As work starts on the silver 9000 Aero rescue, so does the search for new and unusual parts to give it a few desirable touches that us Saabists seem to cherish.

Currently the interior has a standard black plastic dashboard which although inoffensive doesn’t have the style this classic Saab deserves, so the first option to source was a wood veneer dashboard to replace it with.

Most available are now broken, faded and a little worse for wear, but managing to find two filthy ones at my Saab specialist gave me hope. I set about a full clean and polish and was surprised to discover the maker’s original production checklist hidden on the back of the dashboard; William Lawrence & Co. Ltd, a fine furniture maker in Nottingham, England founded in 1875 by a local Quaker named William Lawrence.

I’ve always been impressed by the quality of these pieces; genuine walnut veneer that helps create individuality in each car, but now realise that the process took some seven days, from first pressing and pigment to polish and final finish. Although not perfect, these dashboards really are works of art, small details that make Saabs special, this was a nice discovery to make and one I had never known before.

It's been a few weeks since i've done an update on the current Aero builds, sadly, due to a lack of B12 Pro-Kits coming out of Bilstein currently, we've had to put the Green Aero on hold until we have all the parts ready to progress, we've been told January, so fingers crossed for that one.

I've been slowly making progress on the Hirsch 9-5; after all of the mechanicals were sorted back in October, the car has been driving absolutely beautifully, we've got to make a few adjustments on the new gear linkage, as 5th is hard to select and the Hirsch alloys will be coming off and going for a full refurbish together with a new set of rubber and balancing.

The main focus has been sorting the worn interior out, an exceptional flat base Nappa leather steering wheel has arrived from the folks at TunStyle, and as always, I truly feel to quality and craftsmanship is better than the genuine Hirsch ones I used to have, it really is a thing of beauty. I've got a new genuine Saab leather gear knob, gear gaiter and handbrake gaiter to fit, a new dashboard has been carefully wrapped in 3D carbon and the ugly Parrot system and wires will all be removed. The door card decorative strips have also had the carbon wrap and will be reinstalled next week together with a set of gorgeous MapTun carpets.

I'm still a little undecided about the seats, as usual, the dark fabric inserts are crumbling whilst the leather parts have worn beautifully, the cutting corners with materials really does show in these later 9-5s and just don't hold up as well as the earlier 'Saab' models, I might go with my heart and recover the entire seat set in a better quality Bridge of Weir leather, but always concerned that the value of these Saabs just don’t warrant that level of spend sadly.

As always, I'm truly inspired by the people out there that continue to work hard to craft parts to keep our Saabs looking sharp, in reality, it is getting harder to rescue them, the lack of Bilstein suspension kits has really hit me this time - will this continue to be the case, will Brexit make is far harder for the UK to get parts from the global community? will we slowly run out of Saabs worth rescuing? For now though, I have 2 beautiful Aeros that deserve to be pampered.