Saturn Renovation/Redo (It's not black either)

[AllBlkdOut07]

Ok..so since this project has consumed me more than my truck ever will (which I thought wold never happen), and a few (maybe just Daddy actually were interested in seeing progress pics, here they are. lol

Most of you have sen the magazine features, so I won;t bore you with them all again, just one spread for good measure.

Basically, car sat for several years, interior took on water (and lots of it), I decided to restore it and make it better than it was back in the day. I know, it's just a Saturn, but I spent countless hours fabricating one offs back when I had it due to the lack of aftermarket options, and spent more $ than I should have on the engine, interior..etc. It really is in poor cosmetic condition, the engine bay is just plain nasty right now too, so it will take some time.

Ported, Polished, Milled Head 11:1 Compression
ExtrudeHone® Port-Matched Intake Manifold
Port-Matched HPC Coated Header/Downpipe
4-Ange Valve Job
OverSized Forged Aluminum JE Domed Pistons
TotalSeal Gapless Rings
PowerKote Thermal Barrier Coated Piston Domes
Dry Film Lubricant Coated Piston Skirts
Meta-Lax Stress Relieved Engine Internals
RC Engineering Flow-Matched Fuel Injectors
RC Engineering BigBore Throttle Body

Interior Tear Down

First order of business- Fix Leaky Sunroof

Mmm crusty, no wonder it leaks

Junkyard Replacement (frame sanded down, taped, primed, painted)

Installed, no more major leaks, just to small ones in the rear I am currently figuring out.

 

[AllBlkdOut07]

RAAMat BXT sound deadener

 

[AllBlkdOut07]

Ensolite foam

 

[AllBlkdOut07]

Calipers powdercoated (should hold up really really well unlike paint, originally rusty JY finds.)

Powdercoated MOMO competition shift knob (was polished aluminum before)

Black Fine Texture Powdercoated Front Knuckles (I can't tell you how rusty/scaly these things were before)

New Rear GMB ABS Hubs/Bearings

 

[AllBlkdOut07]

MOOG Control Arms, Links, Outer Tie Rods

Trans/Engine Mounts (Never replaced, over 130,000 I'm sure they are shot.)

Full Brake Rebuild Kits

Cleaned and polish these reverse back-up lamps which were all yellowed and nasty looking, they came out alright.

Little by little, I'm making progress.

 

[66nova]

Sweet! I glad you posted pics.

I knew you had a saturn that you were working on, but know none of the history of it. So how long have you had it and was it yours when it was in the magazine?

 

[Truckguy24]

Awesome so far man

 

[DofD]

Good job there Umberto! I was wondering where you've been as of late.

 

[AllBlkdOut07]

Dropped the headliner and material off at a local upholstery shop, this guy does amazing work, and just picked them up today.

I also gave him my old nasty light grey sun visors as well and asked he cover them in the same material as the headliner. He sprayed the light grey plastic pieces in SEM satin black paint, cut new cardboard (since the old ones were bent and flimsy). I'm psyched, stuff came out great. I could've covered the headliner myself, but with the weather turning and having the visors done figured I'd let the pros handle it so it's done right. The visors are really stiff and super plush, they're nice and spongy more like those you'd find in a high end luxury car. I just need to spray the sunroof controls to match since they too are light grey as was the old headliner.

Everyone at this Saturn forum I'm on that recovers their headliner does black, but I think the black stands out too much, so I went with a graphite color which perfectly matches the leather and plastic dash/trim in the car, so the inside of the car will have a nice soothing monotone color scheme, even the new carpet is a charcoal color.

Top of the dash included for color comparison.

 

[DV2000NJ]

Yo, call me when you're going to work on it, bitch.

That kid Colin's been bugging me, "When's Umberto going to need help with the Saturn?!?"