Saab story: Payoff coming for Memorial grad's summer act of charity

While a lot of students work during summer vacation, earning money and learning real-world responsibilities, few work with the purpose of Sebastian Gupta.

The 2011 Memorial High School graduate, who’ll begin studying mechanical engineering this fall at the University of San Diego, spent last summer rebuilding a clunker automobile he bought at auction, one that had to be towed to the shop, into a factory-new, road-ready machine.

And he did it for charity.

He’ll soon put the fully restored 2000 Saab 9-5 up for auction on e-Bay, with all proceeds going to the Houston Area Women’s Center, and that thrills everyone involved.

“I’m just blown away by the full dimension of this story,” said Kelly Boros, director of communications at HAWC. “In my nine-and-a-half years at the center, this is the story that’s moved me the most.”

“I did think about keeping (the car),” said Sebastian Gupta, “but it’s going to a good cause.”

“He’s our only child,” said Yohanne Gupta, Sebastian’s father. “Linda (Sebastian’s mother) and I believe that part of our responsibility as parents is to instill service into our son.”

The Guptas, who live in Bunker Hill Village, started instilling that notion of service early.

Sebastian recalls that at his sixth or seventh birthday party, he had his friends bring cans of food rather than presents, food that he donated to the Fairhaven UMC pantry.

“The Memorial area is so affluent, but only a few miles away people struggle just to put food on the table,” he said.

Fast forward to the summer of 2010, when Sebastian was approached by his father about his summer plans.

Yohanne Gupta wanted Sebastian to do something to further his interest in engineering and business.

They hit upon the idea of rebuilding an old car — “Sebastian has always been a tinkerer,” says Yohanne — and added the altruistic element at the same time.

Linda Gupta has long supported the Houston Area Women’s Center, silently, she says. “We’re private (as a family),” she said. “We’re not out in the forefront.”

But his mother’s interest in the center extended to Sebastian, who made it his cause as well.

Through some of his father’s contacts, Sebastian found the car at an auction, paying $1,400 for a car that didn’t run and needed extensive clean-up inside.

“Nobody else even bid on it,” he said.

1G Upper Engine rebuild/mods looking for advice - DSM Forums

I purchased my talon about a year ago since that time I have made many of the usual minor repairs. Which include tires, clutch, master and slave cylinders, plugs brakes, etc. it is a 92 with 203,000 miles recently my thermostat went and I think the engine got to hot because shortly after I replaced it my engine would overheat when I was stuck in traffic. Also there was an idle surge, and I would drop boost pressure around 3,200 RPM-4,500 RPM. I decided it was time to do the head gasket and or water pump to stop the engine temp problem. As I got into the engine some parts the head especially where very clean. I can even tell which parts had or hadn't been replaced. I already got the gasket kit, studs, both t-belts, all necessary pulleys, auto adjuster, and fuel filter so i can put her back together correctly. However, this is where I am getting hung up. Since I have already opened up this much of the engine I figure I should do some minor modifications to make things easier on me later on. One I was going to loop the steering rack because I have already lost one alternator to the Power Steering Pump. Two because the AC has not been run in years I am going to pull that especially because I never use it. Three is where I am drawing a blank there are several missing exhaust nuts which leads me to believe this could have been causing part of my boost problem because the boost leak test I did I could not find any vacuum lines that were leaking. My question is should I bring her up to original factory spec before I mod anything or save my self some cash and time to put into other areas of the engine and mod/upgrade those parts I need for example turbo manifold?

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