[RallyBob]

Yesterday’s boredom project.

I built a pair of adjustable Opel GT panhard bars.

These will be posted up for sale after powdercoating.

 

[Young Gt Lover]

Yesterday’s boredom project.

I built a pair of adjustable Opel GT panhard bars.

These will be posted up for sale after powdercoating. View attachment 445904 View attachment 445905
View attachment 445906
View attachment 445903
View attachment 445907 View attachment 445908

I might be interested in one of these. Do they help handling that much?

 

[RallyBob]

I might be interested in one of these. Do they help handling that much?

Tentatively they are both sold already. I posted them of Facebook yesterday and two people have stepped up already. If that changes I’ll let people know.

The whole concept of an adjustable panhard bar is to center the axle under the car. If a car is raised or lowered from stock ride height, the axle will no longer be centered under the car. The adjustable panhard bar corrects this.

 

[Young Gt Lover]

Tentatively they are both sold already. I posted them of Facebook yesterday and two people have stepped up already. If that changes I’ll let people know.

The whole concept of an adjustable panhard bar is to center the axle under the car. If a car is raised or lowered from stock ride height, the axle will no longer be centered under the car. The adjustable panhard bar corrects this.

That is fine I still have the stock suspension.

 

[terrylewisac]

Tentatively they are both sold already. I posted them of Facebook yesterday and two people have stepped up already. If that changes I’ll let people know.

The whole concept of an adjustable panhard bar is to center the axle under the car. If a car is raised or lowered from stock ride height, the axle will no longer be centered under the car. The adjustable panhard bar corrects this.

Any chance you would make more? or was this just a one off out of boredom?

 

[RallyBob]

Any chance you would make more? or was this just a one off out of boredom?

A little of that, lol. Boredom, plus I had the materials to make two of them. I’d have to source more parts to make additional panhard bars.

I just checked, and the threaded adjusters I use are on backorder for an unknown period of time.

 

[webertram]

The Opel GT project from hell makes a positive step!
My 3 year resto-Mod project on a former stripped out SCCA race car took a major step forward today. All the fab work for the Chevy 3.4 V6, T5 trans, and 10 bolt diff is finished and we test fired the engine! There is still lots of little things to clean-up but, such things as alignment job, etc are manageable. Well, I still have to make it pretty. It is neat to see it move forward!

Bill Bertram
Rogers, MN

 

[RallyBob]

More tinkering today from boredom.

My Cannon 2-bbl Holley intake is almost done. Gonna sand the exterior down to 320 grit prior to bead blasting and powdercoating.

 

[krewzer]

I am revising my fiberglass intake snorkel. I added a 1/2" phenolic space under the Sniper, which meant that I had to take 1/2" out of the riser between the Sniper and the air hat. It interfered with my linkage, so I cut off the snorkel, and built an elongated one, with a little angle change to bridge over the linkage. I have a little more sanding, skim coat, and paint before it's finished.

 

[opelgt722002]

I am revising my fiberglass intake snorkel. I added a 1/2" phenolic space under the Sniper, which meant that I had to take 1/2" out of the riser between the Sniper and the air hat. It interfered with my linkage, so I cut off the snorkel, and built an elongated one, with a little angle change to bridge over the linkage. I have a little more sanding, skim coat, and paint before it's finished. View attachment 446060 View attachment 446061

 

[opelgt722002]

I drove mine 25 miles today. Breaking in the 2.5 L.

 

[RallyBob]

I’ve been collecting and prepping parts all week getting ready to send out a batch of parts for fresh gold zinc plating. Some of the stuff I’ve had laying around for years, but never had it plated.

Quite a few components are tolerance-sensitive, so paint or powdercoating won’t work well. For example, my custom outer tie rods I built for racing use on a Manta…the outer ‘cup’ holds a high-misalignment spherical bearing, and is a tight tolerance fit. But I also don’t want it to rust. Zinc plating is a perfect application for this.

The last parts to go out in this batch will be some custom-modified front camshaft covers with a threaded fitting to allow for camshaft endplay adjustment. However I’m still waiting for hardware to come in for those. It should be here tomorrow, so next week I will probably drop these items off for plating.

Here we have some custom caliper brackets for my Wilwood big-brake kits, a couple of Quaife fast-rack input pinions, side and rear cam covers, distributor hold-down brackets, firewall clutch cable bushings for a Manta, a custom water fitting, valve cover tabs from a later steel valve cover, and springs from the headlight assemblies.

You’ll note I have 10 LH/RH 5/8” threaded adjusters to build more adjustable panhard bars. My normal supplier was out of stock so I found an alternative. They’ll work fine but they are only black oxide plated, which generally means they rust in short order. So they’ll get fresh zinc plating.

A few Manta/Ascona hood safety hooks, a couple Manta/Ascona hood latches, two custom Manta outer tie rods, my recently fabricated crankcase breather bracket, and a steering column bearing holder for a racecar.

Close-up on some small parts…hood release cable clips and screws, headlight housing tension springs, and valve cover hold-down tabs as used on the later steel valve covers.

Headlight mounting assemblies…one pair for an Ascona, and a set of 4 for a Manta.

Those eBay chromoly M8 x 1.25 pitch, 12-point nuts with 10 mm heads I recently purchased.

Black oxide keeps them from rusting while on the shelf, but not much more! Yellow zinc looks cool and provides a little more corrosion protection. I like these for mounting carburetors or other places where access is limited for a 13 mm wrench or socket. The 10 mm heads give a ton more access.

 

[Will I. Finish]

Went to Cars and Coffee yesterday and I pull in and what do I see but a Red 1969 Opel GT with a space available right beside of it, so that was kind of fun. Guy said he purchased it 4 years ago in Tennessee. It has been painted but does not appear to have had anything else done to it. I think he wants to sell it. He had never been to this site but perhaps will now that he has the address.

 

[sawdust]

Sprung a leak at the thermostat housing. Sheared three heads off the mounting bolts Found out my vise grip wont remove remaining studs. Neighbor said he had stud removers. In 10 minutes he had removed the housing. Replaced thermostat and housing.

 

[Nitromancer]

I figured I had better run the new 1900 (aka Manta) over to the gas station because the gas gauge doesn’t work.
Runs great and I put $20 in.
Won’t start. Ka-ka! And no tools. After that awful sinking well this is a crappier day than 20 minutes ago feeling I remembered the kill switch -DOH!
Fired right up & gave it a short casual ride.

 

[RallyBob]

Made a jig fixture this morning to align weld-in injector bungs on an EFI intake (or any intake converting to EFI on a CIH).

I will replace these regular 1/2” bolts with socket cap screw bolts to make removal easier once everything is welded in place.

 

[RallyBob]

Made some adjustable front camshaft covers today. Last item I needed to finish in order to send out my parts for zinc plating. Woohoo!

 

[Nitromancer]

I removed the rear seat from my new acquisition. It appears to have been recovered at some point. I had found a local OpelGT.comer that had this nice rear seat with original covering.

 

[RallyBob]

Next on my plate is making some custom outer tie rods for my 1975 Sportwagon.

I used to destroy stock German outer tie rods on my street cars…about once per year they needed replacing. Wide tires, aggressive spring rates, and aggressive driving will do that…

They were never designed for 10” wide modern slicks. They were designed for 165R13 tires from back in the day!

These should be fairly bulletproof.

 

[Will I. Finish]

So cool that you can do all of these things. Very enjoyable to see your accomplishments. A picture is well you know.