Time to fix up those Enkeis. I pulled the mismatched 205/50 tires off them and started looking at the wheels. Every single one of them was bent to some degree - two had pretty good flat spots and the other two were just warped a little. I screwed them down to my workbench and wailed away at them with hardwood and hammer until I was fairly happy. Roundness was verified on my lathe - there was only so much I could do...
I wasn't sure what I wanted to do about the coating - they'd all been curb rashed and they all had chips & gouges in them, and I knew it would bug me, but if they were powdercoated I knew it would be a PITA to deal with. I gave the backside of one of the spokes a quick scrape with some sandpaper and quickly got down to metal, so I decided to toss them in my blasting cabinet. That's when I discovered that while the backsides carried a light dusting of paint, the fronts were all powdercoated!!! I spent a good long time erasing my fingerprints while sanding these down. To topcoat I used a new-to-me product called Endura and I had a little trouble, so I ended up re-sanding and re-topcoating them again. The whole paint process ate up about 4 weeks and they're not perfect, but they're finished.
![Image](https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/saab900/20180512_184627.jpg)
![Image](https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/saab900/20180512_184640.jpg)
I tracked down a set of sway bars and paid dearly to have them shipped from Florida, but you'd be surprised to find how difficult it is to get someone to remove a set. I feared installation would require a lot of trouble, as the front one has to wind in and around the steering rack through the little holes in the frame, and the factory instructions I'd found included templates on where to drill for the mount bushing fasteners, but fortunately I'd removed all my power steering and by 1987 Saab was pre-drilling holes for sway bars, so the complete install took about 2 hours. No pictures.
With the bars in and the wheels on, other handling "traits" were more easily observed. I felt the next step was going to be stiffer control arm bushings, but poly bushings for these cars are quite dear and I'm not thrilled with poly in this location so I ordered some Delrin from McMaster-Carr and turned up some bushings on the lathe.
![Image](https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/saab900/20180610_110703.jpg)
![Image](https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/saab900/20180622_090838.jpg)
I also blasted, straightened, reinforced, primed, and painted the lower & upper control arms. The uppers can't go in until the engine comes out, so I didn't finish the bushings for this location either, but the lowers are done and installed. Steering response is much more predictable, the ride is slightly firmer and there's a little more NVH, but considering the bushings are solid plastic, it's pretty darn good.
![Image](https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/saab900/20180622_090823.jpg)
![Image](https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/saab900/20180622_090854.jpg)
(I did discover an interference between the pinch weld on the body of the car, directly below the driveshaft through-hole, that interfered with the top reinforcement plate of the control arm. I marked it and cut a slot for clearance, problem solved. Again, no pictures).
While I was thinking about control arms and bushings and such, I was thinking about springs. With a little research I found a JY spring that, when cut to height, should very closely match the SPG specifications. The front springs are from the rear of a '92-96 Olds 98 and the rear springs are from the rear of an '02-07 Buick Rendezvous AWD. The rears ended up a bit stiffer than stock SPG and the fronts ended up a bit softer than SPG so the ride balance is a bit truckish, but the handling is great! I cut them to published free lengths of 11.7 front and 11.5 rear, and the car sits with perfectly even fender gaps front and rear. If the stiffnesses were TOO far off, the fender gaps would be whacko and they're pretty close so I guess we're in the ballpark. I may build new upper & lower mounts for the front springs that incorporate coilover springs and adjustable perches, and will probably try some 450 in-lb 10" long coils, but they're pretty excellent for now. ZOMG!!! I cut my springs! F**k off, get over it.
Before cutting:
![Image](https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/saab900/20180521_154547.jpg)
![Image](https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/saab900/20180521_154623.jpg)
Before and after, forgive the different perspective but you get the idea.
![Image](https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/saab900/20180522_183923.jpg)
![Image](https://s3.ca-central-1.amazonaws.com/saab900/20180625_190823.jpg)