55.2-59 1958 Saab story

[gottattooz]

I finished up the body work around the headlights and on the rear wheel opening. Once I get everything I want painted prepped, I'll try to do it all in one shot.

Also, my power window regulators came in today. Looks like I'll be tackling the doors this weekend.

-Josh

[gottattooz]

I got rid of the goofy license plate bracket and wanted a cleaner look. I put nut-serts in the door and bought a license plate frame with tag light and 3rd brake light built in.

-Josh

[gottattooz]

I didn't see a way to lock the rear doors, so I ordered a new door lock set and replaced the push button with a keyed button. The driver's door and rear door will having matching locks. I'll have to reach over to lock/unlock the passenger door from the inside. That what we do in dad's 59 pickup, so we're already used to it.

-Josh

[gottattooz]

I got my load resistors in so I wired them in line to slow the flashing rate on the turn signals. With that taken care of, I wired up the headlights with the new harnesses. I had to put the camera on night mode to get pictures of the low and high beams. And I installed the front bumper side marker lights.

-Josh

[Jason 56]

I like the headlights. You’re making great progress.

[dsraven]

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?

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by dsraven

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?

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

[dsraven]

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.

[gottattooz]

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

[dsraven]

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.

[dsraven]

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.

[dsraven]

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.

[gottattooz]

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

[gottattooz]

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

[gottattooz]

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

[gottattooz]

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

[dsraven]

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?

[gottattooz]

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

[dsraven]

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.

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by dsraven

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.

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

-Josh

[gottattooz]

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

[gottattooz]

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

[Madkidd007]

Originally Posted by gottattooz

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

-Josh

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

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by Madkidd007

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

eBay.

-Josh

[dsraven]

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.