The old SPG from the 528 Trade

HEY!

I found the pix of the old SPG that i was just talking about (the one I traded for the 528).

Here she is the day I "bought" her...

she , uh, had some issues...











But, all parties were happy at the end. The guy with the 528 got his "dream" of an older SPG and I, a 528 that I had (almost) no use for.

-Be careful what you wish for...

:)
Drive Happy,
J

A PAIR OF BIMMERS FROM THE OLD DAYS... Part 2*

*aka: The Car I Never Drove.

So, for those of you who read my last post about my old e-34 M5... here's another.

In the multitude of Saabs I have owned (please click on one of the past threads from 2009 for more info on some of those) I found myself in a strange position.

I had come into possession of an older SPG that had some issues. -Nothing terminal, but more work than I wanted to invest. Anyway, one day I was reading the classifieds on SAABNET I came on a post from a guy looking to trade his 528 for an older SPG.

So...










I called him up, we worked out the specifics and made a deal.

The only thing was, I really had no need for the SPG, let alone an older 528. HOWEVER, my folks (who lived in FLA) were in need of another car, as they just decided to take a place up here in New England for a bit.










So I made a deal, if they wanted the car, they could have it to drive as long as they remained up here. When they were to go back to FLA full time, they would need to sell it for me.


She got rave reviews from my Dad.

They had her for about 2 years.





Never did get a chance to drive her...

Drive Happy.
:)

J

A PAIR OF BIMMERS FROM THE OLD DAYS... PART 1*

So... as we are still in the midst of the ongoing Porsche Project...

Flashback: I can remember the excitement of taking a new job that took my out of New York City. To a sleepy little hamlet called Westport, CT.

In 1992 I took a job that allowed me to actually be close to the ocean, walk and bike outdoors with almost zero pollution and most important: BUY A CAR.

So after riding said bike to work for the first three weeks, I decided I actually hated my bike and that it was time for a car...

-but not just any car would do... Here's my 1991 Alpina white BMW e-34 M5...

(sigh)
-here's how I ended up with her: one fine Saturday morning this then carless ex-NewYorker took a taxi to Darien BMW. Sitting there on the floor WAITING FOR ME was this simply amazing white M5. It had been a corporate lease return for under a year ("WHAT kind of corporation leased an e-34, M5 and where could I get a job app?" I asked the sales guy). So, after about an hour of wrestling and numerous trips to the "head office" to "talk to the manager" (maybe about the True Tone undercoat)... she was mine!
-Drove her right off the floor!

Anyway, flash fwd to a month later. My parents come to town. "Nice car." my Dad says. "-Thanks Dad." I beam. "Wanna take a ride?"



About an hour and a half later we pull back into the driveway, kill the engine, to all the awesome pings, he turns to me and asks:


"So, what did you pay for this?"
without missing a beat, I proudly say "All in about 49k". Waiting for him to congratulate me on making such a sweet deal.

"Um, what's your annual salary on this new job?" he asks.

"About 48k. Why?"

"Um, do you see any kind of problem with that math?" -he inquired.

"Nope." I smiled
-as he just shook his head slowly.

:)

Drive Happy.
J

I'm GUILTY...

Hey, remember those wacky 80's? Crazy styles, crazy new genre of music called "RAP" Hammer's pants, New Coke and those gems of the theatre. -With large(er than) life life-lessons coming from movies like Footloose, St. Elmo's Fire and of course... THE SAINT. -Actually not so sure of the life lessons from The Saint, as the line reads something about never giving anyone your name, ID, etc... But what the heck, it was the 80's remember?...




Okay, I'll admit, I fell under that movie's spell -and thought it was pretty cool (of course, we're talking about memory here, like you remember how cool it was to go to middle school... like 20 years later.)




Anyway, I couldn't resist (-should have) the urge to purchase one of these:








Ladies and Gentlemen: The Volvo c-70. TURBO. Yup, that's right ladies. TURRRRBO.

And wearing gleaming Ferrari Red paint.

And that's pretty much about the only good thing you could say about it: "Hey, nice paint". Much like Chitty-Chitty, it didn't do any of the fancy tricks like in the movie. And the Turbo was more like a truck turbo... slow and steady wins the race... or so it goes in Sweden.

As a matter of fact, even with the cool custom grille and EU tag, it handled and drove... -like a Volvo.

Had it for a couple of years, then sold it to a guy from Kansas. He flew in to buy and had no clue about the new "coolness movie star factor" he was about to uptick himself into.

He just came to buy a Volvo.

WOW, been a long time.....

Well, here it is like FOURTEEN DOG YEARS, almost two human ones... and I am proud to report, that the Porsche Project is almost ready for paint. -Finally got hooked up with the right guy for my project:

Marcel who owns ROUTE 136 AUTO ('www.route136auto.com'). man, it has been a LONG haul on this one. But, here is Marcel taking the pans... with a glimmer of HOPE in his eyes... little did he know....

That it would seem that this vehicle had to be completely rebuilt.


-As it had neatly, rusted from the INSIDE out.
So... here are some pics from over the past year...


Look Ma, no rust on any of the sheet metal... hmmm, seems like there are some advantages to rusting from the INSIDE first...

Here we are putting Humpty back together again...










Ahhhh, here she is, starting to look a bit whole again.









paint coming soon....