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Hi guys, so I got bored and decided to make a build thread for a car I`m trying to rebuild in the next few years.
The story started in the beginning of this summer when a coworker asked me if I knew someone who would be interested in an old car that they had laying in the yard and which they wanted to get rid of. When I found out the name of the car and googled the name I was hooked and wanted to see it with my own eyes. When I got there a few days later this was the first view.
Yeahh, it looks like a pile of junk.
It`s a 1971 Opel Commodore A and it looked like it had a lot of potential, also it had all the documents and all the trim pieces and stuff. Ofcourse the best part was, that it was a bargain and only cost scrap money.
So a few weeks later I organized some transportation :
We should have put it on the treiler nose first and later we regretted that we hadn`t. We had to drive over 200km and we could do only 80kmh. But we got there and the next day me and my friend tried to start this old heap of junk that had stood in the same place for 6 years. And what a suprise, after proper preparations it started without any problems So we put some pieces back on to it and drove it to my friends house to give it a proper wash. :
I have to say that it drove perfectly, the sound from the 2.5 liter straight six was just perfect. Too bad the brakes didn`t work, atleast the handbrake worked like a charm.
The next few days I put all the trim pieces and such in their rightful places, also assembled the interior. Before that everything was piled in the car.
As a BMW fanboy I was pleased that it had a six-pot engine, but when I discovered that it had 5x120 wheel bolt pattern I got even more excited.
4x4 stance for the win. Also tried one of the 17"x9" throwing stars in the back corner just for fun. Had to use some muscle to get the ridehight better.
When it time to choose wheels I`ll probably go with 15" or 16" rims that are 10" or 11" wide in the back. But that day is probably far far away.
The height of the car was really starting to annoy me so I went to my friends garage and found two springs from an older merc that seemed to be the right size. So before shot:
After cutting the two merc springs in half I had a hole set of lowering springs
And after the installation :
Looks real gangster. Here, have another :
At the end of the summer I ran into some engine problems so I left it to rest.
Made a crappy interior pic too after that.
So it stood for a few months and winter came closer and closer, so I decided to move it from here.....
.....to here :
At least it will be safe from the forces of nature.
And there it will stay til summer, then I can start taking it apart and hopefully get going with all the welding and stuff.
I`ll try to paintshop a picture of what it should end up looking, but until then thanks for reading and I hope you`re as excited as I am about this build.
The story started in the beginning of this summer when a coworker asked me if I knew someone who would be interested in an old car that they had laying in the yard and which they wanted to get rid of. When I found out the name of the car and googled the name I was hooked and wanted to see it with my own eyes. When I got there a few days later this was the first view.
Yeahh, it looks like a pile of junk.
It`s a 1971 Opel Commodore A and it looked like it had a lot of potential, also it had all the documents and all the trim pieces and stuff. Ofcourse the best part was, that it was a bargain and only cost scrap money. So a few weeks later I organized some transportation :We should have put it on the treiler nose first and later we regretted that we hadn`t. We had to drive over 200km and we could do only 80kmh.
But we got there and the next day me and my friend tried to start this old heap of junk that had stood in the same place for 6 years. And what a suprise, after proper preparations it started without any problems So we put some pieces back on to it and drove it to my friends house to give it a proper wash. :I have to say that it drove perfectly, the sound from the 2.5 liter straight six was just perfect. Too bad the brakes didn`t work, atleast the handbrake worked like a charm.
The next few days I put all the trim pieces and such in their rightful places, also assembled the interior. Before that everything was piled in the car.
As a BMW fanboy I was pleased that it had a six-pot engine, but when I discovered that it had 5x120 wheel bolt pattern I got even more excited.
4x4 stance for the win.
Also tried one of the 17"x9" throwing stars in the back corner just for fun. Had to use some muscle to get the ridehight better.When it time to choose wheels I`ll probably go with 15" or 16" rims that are 10" or 11" wide in the back. But that day is probably far far away.
The height of the car was really starting to annoy me so I went to my friends garage and found two springs from an older merc that seemed to be the right size.
So before shot:After cutting the two merc springs in half I had a hole set of lowering springs
And after the installation :
Looks real gangster.
Here, have another :At the end of the summer I ran into some engine problems so I left it to rest.
Made a crappy interior pic too after that.
So it stood for a few months and winter came closer and closer, so I decided to move it from here.....
.....to here :
At least it will be safe from the forces of nature.
And there it will stay til summer, then I can start taking it apart and hopefully get going with all the welding and stuff.I`ll try to paintshop a picture of what it should end up looking, but until then thanks for reading and I hope you`re as excited as I am about this build.
And yes, it was rear ended, when the previous owner tried to get it off the treiler. The winch cable snapped and it rolled into a fencepost. But it seems that it has been in a crash too, the back end is a little bit off and the trunk lid and rear right door dont aligne properly. What concernes the replacement sheet metal, well that is complicated.
There are some brand new pieces for sale on ebay, but most of them are useless for me. But I have gotten some usefull hints from native car forums about some donors, so maybe I can salvage something from them.
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