PROJECT - Restoration of 1972 Opel GT Download

[opelspyder]

I have gotten several questions about what tools you might need to do metal work. If anyone really knows me, they know I am a tool collector of sort. I will buy a sweet piece of equipment in hopes it will be a return in the investment later on down the road. Some are, and some aren't. Here is a list of what I use on sometimes a weekly basis, sometimes once a year. This doesn't mean that to do any metal work, you must have these tools or you cannot work with metal. A guy with hand shears and a hammer with rock might be able to get all the results without expensive tools. I find I buy or bought these tools to save time on making parts such as patch panels and such. Picture 1-5 A good vise is a great tool for bending and clamping, Hammering dollies-I find the more shapes I have to hit against the better. Holding clamps-these neat items make it easy to hold panels together during welding. A good selection of body hammers and hammering dollies is a must. This roper whitney hole puncher offers several size hole dies and is handy for making spot weld holes

[opelspyder]

Sometimes its good to sandblast an area quickly without bring out all the sand blast gear or moving the car-these speedi blasters are good for that. A good selection of vise grips are great for panel holding and mocking up parts...you can never get enough of these. Air tools are handy, I carry a shear, die grinder/sander, nibbler, air blower, and drill. A 4-1/2 inch grinder makes quick work of welds also. I use a bead roller to form panel lines and such. An english wheel is great for fender curve pieces.

[opelspyder]

I use several shears, but this throatless shear really is helpful for longer cuts and curved cuts. Sometimes a squre cut is needed and the angle nothcer really saves the day. We have several welders but this 110 unit from Miller is great with really thin material. I rarely use this like the car tv shows make them out to be, but we do have a plasma cutter...I prefer the old cut-off wheel for smooth edges. I have a 3 ft foot operated shear which does good, but I recommend a 4ft one. Seems 3 ft is always 4 inches too short.

[opelspyder]

A drill press and grinder are used on a daily basis it seems as well and are invaluable tools. The only thing I don't show is a metal bender (brake) We use the shop next door for that, but I will be purchasing a 4 ft one soon. Its funny that all the tools for metal work I have shown are my personal tools, except for the plasma cutter. I still tend to have to borrow a tool just to get the desired effect with metal, so yes, even when you think you have every tool, you need more. I hope you all like seeing the equipment and maybe when we get to paint, I will go over some of those tools as well.
Keith

[opelspyder]

This is a continuation of the rear jack point fix. Someone on the forum mentioned showing this area a little in detail. I showd the actual jacking point simply cut off for starts. I then proceed to cut out the metal underneath, and carefully leaving the seat rails and under support in tact so I can respotweld to it. I then cut out a close pattern, I will use about 3 pieces here. Punch out the holes that line up with the under supporting flanges, and then reweld into place. The last piece was a little tough to make, and its not perfect, but serves the same purpose, It provides a flange for the outer rocker to meet to the rear fender lip.

[opelspyder]

Here is the piece that seems redundant in this area. I made it close, but not perfect, I decided to weld this in instead of spotwelding it. Be sure to prime the inside of the panels before welding in.

[opelspyder]

I have pretty much finished the driver's floor areas and the rocker for this side. I took a bit more than the passenger side, but the results are the same. I still lack having the rear fender lip done on the end of the rocker, and I still have the jacking point on the rear to install. In pictures-new rocker and front fender extension replaced, and floor seam sealed-will primer again after dried. I make it a point on panels that were welded in and are not really a show point such as under the carpet, I like to seam seal these areas just as an extra preventative to help seal incase the metal were to crack at the seam, and to displace moisture. Now obviously I would not seam seal a panel welded in on the top of the fender, just floor areas and such/inner fenders. I usually brush my lines too, so it resembles a factory seam seal job...and we know how much freaking seam sealer they used. I wonder how much all the seam sealer would weight if you stripped it of the entire body and put it on a scale. I bet it would shock some of us.
Keith

[opelspyder]

Pretty much have all metal done on the driver's side from the front fender to the rear fender lip. I sectioned a piece of the fender lip in from a donor. I have a little more to do on the back side of the fender and 3 or 4 small quarter size rust spots to replace. Up ahead is the lower part of the tail panel-it doesn't look to be too much of a problem though. After this I will be hammering down on the belly pan. Also the rear jack point is back on. Do some measuring here when installing, put the trailering arms on if you must as well for more measurements. Go by underfloor body lines instead of pieces spot welded on like the e-brake brackets. This will give you more accurate of a position
Keith

[opelspyder]

I have finished all the metal work from the front to the rear end except the upper fender areas. I am getting real close to the body work stage of the project. Kinda funny it is just now coming up, but a lot had to be done prior. I will be working on the belly pan and upper heater box area this week and hopefully by the end of the week be ready to start body work. We will be undercoating this car, and then painting over the undercoat to give a clean look underneath. I have some rather large dents to knock out the belly before I reweld it to the front. Notice I cut the fender open to access the top of the heater box. I didn't intitially want to do this, but when cutting rust, I could see pinholes in the panel. I will weld up the antenna hole at the same time as well. I will weld the heater box up for the most part, but then seam seal the upper part to keep water away...just a thin layer here.
Keith

[opelspyder]

The initial metal work has been completed. The belly pan will be reworked and primed before welding on. I sandblasted it today over the welds to get rid of any impurities in the weld. All together it looks pretty good.

[opelspyder]

Bodywork has begun, we start with a fiberglass reinforced polyester filler first to rough it in, then we will use a finer filler. I do not believe in too many bodyshops that stat they do not use any fillers...they all take some. Here are some pics
Keith

[opelspyder]

Rounging in the door area now. Our body guy Robert is doing the bodywork and it is looking good. The door gaps are one thing that should be most important when refitting. I will drill 1/8 holes in the door hinges on both mounting surfaces (inner body and door inner) I will put at least two holes on each surface. I do this because the doors will come back off. When they go back on I can take 1/8 dowels and line it back up close to where we set them. Good little bodyman trick here to do. This can be done on any car and recommend for trunks and hoods as well.

[opelspyder]

Well today I went to pick up the chrome. For the first time I can say all of the following. 1. It was done in a timely manner 2. The Chromer called me to let me know it was done. 3. The items looked great 4. The price was negotiated at our budget-yeah, we got a heck of a deal (maybe my pull with business???) Saved about 700-800 dollars. The items were actually received better than I anticipated. Here are some pics....gotta go fit some headlight buckets

[newman27]

I met up with Keith yesterday (05/12) for my second in-person visit to see how things are going. My wife didn't tag along this time, so it was just me. Keith had the chrome all laid out when I got there and it looks fantastic in person. There appears to be only one minor blemish on the whole set and that is on the underside of one of the rear bumpers - so no big deal. Keith had to bump out that bumper because I had damaged it many years ago by backing into my folks car in the driveway . We then spent a good bit of time going over the bodywork that has begun. The doors and headlights are in place temporarily to help ensure proper fit.

We then discussed the belly pan at great length trying to decide between fixing up mine or using the OGTS fiberglass belly pan. My belly pan was dented pretty bad in another mishap early on in my ownership of the car. I wasn't used to how low the GT rides and ran up on a curb . OK, that is all the damage I did to the car - honest. We decided to go with the OGTS fiberglass belly pan. The amount of time Keith would spend making mine sweet by bumping it out and repairing rust, etc. doesn't make sense when we can get a good reproduction for less. I'm sure Keith will cover in detail the process of attaching the fiberglass piece to the car when we get there.

Next, we covered the remaining parts we need from OGTS. In addition to the belly pan, we'll be ordering a set of the driver and passenger side mirrors that were discussed in another thread, the dash cap, some under hood rubber, and we need a set of inner tie rods that were on back order and are now available.

Finally, we checked out all the cool cars around the shop in various states of restoration and took a spin in a Trans Am that just came in for work. The Trans Am isn't my kind of car but that thing has some power!

Matt

[opelspyder]

Here are some updated pictures of the headlight fitment. Mat got to see these rotate for the first time since he has owned the car.......yes he drove it without lights for 20 YEARS!!!!!!! Sorry these are late, due to the Carlisle trip, I wasn't able to post them immediately. We had to do some work to get the gaps correct. Our bodyman worked very little to do this and within an hour they looked great. I am not doing the bodywork on this car personnally. I left it up to our bodyshop division. I am more in the assembly/dissassembly and metal work areas. Sometimes I have to help pick up slack in the bodyshop part, but with some new hiring, this hasn't been necessary. I have some more pics that will be put on tomorrow.
Keith

[opelspyder]

Body work has commenced and were are steadily making towards the 1st Primer stage (Yes Edwin, we are using the good stuff-you are more than welcome to do your inspection at our shop instead of busting my chops at Carlisle- ) Sorry, had to put that in there. I never claim to be the person with all the answers, but usually I meet people who feel they are the authority on everything automotive, and I have found that I let my work do the talking. These stages that are pictured is sort of the 2nd stage of autobody filler. It is a medium build (or should say smooth) that leaves the surface close to what will be the final finish. We will use a glazing putty next to fill any minut pinholes and scratches. Then the Primers actually do the final fill for us. There are several different approaches to these steps, and I find that all of them usually is suitable. So if someone says they rather not use a feather fill glaze putty, and use higher build primers; it doesn't mean that either way is wrong. Sometimes it is personal preference. By the end of the week we will hopefully have the body ready to be removed from the rotisserie.
Keith

[opelspyder]

I say complete here, but really only a 1st to 2nd stage. We pulled it outside to air blow the dust off and get ready for primer.
Keith

[opelspyder]

Here we have primed with a PPG DP-50. This is a great primer for bare metal surfaces. Then after that has dried, we are applying a high build primer on the main painted surfaces. Here are some pics in the paint booth!!!! A long awaited step.
Keith

[opelspyder]

We are about 2 weeks out from painting the car, but after the first primer and heavy build we begin block sanding too knock the highs down and find the lows. We will cut in paint for the belly pan area and then attach the fiberglass belly pan. Here is the car in block sand stage
Keith

[opelspyder]

I decided to go ahead and undercoat the body now, than wait till after final primers just to control overspray. We will not be leaving this black, we will paint to match the body, but wanted the textured sound proofing and protection. We are using 08864 3M Body Shultz here as it dries quickly and is paintable. I am sending Matt out a color sample to make sure the color we are using will suit him. Getting really close, just fitted up the hood and it looked great.
Keith

[opelspyder]

Already reprimed the areas that needed more block sanding. Will soon be wet sanding and getting final items in primer to paint. These pictures look like a repeat, but there is progress happening here.
Keith

[opelspyder]

As soon as I think we will be removing the car from the rotisserie, we decide to keep using it to do final paint work until we are about ready to paint the entire shell. I fitted the hood today just to make sure it will work out and it looks good. New hinge with some grease zerks help as well...thanks Harold. There is not too many stages left until this dude is painted. I will find out for sure what the official color is tomorrow and it will be announced. Be sure to check back to see what was offically decided. Anyways here are the hood shots. This project has been in the shop and documented for a complete 5 monthes. Not too bad of a turnaround for a car with so much rust and issues!
Keith

[opelspyder]

Drumroll please...........................
The new color will be, FIREGLOW. Okay maybe no big surprise here, Matt wants to stick to the original color, and I cannot really blame him. I compared the color on the outside and inside of an old door of his. The outside was repainted back in th 80's and it was a bit duller, the inside of the door matched really well. Car is back in the paintbooth for another primer stage and then the underside will get cut in so we can attach the belly pan.
Keith

[opelspyder]

Reprimed the car with PPG K36 and started cutting in the underneath and nose areas. Here are some action shots for you
Keith

[opelspyder]

Well, the under part is now cut in, the interior we did a bit as well. We will now install the belly pan and do last body work to finish out. Then it will go in paint booth again to cut in the engine bay. After that it goes on a lift and the rotisserie is removed and car is put on a cart. By next week it should be done. Still have a 32 Roadster and some Camaros to work in
Keith