[The Scifi Guy]

Some Assembly Required

Woop! Woop! The body shop is done with my car and it's painted and ready to come home. I'm typing this after seeing it, taking some of the loose items home in my SUV, and arranging for a tow truck to pick it. Best paint job I've ever gotten in the 40 years and 20 paint jobs I've given this Maaco shop. No specks and smooth as glass! It took them a whole day to paint. They ran out of yellow paint and had to call another shop to get more. It's C4 Corvette yellow with a coat of clear. This car and it's body kit are a remake of my beloved Ole Yeller GT that I drove for 18 years and 225,000 miles. My heart swelled with joy seeing it painted the same milky yellow that I spent so many years enjoying looking at.

 

[Timbo]

Just wondering, did you tip the person that painted the car?

It came out great.

 

[Young Gt Lover]

I don’t think I ever heard but what engine are you putting in it?

It looks amazing!

 

[RallyBob]

Congrats Gordo. You still have a ton of work ahead of you, but body and paint are the biggest hurdles. Especially considering the body kit you added, and the state of the gullwing chassis when you started.

 

[terrylewisac]

OH YEA, get after it, Looks fantastico
Great color choice after all, It looks much better than I pictured, Congrats my friend
I look forward to your build

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Just wondering, did you tip the person that painted the car?

It came out great.

I'll probably drop by and give a couple of the guys "Benjamins" for Xmas.

I don’t think I ever heard but what engine are you putting in it?

It looks amazing!

A 2.4, same as my other car. The paint and kit is a remake of a car I had in the 80's to the 00's, the interior and engine will be very similar to my GTX car, but not as extreme.

😀

 

[kwschumm]

Beautiful!

 

[The Scifi Guy]

Home from the body shop:

 

[RallyBob]

I'll probably drop by and give a couple of the guys "Benjamins" for Xmas.

Gotta treat your vendors/ car guys for the holidays!

I have a little tradition going on where I visit the various shops I use regularly and leave gifts from Santa. That time is coming up soon, so I’ve been stockpiling at our tax-free New Hampshire liquor stores.

 

[terrylewisac]

good luck sleeping tonight Gordon lol

 

[soybean (R.I.P.)]

He'll be like a kid, knowing Santa has come, and want to break out some presents. Looks fantastic Gordo. They did an excellent job. Can't wait for the build. Looking forward to the interior, Congratulations again.

 

[opelbits]

Gordon, are you sure it was your 'heart' swelling...?

 

[soybean (R.I.P.)]

Ya never know.. I get that feeling about my Rallye, but when it was young, so was I, and there was a lot of "swelling" going on. That was a great car for that too. I loved the way the seats rolled back. I can think of a few others that enjoyed it as well.

 

[opelbits]

We have to be careful
..there is a 'youngin' wandering around the forum. We don't need him thinking he got the wrong car....he might start asking Bob and Gary where he can find a sportwagon.

 

[Will I. Finish]

Looking forward to the whole thing - nothing like the feeling of starting from scratch and building from the ground up. Will be watching - know it was worth waiting for. Best.....Carl

 

[JudokaJohn]

Nice! did they wet sand the clear the clear coat, or are you going to have to do it?

 

[First opel 1981]

Nice! did they wet sand the clear the clear coat, or are you going to have to do it?

Nowadays there are clear coat formulas that require no sanding.

 

[kwilford]

Nowadays there are clear coat formulas that require no sanding.

Clear coat doesn't HAVE to be "colour sanded", but to get a smoother, orange-peel-free finish, as for show cars or really nice restorations, it is almost essential with all clear coats. When doing repairs of factory paint, colour sanding is seldom done. as it makes the repaired panel smoother than the adjacent factory-painted panels, and so looks different.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

No sanding or polishing necessary, the whole paint job is smooth and reflective as glass. I have learned from my habit of applying "show shine" products AT car shows that the rag wiping slowly polishes the car to shiny perfection over time. Generally, my car has been the shiniest car at most car shows. My other car, the GTX, had specks, but they all disappeared after a year or two of polishing at shows. It did NOT have a clear coat.

This car isn't perfect and won't ever be perfect. If you remember all the dreadful things that were done to it to make it a gullwing, and the dreadful things I had to do to it to make it a normal GT again, then the dreadful discovery, after it was bead blasted, that there were numerous Frankenstein patches of replacement body panel sections done 25 years ago in Germany, then the addition of the kit. Conservative estimate: There's 2 gallons of body putty on the car. So, it's a miracle that the car looks as good as it does. I'm at $20,000 so far with the purchase and fix up, plus some parts. There's probably another $5000 to be spent before it's done. And all of this in the first year of retirement, when I should have been living frugally and eating dog food. I'll do my Gordo thing with fun and clever mods and enjoy the car and it's assembly.

 

[The Scifi Guy]

First Day of Fun with My Banana

No, not THAT banana, my Banana GT. 🤪 As we all know, you should always install all your cool and chromy stuff right away when building a new car. So, I put some chromy stuff on and started the fitment process of my cool Lenk hood with hood window. Also, I got a nice shiny rebuilt steering column from Opeljohn. I won't be installing the doors until Spring, I have a very small garage and a whole custom interior and whole car wiring job to do and that will be a lot easier with no doors on.