The best trick I have for old caliper rebuilds is to pop the piston out with compressed air. You can do it with a bike pump and some tubes or anything you can figure out how to supply air to the brake line inlet. This will act like you are pressing the pedal, sort of.
What's an IDS Car?
Also for rust... I honestly mostly ignore it. These cars are unibody construction. You'll have to seriously be rusty to have enough structural problems. I am the king of wire wheel and por-15. I have only replaced a few sections on my cars, mostly floorboards and lower A arm areas.
For what it's worth, I have gotten by with the humble harbor freight welding setup, flux core. It doesn't look pretty but it gets metal welded. I did both of my floor pans this way, and it's... well it's fine. It's not beautiful but it does work. Copious seem sealer helps along as well.
I'd also lightly hone the inside of the calipers if you can, if there's pitting that you can feel rubbing your finger along the inner wall.
I haven't rebuild a pre 86 caliper in a long time, but there should be some good resources on the forums.
I'd mostly focus on getting on the saab facebook group. I am not on facebook, but it is a treasure trove for asking questions. Unfortunately the forums are mostly relegated to historical information now as people have transitioned to single sign on social media. There's also saabnet which is invaluable.
As for popularity, you're quite right. Saab seems most popular in new england. With it's relative wealth, weather and proximity to the outdoors, I think that was a natural fit, unfortunately that means that we lack the arizona rust free cars of yesteryear, there weren't many saabs out there to begin with.
Anyway... I can probably write forever on saab, but I have just recieved parts in the mail from the saab heritage museum and am going to try out the fitment!
Good tip on the compressed air. IDS = International Diplomat Sales; as I understand it, instead of renting a car when traveling in Europe, you could buy a SAAB and they'd arrange shipment back home. The former owner of mine was a professor who spent a year guest lecturing in Norway in 1983-84 and brought the car home when he was done. And I'm certainly heading toward needing to do some welding, because here in the rust belt it's impossible to ignore. (3 of my last 4 cars were killed by structural rust, and of those, 2 were unibody.)
I'll send you an email. I could (evidently) talk about SAAB for weeks.
The best trick I have for old caliper rebuilds is to pop the piston out with compressed air. You can do it with a bike pump and some tubes or anything you can figure out how to supply air to the brake line inlet. This will act like you are pressing the pedal, sort of.
What's an IDS Car?
Also for rust... I honestly mostly ignore it. These cars are unibody construction. You'll have to seriously be rusty to have enough structural problems. I am the king of wire wheel and por-15. I have only replaced a few sections on my cars, mostly floorboards and lower A arm areas.
For what it's worth, I have gotten by with the humble harbor freight welding setup, flux core. It doesn't look pretty but it gets metal welded. I did both of my floor pans this way, and it's... well it's fine. It's not beautiful but it does work. Copious seem sealer helps along as well.
I'd also lightly hone the inside of the calipers if you can, if there's pitting that you can feel rubbing your finger along the inner wall.
I haven't rebuild a pre 86 caliper in a long time, but there should be some good resources on the forums.
I'd mostly focus on getting on the saab facebook group. I am not on facebook, but it is a treasure trove for asking questions. Unfortunately the forums are mostly relegated to historical information now as people have transitioned to single sign on social media. There's also saabnet which is invaluable.
As for popularity, you're quite right. Saab seems most popular in new england. With it's relative wealth, weather and proximity to the outdoors, I think that was a natural fit, unfortunately that means that we lack the arizona rust free cars of yesteryear, there weren't many saabs out there to begin with.
Anyway... I can probably write forever on saab, but I have just recieved parts in the mail from the saab heritage museum and am going to try out the fitment!