Re: 1958 Saab story
 

if you were doing a bumper rechrome you could hide the bumper mount bolts by welding on a bracket on the back side, then the side marker light would kinda look like just a bumper mounting bolt unless you look close-or it is turned on.
looking good, keep at it and you'll be done
just curios, do you retain the original truck vin tag somewhere? A pillar?

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

My style is more about being mechanically sound and making it look cool. I'm not rechroming anything. I do know what you're talking about though. The side bumper bolts are actually in place to adjust the space between the fender and bumper. The carriage bolts have 2 nuts and flat washers so I can adjust the distance they pull or push on the fender.

The Saab Vin was removed to make room to fit the panel truck body. I cut it off and stuck it in the glove compartment. You'll only find the vin plate for the panel truck in the door jamb.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

Yeah, that's what I thought but just saying "if" you had planned on rechrome.
I've seen a few guys delete those side braces and wondered how their paint stood up after the bumper contacted a few times.

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

Well the power window regulator install is worse that I thought. The nu-relics power regulator kit isn't exactly a bolt in. The power window motor hits the bottom of the top door hinge pocket, and you can see where none of the bolt holes line up after you put one bolt in.

The lower door hinge is worn out, and the truck came with 2 new lower hinges, so replacing them seems like a no brainer. Except the pocket where the lower hinges attaches is rotted out. I had to cut the heads off the bolts to remove the hinge. I originally removed the three hinge bolts from the door, hoping to slide the door off the hinges. Well, someone had the bright idea to weld the lower hinge to the door! Do there's that.....

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

The inner door lower hinge pocket coming unweldef or rotting out is really common. Hope you can fix that without peeling the skin on the door. Mine is shot in all 5 doors I have.

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I tried the hinge rebuild kit but found my hinges were worn too worn for the bushings. Just bought new ones. In the past I have used brass valve guides for a SBC with the 3/8" valve stem. That way the bushing goes all the way through the hinge part for better longevity and strength. Then use a 3/8" bolt as the pin or a generic hinge pin from AutoZone or whatever. You would need to get the valve guides from a parts store that sells to an auto machine shop maybe.

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I gotta skin all my doors so I will likely pick the worst, cut the skin off, remove the hi he pocket, sandblast the whole thing, see what's left and go from there. How are your doors otherwise, they look good in the pics.

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I made two relief cuts with a sawzall and bent the corner down and out of the way. Thankfully, there's no moving parts where it was touching.

Putting things back together, I noticed there was no hardware to secure the bottom of the vent window track. So I took everything back apart and put in some 1/4-20 nut-serts. I used the harness that came with the regulators and my power probe to roll the window up and down to make sure everything worked.

- Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I stripped the Saab front door wiring harness and disassembled the door panel to reuse the arm rest so I could mount the power window control panel on the panel truck door.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I cut the bottom hinge off the door and found out why it was welded. I cleaned it up as best I could and welded everything back together. I've still got to grind everything smooth, but it's definitely stronger now.

Trying to use everything I can off the Saab, I mounted the speaker with the bracket that hides behind the Saab door panel. The speaker hangs lower than the bracket, which I thought was perfect because I wanted to make an access panel for the wiring. The connector for the power window motor is right there. I cut off the plug for the Saab power window and connected the new regulator plug.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I used a hole saw to make a relief hole for the harness to get to the armrest, then cut away to the bottom of the panel. I used the slug from the home saw to fill in the old window crank handle opening.

I assembled the door so I could see how it's all going to look when it's put together, and so I don't misplace any parts or hardware. I have to take it back apart to paint the silver piece blue. And I have to figure out how to connect the door harness to the body harness, but I'm very happy with my progress.

Oh and the "auto down" feature on the window switch totally works!

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

gotta love those nutsert tools.
moving along quickly. how much coffee did you have this morning, haha.
wil you fab a door panel someday or leave it raw and open?

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I'll leave it as is, minus the silver panel. I'll paint that blue when I paint where I did the body work.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

looks like you may hve some work to do on that lower hinge pocket on the A pillar. that part is available aftermarket. pretty common issue. you could fab a patch panel for it too I suppose.

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I ordered a patch panel as soon as I noticed it was rotted out.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

Tackled the passenger door today. I'll spare you the duplicate pictures, and show you what I did differently.

Since I didn't remove the passenger door, I got to figure out how to connect the harnesses. I mounted the bracket on the leading edge of the front door and cut away everything that got in the path of the plugs when they were connected. Then I used a 2 inch hole saw to bring the door harness out the leading edge, just below the bracket.

I included a picture of the door closed, so you can see what it looks like as a passenger.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I was watching B!tc#in' rides and saw this on the screen. I was curious how mine would look with the center "window section" blacked out. I like how it looks.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

But where did you order it from? I know a place to get it that I know it would be the right thing

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

eBay.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I like the blacked out section in that pic as well. chevy has done this idea on some of their vehicles while still retaining the glass. black limo window tint on the glass and black painted area for the rest. seems like a cheap fix to try it out anyway. you could use some black decal material instead of paint or window tint and if you don't like it just peel it off.

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

sometimes I think I should start on the passenger side first then the upgrades will be on the driver side where it will get used more, haha.

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

i've always been a fan of the blacked out pillars, just cleans up the lines so much.

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I got up this morning and register the panel truck, so now I can legally drive to the gas station. Also finished up the body work around the headlight to make the bezels fit as best as I could. And I bought blind spot mirrors for the tow mirrors.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I wet sanded and prepped the truck this morning before work and painted the primer spots when I got home. It was cold and foggy out this morning, and about 68 degrees when I got home. I'm very impressed with the color match from finish masters. It's just a single stage urethane.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

Blah blah blah. Don’t you call me and then no answer when I return your call.

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I got up this morning and wet sanded the fresh paint with 600 grit to knock some of the shine off so it matches the rest of the paint. Then I installed the tail lights and the headlight bezels.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

man this is neat!

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

Power polish?

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I haven't polished anything yet. I'll probably hit it with some rubbing compound, but only to get the surface scratches out.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I bought a new wiper cowl without the vents. I painted it when I did the fenders. Installed it and put the new wiper arms and blades on.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

The lower hinge pocket showed up today, so I cut out the rotted section and trimmed the new piece to fit. Drilled several holes to make the weld stronger and ran a bead around the perimeter fit extra strength.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I smoothed the welds with a flap disc, primered and painted everything. Before hanging the door, I cut out for the wiring harness plugs to clear like I did on the passenger side.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I forgot I have to remove the door panel to access the top hinge bolts, so I took both panels off and sanded them down and painted them.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

I assembled the door panels, bolted on the rear doors and headed over to Madkidd's house to hang out and shake it down for any driveability issues. I did end up ordering stock loaded struts to raise the front end up a bit. It rubs in corners of you hit a bump. And she needs a bath badly.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

nice. good to get a few miles.I wondered about tir rub but figured you would have that figured out in a minute.
what did you do after lunch then......? haha. fast work.

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

Gave it a bath and figured out the rear door issue. I bought an S10 tail gate to convert the latches with. While disassembling the panel truck door, I found the missing top latch. It had fallen down into the door and was held in with the threaded rod that actuates the latch. I put everything back with new hardware and made a few adjustments and everything works! Yay!

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

Driving down back roads, you can smell the exhaust fumes. Running down the interstate, your eyes burn like you've been pepper sprayed. I extended the exhaust tip out and under the bumper. Hopefully that'll fix it.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

the pipe over the axle is oval shaped right? bet that took a little persuation to get the extension to fit up. I'm happy to hear you got it fixed, I was wondering about carbon monoxide poisoning and thinking how co builds up in your blood stream and takes awhile to get rid of.

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

It is an odd shape over the axle, but it's round at the hanger. It's angled up a bit, so I had to make a slice cut to bring it down below the bumper.

-Josh

Re: 1958 Saab story
 

New struts came in today. I measured the height at the center line of the front rim, swapped out the struts, took it around the block to settle the suspension and then remeasured. It raised the front end 1 3/4 inches and now the front tires don't rub. I even hit the driveway at speed to see if it would hit and I heard nothing.

-Josh