Not Enough Opel Here 1971 Opel GT inside

Hi. My name is preach and I have a carcaine addiction. It is not as bad as some because I am real estate limited. This car makes 6 total, we have 2 drivers.

A little background:

When I was 15 my Step-dad gave me his old 1975 Opel Kadett 1900. I could not figure out the mechanical injection, but it introduced me to my 2nd car a 1970 Opel GT. I had a Chiltons manual for the Kadett and each chapter had a different Opel pic at the start. Kadett, Kadett Wagon, Manta (Ooo, that's cool), GT (epiphany for sure).

A few years later (1989) I bought a 1971 GT for $1200. I got some garage space at a friends parents house and set out freshening it up. I found a period article on how to hot rod them and did. It ended up a 2ltr fire spitting beast. I went hunting Fieros, GTs especially. It was 1970s fast.

I totaled it 30 days after I started driving it. I thought I could straddle a man hole in a construction zone at a good clip. I was wrong.

I have a wife now and she is a car girl. We got to talking about what car we missed most. Mine was this Opel. She had never heard of one and asked to see pics. When I showed her the pics online she exclaimed: "We need one of those!". This from a girl that wanted me to get rid of my 914 because it would never be worth anything and was always in the way.

That was a few years ago and I have always been looking. Today I bought a 1971 Opel GT with the 1900cc motor and a 4spd. Inspection ended 6 days ago and runs and drives. Pops out of 4th on decel but that should just be linkage.

Have a couple Pics from the CL listing:

It runs and drives, maybe, but that is not the plan for this old girl. I like drag racing and have raced my Cayman to 13.5s @ 107mph, but the Cayman is not a drag racer. So here comes the plan:

2000# car, 5cyl 2.5l VW motor, Lambo header to a decent sized turbo, either a Porsche 944 or a Corvette drivetrain, Haltech for other tuning, 500ish HP.

In reply to preach :

I have a 68 kadett and 75 manta, I will be watching.

Young_olds said:

In reply to preach :

I have a 68 kadett and 75 manta, I will be watching.

Been watching the Manta. Love it.

Mini Vette.

What is the plan? They dont just swallow a V8 if memory serves.

NOHOME said:

Mini Vette.

 

What is the plan? They dont just swallow a V8 if memory serves.

V8 Opel GTs

Memory is poor sorry NOHOME. Additionally GM Home stole the Opel design for the C3 Vette and released it 1 year prior than their German subsidiary.

preach said:So here comes the plan:

2000# car, 5cyl 2.5l VW motor, Lambo header to a decent sized turbo, either a Porsche 944 or a Corvette drivetrain, Haltech for other tuning, 500ish HP.

Hell yeah!

preach said:

It was 1970s fast.

There's a quote that should go in the magazine.  

One of my college buddies had a GT back in the 1970s, it was a fun car to drive.  I owned the world's rustiest 1967 1.1 liter Kadette wagon for a while in the 1980s.

In reply to preach :

His stuff's expensive, but Hank at Iroz Motorsport is the King when it comes to all things 5 cylinder Audi/VW related
Marc at EFI express is also a really good resource  

Awesome project! I've always loved Opel GT's

In reply to Turbine :

I do know of Iroz and will likely utilize some of their stuff. I also have been talking to Mike from Boost Brothers Garage

Mike from BBG and I share a lot of interests. 914s, 944s, Caymans, and 07Ks. He is probably the third person I sent the Opel pics to. He has sent me numerous CL ads from the Ohio area for Opel GTs none though I could make pan out. BBG has been researching and developing parts for the 944, check the bits out on the above linked site.

The best part of this build will be the ability to enjoy the car stock while I collect the correct goodies. Additionally I needed an Opel for the measurements to decide what donor will give up the drivetrain for this.

@AngryCorvair has been a real mentor albeit unknowingly. My lack of fear will hopefully match his when it comes to grafting two different cars together.

there's never enough Opel GT.  ever.

and thanks for the kind words.  someone on here said "it's just metal," and that is kinda what gave me the courage to jump in with both feet.  i can't begin to name all the people on this forum who have inspired and motivated me.

Popping out of 4th in an Opel most likely means that the gasket between the bell housing and transmission is leaking and you don't have any oil left in the transmission.  Usually they are toast by the time you notice. 

I actually started down the Audi 5-cylinder road with a Kadett back in '94 or so, and it looked like it was going to be a good fit. If I remember correctly there were oil pan issues that were going to need to be addressed, but the 5-cylinder is so smooth it's worth it. I had just sold an Audi 5000 at the time and the motor was the best thing about that car. 

Once I get the el camino and my dad's truck buttoned up I have a couple of Opel builds waiting in the wings to get the Opel count up.  I have been collecting parts for years and have most everything for a 250+hp turbocharged Opel 2.2l build that should be interesting. I need to decide if it's going in the Manta or the Sportwagon, or if I am going to finally build a 4wd Kadett wagon...

@oldopelguy I am pretty sure you are right about the transmission, but let me tell a story first.

So we left for the 1.5 hour trip to the car at about 11 this am. My wife, who is 110% onboard with this car, is speculative but has not voiced her concerns. I drove her Audi TT up to the car so she would not have to drive all day (and potentially into the night).

Now, I absolutely LOVE driving a questionable car home. So I am all in, but on the way there I am still considering what could go wrong. Well, I realize I did a hell of a job packing the right amount of tooling to self-help this car home. Then I realize:"Well E36 M3, a small fire extinguisher, that I thought about last night, would have been great." berkeley.

We get there and we get "then there is this and this and this and this..."

Got on the road and I am ok but still getting a feel for the thing. I will say that I am glad that I do not want anything from the drive train etc.

The part I car about is the body, and it is mint.

That said, and I might get into more detail later, is that we had zero problems and stops on the way home . Tons of driving issues, electrical, mechanical, soundical, but no big problems.

Hell I beat a Hyundai and tried for a AMG Merc hahahaha. No speedo but chase car clocked me close to 70mph.

Tranny sounded like a sequential on all decell and 4th would pop out on decell unless you held it, one brake light, needs a tune up pretty bad, interior was disgusting, pop up lights are berkeleyed but in the right rotation to easily fix it, brakes pull to the right but are solid...yep, more.

Yet here it sits at my place without a flatbed and an uneventful, yet enjoyable, drive home.

In reply to preach :

Heck, I live within an hour and a half drive of you.  I haven’t seen one of these things up here in any condition in probably 30 years.  Well done sir, looking forward to following this project. 

I've always loved the looks of that car and the Manta.   Good luck on the project!

So we spent the last two days defunking the car. It was pretty bad:

All of the carpet just disintgrated but everything else cleaned up well.

We found a picture from back in the film days of the PO and his kids we will send back to him. All the change we found has been put into the ashtray, I think we are close to $2. There was a blackjack with deteriorated leather between the door and driver seat. What we found funniest was this:

Not too too surprising because the guy we bought the car from had Rum bottles ALL over, i mean ALL over, his camp. His whole front of the 2 story camp was lined with them.

After removing all of the nasty carpet and giving the interior a good cleaning, I started going after the sound deadening to look for rust. I found some but did not get pictures yet. Right now we're looking at the front outboard corners of the floor pan and the corresponding areas of the rockers. I need to get the front wheels off to see about the inner fenders. I will have to get pics of these areas to share. It was getting late and I was getting a bit drunk.

After the wife bagged out I decided to wash the car as it too was nasty outside. Hoping to wash again today and we both want to try our hand at power buffing.

Last pic of the night is two German beauties:

I have to do some Adulting today but hope to get a high shine on the thing this afternoon. Wife went out today to get some 00 steel wool for the chrome.

Thank You for helping correct the Opel deficiency on this forum. Sounds like a spectacular project.

preach said:

Hi. My name is preach and I have a carcaine addiction. It is not as bad as some because I am real estate limited. This car makes 6 total, we have 2 drivers.

A little background:

When I was 15 my Step-dad gave me his old 1975 Opel Kadett 1900. I could not figure out the mechanical injection, but it introduced me to my 2nd car a 1970 Opel GT. I had a Chiltons manual for the Kadett and each chapter had a different Opel pic at the start. Kadett, Kadett Wagon, Manta (Ooo, that's cool), GT (epiphany for sure).

A few years later (1989) I bought a 1970 GT for $1200. I got some garage space at a friends parents house and set out freshening it up. I found a period article on how to hot rod them and did. It ended up a 2ltr fire spitting beast. I went hunting Fieros, GTs especially. It was 1970s fast.

I totaled it 30 days after I started driving it. I thought I could straddle a man hole in a construction zone at a good clip. I was wrong.

I have a wife now and she is a car girl. We got to talking about what car we missed most. Mine was this Opel. She had never heard of one and asked to see pics. When I showed her the pics online she exclaimed: "We need one of those!". This from a girl that wanted me to get rid of my 914 because it would never be worth anything and was always in the way.

That was a few years ago and I have always been looking. Today I bought a 1971 Opel GT with the 1900cc motor and a 4spd. Inspection ended 6 days ago and runs and drives. Pops out of 4th on decel but that should just be linkage.

Have a couple Pics from the CL listing:

It runs and drives, maybe, but that is not the plan for this old girl. I like drag racing and have raced my Cayman to 13.5s @ 107mph, but the Cayman is not a drag racer. So here comes the plan:

2000# car, 5cyl 2.5l VW motor, Lambo header to a decent sized turbo, either a Porsche 944 or a Corvette drivetrain, Haltech for other tuning, 500ish HP.

You should be able to take some hints on the turbo setup for this from urotuning.  There were a number folks making gti's out pf the mk5 Rabbit that came with this setup. 

for the money you would be much better off building a 1.8t - it is well understood and MUCH cheaper to do.  Not as interesting as 5 cyl turbo power but still.

Well we got to polish the turd today:

Driver's side issues:

Last pic you can see where the rust came down from the floorboard.

Passenger side is almost identical.

So a minor update and a dumbass title for me.

Been cleaning the interior. Vinyl is sucking up every bit of protectant thrown at it. It is starting to look good though.

I ordered some bits from Opel GT Source. Moderner seat belts, a Weber air cleaner to replace the current coffee can lid, a Weber manual, and some little bits that the wife wanted to make things more "complete". Well here comes the dumbass bit: I did not order a rebuild kit for the Weber. I am not sure what I was thinking when I ordered the stuff but I certainly should have ordered one.

I have to keep the GT on the back burner for a bit as I cannot make it immobile quite yet. This is due to getting gutters replaced on the driveway side of the house and we have a lemons car to get the interior out of and get it off for a cage.

I am pretty sure the 914 will be rolled into a HF tent for the summer and probably the winter as well. I did some measuring and even with the 914 pushed as far as possible to one side of my shop and the Opel in there I will only have about 1.5' per side to work on it. I doubt I could even open the tool boxes drawers fully with that set up. Too bad too since I just bought skates for a car and put them under the Porsche.

In preparation I have been crushing the 30 Minute Challenge

I am waiting to hear some interesting news about this car. My hopes are high but it would be damn near a miracle if it is true. I may have misremembered that my first one was a 1970 vice 1971. I have folk looking into it.

Oh and the damn thing is tiny, I have it parked next to my stock 2003 Tacoma and the roof line is under the Taco's window sill.

Went after the passenger headlight today. It is solely responsible for the lack of rotating headlights. Gear is broken. I think I am going to drill out the rivets and weld the thing up and grind down the welds. After I do that I think I will have it mapped and a new one water-jetted out. Just need to figure out new rivets for the assembly...not my thing, but I will figure it out. At worst I can buy a refurbished one from the Netherlands for about 200 euro. Not sure what that is in US dollars, but it sounds too much for my cheap ass.

Wiring is berkeleyed. I am actually the headlights do not work as the insulation flakes off if you look at it. Definite fire. Emailed a guy that makes new harnesses but at $1100, I am not interested. I can figure out a Painless harness and adapt from there. E36 M3s going to be all custom anyway eventually.

I also popped out the dent above the nostrils. No creases and just hand pressure to pop it back. Hope it doesn't pop back. More toward the bumper will take a hammer and dolly but I have pretty easy access.

As we all know, life gets in the way and I have a bunch of other projects ongoing, so time on this car is berkeleying precious.

Still need to measure to see if the 07k will fit but primary goal right now is to get the thing driving so we can enjoy the car as I collect parts.

I've had some contact with the Opel GT over the years. Many years ago a couple of friends had one that they stripped out for autocrossing and had planned n road racing it but I know that never happened.  Many years later, around 2011 I got involved with building a Lemons car which happened to be an Opel GT.  The engine was toast so the car owners made the mods required to install a Ford 2.3L engine out of a Ranger PU.  I did most of the engine and trans prep work and then got it running after the install. 

FYI you can use a master cylinder out of a 1971-1977 Mercury Capri. They bolt right up. We did remove the brake booster and went manual so a bit more fab work there too. 

Have one in my garage. Runs & drives. I restored it to close to original as I can get it with a couple drivability mods. Weber 32/36 and Pertronix with Flamethrower coil. Also used the bigger brake booster and master cylinder from OGTS. Great company to deal with. Headlights aren't fused so it's a good idea to add in an inline fuse and replace as much of the headlight wiring as you can. The old European insulation plus headlight rotation tend to make the insulation brittle which could lead to a fire. The fuse block under the drivers dash uses the old style European fuses, the only place I've been able to get them locally is NAPA. Order fuses for an air-cooled VW. That is if you keep the original fuse block. The mounting flange often breaks. If you go with the Painless wiring harness, add headlights to the amount of fuses and a suggestion would be to move the fuse block somewhere else. If you have big feet you'll be kicking the fuse block operating the clutch. Also there is a mod to reduce voltage to the ignition switch but not really necessary anymore. The switch used to be NLA. OGTS has them now. Alternator is another item that benefits from an upgrade. I had mine rewound and upped the output 65 amp. It's enough but a bit larger would run accessories better.

Book of faces has a couple pages dedicated to Opels. May be able to find a used headlight rotator assembly for cheap. There's usually someone parting one out that's too far gone to save. Plus Opels Unlimited sells used parts.

Agree they are a great looking car but not really a performer. Not nearly as fast as they look but still fun and always gets attention. Basically a re-bodied Kadette. The 1.9 Engine is kinda interesting with cam-in-head. No push rods but does have lifters that operate the rocker arms.

The original headlight wire is rubber insulated so it will be flexible enough to rotate. The modern upgrade is silicone wire.

My brother had a few GTs back in the 80s.