[vurx]

First post here, hi everyone!

I bought my second 1973 Opel GT today. (White, Class 4, 70k miles, been in interior storage for last 10 years) My first Opel was wrecked in high school (not my fault) two months after I got it. I didn’t get to spend enough time with that car, now I get to own another one 10 years later.

I took it to a mechanic and they did a used car inspection on it and this is what they found:

• Tires- dry rotted out
• Rack and pinion – dust boot ripped at tie rod
• Floor pan rotted and holes rusted through – repaired from top
• Engine oil leaking from everywhere possible
• Output shaft seal leaking on trans.
• New front brake hoses, rotors, pads
• Right front caliper bleeder plugged with pipe plug
• Right lower control arm new
• All suspension bushings dry rotted and cracked
• Both upper control arms have movement
• Ball joint grease seals torn
• Belt very loose and dry rotted slightly
• New battery no hold-down
• Real axle seals look like they are leaking

* 30 year old car will require TLC constantly to be able to drive around – I would not recommend this to be a daily driver.

* Vehicle has been partially restored

It sounded like she has a pretty good case of old car. I must have felt fairly confident that I can take care of her because she is sitting in my garage right now.

Oh and she is going to be my primary mode of transportation. I don’t have plans to restore to 1973 perfection rather I would prefer to make it a good reliable car that is fun to drive. My main concern is what I should do first. What areas of maintenance should I focus my attention on from the first day of ownership? I really want to take good care of this car and hopefully I am up to the task.

-- vurx

p.s. i will be able to take pictures of the engine and body tomorrow when its not so dark! man im happy!

 

[Travis]

• Tires- dry rotted out

This is an obvious TODO

• Rack and pinion – dust boot ripped at tie rod

These are relatively cheap and easy to replace. Make sure there's no dirt inside when you seal it back up.

• Floor pan rotted and holes rusted through – repaired from top

It's hard to tell without seeing it

• Engine oil leaking from everywhere possible

Start by degreasing the motor and then you should be able to see exactly where the leaks are. Then you can decide what to do

• Output shaft seal leaking on trans.

cheap and easy to change

• New front brake hoses, rotors, pads

The hoses are a safety issue. The pads and rotors are cheap, though you may be able to have rotors turned. Letely I've been finding that turning isn't that much cheaper than new parts.

• Right front caliper bleeder plugged with pipe plug

IF the caliper hasn't been damaged you can just replace the bleeder and bleed the brakes.

• Right lower control arm new

These are not available new. You should figiure out what, if anything is wrong with yours. Be aware that the early and late arms are slightly different. Well the inner bushing sleeves are and they are likely fused in place.

• All suspension bushings dry rotted and cracked

Lots of people are still running original cracked bushings. You'll need to make your own judgement here. Replacing these is a real PITA, especially the fronts.

• Both upper control arms have movement

Not very helpfull desription. You'll want to figure what they meant

• Ball joint grease seals torn

If there is dirt in the joint you will need to replace the joint. If not, new polyurethane boots are available. You'll need a puller to change these BTW.

• Belt very loose and dry rotted slightly

Cheap and easy to fix. You don't want to be stranded over a few dollar belt.

• New battery no hold-down

This is a safety issue. You'll need to secure the battery

• Real axle seals look like they are leaking

degrease the rear axle and backing plate and fill the differential. Try to identify if or where the leak is coming from. Could be the wheel cylinders.

-Travis

 

[vurx]

pictures

forgive me im a newbie and NOT a mechanic, yet.

Thank you for the reply, I am about to degrease everything.

it would help if anyone can tell me any special tools i am going to need. what jobs would require a shop as opposed to doing them myself as i dont have a cherrypicker or any heavy equipment like that. I dont want to spend large ammounts of money and would like to do most of this stuff myself.

whats the easiest way one can get to the under parts of the car without a lift?

 

[greensmurf20]

best way to lift the car without a lift, like most of us probably do. is to just jack the car up and let it down on jackstands. you can jack it up on the rear end, front cross over or the factory jack up spots. you can set the jackstands on any of these places too.

 

[pvcar]

rear antena

what does that antena doin on the back is that for the radio or a CB radio or other device. i want to get an antena like that for the back of my car for my CB radio when i install it. any info would be appreciated.

 

[vurx]

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[vurx]

__

 

[vurx]

___

 

[vurx]

the antenna is for the radio, which sounds awful but is far down the list of things that need to be done.

ive taken some pictures as best i can of the under side rust spots. the car is from memphis area, i suppose the rust could be much worse.

what is my best corse of action to repair the bottom of the car? through the holes under the driver seat you can see metal that was placed there from the top. not exactly what i would call fixed.

apparently my car was green once.

 

[Geek]

opelgtsource has replacement belly pans (fiberglass), if it is completely shot. Check out http://www.por15.com for all sorts of good stuff for metal. They have a kit for repairing rotted/rusted floor pans. Other than that, how are you at welding? Just remember that your better off making the hole clean of rust (even if it means making it bigger) before you start to repair it.

 

[kmon]

rust repair

Okay from your pics those holes dont look too bad. Sand down every where you see the rust, get rid of all of it, as has been mentioned its better to make a bigger hole than not removing all of the rust. The areas that are just surface rust are easy, if you have holes then you need to patch them (duh). If you have a welder and a little bit of experiance, it really shoudnt be to bad. If not, find a friend who a good wire feed, gas if you can, then start slow, practice a bit. Be preapred to spend a good amount of time to do it right, its not a 30 minute job. After you have it all stripped and the new part welded in shot it with a good rust prevention paint, and undercoat it. This should make you gt bascily rust free and happy for some time. You get the entire underside from OGTS, but it looks like you can get away with just doing a few patch welds. Good luck to you.

 

[jyoung171]

So how much did you pay for her if you don't mind me asking. She doesn't look to bad. I'm in the process of fixing up a 1973 GT myself that I picked up a few weeks ago in Souix falls South Dakota. After draining the tank, putting on diffrent tires, doing a tune up and putting on an exhaust system. I am driving her around town now! Now I can have a daily driver and my V6 project can only come out on nice days : ).

 

[vurx]

the story

My older sister had a boy firend in highschool that drove a ’72 opel gt. to me that was the coolest car in the world, he even let me drive it a little. i was 15. I drove my dads old ford pickup until we saw an ad in the paper for an orange ’73 GT. it needed body work, paint, engine work, interior work, you name it. we got it for $1000. my first week of owning it lead to a loose bolt in the carb falling down through manifold and into one of the chambers. which made quite the racket. so i got to take off the manifold and retrieve the bolt. i got to drive the car for about 2 months until this @#$% kid pulled in front of me at a *&$&$ green light and [email protected]!*& stopped. that was the end of that car. went back to the old blue ford.

fast forward 10 years. im 28 and am about to go to school again for computer science. my wife and i have discussed getting rid of (and getting out from under and upside down) our ’00 saturn wagon. I do a quick search for Opels online and find only 1 for $1,600, in Omaha or something. I gave up.

Until last week, im driving down a road ive never driven down before and i see this white car. "Man, that looks like an Opel."
"Oh my, It IS an Opel."

i paid $3000.

It seems a little high, but i would have paid more. i start school in 2 months. my goal is to have a reliable car by the time i start.

i guess my first project will be to find out what is leaking and replace those gaskets/seals first. later projects will be to upgrade the engine and trans.

i am inexperienced but determined to make this work as a daily driver.

what tools/supplies would i need to replace all of the gaskets/seals for the entire drivetrain and the engine?

 

[Geek]

The absolute most important thing to have before you start any engine work on an Opel, is a set of three square drivers. These are fittings for any regular ratchet (can get in either 3/8 or 1/2), and resemble Torx wrenches. Unlike the eight pointed configuration of the Torx wrench though, these have twelve points (hence the name three square). You'll need sizes 12, 10, 8, and 6 mm for the various places they're used in the engine, and a set usally costs around $35. I got mine through a automotive tool shop, who in turn ordered them from a place called Automotive Equipment Technologies in Northern VA. These wrenches are needed when doing things like removing the head (which is held on by 10 12 mm bolts at about 110 ft/lbs). If you try to remove (or torque down) these bolts with another type of driver, you'll likely strip it.
The gaskets and other rebuild needs can all be had at opelgtsource, and sometimes come up for sale on ebay. Good luck, and let us know how you're doing.

 

[ConreroGT]

$3000 isn't too high if it's a good clean, straight example.

I'm glad people are paying more for these cars. The mean selling/buying price has been going up for quite some time now.

 

[RITTER]

Another couple of Items you will definitely want are 1) a couple of good manuals that give good descriptions and pictures, which can usually be found at amazon.com. 2) Opel GT Sources homepage.OGTS
The biggest help will probably come from Opel GT.com when you run into problems though, plenty of people here have helped me out considerably. Saved plenty of time and money with the great help and info you can get here. Just make sure you do a search for info first, some topics have been discussed to death, but for the most part everyone here gives good advice.

RITTER

 

[vurx]

mysteries

where should the mystery hose (in yellow) be attached? right now its unattached. oh, and what does it do? if i cover it up with my hand, the engine dies.

in red, there is a mystery terminal. there is also a mystery wire coming out from underneath the circled thing above. i think it has something to do with why the engine temp guage doesnt work. when i attach the wire to the terminal, the engine dies.

yeah im new, please dont make fun.

 

[BQS4]

The hose (yellow) is oil fumes coming off the valve train. Some, like me, extend this hose till it just hangs below the motor and let the air, moving through the engine compartment draft it out. Others, rig up their own attachment and run it to the airfilter (on the top carb) to be burned in the motor. The terminal, in the inset red square, is indeed the temp guage sender. As for the other wire, with just what you have described, it sounds like the positive coil wire, or a splice off of it and you're grounding it, therefore shuting off the car.

 

[likengtj]

always good to have diagrams

I suggest you get a wiring diagram for your car.
Get as familiar as you can with the color of the wires in the engine and compare to the wiring diagram in the book(s).
At first, I had the same the problem(s) trying to figure out what wire is for what and where does it go.
As you get more familiar with it, your confidence level gets higher
and before you know it, you'll be fixing your own electrical system.

A lot better than taking it to some "experienced" mechanic and
making a mess out of the car.

M2CW!

 

[vurx]

my car came with the 1973 opel service manualand it has the wiring diagram in it. looks a little complicated.

i wasnt planning on calling a mechanic until _after_ i messed everything up