Introducing my spring personal idle time project, the 1992 Saturn SL I found semi-abandoned at the end of last fall. Now that it's spring and not freezing outside I've been taking a little time each evening post yard cleanup/prep to fix something on the car to get it fully drivable and ready for shows this summer. I figured I would make it a thread here since why not.....most people don't own cars older than they are lol!

So far I have replaced.....

The entire fuel system sans intermediate lines and the injector that was instead ultrasonic cleaned.

Rear brake lines from the rear door back due to surface rust and GM uncoated 90s lines leading to a failure at the holding bracket.

Front pads and rotors, rear drums are lightly rusted externally but internally are like new somehow.....

The fuel tank was power washed to remove 20 year old hardened fuel and to just clean it up a bit, the anti rollover valve was also seized in the open position. That was fun having rancid gas spill on me, my mats, the garage and into a light I was using.

Full general maintenance of plugs, fluids, filters, etc, nothing actually looked that bad somehow. Even the engine oil and filter were okay and the cooling system holds pressure with no issues on all OE parts.

Interior complete removal and cleaning, I haven't done the exterior yet since I want to complete all road testing/mechanical repairs before putting the time in.

The last item that was discovered to be in need of repair is the alternator, unsurprisingly when we started the car for the first time since 2000 two days ago it was not producing a charge. I have one heading to me to solve that, despite this issue we still drove the car around our neighborhood using only the battery as power. The battery is also doing well considering its the original one that I somehow forced back to life.

Other than that and anything that I'm sure will come up as I have a chance to drive it more than 5 miles, it only needs tires. The car still is wearing its original ones and they are effectively rocks. I can't buy the original type anymore so I'm figuring something out to try and keep it as close to original as possible.

Here are some pictures as the car sits following its drive, today I pulled the alternator off while waiting for the replacement to arrive.



















Needs the left side bulb replaced, I may have done that on accident when I had the dash out






Good old TBI injection, never thought I would own of one these and I've only worked on about 5 total. You just never see this system anymore but I'm glad it's TBI since I only had to clean one injector vs 4

 

That is a very nicely preserved car, there is not much to restore. When I opened the thread, I thought it would be a complete wreck, and was wondering why would anyone want to bother, lol.

 

Interesting project! Overall, the Saturn looks pretty clean. How is the shifter in the Saturn?

 

First 30 min, the old gas was so soildified I couldn't get the filter screens off at first.

Somehow I found a new pump, only $27

Tank is in good shape minus dirt

Old pump was seized solid, the fuel float arm rusted away off the sender entirely, despite being made of stainless

Tank getting power washed on the outside



Horrible amount of hard varnish and denatured fuel, closer to crude oil near the bottom

 

Trash, the bushing snapped off and it got stuck in 2nd when I first touched it. I had my machine shop make me a metal cable bushing and it's using that now instead of the plastic one GM figured was a good idea.

 

^ Stainless does not rust, it must've been made of "Chinesium", lol. One way to test is with a magnet, stainless is not magnetic, yet there are a lot of "stainless" chinese products that fail the test.

 

It is an anomaly for sure, I found it by complete chance. It was in a detached, gravel floor wood garage that some people were going though and it stuck me as the typical "someone died" type of situation. The car was the final vehicle bought by a WWII veteran and his daughter and her husband were sad to see it go but didn't have a place for it, I said I would be interested in getting it moving again and taking it to shows.....they liked the fact it would not be trashed and they just gave it to me.

The only reason I found it at all was a road was closed so I took a different path to work that day lol!

The interior was not that nice when I got it, I'll have to find the pictures of it as it sat when I first saw it. The set I linked here looks good since I removed the entire interior and really cleaned it up then put it back.

 

100% USA made, everything on this car was made here including the pump. It just couldn't withstand the fuel turning bad, it started out so with what looks like a 3/4 tank worth of gas when it was parked in 2000. The gas turning took out a lot of stuff in the system, I'm just happy I was able to find a pump and get the injector working again.

The new pump is Chinese I think? It's new old stock from Cartier pumps, it works as it should though so it's all good

 

Nice little car.





I love the little door sill coverings

Nice little car.

 

Thanks! It is very little, I barely fit in it with the seat fully back and I'm only 6'0" though I have to give it credit, all controls are in a good zone of reach. I thought it would cram up my clutch leg but it doesn't

 

Easy to use controls is a great thing. When they are in perfect reach.

 

This is a cool project and it’s looking good so far. You really cleaned the interior up as it looks really nice.

My mom had a 1999 SL2 that she let me drive back in high school. Unfortunately she sold it years later but it was a good daily driver. I’ve never gotten to drive the early SL like yours. It looks so cool and boxy.

 

Great effort on this vehicle. I always had a hope that Saturn would have turned out to be a great American vehicle over time. Oddly enough, I bought my 1999 RX300 at one of Saturn's used car dealers in Fairfax, Virginia back in January 2002.

 

Update. I got everything finished mechanically, it's now 100%

I am taking the evenings this week to clean/clay/wax and get the car perfect cosmetically on the exterior, I've been driving it every day around my subdivision to make sure it's happy and so far it's perfect. It has new tires all around that do fairly well, miles better than the OE ones that were not tire shaped at all anymore. It gets a really positive reaction and lots of attention just in the subdivision, I guess it just looks like an older car to the point people can tell.

Little thing is actually easy to rev match and blip since it has a really high clutch, it's hilariously slow as well. You can stand on the throttle and feel like it's going to the moon and only make it to 35! It drifts around corners very playfully as well, ultra low grip overall and very Miata like due to the 1870lb weight. Crazy how fun it is despite being so damn slow and unrefined, a manual is truly magic. Really makes you love the car, nothing like SLAMMING 1-2-3-4 while trying for 80 between the subdivision entrances playing Journey on the tape deck! Normally From the 1st-2nd entrance my cars are going at LEAST 75 and over 100 by the 2nd.....this car didn't hit 80 by the 4th/last entrance somehow. By far the slowest car I have ever owned.....but also the 3rd most fun.

 

Huh, I tried to upload pics via the PC not the phone to avoid crashes on the site but now they are all the wrong orientation and aspect and I can't add notes to them.....dang it. I had context to add now I can't!