New acquisition, definitely NOT a muscle car.

[Lynn]

I need another project like a hole in the head. But, was wanting someing to get REALLY good fuel economy without driving a Prius.

Anyway....

Just made a deal on a 69 GT 1.1 with an extra engine. Of the 100,000 Opel GT's sold in this country, only about 3500 have the tiny 1.1 engine.

46,xxx miles. Same owner since 1974.

Less than 100 miles from me. Sherri and I picked it up yesterday. True basket case. But, other than the battery tray... no rust.

HH paint code (Strato Blue) similar to Chevy LeMans Blue (my favorite color for the GT)

Black interior. Dash is trash of course. No tears in the seats, but some seam separation. Vinyl is not that soft, so may need seat covers.


Goal is to clean it up, get it back together, get it running (been sitting a while.. a long while) go through the mechanical issues, and drive as a survivor. Not a true survivor, as it had paint work done early in its life (sometime before 1974).
If I do decide to do a full resto, it will be a while, as I have three projects in front of it.

We have about a 20 mile commute, mostly highway, and plan to use this car 2 or 3 days a week for the commute. Going to shoot for 50 mpg, which I think is doable. Found a guy getting 65 mpg in his 69 GT with the same engine. Will be way more cool than driving a Prius. Driver's side door does not open from the outside, so the door panel is off and laying in the back "seat". But both door panels are in very good condition.

To give you an idea how miniscule the engine and trans are; I can pick up the trans with one hand. Sherri and I picked up the engines without straps, chains hoist etc, just with our hands, and got them out of the Tahoe, then set them on the floor. One is missing the carbs (dual one barrels) and exhaust manifolds, but even the fully dressed engine complete with clutch and flywheel is light enough for us to pick up by hand.
Complete car only weighs 1880 pounds without driver.

[mockingbird812]

Sweet ride. Great color. Bold move! Congrats!!!!!!!!!!

[69 Post Sedan]

I love those little cars.......congrats!

Kurt

[Craig_Maiorana]

They are cool cars. I would love to take one and install a GN LC2 3.8 liter turbo .. Make a little rocket ship out of it

[bbbentley]

Congrats! Nice! You just don't see many Opel GTs anymore, regardless of engine. Hey lynn, "would't you really rather have a Buick!??" lol. Anything that you don't see much of is pretty cool in my book, except Yugos.

That silver car, front Lh in 1st picture? Rolls? Bentley? Early 60s Silver Cloud I,II,III or S-I,II,III? on 2nd look, maybe a Jag.

[Lynn]

Bentley asked:
That silver car, front Lh in 1st picture?
Rolls? No.
Bentley? No.
Early 60s Silver Cloud I,II,III or S-I,II,III? No.

maybe a Jag. No.

[Tenney]

Cool little car! If the battery tray's shot ...?

http://www.zelectricmotors.com

[Lynn]

No electric conversion here.

Waiting for parts for my Studebaker so thought I would look over the GT a bit.

Other than that little bit of rust under the battery tray (and the tray itself, which is partly gone) this really is a zero rust car. The belly pan is very close to dent free, which is very unusual, because with that long nose, they were always getting scraped on parking blocks. Will not be difficult to patch that one rust hole. Will only need to cut out about 1 inch by 3 inch section.

Bumper has one slight imperfection. I am pretty sure I can straighten it without chipping the chrome. It fits perfectly and took zero persuasion to get all the bolt holes lined up. It doesn't even need to be rechromed.

Only things missing so far: front grill and the muffler.

[earntaz]

Did everyone notice the dist machine in the background ?? Neat stuff ... taz

[Lynn]

Yeah, guess I need to post that on the "garage gadgets" thread. And, I actually use it pretty regularly.

[HawkX66]

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: earntaz</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Did everyone notice the dist machine in the background ?? Neat stuff ... taz </div></div>
As a matter of fact I did... I'd love to have one in my garage.

[JRSully]

We used to call those &quot;Junior Vettes&quot;

[Lynn]

Keeps getting better. For a barn car sitting since 1974, it is remarkably well preserved.
Have been over this car every inch. Other than very light surface rust in a couple areas, and the aforementioned battery tray (already have a new one made of stainless) there is zero rust.

Even the gas tank is rust free. Spent several days washing out the varnish with acetone. Had to put a bunch of washers in it and swish around with the acetone, but it looks brand new inside. Sending unit still works. One piece of vinyl on the driver's seat is brittle, but the rest of the seats and door panels are almost as new.

Has original spriral shocks. Have not pulled the fronts, but the rears have not leaked and still work like new. Just going to clean and re-install. Sending wheel cyl and master to White Post for sleeving. Will rebuild front calipers myself. ATE calipers are easy. I have them on my old Bimmer and the Ferrari project.

Unlike Chevrolet, Opel saved and archived all the production info. Any GM dealer can make a request, so I got a buddy who owns a Buick GMC dealership to request the info, and we have already received a response that it is in the works.

Meanwhile, a kindly gentleman from Germany who is on the Opel GT forum found a doc from the Opel plant archive. See attached. This confirms that one of my engines is original to the car. Car was built April 9, 1969. That engine is stamped &quot;11SR US 0054425&quot;

So, I am going to disassemble and go through the original engine and get this thing on the road.
The spare engine? Plan to build a fuel injected turbo motor just for fun. So tiny, it is like working on a motorcycle engine. I figure 120 horsepower will be fun in a 1880 pound car. Shouldn't take 3 hours to do the engine swap.

The spare is a Goodyear radial, made in Germany and dated March, 1969.
Pic of Opel plant archive doc attached. The color was called Monzablau in Germany (Monza Blue) and Strato Blue in the U.S.