Joe Pugh’s 96 rebuild

BEIGE BEAUTY

The car was bought from Dick Sedgwick, the owner of Turners Hill SAAB,shortly before he sadly passed away(great man). According to him, it was the first new car he sold, and when the owner traded it in years later Dick kept the car and it had work done on it over the years. It sat on my drive for 2-3 years before I decided to restore it.

Initially I thought it would be a recommissioning, but after a while we decided on a more thorough resto. The car was completely stripped. Phil the Martian carried out the welding repairs needed, the panels (wings, doors, front panel, boot and ears) were shot blasted and the rolling shell went to Leatherhead Coachworks who bare metaled, prepped and painted it, keeping it ‘hearing aid’ beige.

The gearbox was stripped and fitted with Sonnet final drive.

The engine was a bit more complex, 1700 crank, oversized pinto pistons, decked to block and skirts taken down, metal timing gears, reprofiled cam by piper 7:2, 2.8 valves, heads and inlet manifold ported, 38:38 degas carb, 123 Bluetooth distributer, lightened flywheel and diaphragm clutch, Radiator re-cored.

On the rolling road the old girl pulled 100lbft of torque and 100bhp, Initially I was a little disappointed, but after the Sweden trip, she pulls like a train and keeps up with all traffic inc. motorway.

Suspension, rally springs and Bilsteins, interior retrim inc. headlining, wheels banded/widened by an inch and a half.

I’d like to thank Leatherhead coachworks The Martian OAP racing (OZ for sorting the porting, the machining and the comp ratios and everything technical) John Green (enough said) Mark (very sleepy) Hodges and my team at Joe’s Repair Shop in Epsom (you are the best). Joe Pugh