55.2-59 1958 Saab story

[gottattooz]

Well the compressor went out for the rear suspension, and I had to save up because I bought another project. So $385.00 later, she's up and running. It was looking pretty pathetic in the garage with the rear wheels stuck in the fender wells, but I took her for a test drive to run through the gears and shake it down and everything's working correctly.

-Josh

[6DoF]

hopefully it was easy to get to with the new body on there

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by 6DoF

hopefully it was easy to get to with the new body on there

This is exactly the reason I made the floor panels removable. Putting the bolts in blind was fun, but I'm a diesel mechanic so I'm used to changing parts by feel instead of sight.

-Josh

[dsraven]

The last one of those I changed was near the $1000 mark, CAD. you can also swap out to the coils, they are a direct drop in. All you need is the coils and rubber pads from a wreck ( or new ones)

[Madkidd007]

Originally Posted by dsraven

The last one of those I changed was near the $1000 mark, CAD. you can also swap out to the coils, they are a direct drop in. All you need is the coils and rubber pads from a wreck ( or new ones)

He is fully awAre. There is a reason why he left the air ride system.

[dsraven]

yeah, I figured he knew that, pretty sharp guy. just posted it for the lurkers in case somebody else is doing something with a trailblazer/envoy.
cool looking unit.

[dsraven]

hey Josh, good to hear you got it up and running. are you driving the crap outta it now? hope so, cool looking unit for sure. I bet you get lots of looks when driving it.
whats your new project? another frame/body swap?
how about a few pics of the current project from all angles now that it is sitting how you like it.

[gottattooz]

Here's the new project. It's a 1967 Buick special wagon. All original with 62k Miles on it. The floor pans are wasted, but the body is solid and straight. The plan is to sell the 65 skylark wagon to buy a 2008-2009 Pontiac G8 gt or gxp and cut the wagon floor out and set it on the g8 floor pan.

The panel truck will be my dad's daily driver, since I have the Jeep.

-Josh

[gottattooz]

Since dad and I are planning to take the 68 jeep trailblazer ss and the panel truck on the hot rod power tour this year, I figured it probably needs functioning wipers. Thankfully, brothers trucks has a life time warranty on the setup. The aluminum tube shot out of the holding bracket and kinked the first time I turned them on with the wiper arms installed. Then the motor developed a dead short and just popped fuses as soon as you turned the switch.

I figured there were probably too many Bends from the motor position to the first wiper arm. So I replaced the first aluminum tube with a length of steel brake line. Then I mounted the wiper motor at the driver's side kick panel. Now the drive cable is almost a straight shot to the first wiper armature with a slight bend along the floor pan and a large 90 degree radius just under the dash cover. I made a bracket out of bed frame rail to secure it to the entry step. It works on low and high speed now and it's not even in the way as your swing your feet in and out of the truck

Josh

[dsraven]

did you have plans on the cut away on the end of the dash? I will eventually end up there too.

[gottattooz]

Originally Posted by dsraven

did you have plans on the cut away on the end of the dash? I will eventually end up there too.

On mine, the dash pad fit, but the piece with the defrost grill and speaker grilles has to be shortened. Now, left to right, the window cranks are so far forward, I welded up the holes and went with power windows from nu-relics.

Josh

[Madkidd007]

Originally Posted by gottattooz

On mine, the dash pad fit, but the piece with the defrost grill and speaker grilles has to be shortened. Now, left to right, the window cranks are so far forward, I welded up the holes and went with power windows from nu-relics.

Josh

This guy again

[3757chevy]

I read through your build the last two days . WOW!! Love it. I always liked the 55-59 Panels and Suburbans . Been following on your wagon build too. I never knew Saab and Envoy/Trailblazers were at all similar. Not that there's not enough lighting up front but some of those 3/4 in lights might look cool in the left over bumper bolt holes .

[gottattooz]

I thought about getting a dimple die and reshaping the holes in the front bumper. I see all these extra lights on these new trucks and I keep going back to "less is more".

Josh

[gottattooz]

The transmission input shaft speed sensor is acting up, so I have to replace it. When I jacked up the truck to start pulling the transmission, I noticed an oil leak from the engine. The exhaust y- pipe is in the way of everything, the transfer case has to come off, etc. etc. Since I'm going to pull the engine anyways to check for cracks, I can leave the transmission in place and replace the sensor.

Then there's the whole "while I'm at it" moment. I was fine with the way the truck ran with a stock lq4, but a little thumpity thumpity would also be cool. So I ordered the Brian tooley racing "Truck Norris" camshaft and everything that goes with it. New gaskets and lifters and springs.

I couldn't find any shorty headers to bolt up to the stock y-pipe, so I ordered the speed engineering headers and y-pipe without cats that bolts directly to the existing exhaust.

All new belts and tensioner, spark plug wires and whatever other new shiny things that will nickel and dime me to death, but I'm excited to hear the new exhaust note when she's finished.

Josh

[6DoF]

nice!!

[gottattooz]

Well, a little forehead smack and some good news. I found the oil leak. Josh (maddkidd) had a corvette oil pan on the saab when I bought it. I put the original pan back on. It never dawned on me that the original oil pan has its own dipstick tube hole. So, along with me motor mounts and other miscellaneous bits and pieces, I ordered a correct dipstick tube for the oil pan and a plug for the hole in the block.

Josh

[daveshilling]

Originally Posted by gottattooz

Well, a little forehead smack and some good news. I found the oil leak. Josh (maddkidd) had a corvette oil pan on the saab when I bought it. I put the original pan back on. It never dawned on me that the original oil pan has its own dipstick tube hole. So, along with me motor mounts and other miscellaneous bits and pieces, I ordered a correct dipstick tube for the oil pan and a plug for the hole in the block.

Josh

Thank you, dipstick tube hole, for making Josh get a new Cam and more power!!

[gottattooz]

Here's the list of goodies that are showing up.

Speed engineering headers with cat delete y-pipe.

243 aluminum heads to replace the 317 heads. From what I'm reading online, the 243 heads (64.5 cc chambers) should bump up the compression ratio from 9.4 to 10.2 compared to the 317 heads (71.5 cc chambers). I don't know how accurate that is, but I did the same thing on my jeep with a similar camshaft and it pulls strong on 87 octane

Truck norris cam kit with new lifters, trays, springs, push rods, valve guide seals.

I also gotta all new belts, tensioner and idler pulley.

I'm having a tough time removing the transmission oil pan. It's been sealed with gray rtv and it's not letting loose. I'll keep you posted

Josh

[gottattooz]

Well I finally got the trans oil pan off, so I could unplug the input shaft speed sensor. What I didn't know was there is another sensor the pokes up into the front pump, and I broke that, so after replacing the input speed sensor, I still spent another $130 for a harness and a filter kit.

Josh

[daveshilling]

they get sold, people get old and forget, website links go down. It's not insane

[Madkidd007]

Originally Posted by daveshilling

they get sold, people get old and forget, website links go down. It's not insane

I’ll give you the selling thing. But again once it’s in, running, and tuned it’s irrelevant.

[gottattooz]

All new wiring harness, trans filter and pan gasket installed.

Bell housing and torque converter installed

New motor mounts on. Headers and y-pipe loosely assembled and new cylinder heads installed. Making good progress. I'll recheck everything before I put the push rods and rocker on. And hopefully I'll have everything buttoned up and running soon

Fingers crossed for no more leaks

Josh