Opel GT Forum banner
981 - 1,000 of 1,938 Posts
Very nice looking GT! Just wondering what wheels and tires are you wearing?

Paul in Mi
Thanks, I think the wheels are American brand, not 100% sure on that - I purchased them around 1980 - the wheels look better than they did new as I sanded and polished them to the tune of 50 hours, ouch. The tires are Goodyear integrity 185/70 70R13 and are vintage 1999 - not a crack and only 3200 miles. I am basing that on when I got the engine and it appears that I must have taken the wheels to the shop and had them installed off car and them brought them home and put them on
435655
 
The wheels are made by Appliance. I sold a pair of them last year, 13 x 5.5” is the most common size.
 
I believe that I have the same wheels. They came with the GT when I bought it, they made it look awesome, I’ve always loved them. I can’t take credit for choosing them, I always thought that the PO had very good taste as they complement the car nicely. The little center caps that were on the GT when I bought it in 87’ say “Western” on them FWIW. This is the same photo with those original caps on that I uploaded as my avatar when I joined the forum.
Wheel Tire Car Vehicle Land vehicle

They don’t look as nice as Carl’s, in fact I didn’t know they could look so nice and shiny. Your hard work really made them look fantastic Carl. I’ve since moved the balance weights to the inside and purchased some all chrome center caps as the original ones have finally had it. After I’m done with renewing my interior I’ll visit your dedicated thread, buy some new chrome lugs and see how close I can get them. I don’t know if I can get them that nice though.

What do I do with my GT today? I installed a replacement original GT gas cap I bought from Leo (thanks Leo, it looks great) to replace my original that rolled off the back one time after I filled up the tank and forgot about it LOL. I always used to set it on the luggage rack, until I hit my mid 50’s that used to be a nice convenient place to put it. There’s something called short term memory loss that I discovered now, I have changed my habits needles to say.
 
The wheels are made by Appliance. I sold a pair of them last year, 13 x 5.5” is the most common size.
Your right, I remember the A in the center hub which I removed, stick on.......Thanks now maybe I can find new center hubs, mine are pretty scratched up, they are plastic and fit on the inside which I guess is typical.
Thanks, Carl
 
Your right, I remember the A in the center hub which I removed, stick on.......Thanks now maybe I can find new center hubs, mine are pretty scratched up, they are plastic and fit on the inside which I guess is typical.
Thanks, Carl
Tom your wheels look great just as they are. Where did you get the new hubs as I would like to replace mine and have been looking on line but have never found the right size. And shiny comes with a lot of sand paper and polish by the way. Congrats on the gas cap - I always put mine on the drivers seat that way there is no doubt it will never be lost or damaged.
 
Tom your wheels look great just as they are. Where did you get the new hubs as I would like to replace mine and have been looking on line but have never found the right size. And shiny comes with a lot of sand paper and polish by the way. Congrats on the gas cap - I always put mine on the drivers seat that way there is no doubt it will never be lost or damaged.
Good ol’ Gordo’s suggestion, pm me if you have any problem with the link below:
 
Yesterday I went over to Vince Tucker's place (actually his neighbor Dave's, the one with the Ferrari Modeno we high-speed cruised with last fall) to help install a new PS motor mount. This is on the former-PJ's GT, with more modifications that I can even list. Not the least is DSD's DCOE's, and AC, such that the alternator lives on the PS side, since the AC compressor is where the alternator once was.

Anyway, a normally fairly easy motor mount change becomes a bit more problematic as it JUST barely can be seen. Let alone removed from above.

Vince had told me he replaced the oil pan gasket the day before. I said "well, you have to suspend the engine and then drop the engine cross member to drop the oil pan". "No" , he said, there is LOTS of room. Huh.

Well, I forgot PJ cut his engine cross member and installed a sheet of aluminum as a belly-pan. Yep, that allows the oil pan to also be dropped once the belly-pan is removed, which is easy.

Hmm, maybe replace the motor mount by holding the engine up, then removing just the PS of the cross member?

Yep. We slid a 2x6 on the flat across the scissors jack supports, which held up the engine (which was still connected to the DS motor mount and it's half of the cross member.

Removed the half-cross-member bolt and nuts (Pj has, of course, studded the outer bolts), rotated the half-cross-member down (the nasty M8 bolt on the cross member wing is TOTALLY behind the header and still somehow bolted in place!), removed the old collapsed motor mount (yes, there is a motor mount heat shield, but the header is RIGHT next to it and the motor mount so death by heat is inevitable). The rest was easy peasy.

Only took this one photo. Does remind me that a cut engine cross member is a good idea.
435659
 
Today I removed the carburetor, removed the studs, sanded the top of the intake manifold but upon closer examination I am going to go back and take it to the next level, more sanding 220, 400, 600, 800, still some scratches visible and I want the best possible seal. I am going to replace the studs as today it took me 30 minutes + to remove the four nuts as I have to use a wrench the whole way or 1/4 of a wrench as the case may be, but in the future, with the new studs and nuts, loosen and 5 minutes later all 4 nuts are off, very happy. New studs should arrive Monday.

Before:
435739

After:
435737

Tomorrow I will dismantle and clean the Carb following a video on YouTube that is excellent showing you how to step by step - a very well done video that is a pleasure to watch and for me taking apart a carb and putting it back together without the video is not an option.

Tomorrow's project is already laid out on my desk in the sunroom ready to go. I can turn on the video and just follow along and layout each piece in the proper order to reassemble. Wish this had all be available back in 1995 when I started the project and I wish I had found this forum in 2002 instead of 2010. As always I thank all of the members of this forum as I could have never accomplished what I have without all of your help.

435738
 
Carburetor has been cleaned and rebuilt and manifold cleaned-sanded and smoothed with new studs and nuts - nice......


435857

Had an issue with the float, after rebuild and installation, but fixed this this morning and the GT is running very well now - almost purring like a kitten - except I still have a small blip on the hand held dwell/tach, very small - and you know what I am tired of chasing that blip - car is running great so it is on to more rewarding projects. Like.........
Additionally today I replaced the chrome strip on the front and back windshields - really nice and shiny looks like new, well it is new. I had replaced it 21 years ago and well nothing lasts for ever. Look at the difference below. Just glad that I held on to that installation tool for all these years. The old trim was not that bad but you know it was just kind of bugging me so new trim it is.
435856
 
Nice job on the wheels, awesome.....just one project at a time and the next thing you know, depending, 25 years later like me, you have an almost new car.
 
Not today, but back in mid-May, I went on my first road trip with the Manta :)
700 miles round trip from Camarillo to Columbia, CA.
My brother and his friend followed me the whole way in their Tesla "support vehicle" haha.

Every year, my family goes up to Columbia for an annual Luscombe aircraft fly-in. My dad has been the president of the club for nearly a decade now, and this was the first time in 20+ years that he flew a Luscombe up there (and it was his very first airplane that he sold 20 years ago and recently bought back!)
Anyway, I decided to bring the Manta for a few reasons, but mainly because my grandparents moved there about 6 years ago and this would probably be the last chance they would get to see the car. They loved it, and my grandma and I got lost on some fun, twisty mountain roads for a while ;)

Another reason I was excited to bring it up there was because Opel GT Source is a 20 minute drive from Columbia airport! I finally got to meet the incredible team keeping our Opels on the road! Gil and Richard were very welcoming and we are very grateful for the tour. Gil even showed us his gorgeous red and black GT with the 16 valve 2.4 in his garage. Let me tell you, that place is heaven for any Opel owners.

Here's a picture Richard took while we were at the warehouse:
435992


And here are a couple pictures my mom took when we arrived at the airport:
435993
435994
435995


And of course, a family pic with the airplane that started it all:
436000
 
Not today, but back in mid-May, I went on my first road trip with the Manta :)
700 miles round trip from Camarillo to Columbia, CA.
My brother and his friend followed me the whole way in their Tesla "support vehicle" haha.

Every year, my family goes up to Columbia for an annual Luscombe aircraft fly-in. My dad has been the president of the club for nearly a decade now, and this was the first time in 20+ years that he flew a Luscombe up there (and it was his very first airplane that he sold 20 years ago and recently bought back!)
Anyway, I decided to bring the Manta for a few reasons, but mainly because my grandparents moved there about 6 years ago and this would probably be the last chance they would get to see the car. They loved it, and my grandma and I got lost on some fun, twisty mountain roads for a while ;)

Another reason I was excited to bring it up there was because Opel GT Source is a 20 minute drive from Columbia airport! I finally got to meet the incredible team keeping our Opels on the road! Gil and Richard were very welcoming and we are very grateful for the tour. Gil even showed us his gorgeous red and black GT with the 16 valve 2.4 in his garage. Let me tell you, that place is heaven for any Opel owners.

Here's a picture Richard took while we were at the warehouse:
View attachment 435992

And here are a couple pictures my mom took when we arrived at the airport:
View attachment 435993 View attachment 435994 View attachment 435995

And of course, a family pic with the airplane that started it all:
View attachment 436000
I always liked the design of the nose on the Luscombes. Here is a picture of another one from 1961. The Army used them to fly reconnaissance over the Fulda Gap and the East-West German border back in the day!
 

Attachments

I always liked the design of thenose on the Luscombes. Here is a picture of another one from 1961. The Army used them to fly reconnaissance over the Fulda Gap and the East-West German border back in the day!
That one in the picture is a Cessna Bird Dog, but the military did use tandem seat Luscombe T8F Observers!
436038

There's a chance I might be getting my hands on a T8F project in the future. Being 6'5", side-by-side airplanes are a bit of a squeeze for me (Yet I still manage to fit comfortably in an Opel haha)

And my dad also has a Luscombe 8D (possibly the only one left in the world) that would have been used by the Civil Air Patrol back when it was founded. Not quite the military, but it's still cool. That's our latest project to become airworthy again:
436039
 
That one in the picture is a Cessna Bird Dog, but the military did use tandem seat Luscombe T8F Observers!
View attachment 436038
There's a chance I might be getting my hands on a T8F project in the future. Being 6'5", side-by-side airplanes are a bit of a squeeze for me (Yet I still manage to fit comfortably in an Opel haha)

And my dad also has a Luscombe 8D (possibly the only one left in the world) that would have been used by the Civil Air Patrol back when it was founded. Not quite the military, but it's still cool. That's our latest project to become airworthy again:
View attachment 436039
I stand corrected. I always thought that looked like a Luscombe!:confused:
 
I stand corrected. I always thought that looked like a Luscombe!:confused:
They are similar! Cessna was known to copy Luscombe's designs ;)
I've heard they actually reverse engineered a Luscombe when they were designing the 120/140
 
  • Like
Reactions: SpringGT
Went for a drive in 89 degree weather, for about an hour, that was brutal even in shorts and a tee shirt.....Good news is that the temp gauge stayed down where it had been in cooler weather so I am giving a lot of credit to the new radiator from OGTS. I did however remove the 7 bladed fan as I did not like the added noise/roar and removing the fan did not seem to make a difference in coolant temp or if it did it was negligible.The other good new is that I beat the rain by 2 minutes and got home dry, the sky was black and it did pour.
 
981 - 1,000 of 1,938 Posts
Top