[johnbran]

Well, I ran across another problem on the GT last night. I have had a problem with the passenger side headlight not wanting to lock up or down correctly, so I started investigating. Ended up taking the headlight assembly completely out and what I found was not for the faint of heart! The entire gear assembly had rusted off of its mount and the origional triangle shaped hole that is supposed to be in the fenderwell for accessing the bolts.......well, it's about the size of a softball from rustout. So, looks like another major fix and reconstruction project added to the list. More than likely I'll be pulling out the driver's side today to see what condition it's in. Hopefully it will not be as bad, but the chances seem slim. While I'm at it, does anyone know of any other major rust proned areas that I should be checking out? The outer body didn't seem to be rusted too badly, but I'm finding a lot of inner structures that are in serious need of attention. Once I get everything repaired, I'm going to need to do some kind of rustproofing so all that work doesn't rust away in a few years. Does anyone know what the extended effectiveness of the spray on undercoatings is? It seems to be the easiest way to get at some of the tighter spots, but I need something that will last for many years and not just fall out after a week.

Thanks to all,
John

 

[Kristi]

John,

From what I've heard the thing that rusts the most the fastest is the battery pan (the metal pan the battery sits on). From my understanding if yours isnt rusted its very very unique... just my two cents.

 

[Stanley_P]

Check your shock towers and lifting points. My shock towers had to be reinforced due to rust at the top. My lifting point in the rear had to be fixed too. I was really lucky with my car because it had been undercoated underneath and inside the fender wells.
Just my 2 pennys worth.......

Thanks,
Stanley

 

[Stanley_P]

Try to find a junk Opel and cut the headlight attachment out and weld it in place. Just overlay it onto the existing one and weld.....or I guess you could pop rivet or screw it into place.
That should fixer up.......

Stanley

 

[johnbran]

So do you mean to say that the battery pan on these cars didn't come from the factory as a piece of wood zip tied to a sucker rod jammed between the front rails? I thought it looked pretty professional actually. Seriously though, I have found a few other bad places, like the passenger side rear trailing arm mount needing some major strengtening, but it appears that my shock towers and lifting points are pretty good. I've been doing body work since I was big enough to carry a hammer or strike a weld, so I'll just fab up some new mounts for the headlights and anything else that needs work. I just didn't want to overlook something on these cars that might need attention. If my headlight hadn't needed work, I probably wouldn't have found the rustout behind it until much later, if ever.

Thanks for the tips,
John

 

[johnbran]

Ok gang, what's the deal with these GT's? As I mentioned before, I had to make a new mount to replace the rusted out passenger side rear headlight mount on my '70 GT. Well, after fabricating the new mount, welding it in place, re-installing everything for the headlight, and adjusting the buckets to open together, I've now got a new problem. The headlights will lock into the open position perfectly, but they will only go about 3/4 of the way back to the closed position before they stop. They seem to be binding up somewhere before they get fully closed. I checked the cable, the rods, and the headlight buckets themselves, and nothing seems to be jammed up with any of them. Everything worked correctly before except for the pass. side headlight being loose due to the rusted out mount, and the new mount I made up is exactly like the origional. I thought the cable might be binding up, so I lubricated it and tried working the headlights back and forth, but they still go to the same point each time and just stop. Whatever it's binding up on is fairly solid though, because I couldn't even manually push the headlights down into the closed position. I know this surely isn't anything too major since they worked fine before, but apparently I'm missing something somewhere. I've read the article in downloads about the headlights, but so far, everything that it or my origional service manual shows to check is working correctly. So, does anyone out there have a clue about what might be going on? I'd really appreciate any and all advice on this problem. If this sort of thing keeps up, it's going take 20 years to get this thing back on the road.
Thanks again everybody,
John