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1979-1993 & 94 Conv [Subscribe to Daily Digest] |
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Wanted to share recent experience w/ 2 things I'd read about here and tried out, both to superb results.
Note: I'm pretty much a perfectionist on my 90 SPG so everything I'm talking about below looks stock, acts like stock or better and holds up pretty well.
DIM CLUSTER LIGHTING -- Like many with an old c900, my instrument cluster (tach, speedo, etc) lights feel more dim than modern cars. As a first fix I removed the rheostat when redoing my dash and hardwired the wiring the wires to get the most voltage, with slight improvement, but still not perfect. So I'd read alot about these LEDs being brighter and not getting hot... and couple weeks back there was a posting about buying the green WLEDx6 bulbs from http://www.superbrightleds.com. These go in the 2 locations on a c900 instrument cluster -- in the turn and pull out housings up at the top of the cluster, accessible from speaker grille. I was doubtful after reading bulb polarity, etc problems -- some LEDs are +/- and if you hook em up wrong, they don't work. I'd bought a couple white ones from the local parts store, and they were DIMMER than before. But I bought 2 green LED bulbs -- style WLEDx6 that fit these sockets -- installed, and man, they are way brighter. Looks dead stock, like a new car. Really cool fix and 13 bucks including shipping.
GLIPTONE LEATHER DYE: I've had a couple Saabs, all with ratty leather. I am determined with this car to have it look great. 90 SPG has Buffalo Grey leather (the dark grey) and its almost dead on perfect, with the exception of the drivers side bolster. Which shows small cracks, no tears (yet). I know its a slippery slope so wanted to fix it asap.
I went on Ferrari and porsche message boards and did a bunch of research. And some people redyed parts of their leather seats with great results. So highly HIGHLY doubtful I bought one of those kits of fleabay... its made by Gliptone in the UK, it's called SCUFF. Water based leather dye... kind of like a thin paint. Dries flexible and you can get it custom matched to an exact match to saab colors... ie in my case, Buffalo Grey. This dye looks very similar to what you'd buy from leatherique or the other (colorplus??) people that sell the water based good quality / more expensive leather dies.
Package came -- there's 2 sponges to apply the dye, one small container of the color matched dye, and then a small tube of both darkener (black dye) and lightener (white dye), in case you need to darken or lighten yours. Then there's a gloss enhancer as the dye is flat... most leather has a slight sheen (like my leather), some leather gets all glossy... so I guess if you wanted you could gloss it up as much as you want.
After testing a spot on an old seat cover from a junker 9000, I added 2 drops of black darkener and 2 drops of gloss enhancer.
Then on my seat I used wide masking tape to mask off the other parts of the seat. I then (deep breath) took to my seat bolster and wet sanded with 600 grit sandpaper -- kept it wet. Wiped it down with mineral spirits. Sanded. Wiped. Sanded. Got about 50% of the color off the bolster and was able to smooth out some of the cracking areas which were primarily surface cracks. Wiped clean with mineral spirits one last time and let it dry for 2 hours in the shade.
Then I used the sponge and dabbed on a thin layer of dye. Let it dry 5 mins. Another coat. Let dry for 30 mins to see what it looked like. Color looked great but was slightly mottled in places. So did 2 more coats. Let it dry overnight. Next day, I'm telling you, the thing looks like new.
So --- this was 6 weeks ago, car's been daily driven since and I've been watching the dye very closely. Looks as it did 6 weeks ago. So it looks like it'll hold up pretty well.
As a huge bonus, there were several areas on the vinyl, back seat leather top, side of front headrests where there were scuff marks in the grey leather color. Dabbed small amounts of the dye there...and they look perfect. The stuff is a dead match for the existing 17 year old seats. Very satisfied...
Anyway -- I know that these 2 issues are things a number of us deal with. Hope it helps someone down the line.
posted by 64.3.24...
, Wed, 18 Jul 2007 09:05:21, Wed, 18 Jul 2007 08:00:08
, Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:07:49
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