Econmancer

I don’t have any advice about repairing the SID, or “SAAB Information Display”, on a SAAB 9-5 except to say that I only made mine worse by trying to make it better. There are several methods for DIY repair of missing pixels on the information display. I tried the foam spacer and warm iron methods and only ended up with more missing pixels.

There is a reputable company called BBA that will repair the SID and garentees its work.

SAAB Central has a thread about SID repairers that is worth reading before choosing a company.

My SID will be off to BBA soon for repair and I will post about the results at that time. For now, here are images from the inside of the SID for your entertainment:

A video about repairing dents with canned air was posted on SAABCentral. I went out and got a can of air and tried the technique on a door ding I had collected a few weeks ago.

The dent is about the size of a nickel.

I heated up the area for about a minute with the hairdryer and then sprayed the air upside down until the spot was frosted over. The dent is not gone, but it is more like a shadow of what it was before. There was no damage to the paint as far as I can tell.

This would be a good thing to try before sending the car to the body shop and would be interesting to see on a larger dent. Anyone willing to give it a try on a larger dent?

At any rate, you might be satisfied with the results and would save some money. If you aren’t happy with the results, then you aren’t really out anything and can get the car fixed by a professional afterwards.

The two images look strange because I ran the photos through some filters to enhance the dent area. Both photos had the say filters applied. The dent doesn’t show up well in the untouched photos. I marked the spots so you can at least look in the correct area. See the dark spot on the right edge of the dent in the “after” photo? That’s where it didn’t change and can still be seen when looking at the door in person.

Before:

After:

So, the bottom line- the dent didn’t disappear; sort of flattened itself out around the edges instead.

I guess it is really a $5 repair, since I had to buy the air, but it would be free if you have a can of compressed air sitting next to your computer already.

From Amazon:
Memorex 10OZ 152A AIR DUSTER ( 32028021 )