The Limburg region of Saab Club Netherlands recently organized a special event that featured a special “do-it-yourself” Saab 900 convertible. The Limburg region of Saab Club Netherlands is the oldest (established March 8, 1989) and the most active region of Saab Club Netherlands. Every month, usually on the last Tuesday, a regional meeting is scheduled from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. At one such gathering, this interesting Saab project was presented.
For this regional evening, Frank Rutten from Waalre had dropped a bit further south to come and tell his story in Spaubeek at Saab event. Frank converted the classic Saab 900 Sedan into a 4-door convertible. The basis for the 4-door convertible was a Saab 900 GLS 4-door sedan from 1984, which Frank bought in 2001 for 50 Dutch Guilders.
Frank explained to the attendees step-by-step how he did this project. When he cutting the roof, the design lines of the original convertible were carefully observed. The whole structure is reinforced with circular metal tubes. For checking the stiffness, the car was loaded with 1.5 X the maximum permissible load according to the factory specifications. Frank and a number of assistants worked on the project for four years! In view of the accuracy with which the entire conversion process was used, the final inspection by the RDW (the Netherlands Vehicle Authority ) went through without any problems.
Frank and his family have been using the beautiful yellow Saab convertible for 18 years now. As far as we know, this is still the only 4-door SAAB Classic convertible in the world.
