin. Down the road a strong Clean and Protect detail will do this ride wonders on the outside.

Goals were to completely clean up the interior and remove all traces of smoke and then to make it so the headlights could actually cost some light on the road without having to be replaced. I failed to capture any shots of the light gray color headliner but let's just say it lightened up by a few shade of gray after it was cleaned.

On to the show...

BEFORE Shots:

The passenger side was bad but the driver side was much worse.


http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187300/original.jpg



The back seat served as an ashtray. Common when smoking with the windows open.

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187302/original.jpg



Seats were worn as it's old, but they were also stained with lots of dye transfer from clothing.

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187301/original.jpg



The headlights were pretty badly oxidized. Thankfully not so bad that would have crazed inside yet but they weren't far off.

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187303/original.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187304/original.jpg



AFTER:

After a good cleaning things improved dramatically

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187309/original.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187312/original.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187311/original.jpg



The floor matts and carpet came out like new

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187305/original.jpg


http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187306/original.jpg



Let there be light...

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187307/original.jpg

http://www.pbase.com/timothylauro/image/168187308/original.jpg

[Sizzle Chest]

Nicely done. They will be blown away now that they can see at night as they are sitting in a pristine interior!

[LSNAutoDetailing]

Looks great! Nice job.


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[java]

Great job! The owner is going to be thrilled.

What did you used on the headlights?

[TTQ B4U]

Great job! The owner is going to be thrilled.

What did you used on the headlights?1000 then 2000 grit wet sand to cut through the oxidation. Then some old HD Headlight polish. Coated them with CQUARTZ UK 3.0

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[java]

1000 then 2000 grit wet sand to cut through the oxidation. Then some old HD Headlight polish. Coated them with CQUARTZ UK 3.0

Sent from my Galaxy Note 8 using Tapatalk

Do you think that you can achieve the same result without wet sanding?

[TTQ B4U]

Do you think that you can achieve the same result without wet sanding?

On these in this condition, yes, but I like sanding as I can simply pull out my drill and knock-it-out in just a few minutes each. Start to finish on these was less than 30 minutes including clean up. Time is money as they say.

I've worked on much worse that take more sanding and a little longer though.

[java]

On these in this condition, yes, but I like sanding as I can simply pull out my drill and knock-it-out in just a few minutes each. Start to finish on these was less than 30 minutes including clean up. Time is money as they say.

I've worked on much worse that take more sanding and a little longer though.

Thanks for the replies!

[Setec Astronomy]

I'm not getting the SAAB-aru joke...help me out?

[Desertnate]

I'm not getting the SAAB-aru joke...help me out?

Except for the badges and the grill, the car is a Subaru WRX hatchback from the same era. It was built by Subaru in Japan. This is very similar to the "Toyobaru" twins we have today with the Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 (a.k.a. Scion FRS)

The car looks amazing. Great job from end-to-end.

[TTQ B4U]

Except for the badges and the grill, the car is a Subaru WRX hatchback from the same era. It was built by Subaru in Japan. This is very similar to the "Toyobaru" twins we have today with the Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 (a.k.a. Scion FRS)

The car looks amazing. Great job from end-to-end.You are correct sir this one however has the STI motor and turbocharger

Sent from my Galaxy Note 8 using Tapatalk

[Setec Astronomy]

Except for the badges and the grill, the car is a Subaru WRX hatchback from the same era. It was built by Subaru in Japan. This is very similar to the "Toyobaru" twins we have today with the Subaru BRZ and Toyota 86 (a.k.a. Scion FRS)

Darned GM...I didn't even realize they had a relationship with Subaru back then...only Isuzu. I'm old enough to remember when a Saab was a Saab...and not a rebadged GM car...or a Subaru. RIP Saab. Thanks for the explanation.

[SWETM]

Darned GM...I didn't even realize they had a relationship with Subaru back then...only Isuzu. I'm old enough to remember when a Saab was a Saab...and not a rebadged GM car...or a Subaru. RIP Saab. Thanks for the explanation.

Saab is still alive. But they do airplanes know only. Which if I'm not wrong was what they started with. To bad the cars did not get build anymore. It was a popular brand here in Sweden. And that was given many people jobs. The old Saab modells had designs from airplanes to get as little as possible wind resistance. And the values in the wind tunnel testing is still in the top places to the least wind resistance. Saab 93 from 1956-1960 and Saab 96 from 1960-1980. Just some geek info LOL.

Great work and write up and pictures as always! The headlights came out perfect!

/Tony

[Setec Astronomy]

Saab is still alive. But they do airplanes know only. Which if I'm not wrong was what they started with. To bad the cars did not get build anymore. It was a popular brand here in Sweden. And that was given many people jobs. The old Saab modells had designs from airplanes to get as little as possible wind resistance. And the values in the wind tunnel testing is still in the top places to the least wind resistance. Saab 93 from 1956-1960 and Saab 96 from 1960-1980. Just some geek info LOL.

I was just bemoaning how GM blew up the car business, first buying half of it, then the rest, and then just turning it into another GM division vs. the unique company that it was. And I'm a GM guy. Of course they did the same with Saturn (which later shared some models with Saab IIRC), starting it as a unique division of GM that was completely unrelated to the others, and then just making it another nameplate with nothing unique about it.

While we're talking about Swedish car companies, I guess I shouldn't leave Ford out, how they kind of gutted Volvo and left them with no engines when they sold them off to that Chinese company, but at least they're still around. Well enough thread-jack.

[Desertnate]

Darned GM...I didn't even realize they had a relationship with Subaru back then...only Isuzu. I'm old enough to remember when a Saab was a Saab...and not a rebadged GM car...or a Subaru. RIP Saab. Thanks for the explanation.

Same here. I still think a 1990 Saab 900 is one of the coolest cars. It was all downhill after GM took over.


Saab is still alive. But they do airplanes know only. Which if I'm not wrong was what they started with. To bad the cars did not get build anymore. It was a popular brand here in Sweden. And that was given many people jobs. The old Saab modells had designs from airplanes to get as little as possible wind resistance. And the values in the wind tunnel testing is still in the top places to the least wind resistance. Saab 93 from 1956-1960 and Saab 96 from 1960-1980. Just some geek info LOL.

Great work and write up and pictures as always! The headlights came out perfect!

/Tony

Technically the spirit lives on...kinda... the 9-3s are being built again under a different name, NEVS, Chinese ownership, and electric propusion. Saab factory in Trollhattan, Sweden, will start producing electric cars for Europe and China (https://autoweek.com/article/green-cars/saab-factory-trollhattan-will-make-new-electric-cars)


I was just bemoaning how GM blew up the car business, first buying half of it, then the rest, and then just turning it into another GM division vs. the unique company that it was.

I believe a Top Gear episode had a feature where they talked about how Saab fought their GM overlords in the later years. They hated the Opal and US GM patforms they were given to work with, so they made all sorts of structural and mechanical changes in secret and then revealed it all when it was too far into the production cycle for GM to tell them, "no". This made the cars much better, but also much more quirkey because they became a bit of a bodge job.


While we're talking about Swedish car companies, I guess I shouldn't leave Ford out, how they kind of gutted Volvo and left them with no engines when they sold them off to that Chinese company, but at least they're still around. Well enough thread-jack. You can add Jaguar, Aston Martin and Range Rover to that list as well. Pretty shocking to look at a Jag or Aston from that era and see cheap Ford Mondeo/Taurus switch gear in them. At least they didn't have roots too deep into Mazda to cause much harm.

OK...back on topic... Did I mention how great that car looks? It looks brand new!