Phil's 96 and sOnett Collection

Well, not really a collection, but it's a start!

My very first Saab 96!  This picture is the first look I had of my pride and joy, a 1968 96 V4 in relative clean shape, listed on Ebay in January 1999. I won the bidding at $500, which included a spare tranny and bumpers.

At the time I knew very little about older Saabs, having only owned 99s and 900s at this point, so I was a bit nervous about jumping in.  Fortunately I was buying from a pro! All I had to do was rent a trailer, borrow a truck and drive from Dayton to Syracuse and back in one day...fun!

The seller was Brad Burns from Hamilton, New York, and it turns out I couldn't have found a better person to buy from!   Brad has owned classic Saabs for as long as I've been driving, and had kept this one in pretty good shape.

This one had been his daily driver for a while, so although it looked rough it was in pretty good shape, both mechanically and physically (only two minor rust spots.)

The engine is a 1700 our of a '73, and had been rebuilt recently by someone who knew their stuff (probably Brad, but he never said.)  It pulls strong, and the freewheel even works, although the tranny does growl a bit .

The lack of greater cancer was quite suprising, considering this machine's close proximity to the Great Lakes and the salt-encrusted East Coast for what appears to be it's whole life.  Look at that floor!

The only major hole that needs fixing is inside the trunk, above the left rear wheel well.  Look, it even has the original wood floor intact! Missing the trunk latch though, anyone have one cheap?

Can't really see it from here, but it's up there.  I think I  can get to it pretty easily once the quarters come off, but I haven't started that project yet.

The interior is in excellent shape, with black rip-free seats and an uncracked dash pad!  The instrument cluster is from a DeLuxe and wasn't hooked up right...man, what a pain THAT was!

No holes on the floor, nothing under the rear floor, it's all original and waiting for a resto!  The second hole is at the base of the passenger door, but that door doesn't like to open, so we'll ignore it for now...

After I got home I drove it most of last winter, to help preserve the '95 9000 CS I had just bought. In March I found a stash of 96 parts up by Canton, so now I have a garage full of spares, as you can see!

Ah yes, you may have noticed that little orange beauty there. That's a '72 Sonett III previously owned by Tom Kinnaman of West Chester. It had been sitting in back of his house for 4 years, so after considerable badgering I convinced him to let me garage (and start restoring) it!

Another car in amazingly great shape considering its Ohio origins, the Sonett had belonged to Tom's mother-in-law's boyfriend (say that three times fast) who drove it up into his eighties!

It hasn't really been driven in four years, but Tom had wisely been cranking it every now and again to keep the motor fresh.   There's a bit of sag in the right rear, but the shock towers look intact, so maybe a bum spring?  Film at 11.

Too bad the interior didn't fare as well, having been home to a whole pack of mice.  The headliner, while intact, is drooping like mad, and the carpets are chewed to pieces.  Anyone have a baby-shit brown carpet set they want to get rid of?!

The cargo area cover is there, but the carpet is shot as you can see here.  Fortunately all the rust had already been fixed, all I have to do is a little touch-up work and it should be ready to roll!

The seats are like new, as are the door panels and all the glass.  The trunk latch is busted, but I think I can find another one of those fairly easily.  Any ideas?

The engine and tranny are my biggest worries, but I don't think I'll have much to worry about with those parts for a very, VERY long time.  Although I DO need a 2-bbl. intake manifold for a hot V4 I'd like to build....

MORE TO COME......