[Young Gt Lover]

A lot happened yesterday, WE GOT IT STARTED!

We changed the oil, cleaned it, checked spark, and it started in the first 10-20 seconds of turning it over! We ran it for about 2 minutes. It was steaming a lot in that time period. Today we are going to check the water pump to make sure it wasn't stuck and the water was flowing. The oil that was in it was bad! We were just spraying gas in it the carb. We are going to take the carb apart today too.

How do you clean the gas tank, do you have to take it out of the car? There was a huge trail of dirt from the exhaust once we got it started.

A youtube video of it will be coming soon!

Here is the orginal silver color.

Is this the original rear shock absorbers?

Is this the correct distributor cap? It didn't fit on the distributor correctly, but it started the car!

Thanks Sam

 

[rrossjr]

Congratulations. I'm genuinely not surprised that it started. These CIH engines seem to be able to sit for a long time, then not miss a beat.

 

[Young Gt Lover]

Also we might try to drive it today or tomorrow if we can get everything working correctly.

 

[The Cub]

Be careful out there. Yes the gas tank needs to be removed then cleaned. In the meantime putting a small plastic 10 micron fuel filter before the carburetor is a good idea until you can get the gas tank squared away. Rest assured that the gas tank is going to be badly in need of cleaning. Glad you started it up and got it running.

 

[Young Gt Lover]

Be careful out there. Yes the gas tank needs to be removed then cleaned. In the meantime putting a small plastic 10 micron fuel filter before the carburetor is a good idea until you can get the gas tank squared away. Rest assured that the gas tank is going to be badly in need of cleaning. Glad you started it up and got it running.

We might clean the tank, if not we will just put a makeshift tank on the roof or something like that.

 

[Knorm65]

The original tank will probably be fine without removing to clean. Just use a cheap fuel filter before the fuel pump and another before the carb to be safe. I typically pour 5 gallons of gas through the tank a couple times with the lower fitting removed. That cleans out most of the gunk. Just be sure the fuel sock is removed. You can look up how to do this with a quick search for “fuel sock” on this forum.

 

[Knorm65]

Alternatively if the tank is dry you can remove the fuel sender and vacuum the tank out through that large hole with a shop vac. I don’t recommend this if there is still gas or fumes in the tank obviously lol.

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

View attachment 434531

Well, congrats on the engine surviving. Can't argue with only putting into 2 minutes to the ticker.

Your rockers look perhaps expectedly terrible though. Almost nothing holding the car together. Guess you'll be learning to weld.

Makes me wonder how bad your fender pockets ahead and behind each wheel are as well.

 

[LynnB]

And to answer your question; no, that is not an original shock.

 

[terrylewisac]

Well, congrats on the engine surviving. Can't argue with only putting into 2 minutes to the ticker.

Your rockers look perhaps expectedly terrible though. Almost nothing holding the car together. Guess you'll be learning to weld.

Makes me wonder how bad your fender pockets ahead and behind each wheel are as well.

have you any other words of encouragement? just sayin

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

have you any other words of encouragement? just sayin

I don't think the expectation was to retrieve a perfect car. And, I don't think pointing out that the rockers need replacing is demoralizing, or being pessimistic about something that's probably fine. They'll need replacing, no point in sugarcoating it. Or would you have some other assessment of the expectations regarding them? The engine running so quickly was great news, I pointed that out.

 

[Will I. Finish]

Easy to see both sides of this fence. A young man is excited about his first car and rightfully so, especially an Opel GT and everyone on this forum wants to see him succeed and not quash his enthusiasm, but ....for those of us that have been around a GT for a lot of years we know the pitfalls and it is hard not to bring a little reality to the picture as we all know there will be a lot of issues to over come.

 

[terrylewisac]

 

[Young Gt Lover]

I stayed at my grandparents house for the last few days and we got a lot done! I drove my first car, my fist Opel Gt, and my first car with no brakes! On the first drive I just shifted into park when I wanted to stop. Then we got the e-brake working and I stopped with that the next day. We made sure the thermostat was working. We order a bunch of brake lines and brake stuff from rock auto parts. The gas tank is leaking so the next thing we will do is start taking the interior apart to see what is wrong with the tank. Then we will put the brakes back together. We had to split the calipers because the pistons wouldn't come out with air. We pressed them and eventually got them out with screw drivers. We may have chipped the pistons:0

We will fix the rockers before we drive it down the road.
Videos are coming soon!
Sam

 

[rrossjr]

It doesn't look like you will have to do much at all to the interior, other than cleaning and perhaps a new carpet set. You will get a lot of hands-on body work experience with this car-a good learning opportunity!

I stayed at my grandparents house for the last few days and we got a lot done! I drove my first car, my fist Opel Gt, and my first car with no brakes! On the first drive I just shifted into park when I wanted to stop. Then we got the e-brake working and I stopped with that the next day. We made sure the thermostat was working. We order a bunch of brake lines and brake stuff from rock auto parts. The gas tank is leaking so the next thing we will do is start taking the interior apart to see what is wrong with the tank. Then we will put the brakes back together. We had to split the calipers because the pistons wouldn't come out with air. We pressed them and eventually got them out with screw drivers. We may have chipped the pistons:0

We will fix the rockers before we drive it down the road.
Videos are coming soon!
Sam
View attachment 434544 View attachment 434545 View attachment 434546 View attachment 434547 View attachment 434548 View attachment 434549 View attachment 434550 View attachment 434551

 

[Young Gt Lover]

It doesn't look like you will have to do much at all to the interior, other than cleaning and perhaps a new carpet set. You will get a lot of hands-on body work experience with this car-a good learning opportunity!

I hope to one day either work in a restoration shop or own one so my grandpa and this car will teach me a lot!

 

[Young Gt Lover]

On Saturday I am getting a whole bunch of GT parts! Maybe even for free! Stuff like a good gas tank, "big brake calipers", Rack and pinon, inner fender, hood, gauges, and all kinds of stuff. I have no idea what I am getting and how much. I am so excited! I will show pics of all it once I get it!

 

[First opel 1981]

Just a heads up. Putting an auto transmission into park, while moving, is a great way to remove the "park" feature.
You'd be shocked at how small the part is that engages when you shift to "park"

 

[RallyBob]

Just a heads up. Putting an auto transmission into park, while moving, is a great way to remove the "park" feature.
You'd be shocked at how small the part is that engages when you shift to "park"

Lol, reminds me of a friend of mine who became a police officer. He had a habit of throwing his cruiser into park just before his car came to a stop. He had 6 transmissions put into his cruiser during his tenure as a street cop, because he’d shear the parking pawl clean off.

 

[The Cub]

Lol, reminds me of a friend of mine who became a police officer. He had a habit of throwing his cruiser into park just before his car came to a stop. He had 6 transmissions put into his cruiser during his tenure as a street cop, because he’d shear the parking pawl clean off.

That’s funny. No we don’t want you to ruin your transmission, it sounds like it’s solid, at least no disappointing reports so far. The e-brake is much better, I’ll bet smoother to use as well. Congrats on your used parts score, there’s nothing quite as fun when your starting out. Oh the memories.