Evil-Bobs GT-reconstruction

[Evil-Bob]

I guess I might as well start a project thread here as well.
The car is now in a rotisserie as mentioned in another thread, and I've started grinding and cutting.
The car seems to be a lot worse than expected, beeing that it's been repaired earlier by someone in Finland, someone who never should have done anything more to a car than drive it.

If it's fine by the moderators, comments can be posted in this thread.

I'll let the pictures to the talking:













Most of the welding is done on top of the original bodywork, with little or no cutting!!
Someone must have loved bondo....
I counted 13 layers of primer, bondo and paint.

The things to do that that I don't have pictures of now: Complete floor panels must be changed, including seatconsoles, splash panels are gone, outer and intermediate sills are poor, big parts the frame from the firewall and forward needs to be reconstructed, and the doors and hood are in a sorry state.

[Evil-Bob]

More pics

[opelnut10]

You are a brave soul to tackle that kind of body work. I know there are long winters in Norway and I hope you have a dry, heated place to work on it. From the looks of the pictures it looks like the bondo was all that was holding it together. Everyone to their own thing but I hate body work and would have never undertaken that kind of project even in my younger days, and now that I am in my late 60's I would not live long enough to finish it if I started today. I wish you well and I can feel your pain all the way over here in Virginia.

[StefanL]

Whoa!

You sir are a brave man. I would stop right there until I could find a much healthier (perhaps empty) body to scavenge most body panels and other sheet metal pieces from.

Are you goint to attempt to fabricate new body panels for it? If I could be that skilled with sheet metal!

Well...good luck! You're going to need it!

(and don't forget to post pics)

[Evil-Bob]

Thanks for the sympathy guys
I think not as brave as foolish. This is my first project including sheet metal work, and I wouldn't have gotten in to it if I knew it was this extensive, considering it's not the easiest car to fabricate panels for and new repro metal panels are quite expensive. Also, it's hard to find GT's for parts here.
I never imagined all fenders to be crap.
But I guess it's to late to turn around now, since it would be close to impossible to get the money back at this point.

[hallgeir]

OMG!! I`ll just have to repeat what the others said. You are a brave soul. I have seen it been done before on other cars in my neighbourhood, but it took time and hard work. I don`t know your background, for all I know, you could be a professional sheet metal man, but you`ll need some good luck wishes, so GOOD LUCK!! It will be a very interesting thread to follow. Let us see many pics, please.

Where in Norway are you located, btw?

Ahh, you posted right before me. I guess your not a professional sheet metal man, then.

[Evil-Bob]

Originally Posted by hallgeir OMG!! I`ll just have to repeat what the others said. You are a brave soul. I have seen it been done before on other cars in my neighbourhood, but it took time and hard work. I don`t know your background, for all I know, you could be a professional sheet metal man, but you`ll need some good luck wishes, so GOOD LUCK!! It will be a very interesting thread to follow. Let us see many pics, please. Where in Norway are you located, btw? Ahh, you posted right before me. I guess your not a professional sheet metal man, then.

Yeah... guess I'm in a bit deep
I'm in Tromsoe. You?

[hallgeir]

Originally Posted by Evil-Bob Yeah... guess I'm in a bit deep I'm in Tromsoe. You?

I`m in Aalesund. Believe it or not, but there`s 3 GT`s within 2 km from me. Mine is the only one that`s driveable. The second one I haven`t seen, it`s supposed to be painted, and it`s been ready for reassembling for the last 10+ years. The third one belongs to the Opel dealer, imported from California. That one has also been painted, but need some interior work done. But, it`s been sitting in a corner for the last 3-4 years now, without much work done to it. They`ve been talking about selling it, actually.

[Evil-Bob]

Okei... I know of one more in Tromsoe. Let me know if you find a cheap one

[hallgeir]

I will. Well, you know what to do during the long, dark winters up there, now. Good luck, again.

[opelspyder]

Yes, that car is pretty far gone, but if they are tough to get in your area, and you are wanting to learn, I say go for it. You are on the right path to learn about the inner structures of the GT with this, and you will pick up so many things from hand making pieces and such. You probably have a little better access to new sheetmetal than we do here as well. If your labor is free, and you have no other projects or ambitions to accomplish instead of this car, fix it. If it doesn't come out good, you haven't lost too much.
Keith

[blancojp]

Hello!
I don't believe the car is that bad, all vehicles with rusted panels become adventures which you learn as you do. If you really want to learn about body work, do as I did 20 years ago when I got the shop.

Find a local body shop and ask if you can work one day a week (free of charge of course) to learn metal work. You might have to go to a few but there will be always one that will say yes. Spend some time at the shop, learn and then practice what you learned on your car. You can also take a night school course but you will never learn as much as if you were doing the real thing.

Body work is easy to do if you have the fundamentals and some practice. I had three of the best teachers providing me the essentials to actually do some damage. And though I really don't do the work per say, with a hammer and dolly or a paint gun at hand, I can really hold my own with the best of them.

Good luck with your project...

[Evil-Bob]

The car has now been sold to another brave man.

[biglefti]

Originally Posted by Evil-Bob The car has now been sold to another brave man.

Well, that didn't take long.....................................smart move!!

Now go find one that doesn't need so much.

[Evil-Bob]

Yeah, for me I think it was the smartest move. I got my money back, so I'm very pleased.
I'm sorry to say I don't think I will buy another GT in a long time.
Next time I buy an Opel, the Ascona A/B, Manta A or Kadett C Coupe are more interesting to me.
But for now it's Mercedes superturbodiesel for all the money.
Thanks for all the support