Ascona introduction

[MantAscona]

Well, in typical fashion for me, I'm finally getting around to a proper introduction for the 1975 Ascona that I put together for my daughter Shelby.

I originally bought the car from Scott (Sportwagon75) to build into a hillclimb car. Upon bringing it home, Shelby decided she was really diggin' it so I asked her if she would like to have it as her first car. She was quite excited about it so I commited myself to making it a safe, reliable and fun car for her to learn how to drive in. I decided early on that I wanted her to have something different from all of her friends, but I wasn't exactly sure of how I wanted the car to look when finished.

In the interest of minimizing my project workload and not spending a fortune I settled on the idea of doing a vintage style rally car. The main point of this was that I could leave the suspension basically stock and still achieve the look I was after. Rally cars are suposed to sit high right? This eliminated a lot of time, work and money from the project. I already had a set of vintage BWA Sportstar wheels that would look period correct and most of the accessories needed to pull this off.

I called the guy that's painting my hillclimb car for free and asked him if he wanted a paying job. He agreed to do it when he learned it was another Opel Ascona. Ironically, this is the guy I bought my very first Opel from back in 1984 so he gets a kick out of the fact that I'm still playing with these things. I told him how I wanted it painted and when I needed it done by and he did his thing.

After getting it back from the paint shop, I set about doing all of the mechanical work to get the car running and driving again after having been off the road since 1993. I did a complete brake job including new hoses, rotors, calipers, wheel cylinders, lining, wheel bearings and turned the drums. I installed new shocks, exhaust, rack boots, ball joints, all fuel cooling and vacuum hoses, all fluids were changed, Pertronix and new plugs, injectors cleaned, and a new thermostat. I did some needed electrical repairs and installed a new battery.

I had a lot of cleaning to do on all of the trim pieces and interior. I bead blasted and painted tons of trim stuff and polished all of the brightwork. I decided to change the interior from the factory tan to black as I thought it would compliment the paint scheme better. I traded Robbie (rionart) for the black door panels out of the Spray Foam Special and bought some rear side panels from Gene (BQS4). I exchanged the the dashboard for a nice one I had in my basement as the original one was cracked. I installed a black headliner as well. I couldn't find a nice black rear seat so I painted the original tan one with vinyl dye. It came out so good you can't even tell it was ever tan. I couldn't find any decent front seats either so I was going to paint them too, but I was a bit concerned with how well they would wear. I ended up using a pair of seats (Honda CRX I believe) that Bob (rallybob) graciously donated to the project. In fact, Bob was responsible in big part for this project getting done on time as he helped me immensely with needed parts.

In keeping with the vintage theme, I installed an old Alpine head unit, ADS Power Plate amp and Babb 6x9 speakers that I had in my old GT. I deleted the factory radio antenna and installed a european style roof mounted unit instead. I also recovered the rear parcel shelf as the original was badly baked from the sun. I mounted a factory tach and an Osram copilot map lamp. A vintage AutoPower four point roll bar rounds out the racey look (Bob again). That pretty much completed the interior.

Some new weatherstripping and NOS lights helped the exterior look fresh again. I made some big honkin' rally style mud flaps from some material I bought from McMaster Carr and riveted them to the wheel arches with aluminum rivets and nylon washers. I searched long and hard for the perfect tires to make this thing look like a real rally car from the seventies, and believe me, it wasn't easy. I ended up finding a guy in Illinois that bought 88 tires from the US Postal Service that were used as snow tires on the old style mail Jeeps. These were real vintage, in excellent preserved condition, the right size (tall and skinny) and cheap at $22 each! I mounted and balanced them on the BWA's and they look perfect.

Continuing on the exterior, I added a giant Blitz emblem on the roof to mimmick the factory cars of the day, courtesy of Bob..... again. I installed some old Hella H4 headlamps and a french registration plate that I had lying around to give it more of a european look. One of the last things to tackle was the bumpers. Now, I know there's always a debate over which style bumpers are better (I prefer the early chrome bumpers) but I wanted something totally different to complete the rally car theme. I removed the factory safety bumpers, but I kept the shock absorbers intact. I built off of the absorbers and bent up some safari rally style bumpers out of roll cage tubing. This allows the energy absorbers to still perform the way they were designed and adds the strength of a more structural bumper than the thin chrome ones. Plus they look cool as a bonus. I moved the license plate down to the early mounting position and illuminated it with an old Lucas lamp. I also added a rear fog lamp and wired it into the parking lamp circuit so it's always lit for an extra margin of safety. Up front, I welded on some chassis tabs to mount four NOS Hella Rally 2000 lamps that I had. I think the bumpers are what pulls it all together and makes it look authentic rather than just a stock looking car with a paint job.

So, now that I rambled on forever and my fingers are cramped, here it is. Before and after.

Duane

[MantAscona]

Some more...

[MantAscona]

And more....

[MantAscona]

And more...

[MantAscona]

Still more....

[BQS4]

Looks cool to me Duane, and as long as Shelby likes it and drives it, what more could you ask for?

[MantAscona]

And this should be it for now.

[MantAscona]

Thanks Gene. Shelby's definitely diggin' it so I must have done something right.

Duane

[namba209]

Man, that is nothing but nice. A real one-off. Nice goig. Your daughter's gotta be proud to drive it.

[Sportwagon75]

Looks great Duane. I'm glad the Ascona has a good home. I noticed you did away with the A/C. Also...how did you finish out the battery box?

[BQS4]

Originally Posted by MantAscona Thanks Gene. Shelby's definitely diggin' it so I must have done something right. Duane

It may not be the "prettiest" car on the road, but, in the High School klicks, she won't be passing herself in amongst all the BMWs, Audis, Mustangs and such. She'll definitely stand out!

[tomking]

Great Job and what a nice gift for your daughter. How long did it take you to do the car?

[MantAscona]

Originally Posted by Sportwagon75 Looks great Duane. I'm glad the Ascona has a good home. I noticed you did away with the A/C. Also...how did you finish out the battery box?

Yeah, the AC had to go for a few reasons.
1- The car barely makes enough power to begin with and adding AC and an automatic transmission sure wouldn't help.

2- The dealer installation method was borderline criminal. It's truly amazing to see what was considered to be acceptable back then. I can't imagine anyone today accepting that kind of workmanship on a new vehicle. I wish I would have taken photos of it.

3- Ever see a rally car with AC???

I seam sealed the entire repair area around the battery and made my own battery hold down. Nothing fancy. Keep in mind this car may not be with us for very long, she is a new driver.... I didn't see the point in making the car too nice for that very reason.

Duane

[Aardvaark]

Wow! nice rally theme. Your daughter will have the most unique
rides in the town lot for sure. Lucky young lady!

[MantAscona]

Originally Posted by tomking Great Job and what a nice gift for your daughter. How long did it take you to do the car?

Thanks Tom. It took me about 2 months to complete. I worked non stop every day from 3:15 when I got home from work until midnight or later and every weekend from 7:00 am until 11:00pm or so to get it done. I was pretty burnt out by the end and was more than happy to see it roll off the lift. The goal was to have it done for her 16th birthday and have her "open it" at her party, however, that didn't happen as I just couldn't meet the deadline. I got the car back from paint in mid March and her birthday was March 22nd so it didn't leave me much time. I was very disappointed that I didn't have it done for her big day. The next goal was to have it done in time for Carlisle which I was able to do. I know some people have already seen the car at Carlisle, but I just wanted to post this thread for others who were not there. I know it took me long enough, but I do get around to everything eventually.

Duane

[MantAscona]

Originally Posted by Aardvaark Wow! nice rally theme. Your daughter will have the most unique rides in the town lot for sure. Lucky young lady!

That was the goal. Thanks.

Duane

[MantAscona]

I guess I should probably post a picture of the car with its proud new owner and one of her on her first drive.

Ok, the third shot isn't really her, but she wishes it was!

Duane

[jlthunder]

I got to see the car before it made it to Carlisle during Rick's rear main seal from hell. It is a truely amazing car. I'd love to see it sitting in my driveway. It was great seeing Shelby drive it in the rain at Carlisle. I think if she smiled any more she would of hurt herself. You are a great dad for doing this project. I wouldn't mind getting your input for my son when the time comes. Shawn is halfway there, only 8 more years to go

[madhatterpdc]

My little girl is t-minus two months old, hope you don't mind if I ape this idea 16 years from now!

[MantAscona]

Originally Posted by madhatterpdc My little girl is t-minus two months old, hope you don't mind if I ape this idea 16 years from now!

Feel free. Although I imagine it's gonna be pretty tough to find a decent Ascona to start with 16 years from now. They're getting difficult to find now.

You've got a lot of great times and entertainment ahead of you, enjoy every minute of it.

Duane

[Phoenix]

AHHHHHHHHH! 2Dr Ascona, how I love you. I love period cars. Mission accomplished. Nice piece of work. A car I think everyone can appreciate.

[RallyBob]

I don't care what they say about you Duane, you're okay...

Wait, that's me that says that stuff about you, isn't it?

[opelgtguy]

Don't let the words 'budget' or 'economical' throw you off here folks. Duane was able to pull this off on a budget due to his extreme skills as much as anything. The car looks great in person. I was fortunate to be able to follow the progress of this project from the beginning, and have learned many things from just hanging out at Garage Mahal.

Well done, sir !

Rick

[hrcollinsjr]

Love the car, I looked at it long enough at Carlisle! If I had a spare Ascona, I would love to do something similar.

As your daughter may soon find out she won't be able to get away with any shenanigans driving a car like this!

Harold

[neuropel]

Originally Posted by opelgtguy Don't let the words 'budget' or 'economical' throw you off here folks. Duane was able to pull this off on a budget due to his extreme skills as much as anything. The car looks great in person. I was fortunate to be able to follow the progress of this project from the beginning, and have learned many things from just hanging out at Garage Mahal. Well done, sir ! Rick

A very good point Rick! Anyone who has seen the car in person can attest to the high level of detail Duane put into it. It's a very cool car, and my 11yr old hasn't stopped talking about it since Carlisle. He calls it a "Shelby Ascona" . One thing about Duane - I always get inspired and want to move ahead with my own projects everytime I visit the Garage Mahal or see his work.

I really liked the bumpers Duane built and the thought has crossed my mind of whether one could do something similar but with chrome to better emulate the look of the earlier thin-bumpered cars? Perhaps just a single bar, or would the bumper shock absorbers push it out too far?

Todd