Car Details
« Back to RegistrySharice Johnson
- City: Clayton
- State: CA
- VIN: 99781026098
- Model Year: 1978
- Build Date: May/1978
- Mileage: 2,000 miles (3,219 kilometers)
- Color: Grey
- Original Owner: No
- Owner Since: 2010
- Running: Yes
- Current Use: Driven Monthly
Good shape...repainted..interior needs work. 2000 miles on rebuilt Engine. Odometer broken.
HistoryNOTE: This car was originally added by Karen Graham of Rocklin, California, mother of the owner, Billy Graham. Karen had the car from 1994 until 2009 when she gave it to one of Billy's close childhood friends. Here is the original entry she provided:
Our son bought this car as his first car at age 16 in 1987. We told him it was out of his league. He rolled burritos for a summer at a burrito shop in the San Francisco Bay area to prove us wrong!!. He then took a job at a Saab mechanics shop as a helper to get the work done on it. He went on to become a Saab mechanic and he personally received calls from around the San Francisco area as his name grew ....He rebuilt the engine ( bored it out...redid the electrical, painted it, lowered it and made it his first love....
Billy was then diagnosed with malignant melanoma at the age of 21 and died at the age of 22. Diagnosed in 1992 and died 1994) We kept the vehicle for the now 13 years..had some work done on it to get it running again, from sitting for the first 10 years after his passing.
From his death the William S. Graham Foundation for Melanoma Research, Inc. was brought up and is now known as an international name for public awareness and education on melanoma.
visit: www.bfmelanoma.com Bill's Saab is on the site. It has deep sentimental value to us...and we are not sure what we should do with it. How much it is worth? Is it considered a "Specialty Car" now due to its age?
We want his "baby" well cared for..he wouldn't even let us turn it over while he was with us!!!:>)
SPECIAL NOTE FROM KURT HOFFMANN
Update: 4/19/2010 The entry above is the original history entered by Billy's mom, Karen. I am grateful to still keep in touch with Karen and she recently gave me an update on Billy's 99 Turbo. She had given the car to one of Billy's friends when she and Billy's dad Dan moved back east.
The friend passed the car along to Billy's former fiance Sharice. She met Billy when the car was literally in boxes in his garage. While dating him, she spent an entire year watching the car be rebuilt from the ground up.
She is now restoring the 99 Turbo.
Learn more about Billy on the Saab 99 Turbo blog.
5/2/2010. Below is the update from the current owner, Sharice Smith Johnson, of Clayton, California:
I am very hopeful that the car will be ready in June and or July, 2010. The current status is that I am keeping the car in Livermore. I live in Clayton, about an hour and fifteen minutes apart give or take. I took the car there because the person who has agreed to help me with this project works there, and has replaced all necessary parts (ones that get old over time) and he is also helping me with any trouble shooting.
Right now we think that the engine is strong, but there is a problem with the gas getting to the engine. We are going to take care of that in the next two weeks. I am anxious to get the car back so that I can have my reupholstering done, and have new tires put on the car. (Billy liked the Michelin pilots low profile high performance tires best. Right now there are Eagles on there. This weekend I am going to go work on the car some more. When I work on it, there is travel time, and usually I give a day at a time to the project. Naturally this would be much easier if the car was at my own home. It would happen quicker, but, its getting done, just more slowly. I have
taken parts off of the car however, and am able to bring them home and clean them and take them back and reinstall them. I did this with the components through out the whole roof of the car and carpet. I put new padding in the car, and the carpet cleaned up remarkably well, to my surprise.( I may still have it replaced, I'm not sure about that- I just could not stand it dirty, and water damaged!)
Anyway, the next two weekends should produce big results as I have another day planned with the guy who is helping me the weekend following this one, a day to work on the engine. I think we are almost there with the engine. He seems to think that its in good shape. He said its getting a good charge.
As you know I acquired the car this year, 2010. This man who had the car before me was Billy's best friend Dave who helped him on his car a great deal while Billy was alive. They restored their cars together; Dave had a Mustang. Dave decided to give the car to me because he didn't have the time and resources to put into the car at that time. Dave did what he knew was right for the car. He knows that cars need to be driven, and to sit there any longer would be bad for the condition of the car.
He could have kept the car, and it could have just rot, but he didn't, and he gave it up, and I know that it wasn't an easy decision for him.
The newer photos show how the car looks right now.
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