Cooking and puttering about the finnish countryside

[LadyTevar]

I totally get "Feeling" where the car is. I'm like that with my Prius ... which is going to be a shock when I trade her for the CrossTrek. Then again, as work has me driving the small Bookmobile more, I'm starting to learn to feel it as well. I still over-estimate, as I do NOT want to be the one to put a dent in it.

Your burrito needed some bacon or sausage with it

[His Divine Shadow]

Oh it had sausage in it, maybe hard to tell. Anyway we're in Åland now! We rented a cottage, by the sea. Grillning some burgers on a Weber kettle.

[LadyTevar]

Enjoy the vacation!!

[His Divine Shadow]

Back from vacation now. Feels good to be home! Traveling for me really is stressful, my blood sugar levels where noticeably worse too during the duration of the trip.

One of many nature path in the Åland Islands




Observation tower:


They also got plenty of beaches


Also got some deer, these are mostly tame:

[LadyTevar]

Still in velvet too!

I know many hunters in WV who'd love a deer with that many points on their wall (and the meat in the fridge).

[His Divine Shadow]

You could not hunt these however, part of a guided trip.

I smoked the meat I had curing for like three weeks in nitrate salt mix, looks like despite that it didn't want to penetrate all the way to the center. Cut thin slices and made bacon. Not that this was pork belly, leaner cut.



Turned out well though my fried eggs failed, broke both yolks so not as over easy as I wanted.



I dunno if this might be something like canadian bacon.

[His Divine Shadow]

Been working on the Saab, a limited engine clean. I took out the intercooler and pipes, the intercooler takes the hot air from the turbo and cools it before it goes into the intake. Cold air means less spiking. Knocking is the main problem with turbos since you cannot make sure everyone always uses high octane premium fuel, that's what Saab were the first to properly tame using their APC system, which is a magic box that controls the turbo and listens for knocks. If it detects a knock it reduces the boost, so it's self-limiting.

Cleaned out the intercooler and pipes inside and out, it's just a big air cooler. I used E85 gasoline to clean it out, nothing else really seemed to cut it. Diesel would have been the best but I do not have diesel in a can at home. E85 or gasoline is risky since it can ignite.



Everything back in and cleaned up


I found a 9/32nds socket fits perfectly on the clamps, they are 7mm but from dings and such they have accumulated over 30 years a 7mm has to be forced on and off. The inch socket is 7.14mm so has a suitable amount of slop.

[His Divine Shadow]

Also we've had hedgehog visitation multiple times in a row now. Probably because we feed him. Here is is chewing on a dead rat our cat brought home.

https://i.imgur.com/iSIC0OX.mp4

[His Divine Shadow]

Doing a job for a friend, this wasn't a big job, I took a few tenths of a millimeter of the center bore that had galling damage. The biggest part of this job was getting it chucked up properly in the lathe. Because of the geometry I guess, everytime I adjusted something, something else got out of whack. I spent hours adjusting in the runout and chasing my own tail.

First I got regular run out dialed in, but then I had axial runout instead, I fixed that and I had the previous runout back and around like that I went. Tried chucking up differently several times too. Tapping the thing with a soft mallet seemed to move it in ways I did not want it to. So eventually I threw together these improvised pushers from some nuts and bolts and I adjusted the run out very carefully using those on the low side, and yay! I got within 1-3 hundreths of a mm in both directions before I called it good enough and bored it up.





And earlier today, the Saab in the forest, we went picking blue berries. Tough going with whining kids.

[His Divine Shadow]

Well I replaced the turbo bypass valve on the Saab since that was the cause of vacuum issues I've had. Still make new ones.

Here's the old one, caked in oil and mud. Everything gets cleaned before going back!



I also replaced the plugs. I was lucky and I found eight NOS plugs of the right brand NGK BCP7EV. Gold-palladium plating. You can still get the same plug but with iridium instead. You can also get the same as was in the car, which are just nickel. And there are also platinum versions which last the longest. But from reading forums I got the impressions the turbos ran real well on the older gold-palladiums so I got them when I found a batch.

Holy crap these ones look worn though, one broke removing it even, but at least they weren't stuck.


The PO really needed to have replaced these like 20,000km ago...




Now the car feels a little friskier perhaps, the boost gauge does go a little higher now. I actually don't notice a huge difference.

I plan on replacing the distributor cap and rotor and cables eventually, just so I know I am starting from new. Every service gets logged in the service book as well from now on, not just oil changes. I need to add more pages!

[His Divine Shadow]

Oh yeah I do think Iäm getting better mileage, I was getting around 28-29mpg and I might be doing 30+ now.

[Lord Revan]

Yeah older cars might need a bit of care to get good mileage out of them, in other news I'm glad I'm not the only person who does the "ä" when I meant to press " ' " typo.

[His Divine Shadow]

Oh yeah that's a constant problem...

It has been raining a lot here lately. I decided on a hunch to check the boot area because I read something online about them leaking. Well the boot lid doesn't leak it seems, but it does leak around the rear tail light from what i can tell, maybe a little from the other tail light also. And there was water on the bottom of the boot, particularly under the spare tire.

I ripped everything out and found there was water under this rubber mat stuff which I think is sound insulation and I had to start removing it with a chisel. It released in placed in large chunks where whatever glue held it in place has failed. I think it will all have to be removed so I can get it all dried out and the rust removed. So far the rust looks superficial, which is fortunate.

I'm considering how to treat the rusted areas.

-Remove the rust (rotary steel brushes, acid, perhaps sandblasting) and paint the bare metal with epoxy?
-Or zinc primer?
-Or nothing? Just use raw linseed oil and keep it covered and refreshed?

I am thinking I will both epoxy and then use linseed oil, particularly on all the seams to get the linseed oil into there and stop rust that I can't see. I plan to go over all the seams of the car with raw linseed oil. It creeps like nothing else and is very effective at stopping rust already inside seams you cannot see and then it oxidizes and creates a protective layer. Raw linseed oil is very useful at least on older cars.

What to replace the rubberized layer with later? Unknown... I think whatever I put in there should be easily removable again in case this happens again. I think this was meant to seal so water couldn't get in there but it clearly failed.



I need to remove the taillight to see why it leaks past it but very likely the seal is bad, I found some hardened sealer like sikaflex or silicone in there, crumbling away. Think it's some earlier attempt to fix it that now failed.

Also found these "flaps" on the bottom, they seem to open into the bumper if you push on them, they can open outwards but not inwards. Not sure what their purpose is, I would have thought they where venting the air, but that's what the grilles on the C pillars are for, unless these are just extras for the boot specifically.

[His Divine Shadow]

Weekend of disasters...

Broke the tail light on my car trying to remove it (since that's where water was leaking in, one screw had rusted in place), spent a day trying to fix it.



Grooving out the cuts, filling with epoxy, sanding to 800 grit







Clear coating with 2k automotive clearcoat




Back on the car, not perfect but intact and cracks sealed. But I got a spare coming I found for 10€.


Stopped leaking in water too!

[His Divine Shadow]

Found in the woods

[LadyTevar]

There's a lot of places in WV you can go foraging like that.

I don't, because I don't need covered with ticks especially with the new Lyme Disease spreading.

I am waiting very patiently for the Pawpaws to ripen, the lil tree has a good crop this year and I'm hoping I get to them before the deer do. LOL

I'll post a photo later for those who don't know what a Pawpaw looks like.

[His Divine Shadow]

Being out in nature is a great relief to me, would suck to not be able to go out.

Ah a sad weekend for me. Found this, I just spotted something and went poking and it just got worse looking and worse. And to think I did inspect this area when buying it. Very common for saabs to rust out here, the right side wheel well is worse affected. This area is structural and I cannot ignore this.



This big hole is actually a drain hole I believe, but it's rused out and there's a smaller hole as well that's not supposed to be there.


More poking reveals more holes, my mood is going down fast.


I've cut out the rusty metal and welded in new 1.2mm sheet metal, which is 18ga iirc in american


And then the sides are made and welded on separately, original from factory would be a single piece with the lips pressed into shape. I can't do that so I weld a bigger piece from smaller ones. Fitzee style (youtube from )


I have not welded on the side plates yet, waiting so I can buy rust converter and then also prime in the inside while I have easier access. Then after the side plates are welded on it's prime those as well, then cover in sealant. Also the inside will be covered in the same sealant, I should be able to get in there. Then after that I bring out the raw linseed oil. Raw linseed oil is great for protecting a car from rust, it creeps into seams and joins where rust might be invisible and just goes everywhere. Then it oxidizes and goes hard. Though that takes a long time even in summer.

[LadyTevar]

There's always that little bit you never see

[His Divine Shadow]

At least the other side is looking a lot better. And I should be done tonight with this.

[His Divine Shadow]

And it's back together and rolling!

[His Divine Shadow]

Bought a sticker for my car, SF = Suomi Finland, or jokingly, Soviet Finland as people used to say.



To be put on the car when travelling outside Finland in europe, when you have old pre-eu license plates like on my car. And actually the SF is obsolete and is replaced by FIN. But the police even twittered and said they don't care if you use the old SF signage. So I'm doing that.

[LadyTevar]

Bought a sticker for my car, SF = Suomi Finland, or jokingly, Soviet Finland as people used to say.



To be put on the car when travelling outside Finland in europe, when you have old pre-eu license plates like on my car. And actually the SF is obsolete and is replaced by FIN. But the police even twittered and said they don't care if you use the old SF signage. So I'm doing that.

Classic Car, Classic sign. It fits

[His Divine Shadow]

Last friday I replaced the fuel pump, it came quickly from Sweden.

Old pump, noted the mark and oriented the new one in the same direction. The new one also had a float, which I think is a level sensor but is a separate unit on this car so I just ignored hooking it up.



I am not going to discard the old Saab pump armature, but will find a new pump unit for the armature to refurbish it and have it as a spare. The new one is proparts brand which doesn't have a good rep... Would be nice if I could find a saab NOS pump to put in, or probably a modern one which is E85 compatible since I will be moving in that direction with this car.



All back together and sounding much quieter.


Forgot to take a picture of the new pump, but this is what it looks like:

[His Divine Shadow]

Cleaning the car to get it ready for last weekends excursion. After a regular wash I used fly rust remover on the hood, then some color sanding with 3000 grit and finally polishing the hood.



Some photos from last weekend, went to a boot fair which is I think Finlands largest. 25,000 people attended. I got free parking near the center, while others had to walk up to a kilometer to get there. Why? Because what I was driving. I got lined up with a bunch of veteran cars. I was so focused on getting to the fair I didn't take any photos of all the old cars. There was even a working 100 year old T-ford.

I did take some photos from a small Saab meet later.


The black convertible was perhaps the nicest car IMO. It was driven by an old lady with gray hair.



This Saab 90 was one of the nicest cars there IMO. A lot of the 900s that weren't convertibles looked worn. Mine was the nicest hardtop 900.




I found a bill hook and potato... thingy, I don't know what it's called in english but an indispensable tool for bringing up the potatoes. This is a modern version, which sucks because it's weak and made from sheet metal. It has to be forged. I am honestly surprised Härmän Taonta sells such a product. They are a smithy. But I guess it would cost over 100€ if they forged it.

Called perunakuokka in finnish, we call it a "gräfta" which is a word swedes don't recognize, even though it's an old swedish word. People from northern sweden might recognize it however.

[His Divine Shadow]

I bought a pair of old ass fog lights for the Saab, only 10€. When I get them I can see they say Bosch Halogen and Made in Sweden. They have no CE mark so they are older than 1984. Made in Sweden, not bad for 10€.

Treated with plastic restorer to the left, just cleaned with soap and water on right.



There's some rust, I put linseed oil on it... I figure that's good enough for now. Possible to do a better job later, separate the glass from the body with a thinner bath.



Plastic restorer on both




Tried applying some yellow headlight film, first time ever so I did a lot of mistakes, apparently you can use heat to make it go easier. Will do that on the next one.



I am cooking up my own circuit to make the lamps run on different voltages, so I can run the things as front position lights during the day, and when I need the fog lights (was real foggy recently) I can just press the fog-light button and they glow full strength. Also need them to shut off when the low beams are on and fog light switch is not depressed. I'll need three relays to make that logic work.