I bought a '71 GT on bay about a week and a half ago. Because of family reunions etc., I've only gotten to start on it a few days ago. The seller, who knew nothing about Opels, said that it had no rust and he was almost right. The battery tray is rusted through and today I found that the panel under the front end has a small rust through spot. Otherwise, it is as rust-free as anyone could ask for with a 38-year-old car. I have a photo of the underside of the left side sill or rocker panel which shows a bit of surface rust and nothing more. The car had been sitting for who knows how long and the gasoline was really bad. I drained the tank and blew out all of the lines and installed a new filter. The seller said that he had gotten the car to run by putting gasoline in the carb (Weber), but it died as soon as that fuel had been burned. He suggested that it probably needed a fuel pump. I knew that it was pumping gas to the carb, but it wouldn't keep running for me either. I didn't have a fuel pressure gauge, so I improvised with a piece of tubing which I connected to the fuel pump and elevated the other end to a height of ten feet. I then cranked it over and soon fuel was coming out the elevated end. I had figured that that was equal to 2.5 PSI. If anyone wants that calculation, let me know. The next time I started it with gas in the carb, it kept on running. It was not the smoothest, but it was running! The hole for the screw which holds the points in the distributor was stripped, so I taped it for a 5mm screw. I had to open up the slot in the points to accommodate the larger screw, but at least now I can set the points. I'm currently trying to check the static timing, but so far I have not located the ball on the flywheel. Someone put duals on the car, at least I don't think that they are stock. A compression check showed all cylinders to fall between 132 and 142 PSI. I'm putting on some photos of the car. The front end has some light to moderate damage. I figured that it would be much easier and cheaper to deal with that than to deal with a rust bucket. Bill
08-03-2009
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