Watkins' other Saab

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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by Rope-Pusher »

4
Clean out the interior at regular intervals. Failure to clean the interior regularly can cause papers to fly out the windows when you drive your SAAB. Interiors should be cleaned at least every other day. If you eat fast food in the car, then you will need to clean more frequently in order to not attract flies and mice, and your SAAB(s) will smell better.
• The type of litter bags you use is up to you, but choose a size that gives plenty of room for Big Gulp cups and French Fry scoops. The location of the litter bag should not be placed too close to your SAAB’s footwells, as they tend to get kicked over. You don’t want to smell the litter while driving.
• Use a fine, unscented litter bag. Scented litter bags don’t really cover up the odors – just toss the trash daily and odors won’t be a problem. Clean, empty litter bags encourage usage.
• A litter mat placed underneath the litter bag can help prevent liquids from soiling or staining the carpeting or floor mats…or you can just finish your drinks and not throw the cups away half-full.
• Ask a friend if your SAAB smells of anti-freeze, burning oil, or rotting Buffalo wings. It's easy to get used to the smell of your SAABs and not even notice if something is out of the ordinary when it comes to how your car smells.
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by Rope-Pusher »

5
Avoid toxoplasmosis through good sanitation. Failing to clean after your SAABs is a sure-fire way to be seen as a “SAAB Guy,” but can also lead to several health risks. Toxoplasmosis is a parasite that is found in raw unvacuumed carpeting, as well as fluid leaks. For those who are pregnant or are immunocompromised, toxoplasmosis can lead to severe infection, resulting in headache, confusion, poor coordination and eye problems. This infection can be passed to a mother’s unborn child as well, endangering the life of the child.
• Wash your hands after maintaining fluids to make sure no motor oil or brake fluid remain on your hands. You wouldn't want a mouthful of coolant!
• Don’t allow your SAAB to always be your dinner table. SAABs can drag litter and remnants of their washer fluid around on their steering wheels, potentially spreading toxoplasmosis throughout the house. Clean the door latches, handbrake lever, shift knob, armrest and steering wheel after fast food meals if you’re prone to eating in the car.
• Toxoplasmosis activates after roughly 5 days, so regular vacuuming and interior cleaning helps avoid infection risk from litter dragged throughout the car.
• If you are pregnant or immunocompromised, avoid changing the oil if possible – have a friend take care of the task. If you have no other choice, wear disposable gloves and make sure to wash your hands afterwards.
• If you have a SAAB and plan on getting pregnant, or feel ill or not quite like yourself while owning one, consult your mechanic and ask about toxoplasmosis. They have a $500 flush that will take care of that for you.
• Clean up any mess your SAABs leave, such as fluid drips or any rust flakes they shed. This helps indicate a demarcation between the owner of the garage and its cars. You own the garage, not your SAAB!
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by Rope-Pusher »

Staying Social While Loving SAABs

1
Maintain strong social bonds. SAAB lovers carry the stereotype that their SAABs are the only love of their life. Keep a circle of friends to balance out your love for your SAAB. People provide a range of experiences and emotions that cannot necessarily be fulfilled by your car.
• Choose to be social over living in the garage with your SAAB. The reason why having a SAAB is wonderful is that it doesn’t need to be charged or even driven to soccer games. SAABs are very content being on their own for long hours – capitalize on that fact and go out instead of staying home to cuddle up to your Swedish friend. He’ll understand if you ditch him for a hot date.
• Close human friendship has been shown to improve longevity. Maintaining long term friends also helps reduce loneliness and stave off depression, as well as the chronic conditions associated with depression.
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by Rope-Pusher »

2
Keep hobbies outside of SAABs. Owning a SAAB is a fun and rewarding activity. However, make sure you pursue interests outside of your SAAB as well. Staying well rounded and participating in other activities outside of your SAAB will keep you in touch with others socially and let you meet new people.
• Hobbies have a variety of health benefits as well, including warding off dementia and depression.
• Create some time in your schedule for a new hobby. Restructure your work/life balance and, yes, give your SAAB a little alone time in order to create the time you need. The benefits will be worth it.
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by Rope-Pusher »

3
Talk about a variety of subjects. If you only ever talk about your SAABs, most people are going to assume that you are a “SAAB Guy.” There’s no problem with mentioning your SAABs, particularly to fellow SAAB lovers, but avoid making them your constant topic of conversation. You may drive away potential new acquaintances this way.
• Join a club or group specifically dedicated to the love of SAABs. This can help give you an outlet to discuss your feelings for your SAAB with others who share the same sentiment for theirs.
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by Rope-Pusher »

4
Avoid the SAAB theme. Keep the SAAB theme to a minimum when accessorizing your house and clothes. A few photos of your SAAB at the office or at home is fine, but plastering SAABs all over the home will give visitors the wrong idea.
• SAAB clothing or backpacks are cute! However, make sure to think about the rest of your clothing options when you go out shopping. Wearing something that is SAAB-themed every day will earn you a “SAAB Guy” label from some people.
• Keep your garage SAAB-friendly without overwhelming the aesthetic of your garage for the sake of your SAAB. SAAB garage mats, a SAAB banner, a few tool box magnets, and some old license plates will keep your car perfectly happy.
• Your SAAB should have activities to do while you're out, such as battery trickle-charging. It's also a good idea to have two SAABS, so you can swap parts to keep one as “The Good One”.
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by Rope-Pusher »

5
Don’t dress your SAABs in wings or side pipes (optional). Cars with little wings and side pipes, though cute, may just indicate a skewed sense of priorities regarding your car. Feel free to spruce up your car for Christmas with greenery or lights, but regularly spending money on racer-wanna-be accessories for your SAAB is just ricing.
• The exception to this rule is when directed by your mechanic, such as providing a fog lamps or an auxiliary back-up lamp. These are driving aids, not fashion accessories.
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by watkins »

So as you may remember from several pages ago, when I bought the wagon it looked like this:

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I hate that bumper with a firey passion. I think the lower half of the Dame Edna 9-5 front bumper completely ruins and otherwise decent looking car. The older '04-'05 Aero front bumpers are aggressive and overall nicer looking:

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There was but one solution: combine them! So I did.

I started with two bumpers. The car came with a new front and rear bumper set since both of the bumpers on the car were complete trash.

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Then I carefully measured about 4,000,000 times and cut them both in half down the middle. I drilled a series of holes to temporarily drift stitch them together. As the bumpers were slightly different contours, the zipties helped to line everything up. Some heat gun persuasion was also used. It turned out that the older Aero bumper was also an inch deeper than the DE bumper, so I had to trim both sides off and close the gap.

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What followed was a ton of plastic welding the inside seam, adding a fiberglass backing, using plastic epoxy to adhere the front, and hours of body filler work.

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A bunch of coats of primer, color, and clear with wet sanding between finished the hard part. I also painted the chrome trim in satin black to match my repainted roof rails.

All told, it looks like this as of last Wednesday:

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While the bumper was off I also converted my headlights from xenon HIDs to LEDs, upgraded to a MUCH bigger intercooler and piping, and replaced the leaking A/C condenser While at a car show Sunday I had my friend change the settings so I can have high beams and fogs on at the same time. Whats left is fitting a light bar in behind the lower grille and upgrading my fog lights to some 3000k LEDs.
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by tankinbeans »

That car looks so much nicer now that dame Edna has gotten Lasik. Then again, I've never been a big fan of chrome, real or otherwise.

Very nicely done.
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by ClutchFork »

Great job Watkins! Looks tons better now.
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by watkins »

It's pretty lame that I haven't made a single update on this thing in 3 1/2 years. I guess there's not much to share. The car is still a crusty piece of shit, and so is the woman who drives it. It has honestly been decently reliable thus far and I enjoy the hell out of driving it. I've appreciated that with all the other more considerable drama going on in my life.

So here it is ripped apart a few months ago. My left headlight went out so I decided to restore it to factory HIDs. I also needed to deal with some minor bumper repairs, replace the horns, and fix an A/C leak. And a whole bunch of other shit I didn't get around to.

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And the new horns because it was funny to me

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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by Rope-Pusher »

...at least yoour SAAB stories are few and far between.
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by ClutchFork »

Plastic ramp the right front tire is on seems to have a crack up the middle on the front, or a bend.

Horns look really fancy high tech. Do they play music too?

Wow, a solar oil cooler. :lol: No, but that bank of fog lamps will burn eyeballs of oncoming drivers?
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by potownrob »

ClutchFork wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:19 am Plastic ramp the right front tire is on seems to have a crack up the middle on the front, or a bend.

Horns look really fancy high tech. Do they play music too?

Wow, a solar oil cooler. :lol: No, but that bank of fog lamps will burn eyeballs of oncoming drivers?
having heard watkins' modded horns in the past, i would imagine it's just a louder horn maybe in a cooler pitch with multiple tones (chords? implied chords?). that's one thing i keep meaning to look into modding on the forester (but keep forgetting about since i usually don't use the horn much) - the stock horn sounds rather puny.
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Re: Watkins' other Saab

Post by watkins »

ClutchFork wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:19 am Plastic ramp the right front tire is on seems to have a crack up the middle on the front, or a bend.
One of them has been cracked for years. My driveway is garbage and ruined it. That, however, is not the crack. That's just inconsistency in the color of the plastic.
ClutchFork wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:19 amHorns look really fancy high tech. Do they play music too?
Normal, boring Hella SharpTones. Cheap and loud. Grabbed a set for the bus too
ClutchFork wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:19 amWow, a solar oil cooler. :lol: No, but that bank of fog lamps will burn eyeballs of oncoming drivers?
That light bar is only ever on when I'm well away from civilization and need to be able to see critters better or when I shut the headlights off and only run bottom lights in heavy fog or snow.
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