[Frozen Tundra GT]

http://youtu.be/O4pAwosnIQE


Chapter One

Once Upon a time....

I was fortunate to meet a fellow and former OpelGT.com member in St Paul MN thru the ad board here. I was not even close to being in the market for another GT especially being a few grand into my other restoration. However this one sounded too good to be true...

Sometimes, we are presented with opportunities where we have to make things happen. It turned out he was buying a Nova in my neck of the woods and need it transported back. Make a long story short, after few days of discussing etc, and him getting antsy to get Nova back to MN, he let me have the car for $1650 and only $500 down and rest in payments.... If I brought him the Nova. He originally wanted $2600, but took a liking to me, and just wanted to see it return to its glory. He owned a couple GT's over the years and they were very respectable examples. I showed up to pick up the Nova, and seller was shady, and car was junk. He insisted I continue on my way to St Paul, because he is a man of his word. I arrive and spent the next 4 hours spending time with one of the nicest families I ever met, and restoring my faith in human kind. Had a cookout and exchanged stories for hours. Did not get home til 6am. Unloading the car and returning the trailer by my lonesome and tired as hell.

The back story on my new baby, is when his daughter signed up for auto mechanic classes at tech school, he wanted to surprise her. He flew him, his daughter and son to California to shop for Opels ans sight seeing. All under the pretense it was for him. After spending 3 days vacationing and seeing 6 GT's he found a keeper. In his words it was the most solid Opel Gt He has ever seen, and he is accurate in his assessment. They flew home and went back to regular life until a week later when he surprised the daughter with the car at school! Over the next year, all that was completed was new calipers. She lost interest. He is too busy, and I am Johnny on the spot.

Without further adieu~

Got it home and had it running within 20 minutes. Low and behold it is even better than I thought. Engine is a fresh rebuild from 3 years ago. And it shows. Next up clean gas tank and electric fuel pump... Anyone up for a Opel GT Build Off?

 

[rmelchiori]

Interesting wheels. I haven't seen Corvette style wheels in a 4 bolt pattern. What size are they?

 

[Gordy]

Were you in Minnesota to buy a Percy Harvin jersey? Go Vikes! :veryhappy

Looks like a great find.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Anyone up for a Opel GT Build Off?

You're on, dude! How are we going to judge when we're done? I'm never "done" with an Opel. How stripped is your car? Mine's a tin can, no wiring, no glass, no interior, no engine compartment anything, and even the front and rear axle assemblies are taking a hike. The only edge I have is that the bodywork and painting are done. Are you on?

What shall we duel for? I send you a jar of beach sand and mosquitos or you send me a wedge of really sharp cheese?


Nice new buggy, man! Scrap the half-moon wheels idea and keep those 'vette-lookin' wheels. If they're wide enough for ya. They sort of mimic the half-moon look.

 

[Frozen Tundra GT]

You're on, dude! How are we going to judge when we're done? I'm never "done" with an Opel. How stripped is your car? Mine's a tin can, no wiring, no glass, no interior, no engine compartment anything, and even the front and rear axle assemblies are taking a hike. The only edge I have is that the bodywork and painting are done. Are you on?

What shall we duel for? I send you a jar of beach sand and mosquitos or you send me a wedge of really sharp cheese?


Nice new buggy, man! Scrap the half-moon wheels idea and keep those 'vette-lookin' wheels. If they're wide enough for ya. They sort of mimic the half-moon look.

Percy harvin is damn good!
These corvette wheels are 14's I think. I love em and they are in real good shape. The baby moons are gonna be on the other car Gordon.

I dont know If I would take you up on the offer though, your car is super cool, and you already have all kinds of goodies getting switched over. It would be a losing proposition for me! My car is stripped to bare metal now, i have rubbermaid bins full of the trim and accessories including brand new NOS window rubbers and door seals etc, and good glass waiting to be put in.

Engine seems strong and clean. it is high compression. My new GT is a 71 though.

Underneath looks excellent. PO either POR 15 or some type of black paint. It looks fresh and clean. I do plan on a big valve head or a 2.0 upgrade and a getrag someday. But for now I have been sanding and sanding and grinding out every nook and cranny in the door jambs etc. All PPG products and professionally painted.

Back to work on t I go. Hopefully the Pack dont get their butts handed to them against the texans tonight.

 

[Frozen Tundra GT]

Car is ready for paint, What is your dream non factory color? let me know!

Chapter Two

Here are some pics of stripping car to bare metal. Primer that was on car was cracking and there is tiny bubbles in factory paint all over hood and roof. Wish I could afford to have it media blasted or dipped but we do what we gotta do. I found a guy on Craigslist who is a Industrial coatings sales rep for PPG and Dupont who has 15 years of body work experience!!! Even at $30 an hour he is a bargain, especially compared to shop prices. He has access to paint booths etc and has all the tools, not to mention paint at cost! Unfortunately it cost $550 in his time to strip my other GT in labor and material costs alone, and it needs a few more hours yet, so I decided to tackle it myself.

In this case I paid my friend Woody $10 an hour to help me. And after much trial and error of 3 hours of random orbital sander, then a DA sander, borrowing a friends air compressor etc. I found the quickest way for me, was just to use a Harbor freight Buffer polisher with a 6 inch disc with 80 grit on it. This $30 purchase at Harbor freight went on to save me hundreds doing this job myself. My boy Luigi (Jacob)gave a helping hand too.... Im doing all the easy grunt work, and leaving the painting up to the pro. I have never done this type of work before, but I know a true sign of a good restoration is where you can't see. No holds barred! Doing the door and window Jambs and I want it to be perfect. I was very fortunate to find this car, besides filler in a couple door dings and passenger wheel well, there is no rust whatsoever in front and behind doors on outside. No cutting, welding just $20 in filler. And a high build primer.

My son is goofy.... metal music was on so he was having fun...

Please let me know what your dream colors are! I love strato blue, but I prefer to go custom on my first restoration ever. I am going nuts! car is at booth now getting primed and i need to figure out which color! Anything in PPG line

 

[Opelmel]

I already have my dream colors on my vehicles.
GM white diamond pearl on the bike
GM orange sunburst metallic on the GT
Starlight mica on the Miata

And even my wife's Ford Escape looks good in their new Frosted glass metallic.

Since it's your car, the more appropriate question is - what is YOUR dream color?

 

[Frozen Tundra GT]

I already have my dream colors on my vehicles.
GM white diamond pearl on the bike
GM orange sunburst metallic on the GT
Starlight mica on the Miata

And even my wife's Ford Escape looks good in their new Frosted glass metallic.

Since it's your car, the more appropriate question is - what is YOUR dream color?

Pearl white is one, cadillac black diamond tricoat is another. I dont want to do pearl on a GT and the black diamond is super duper expensive Dupont, and almost impossible to get perfect unless you have GM paint facility.

Had burnt orange on my truck, loved it but been there done that. I have to see some pics of yours. PPG has a gorgeous burnt orange called copper penny. I also like the metallic blues out there, but my fiancee has a smurfmobile already.

I mentioned some color choices before but did not receive the feedback i hoped. At the end of the day, i will do what i want, but hope to have the respect of my Opel peers as well. Just trying to get ideas and go from there.

I know Im going crazy

 

[grslightng02]

I am in the process of painting my 71 GT in Honda Eternal Blue Pearl. But I also like Opel's Strato Blue (metallic turquoise) or the Opel silver blue... not sure the name.

When you buy your paint supplies you can go with a less expensive color, but make sure you pay the higher price for higher quality clear coat. And obviously go with a two stage paint... color & clear instead of single stage, just color with the clear in it.

Two stage paints last longer, can bring out more depth of color in metallics, and are much glossier!

 

[Frozen Tundra GT]

I am in the process of painting my 71 GT in Honda Eternal Blue Pearl. But I also like Opel's Strato Blue (metallic turquoise) or the Opel silver blue... not sure the name.

When you buy your paint supplies you can go with a less expensive color, but make sure you pay the higher price for higher quality clear coat. And obviously go with a two stage paint... color & clear instead of single stage, just color with the clear in it.

Two stage paints last longer, can bring out more depth of color in metallics, and are much glossier!

Thank you for the suggestions. I have access to the full PPG line and will be sparing no expense. With my body guys discount I will save over $1500. Zinc chromate wash, then really good PPG epoxy primer then whatever color I decide. He is well versed in the chemistry of paints and will be using a high solids PPG clear as well. In the end I will be getting a $5-6000 paint job for roughly $2-2500. I will be doing wetsanding and finish filler right along side him to save more time and alot of money.

 

[kadet-c]

Well, you've stripped the paint off the plate, never know what lies beneath, made engines will be original or tuned?

 

[Opelmel]

I have to see some pics of yours.

I put some pics in my garage.

 

[Frozen Tundra GT]

I already ordered the tint and wig...

 

[wrench459 (R.I.P.)]

I already ordered the tint and wig...

ROTF
Hey JJ one of my favorite videos.[video]http://www.videos.com/play/M25327099[/video]

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Just my two cents:
I don't believe in exotic paint. I hate not being able to find touch up paint to match my car. When I used to drive the crap out my GT's I found that I was repainting them every 3-4 years due to chips, scratches, rust issues, etc. The poor Red Baron has like 5 different colors of red touching up the engine compartment and damaged ground effects. Of course, I'm always doing mods to the engine area, so I'm always dinging or scratching or drilling into something.

If you see yourself primarily driving your car on weekends in fair weather and treating her like a cream puff, then I guess a fancy color may be justified. I was just seeing Duane's strato blue Manta and that's a pretty nice color. I'd say keep it simple and go with that.

 

[Frozen Tundra GT]

Even though I drained and refilled tank with fresh gas, I was noticing reddish/orange gas in new fuel filter. I was having issues with idling as well. It was time to remove tank and remove the rust, then reline the tank.

This was fine with me, because when I do a project, I like making sure every nook and cranny is clean and without flaws(and look for vermin remnants etc) It sure was a delight removing the tank. I was surprised to see very little rust in the tank. Sock was clean as well. I was originally planning to have it boiled and perhaps POR 15, but due to minimal rust, I decided to save alot of money and rinse and inhibit rust myself with Phosphoric acid. I have done extensive research on the subject. In the end I decided to save alot of $ and use Krud Kutter must for rust

it is available at my hardware store. Por 15 marine clean was too expensive. Phosphoric acid is phosphoric acid people. Coca Cola or even Molasses would have worked too, just longer times. After 30 minutes rust was gone, and Phosphoric acid inhibits rust and also etches the surface to ready it for paint etc. My car will be highly looked after and winterized in my igloo here in The Frozen Tundra, so I was not overly concerned with coating the tank with POR 15 or any tank lining. Tank is like new inside and out now. While I was in there I updated the tank venting system with black fuel line. I already bought the OGTS replacement, but was very disappointed that it was clear pvc which will fail in a couple seasons. Fresh gas, cleaned float bowl and it fired right up!!!

 

[wrench459 (R.I.P.)]

JJ
This is just food for thought.
I did several proto-types with the fuel lines.
After removeing the restrictive fuel sock and punching it out.
Along with lining the steel tank for todays fuels.
Well I'll let pictures tell.....

 

[gradywhite921127]

Looking great man. I really like the corvette wheels on the opel, Good find good find

 

[Frozen Tundra GT]

Check this out guys!!! http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/22/japanese-juggler-one-ball_n_2001955.html

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Gee, I never thought I'd enjoy watching some guy play with his balls. :lmao:

Very cool.

Anyone remember that movie where David Bowie did something similar with a glass orb?