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  1. #1
    Micah
    Saab Fan Still Micah's Avatar
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    11 Aug 2014
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    Dayona Beach
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    Saab(s)
    2005 93 linear (Automatic)

    Truck Bed Lining My Saab

    Here's my Saab:
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    I'm going to get a lot of heat for this, and I'm fairly prepared to deal with it.

    Somewhere along the multiple repairs I've gone through on my 1 year owned 2005 9-3 Linear (my second Saab), I decided that I wanted to hold on to it as long as possible, I figured it's much much cheaper to keep it running than buy the car I originally wanted to trade it for (2015 Mustang 4cyl, again I know I'm getting a lot of hate, I might as well blast Nickleback in the ghetto), anyway, I'm 21, a dude on and off studying aerospace engineering at Embry-Riddle, and here's a few off the mods I'm eventually going to throw on to this car.

    1. I'm going to truck bed line this lovable bast**d
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    (I drew over this in gimp and didn't invest a whole lot of time so judgement is justified.)

    Now my justifications are fairly numerous, but it originally started when I noticed some paint chips and a little bit of fading, normally a touch-up would be fine, but also the person before me slammed a giant dent in the rear passenger door, irreparable damage. The drivers side rear door now has neither functioning windows or locks either, so it became apparent that I would be getting replacement doors (Only $600 for the pair from a salvage yard, yay!). If I'm getting new doors then paint matching becomes a problem, re-tinting the windows, it's a whole process and I figured that if I'm getting the doors painted to match, I might as well just paint the whole thing. Now a good paint job in my area is $3-5k, with a crappy one being about $500-2k. I don't want a crappy one, and I don't want an expensive one, so I looked into other options. Plasti-dipping for instance, but plasti-dip fades, requires maintenance and is super easy to scratch off (read: "maintenance"). You know what doesn't need maintenance? Truck bed liner, that stuff holds up to explosions with relative ease, not to mention keying, stray branches and gravel. So at that point I decided all black would be a cool idea, I was quoted $450, now that's fantastic, but if it's that cheap I wanted to know how much it would cost to really make my car pop, and two toning the car (with designs) ends up around $1000 (with U-Pol Raptor Liner), which is expensive-ish, but reasonable considering the car will never need to be washed or repainted again. So there's my reasoning, mostly money concerns, but there's a lot of benefits to it over regular paint.

    2. Probably going to get slotted and drilled breaks, maybe braided steel break lines to add responsiveness, some decent red-tone calipers as well, that's more long term as far as car mods.

    3. Eventually getting purple HIDs, it's a cheap and fairly easy mod, I'm down for that kind of installation, should only take 30 minutes and under $100.

    4. Maybe adding a stronger turbo and getting a tuning. I'm not super sure about this one because it does the opposite of adding longevity to the car, plus it's not like I race or anything.

    5. Semi-long-term, getting a Cat-Back dual exhaust, just to improve fuel efficiency and prevent rusting, maybe add a throatier exhaust note, but it's mostly just to make sure the car doesn't rust apart in sandy/humid sun-beaten Daytona Beach.

    My end-game is making a car that will hold itself together and have a really unique look to it. I'm really just posting this for opinions and guidance from my elders/peers. I've installed some iridium performance spark plugs, with a supposed 100k mile life-span and a washable racing air filter, that was just so I wouldn't ever have to buy a new one. I'm replacing all the engine mounts sometime next week ($600 parts, $300 installation), but after that I'll be getting into more improvements to the car and less maintenance to keep it from breaking into pieces.

  2. #2
    Dave T.
    Super Moderator Dave T's Avatar
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    03 Aug 2010
    Location
    near Seattle, Washington
    Posts
    1,513
    Saab(s)
    1999 9-3SE (2013-2015), 2005 9-3 (2005-2013), 1990 900 (1990-2003)
    Have fun! Do have fun but also realize that mods don't increase resale value and may hurt appeal. However, don't let that stop you from enjoying your Saab!

    From the title, I originally thought that you were making a truck bed/trunk liner for your trunk.

  3. #3
    Micah
    Saab Fan Still Micah's Avatar
    Join Date
    11 Aug 2014
    Location
    Dayona Beach
    Posts
    12
    Saab(s)
    2005 93 linear (Automatic)
    The owner before me actually lined the whole trunk with a rough felt-like grey fabric, also threw in dual 12" subs with the same fabric covering on a containment box. Perhaps I should change the title to something more obvious.

    Thank you for your support!

 

 

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