Three Observations

Alan and I are now two weeks into this project and it is going well. Part of this is because of the people we have met, if you can call it that, at OpelGT.com, and at the shops we have called and visited. True, the first people we talked to at our local NAPA didn't know what an Opel was, but "the old guy" there sure did, and they've been very helpful. The folks at Kragan really dug into their databases for us to help find parts for our little Corvette (Corvetteette?) and seemed to enjoy the challenge, although they never could find any Opel GT parts for us.

When searching for help with the starter solenoid I made a call to a Sacramento shop that Google pointed me to, and while they were not the right place, the manager there gave me the number of a guy he worked with who did rebuilds and could surely help. Turns out that guy did not do retail work, that the referrer kept trying to send him retail business anyway, but he was still game and dug into his books. He was sure the parts still existed, but sent me instead to Lehr Auto Electric to talk to Shawn. He was absolutely sure Shawn could take care of this for us. Shawn took our starter and got right back to us after the weekend with an offer for a replacement solenoid for $75, but also that he had repaired our starter! $25!

Our best resource, which is becoming a source of moral support as well, has been the OpelGT.com forum. People there have offered us free and almost free parts, trades on parts, and they have even set up a meet here in Davis, only blocks from my house it turns out, so I'll get to bring my questions to them in person. OpelGT.com has also helped with our starter, suspension, gas tank, and other issues, and while we did hear from people asking us to not trash the car for a LeMons race, and we explained that we are reviving but not restoring a barn-find and wanted to make the car nice, if still LeMony, and the forum admins set up a forum just for this sort of thing!

So observation 1, car people are pretty OK people.

Our other observations had been about the car itself. The insurance paperwork in the car indicated that it had had been insured in Texas in 1983-84, the newest penny in the ash tray was from 1985, and an inspection sticker in the windshield said 1985. We figure 1985 was the last time the car was driven.

That insurance ticket also noted that the owner also had a '67 Dodge Dart! So, he likes interesting cars. That seemed to explain why the car was empty of fluids except new-looking oil in the crankcase. Also, the windows had been left rolled up. He knew how to store it. Well, maybe. We might have been a bit optimistic. It turns out that the gas tank had huge holes in it, corrosion, which explains why there was no fuel in the car. But still, considering how long the car has sat it looked pretty good, except for the sun damage to all of the plastic and rubber. Mostly, there was little corrosion on the body and the car was complete.

The final bit on this was that we finally cranked the motor and got good compression numbers. Maybe we do have reason to be optimistic.

Last observation. A car that has been sitting idle for some 25 years or so would be expected to have some problems, but we also look at it this way. The car has 25 fewer years wear and tear on the motor, transmission, and other running gear, than car that have been one the road all along. Seeing as we didn't need any of the interior, or the heater, and other comforts, in a LeMons race car, this was probably the ideal car for us.