1987 SAAB 900 Aero — the beginning

There's something special about the classic Saab 900. It's of a time, and yet timeless. It's odd looking, but quite beautiful. And whether you love it or not, it sure is memorable.

The Saab 900 Turbo was born out of the trailblazing 99 Turbo, the car that put Saab turbocharging on the world stage and took Stig Blomqvist to notable victories in the World Rally Championship.

To say it is an evolution is probably a little unfair, because Saab went back to the drawing board to rebuild the platform, engineer in additional safety features, and, ultimately, to rethink and upgrade the powerplant to what would become the 175bhp, 16-valve turbocharged 2L found in the Aero models – a relatively potent engine for its day in a car that weighed not much more than 1200kg. 

What Saab created became an icon of the 1980's, and for many Saabisti remains the ultimate evolution of Saab thinking – a car unwaveringly designed to an engineering spec, not a budget. 

Recently I had the chance to acquire this quintessential Saab, a car I've longed to own for decades, but never quite managed to get hold of.

On a couple of occasions I've very, very nearly bought one – these were decent, running examples, and well before the roughly tenfold increase in value these cars experienced since the late 2010's. See also: Lancia Fulvia.

In comparison to those examples, this one represent, shall we say, more of a challenge…

So.. here's my 1987 900 Aero (or "SPG", as it's known in the US) with 5 speed manual gearbox. It's a 2.0 DOHC 16V motor with the original, old-school Garrett T3 turbocharger plumbed up to Saab's dainty intercooler.

It left the Arlov factory in Sweden some time in December 1986, and was complied here in Australia in February 1987.

It's safe to say it's had a tough last decade or so.

It came with an Edwardian Grey 1989 900 EMS 3-door which, despite the "Electronic Manual Special" acronym, is an automatic – as many of them are over here in Australia.

Which of the two would be useful as a base wasn't certain beforehand, but on arrival the EMS seems to have the poorer body, and of course far less inherent value than the Aero chassis. It is at least complete, and it will help me solve the puzzle of building the Aero, if and when I ever get to that stage.

So, the Aero.

The first thing to do was get it off the truck and down our steep drive. I aimed to move it directly to the shed, but this proved difficult to do in one step.

For one thing, with the car absolutely full of parts and the interior almost completely stripped, just finding space to sit in it was difficult.

It also had a flat tyre, and because it's a pre-88 it has a different wheel bolt pattern (amongst other things) to the EMS. Swapping wheels wasn't an option, but a second hand tyre was purchased and fitted which got us moving again, and finally we rolled the Aero into its temporary home in the garage.

So, why was the Aero taken off the road?

My best guess is it experienced something like a heater core failure, but who knows. One thing is for sure, it was left to sit some time after 2008, filled with crap (aka parts), and became an occasional home for mice. It may have been under cover for some of that time, but I can't be sure.

Probably it's simply that it had too many issues to fix economically at the time it was parked – it just wouldn't have had enough value. But that has changed and today these cars are rare and appreciated.

First inspection – ouch.

As a result of the way the car has been stored and treated, it'll come as no surprise to hear that it suffers from some rust – both external and inside the car.

Here's how it looked after emptying the car and cleaning out most of the dirt:

The drivers' side outer sill may need replacing. I've hit it with a stripper wheel to remove some of the worst, but I'm not yet sure if it can be treated or would need to be cut out.

The door does not seem to be bad, with no apparent rust on the bottom and only a small patch in the outer corner. There is some damage around the lock which has rusted, and some under the mirror. There may be some hinge side but I'm yet to inspect fully. Likewise the other door, which looks quite good other than some scrapes where the poorly-aligned bonnet has rubbed.

The trunk floor is also a bit of a mess, but so far I've found only one hole in the body, near the tow bar (which I'll be removing).

I've begun stripping out the rubber seal on top of the interior floor and trunk, which is going to take a long time but offers some encouragement – after chipping away the most "orange" areas it seems to clean up ok with the stripper. But, there's a lot of surface rust to look at, so it's hard to know if there's something to discover that might be more of a problem, as yet. And where any gunk is leftover, the wheel makes a mess  – so I must work out how to get it off so I can reach bare metal.

There's a fair bit that worries me, the passenger side rear wheel cavity being one example –  it's hard to see and hard to get to, but from what I can see it looks fairly nasty. It seems to have been a nesting site for those cheeky mice. Some small improvements were made with rudimentary cleaning and then rubbing back, blind, with a wire brush - lots more to do to save it.

Engine wise, well it's a mixed bag – some hacky work there and what looks like a boost tee retrofitted (amongst other things), but it looks clean under the cover and I have been told it is "good", along with the 5sp gearbox. That all remains to be seen.

So.. there we have it. 
A sorry old '87 Aero.

My immediate plans look something like this:

• Sort, clean and box up all the useful parts
• Move it to a better position in the shed so that I can get to work on it properly
• Continue to remove the coating on the interior floorpan
• Get it in the air for a better look underneath (so far, encouraged)
• Remove the Aero kit (check door bottoms properly)
• More cleaning and rust removal
• Check if the motor turns over by hand
• Remove the motor
• Strip it...

If by that point a rescue still seems feasible then on to a body shop for proper rust treatment and paint. Much later it'll need carpets, seats, wiring, and I may consider T5'ing it – very much long terms plans, and I don't suppose this will move quickly due to other commitments.. but if I can save it, I'm the kind of person who will give it a damn good try.

Wish me luck!