Hi from the UK - INDIAN Board Tracker tribute, my first build

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fasteddy

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2009
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British Columbia Canada
Hi, Pete,

Just received notification that you had posted today and discovered your Saab. What a fortunate purchase and with a reasonable price as well, fantastic. The restoration is impeccable judging by the photos. They are wonderful cars and the early 2 stroke Saab's were extremely popular in New England in the 1950's and 60's into the early 1970' as the engines changed. My one car desire, was a Saab Sonnet but never did get one.

Wonderful to hear that Covid is releasing it's grip on you slowly. Relief at last.

Steve.
 

PeteMcP

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Jun 27, 2017
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Mornin' Steve,

Finally feeling the best I've felt for several months. Was scheduled for an appointment to give bloods this afternoon with a practice nurse but they just rang to cancel saying the nurse had to go home sick. That's the second time my appointment has been cancelled in the last couple of weeks. Re-scheduled for Dec 28th. There's a lot of sickness about....

The Saab was indeed a lucky find. Wasn't even looking for one. Right place, right time by pure luck. I was doing my usual perusal of American cars up for sale online when I saw a lovely boat tail Riviera custom on sale in Finland and when I checked the seller's website, there was the Saab - with a low price tag that had just been further reduced by two thousand Euros. Immediately tempted - and viewed the listing several times over the following week, till I caved-in and pulled the trigger. Even with the shipping/transport costs - which, incidentally are FAR higher than when I imported my '41 Buick from Canada and Kawasaki Drifter from Florida, due to the ever-climbing fuel coats and a Sterling v Dollar/Euro exchange rate that's in the shi**er - the deal was a no-brainer. Zero import tax and only 5% VAT to pay was the icing on the cake.

Saab's are superb winter cars so they say. Not that I'll be exposing this 10/10 example to the UK's salted and gritted roads after it's spent it's life in salt-free Finland.
 

Mossy

Well-Known Member
May 20, 2022
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My uncle worked for the railroad 50 years and had to get to work no matter what and the new England winter back then could be brutal... I don't sudgest putting chains with picks on it but it's built for extreme winter driving.. would do good on a frozen lake ice fishing... Back in the Norman Rockwell days
 

PeteMcP

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Jun 27, 2017
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Glad to hear you are on the mend Pete. That Saab is a classic blast from the past.
The resto is showroom new! (^)

Tom
After a long absence, there's signs of a spring in my step again, Tom.

And yeah, this Saab's resto was definitely one of them times when the amount - both financially and time wise - lavished on its refurbishment must have been a fraction of what it's seller needed to realize when the time came to move it on to its next caretaker. Common occurrence on all too many resto's. Doing something 'right', regardless of outlay, becomes an obsession. Many of us have all been there. Makes a change for me to be the lucky recipient rather than the one going into the red.
 
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PeteMcP

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Jun 27, 2017
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Haulier rang this evening to confirm he collected the Saab from Harwich port and he's headed back to his home base to catch some sleep before continuing north overnight to Alnwick. Delivery scheduled between 7-8am tomorrow morning. He complimented the car, saying it's indistinguishable from a new one. I hoped the pictures didn't lie. Can't wait to see it in the flesh.

Worth me mentioning I've again used the SHIPLY website to organize collection/delivery of this Saab. Brilliant concept that I've used several times in the past. Simply log onto the SHIPLY site, register, then list what you need collecting, it's location, and it's destination. (The more flexible you are with collection/delivery times, the better chance you have of getting a competitive quote). Then sit back and await online quotes from hauliers - be it truck drivers, wagon drivers or man-with-a-van operators - which invariably start arriving via the SHIPLY website within as little as 20 minutes. Take as little or as long as you like to accept a quote that fits the ballpark price you have in mind for the job. Once you've accepted a quote, pay SHIPLY a percentage deposit online, then pay the driver the balance on delivery. Works on the same feedback-driven principle as eBay. I've used SHIPLY for collection/delivery of bicycles, engines, motorcycles & cars from all over the UK. Highly recommended.
 

PeteMcP

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Jun 27, 2017
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Santa's Beeee--eeeen!!! ....as my old Dad used to shout upstairs to me every Christmas morning when I was a kid.

Can confirm the Saab 96 - an early Christmas present to myself - was delivered bright and early this morning as scheduled. The whole exercise, from initial contact with the seller in Finland right through to delivery today went smooth and stress-free. The good news is the pics - brilliant as they were - still didn't quite convey how superb this Saab is. I can't find a flaw. Very happy customer.

DSCN4169 (2).JPG
DSCN4171 (2).JPG
 

fasteddy

Well-Known Member
Feb 13, 2009
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British Columbia Canada
Always amazing what a quick look on the computer brings even if it wasn't what you were looking for. Restored by what appears to have been a master restorer or a dedicated hobby restorer. A new Saab decades after they were made.

I only saw two of them here in Canada over the years. One a neighbour who was a car dealer who owned for many years and the other when I ice raced a 1962 mini and never was able to get ahead of it nor was anyone else able beat him. Both were 2 stroke engines and they did indeed have an interesting exhaust note.

Steve.
 

PeteMcP

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Jun 27, 2017
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You won't be disappointed Rick. That's the kind of water heater in the apartment here. Hot water on demand at the turn of a tap. Apartment also has TADO central heating, capable of being remotely controlled via your mobile phone. Just a shame I've never owned a mobile phone. So that's a gadget that's surplus to my requirements.
 

MEASURE TWICE

Well-Known Member
Jul 13, 2010
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CA
I hope it's OK not getting too far off the UK Indian BTR for too long, when I ask what you know about well water pumps. Mind you I am a renter. There are two water pumps up higher on a hill and two tanks ganged together and neato electronic control. Those I don't have concern over. It is the output from those tanks with gravity feed along with another local pump just outside the building in its own enclosure. That pump along with a maybe 50-gallon tank associated with it wore out and leaked. The owner changed it to a new pump but with a very small like 5-gallon tank. It rumbles when there is a medium water draw. For something like a watering hose or two in a garden going or the like, it rumbles intermittently very loudly. That would be OK, but it reverberates along the pipes from the outside where it is, to all the house and to upstairs where I am trying to sleep. The water back flush on a huge filter is set to a time that I know about for late afternoon after each few days which is OK. This new 2nd water pump along with new much smaller tank immediately couple to it, is shared by two other residences and the communal garden. What is wrong with this set up that this is going on now, as compared to when before the second local water pump with larger tank by 10-fold was in place? To me it sort of seems that cavitation is taking place, or to a greater degree when maybe this newer pump only has the smaller 2nd local tank.
 

MEASURE TWICE

Well-Known Member
Jul 13, 2010
2,746
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CA
Always amazing what a quick look on the computer brings even if it wasn't what you were looking for. Restored by what appears to have been a master restorer or a dedicated hobby restorer. A new Saab decades after they were made.

I only saw two of them here in Canada over the years. One a neighbour who was a car dealer who owned for many years and the other when I ice raced a 1962 mini and never was able to get ahead of it nor was anyone else able beat him. Both were 2 stroke engines and they did indeed have an interesting exhaust note.

Steve.
I can recall back in my teens when a trip from outskirts of NYC to 75 miles into Manhattan for a concert or something, and going down 5th Ave in one of those two stroke Saab with roll fast manual clutch. My bros college buddy owned the thing and was a bit of a crazy driver weaving in and out of the multiple lanes missing all the lights. Later my bro had borrowed the vehicle and I was with him on the outing. It was out in the sticks up state. The engine died. Lucky that at about 5 miles out and with just a few hills with manual transmission and a good battery in the freezing winter cold, the car became an electric automobile. Carb problem was later found to be the culprit.
 

PeteMcP

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Jun 27, 2017
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I hope it's OK not getting too far off the UK Indian BTR for too long, when I ask what you know about well water pumps. Mind you I am a renter.

Hi MT, It's no lie when I confess to not knowing anything to do with domestic water supplied via a well. Not even aware that's a thing in the UK other than in the remotest of spots. Mind you, my previous house in Netherton was just about as remote as you can get - but at least it had mains water. (No mains gas, though). You might get lucky and find someone else on this forum who can come up with some suggestions.
 

indian22

Well-Known Member
Dec 31, 2014
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Oklahoma
Well MT as I am an old hand at both actual drilling of water wells and caseing and setting pumps I will attempt to address your well issue. First requirement is water and finding that isn't .necessarily easy, but the driller obviously did and it was in his opinion that this was viably useful for the owners purpose (much water is too " salty" with high mineral content of some type) and if the water was bad there ends the project in that specific location. If good flow he would have also checked the wells flow rate in gallons per minute. If flow of these two determinates were satifactory the driller would install steel bore caseing, in my day most was steel) to prevent the hole bore from collapsing with time. Western Oklahoma was covered with wind motor pumps and towers, but by the 1950's their use was almost over as electric pumps took over.

The final step of installation comes with setting the pump two types to select from. Down hole submersible or a lifting pump, at times both were used on deep wells some of which were hundreds of feet deep. Many were really shallow twenty or 30 feet wasn't uncommon either.shallow or deep hole the water flow could be high or very modest. Some deep wells were completed in valleys, while good shallow wells at times were encountered on hill tops. Typically a local "water witcher" was employed by the land owner to mark the location where the driller would dig. I used a high powered rotary rig, truck mounted with which to both dig and set caseing with it's "sand line" tower winch. It used 20 foot long drillings rods to bore.

Once the pumps were set the pumps primed and all air bled from the water lines the well was ready for use.

Long story but it helps to know how it works before chasing answers. I actually can only guess and being a driller I have several but most relate to having air in the water lines. Having added to an existing line which I assume at one point worked well, would greatly add to this as being probable. Not knowing what degree of expertise was actually used in putting the additional well in service and coupled to a second well and pump and then distributed to different households existing plumbing (all of which should have been simultaneously bled of air) and if not done in concert the system will shake and groan. This process may take more than one attempt.

If both time and money can be expended a competant plummer can coordinate the proceedure as all families have to cooperate to get this done. Believe it or not this is the simplest solution, but if the problem is at the well and is an actual well or pump problem then the above cited process still has to be done.

No solution but the process involved in tackling the problem. A well technician may be necessary to double check both wells for water flow in the well, not output. One well may be low volumn water flow and or one pump pulling to hard and drying one of these wells and pulling in some air, it doesn't take much) instead of water. I would not have piggybacked two wells and pumps to the same existing distribution lines, but that's the cheap way to do it. If one new pump was added to an old pump from the other well and they were rated at different flow rates, air could be pulled in. So many variables possible if this is a home built system, most of them errors.

Long post that barely scratches the surface so PM me if you can stand more, but This is how I would approach it

Rick C.
 

PeteMcP

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Jun 27, 2017
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Man, I love this forum.
Even as a small child reading nursery rhymes, I could never figure out why Jack and Jill went UP the hill for a pail of water. Now Rick's telling us good shallow wells are sometimes found on hilltops. Every day's a school day....
 

PeteMcP

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Jun 27, 2017
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Started preparing the Saab for an MOT test prior to applying for UK registration with the DVLA (Driver & Vehicle Licensing Agency). Unlike Saab's built for the UK market which had speedometers that read in both mph and kph, this European spec car features only a kph speedo. In an effort to keep the car's originality, I don't really want to retro fit an mph speedo, so last week I ordered a gps dash top speedo that plugs into a usb adapter plugged into the Saab's cigarette lighter. Arrived today - Christmas Eve. Perfect timing. I'm also going to replace the Saab's leather-rimmed Moto-Lita steering wheel with a wood-rimmed one I have here.

Here's wishing all forum members a Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for the coming New Year. Cheers, folks!