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This is going to be another one of those stories that reports a repair job being done by local Tasmanian Saabnut, Drew B, while the job’s still only half done. But I get somewhat fascinated by the work and can’t help but toss it up here, anyway.

Back in October, I showed the roof repair job that he is doing on an OG9-3. The roof panel has now arrived and is on the car, though the work is still unfinished. I’ll update that one shortly.

In the meantime, here’s the latest project, which began just a few days ago. And remember, this is all being done at his home. Drew makes his living in the engineering sciences. He’s not a professional bodyworks guy. It only looks that way when the job’s done.

The latest project involves a Saab NG900 with a 2.5 V6 that he picked up at auction for a couple of hundred dollars. Here’s how it looked then:

It looks like pretty major damage and that scares a lot of people off, but the main damage is just to the bonnet of the car (the hood to some of you) and the radiator panel. Fortunately for Drew, he’s got a few of these bodies hanging around as parts cars. These were also picked up dirt cheap at auction, so most of the bit he needs are hanging around already.

Here’s the car with the bonnet removed and thrown away. You can see the damage to the radiator panel across the top there.

Drew drilled out the welds holding the radiator panel and there was minor damage to the bracket on the passenger side, so that was straightened and primed.

Here’s a look from the other side, with the new bonnet from his parts car now attached. That’ll get painted later:

Here’s the donor car, now missing its radiator panel, radiator and a/c condensor. When he got the radiator out of the V6, Drew noticed that one of the platic fittings on the tank had broken off. Those tanks are a whole unit and you can’t get individual bits for them. Fortunately, the tank off the I-4 radiator fit perfectly on the V6 radiator, even though the cores are different sizes.

The radiator panel was then given a basecoat……

…..and clamped in place for the welds to be re-done

This is what it looked like when I got there yesterday afternoon. It’s been welded in place and primed, ready for the proper paint job.

Again, I’ll try and get soem update photos when the job’s done. Drew was anticipating that this would be a pretty quick fix. He’ll then drive the car for a little while prior to selling it early next year.

I might have to pinch those wheels off it before it goes, though…..