To the beginning:  I purchased my 900S in June of 2006 for $800 with 162000 miles on the clock. I purchased the car from the original owner with all maintenance records intact (including the original window sticker).  Being a Colorado car it's entire life, there was absolutely no rust or corrosion on the car or it's components.  Here she is, as I purchased her. 

Appearance wise, I hated the hubcaps the most.  They were pitted and two were broken; additionally, the car needed new tires.  In early July, I picked up a set of 15" wheels from a 2003 SAAB 9-3 Linear, on Craigslist, for $300 and installed them; the stock 215/60 R15 tires were a bit tall, but were usable until I could save a bit for new tires.  Here she is with the new wheels; I was waiting on new center caps when the pictures were taken. 

With the wheels where I wanted them, the old girl was looking a little odd in the tail end.  I decided that a rear spoiler was in order.  In the end of July, I purchased a good used spoiler on EBay for $50 and installed it.  This required drilling 3 holes in the hatch lid, but was not a big deal.  Additionally, I added the rear emblems from a classic 900 as my emblems were in poor condition.  Also, the original headlamps were badly pitted, so I replaced them with E-code units and cleared the front turn signals.  Furthermore, the rear chrome strip was missing, so I removed the front to match.  Finally, I had replaced the original (rusty) exhaust with a custom stainless exhaust from Magnaflow (notice the new tip)

At this stage, I was fairly happy with the exterior appearance of the car.  Lucky for me, however, I found a genuine Black Pearl grille on EBay and snagged it for under $50 shipped.  For that price, I had to add it to the car. 

Now, with that nice shiny grille, the front rock chips on the hood were starting to really stand out, so I chose to fix those.  In mid August, I tediously cleaned out the debris from each chip and filled it with touch-up paint.  I then sanded the front of the hood to 2000 grit and polished it.  Additionally, I fit a replacement nose emblem.  Here's the old girl with a fresh wax, following this treatment (you can see my wife's '94 peeking it's nose into the picture)

As fate would have it, just as I had the car where I wanted it, I hit something.  In early September, a disoriented driver ran me off the road, in a construction zone.  Choosing between hitting a Chevy pickup at 50 mph or a raised median, I chose the median.  This destroyed the right-front tire and wheel, most of the front suspension, the front engine mounts, and damaged the unibody.  To fix this, I replaced the wheel and front suspension components and installed Yokohama Avid V4S tires in 205/55 R15.  To celebrate, I installed a Viggen antenna on the roof and clear marker lamps.  These are pictures taken when the car was put back on the road from this damage:

Shortly thereafter (within the week), I installed a new rear swaybar (thanks to Genuine SAAB) and rebuild the headlamp wipers.

With the car really starting to look like I wanted it to, I decided to fix the nastily pitted foglamps.  Given that new foglamps run nearly $300 for a pair, I chose to look for a different option.  I found a set of damaged lamps (broken mounts) on EBay for less than $30 and bought them.  I dismantled both sets and swapped reflectors and lenses.  The new foglamps had much better output and general appearance. 

So, what now you ask? Well, at this point, the channels in the bumpers had really started to bug me; they just looked unfinished.  I picked up a set of adhesive fender trim from JC Whitney and installed it in the channels. 

At this point (November 2006), the classic 900 emblems that I'd installed, began to really look out of place.  I purchased a set of NG900 emblems on EBay and painted them to match the body.  I wanted them to be there, but to hide out of the way. 

Suffering from balance chain noise from a stretched chain, I decided to overhaul the engine, which stifled any continued progress on the body.  Well, with the engine overhaul complete and successful, I decided to bring the old girl out of the garage and get her back up to snuff, exterior wise.  I began by repairing some peeling clearcoat on the driver's door and filling in/contouring paint scratches and rock chips.  With that complete, I buffed, polished and waxed the exterior, with one trip around the car each.  Here are the results of four hours with a microfibre. 

So what's next for the body?  Well, I really prefer the 900 bumpers to those of the 9-3, but I love the looks of the 9-3SE skirts.  I plan to paint the bumper tops and mirror caps, install the 9-3SE skirts and track down a Talladega front spoiler.  We'll see how this goes; definitely keep an eye out for bumper/mirror painting. 

Copyright 2007:  All content on this site, including text and images, may not be reproduced without the written consent of the author.