My Opel GT.

[OpelNewb]

Ok I have been working on this quite a bit lately and now I thought I would post the details.

First I bought a fairly rust free Opel from Ebay. Here are the pics since they are worth more than a thousand.





Ok. So that is what it looked like the day it arrived. Not pretty and although it ran it had issues. Leaks plagued the entire driveline. So I decided to start there first. The rear freeze plug was leaking so out the trans came. Well that snow balled on me the rear seal was leaking as was the oil pan. So I decided that I would remove those as well. I drained the oil and then removed the pan only to find about a half inch of sludge inside of it. Plus glitter!!!! I was now worried. I started inspecting bearings. The rods were not resized during the rebuild and that trashed the bearings. So now I knew the engine needed to come out as well. Meanwhile I had put the removal of the engine off. I started work on the headlights and wiring. Lot's of issues there as well. Got all of that fixed and working. Now time to start removing everything.

I have pulled almost every piece off the car now and am ready to take it to the paint shop. The engine is being worked on as we speak and several thousand dollars has been spent on parts. We will see how things turn out.

Oh did I mention I need this done by no later than June!! So I have six months to rebuild this....











Well there you have it. I will post more info and pics as the GT comes along. I hope everyone enjoys the pics. It's been an adventure so far.

[OpelNewb]

Here are some more pics.

[guyopel]

Thanks for posting .. Now the work starts ..Good luck with your project and looking forward to more photos .
John

[markandson]

I don't know if you are planning on it but I would take the gas tank out. The bottom of the tank around the outlet has a tendency to rust out and now is the time to fix it. It's only 6 bolts and the outlet fitting. If the fitting breaks you can repair the whole deal with the tank out. Since you are this far you probably should take the steering wheel out too and all the wiring and the pedal assembly. Clean and lube everything. It's all only time, not money, why the rush for June?

[OpelNewb]

I have already had the gas tank out and it looks like I still may pull it again. Due to the damage to the rear of the car they kinda messed up the opening where the line comes out making it very hard to get a wrench on it to tighten the fitting on the tank. I have already remade the line and still have to make some other lines as well. I figure that I will fix the opening after they do the body work. The tank is empty now so it's easy to remove if need be. If anyone sees somethign else I may have missed feel free to chime in.

Also the color that the car will be is Inferno Orange Metallic. It's a color from a 08 Corvette.

[Dennis Texas]

I was just wondering as I see your car also has the side protectors on it are you going to keep them or take them off when you finish your car for paint? I've taken them off one of my cars and I have one I'm working on now that has them I was thinking seriously of removing them as well. They are nice, but I think it takes away from the lines of the car ?

[OpelNewb]

Well I am debating whether or not to remove the side strips. I want to keep them on cause the doors for some reason open so far that the one behind the front tire on the fender keeps the door from hitting the paint. I haven't looked into that exactly yet but if I do remove them some sort of door stop will be needed. I would imagine i'm missing something with hinges that keeps the door from opening so far. I should be getting it over to the body shop on Friday. The engine machining should be done within the next could weeks. I am sure it will take me twice as long to reassemble the car than it did to tear it down.

[Jeepsbeme]

Originally Posted by OpelNewb I am sure it will take me twice as long to reassemble the car than it did to tear it down.

Reassembling it in only twice as long as the teardown took would be an incredible accomplishment!

[OpelNewb]

Well jeepsbeme. I have alot of practice. This is my job in a way. Once a year I buy a car to fix up. This one I will be keeping though. It's for the wife. I have been rebuilding cars since I was about 15. First one was a Cadillac. I have done alot of them about 20 so far. This is the first Opel though.

[Jeepsbeme]

Practice makes perfect!

It usually takes me about a month to take a vehicle down while cleaning, bagging & tagging the parts along the way. Then I normally spend about 18 months for the actual restoration and reassembly.

Neither approach is better than the other. It all comes down to which one works for each person. Best of luck on this Opel project. Keep the "work in progress" photos coming!! We all appreciate seeing how things are moving along.

[SteveGT]

Good to hear your restoring her...just a tip, if you haven't purchased the wiring diagram from DESTEC (member on the forum here) I would HIGHLY recommend you do so...it is a true work of art and will save you many hours figuring the wiring and or problems when you go to reassemble her

Been using his diagram this week and have just about ran all the "ghosts" out couldn't have done it without that.....SteveG

[OpelNewb]

I got one of those dymo electronic labelers it gets used alot! I tag and bag almost everything. I just can't wait to see it when it's done. I love to stand back and see the progress completed. I will keep the pictures coming as soon as I have some more. I hope to work on the interior panels while the car is away getting painted.

I have a wiring diagram and luckily I have already redone alot of the wiring due to melted or damaged wiring. I did all of that first that way when I go back together with it I can plug and play! I do need to get another alternator though. I doubt the stock one will last long with a modern stereo in it. I am going to look into this place across the street from my neighborhood they can rebuild them so maybe they can modify it as well.

[OpelNewb]

Well i had another issue today. I took the car over to this paint shop that was recommended to me buy a insurance guy that i am friends with. he said to paint the opel that it would be 8 months before he could get to it and then take 4-6 months to complete. At a cost of (hold on folks) 6000-7500 BUX. I almost fell over. Anyway take a good close look at the pics above and give me your opinions on it. If you know someone in the Beaumont Texas area that could do a decent job painting the car and did not want a small fortune to do it. I was prepared to pay around 3000 to 4000. Which seems reasonable to me for the work.

[tomking]

Texas is the hail damage capital of the world. It sounds like he is backlogged with hail damage to me.

[opelnut10]

Originally Posted by OpelNewb Well i had another issue today. I took the car over to this paint shop that was recommended to me buy a insurance guy that i am friends with. he said to paint the opel that it would be 8 months before he could get to it and then take 4-6 months to complete. At a cost of (hold on folks) 6000-7500 BUX. I almost fell over. Anyway take a good close look at the pics above and give me your opinions on it. If you know someone in the Beaumont Texas area that could do a decent job painting the car and did not want a small fortune to do it. I was prepared to pay around 3000 to 4000. Which seems reasonable to me for the work.

First of all you ask the wrong person (insurance guy) about a shop. Shops that do a lot of insurance business cannot tie up the space for 4 to 6 months they say it is going to take to do your car so he gave you the high ball number hoping that it would deter you from having them fix it. My advice is to grant their wish and keep looking, try to find a small shop that picks and chooses their work (and is intrested) to do your body and paint. Someone maybe that has been around a long time and takes pride in their work. Materials now for painting cars has taken a large jump in the past few years and this type of project in labor intensive so expect to pay 2,3 or 4 thousand dollars (depending of body work required) and be prepared to allow for delays.

[OpelNewb]

Well I am going to keep looking for sure. I am also going to do some more of the work myself. I am going to replace the belly pan in the front myself and the rear panel as well. I decided to start the work yesterday. I think once I have that done which is the most labor intensive parts to replace or fix that should also drive the cost down. I am going to try to find those pieces in sheet metal but if I cannot then fiberglass will have to do.

As far as it being the hail damage capital. We haven't had hail here where I live in a long time. It's usually worse in north texas.

The guy who I took it to does alot of restorations. He had atleast 5 restor jobs in his shop that I saw. He does amazing work. Here is a link to so jobs he has done.Gonzos. Nice work but very expensive. Too rich for my blood.

[markandson]

Finding a cheap shop that does quality work will be all but impossible. You know the old saying "you get what you pay for". Try to find a shop that will give you a decent job that you will be satisfied with. If you are looking for the perfect job it pretty much does not exist, unless you do all the work yourself and are very good at it. I did a ton of work on my car, spent a fortune to have the body fixed, and still had to do a ton of work when I got it back, and it still is not perfect. I found out early that setting time limits on the project is good but not too practicle, it pretty much serves to give you targets to shoot at and then you ultimately have to move the target. It does come together in time. Have a good time with the car, it will cost more than you are figuring which also may slow you down if you need to spread out the monetary pain. Good luck.

[markandson]

Originally Posted by OpelNewb Well I am debating whether or not to remove the side strips. I want to keep them on cause the doors for some reason open so far that the one behind the front tire on the fender keeps the door from hitting the paint. I haven't looked into that exactly yet but if I do remove them some sort of door stop will be needed.

Your hinges are shot. The pin freezes inside the barrel breaks the tack weld that holds the pin and then the pin rotates in the hinge bracket rather than inside the barrel. The hinge bracket then get an oblong hole worn into it and the door will sag and I am sure open too far when it gets bad enough. There are pictures of what I did to fix mine on the site, I think they are in my "off to the sandblaster" thread.

[OpelNewb]

Well I decided to do a portion of the work myself. As far as the doors I found that the adjustment was off and they didn't actually swing all the way out till they hit.

Here are some pics I took after I removed the tail panel. Warning graphic carnage!! LOL













If you notice on the drivers side I straightened the side out some cause it was badly pushed in and over. You can compare it to the earlier pics. Next is the front belly pan.

[OpelNewb]

Well I am still working my way around the body. I keep finding little things everywhere. I am considering passing off the project to someone who likes body work. The latest thing to uncover is a completely rusted lower drivers side fender. It was covered up quite well with bondo. If I do decide to part ways with it then it will come with quite a large amount of parts both new and used. Unfortunatly it will not be cheap since the motor is almost done at the machine shop and I have everything to renew the entire drivetrain included in the parts. If someone is interested feel free to make me a offer. Until then I will continue work on it.

[markandson]

Just try to find yourself a better body and put all the good stuff into that, it will be less expensive in the long run and you will still have a GT to tool around in .

[OpelNewb]

I had thought about getting another body. I already have some of the body parts need to fix this one.

I may have found someone willing to do a side job and get mine back in decent shape. He works at a local bodu shop and does some side work at his house. He has 20+ yrs exp. so I feel if he has the time to do the work then I may go that route. I am going to continue on until we have to change posts. My wife is in the USCG and we move every 4 yrs. I would like to have it back together before her tour here is up. So I have until around June or so.

[markandson]

Originally Posted by OpelNewb My wife is in the USCG and we move every 4 yrs. I would like to have it back together before her tour here is up. So I have until around June or so.

From personal experience that sounds real aggressive to me based on the current condition of your car. Good Luck

[OpelNewb]

Well I have alot of time to devote to the project. I also had a possible breakthru today. I found a complete body for a 1000obo. It's about 120 miles from me but still may be worth the drive. I also am waiting to hear back from the guy that does side jobs. I plan on getting with him on the body repair and see what I need to do to prep it out for him to finish the car.

[Sparky73]

Originally Posted by OpelNewb I would like to have it back together before her tour here is up. So I have until around June or so.

How is this project coming along?