And so it begins...

I also installed a tow hitch and built a tire trailer (that I still haven't used yet). As it turns to out the receiver for a Scion TC is almost a perfect fit for the Opel GT.

I made some progress this weekend.

I rerouted the fuel return line to the other side of the transmission tunnel to get it away from the exhaust pipe. Then I installed a replacement driveshaft. This has been a real challenge trying to keep the cost down and get a drive shaft that fits, doesn't vibrate, and will hopefully not break a u-joint in the drags. Basically I had been looking for a good used 300zx Z31 drive shaft with good original joints. It seems in the past 10 years or so the supply of Z31 in the bone yards has mostly dried up. I finally found one on eBay for more than I wanted to spend but I was out of options so I asked the seller several questions to make sure it was good and the u-joints were smooth and without slop in them. This was critical because they original joints are staked in and the only replacement style available is an inside clip design which results in thicker caps but much smaller cross shafts and is a weaker joint than the original. Long story short, I bought the shaft and when it arrived I found it was not in the condition I had been told. The joints didn't move smoothly and the slip yoke was entirely rusted over. After some more communication with the seller he refunded half my money and I had a core driveshaft to try to salvage. I cut off the rear yoke so I could fit the Volvo yoke to it. Since I could then remove two caps I scraped out the old grease and then submerged the end of the drive shaft in hot clean motor oil to see if I could get the rest of the old oil out. I then repacked the two caps with new grease and did my best to force grease through the cross shafts and into the other two inaccessible caps. I cleaned up the slip yoke and bolted it in the car for a test drive. Well so far so good I got it up to freeway speed and there wasn't any vibration that I could discern. 

I did a little bit tuft testing of the modified hood this week.

Time for the rusty hood to come off for a little phosphoric acid treatment to get it ready for body filler.

This after about 15min. We'll see what it looks like in the morning. 

So much yes.

Finishing the hood cleaning and putting down a coat of Rust-Oleum primer cut 50/50 with acetone was all I managed to get to on the Opel today.

Wow. Cleaning and painting the interior took a lot longer than I expected. It pretty much consumed any free time I could make in the evenings this week. I hope it was worth the time expenditure.

I wasn't really sure I wanted to get rid of all the sound deadening so I only removed the loose stuff and the area where the exhaust runs underneath.

After cleaning:

After a coat of Rust-Oleum Aluminum:

It took 1/3 of a quart. 

Working on cleaning up the engine bay.

And now I'm officially out of time and am going to have to relinquish my grand plans in favor of the minimum viable product. 

I got back from getting my new RT660s mounted and enlisted the kids in washing the wheels. They came up with the idea of using cones to make their job more efficient and then it turned into a water battle. They say the wheels got cleaned first. 

Engine bay is finished being painted and is put back together.

Its about ready to load on the trailer, but unfortunately the Flu has decided to pay a visit to my house and thrown a wrench in the spokes. 

It's about time again to start seriously working on getting ready for the challenge.

I took the Opel out today to do the first heat cycle on the RT660's. Hopefully 40 minutes cruising 75mph on the highway followed by taking a 55mph road that has several left and right hand 30 and 15 mph 90deg turns got enough heat in the tires for the initial heat cycle.

The downside is that when I got home and jacked the car up to swap the wheels I found the whole underside of the front of the car is covered in oil. 

Now I have to figure out where it's coming from and fix it. That was not on my prep list. 

Mine is finally in the shop. Damn near time to start it's build.

Hot!

wait... what happened between May and now? Did anything get done during that time? Just  now reading your thread and confused..

anger_enginering said:

wait... what happened between May and now? Did anything get done during that time? Just  now reading your thread and confused..

A whole lot of non-Opel stuff happened, and just a little bit of Opel stuff like installing a manual boost controller and a little bit of work on the rear wing build. 

Oh, and the car received several more paint scratches while sitting in the garage. 

I just spent my spare time this evening degreasing the motor and undercarriage.  Tomorrow I'll take it for a drive and hopefully find the source of the oil leak. 

No luck so far. I let it idle in the driveway for a good long time till completely warmed up. .. No leaks.

Went for a short low speed drive . . . No leaks.

Left foot braked to build boost at low speed. Held it at 10 psi for several seconds and repeated this a couple of times. . . Still no leaks.

There was a hint of oil in an area that I had not cleaned well enough so it may or may not be fresh. I wiped down this area really well to make sure it is dry and I will try to get it to leak again tomorrow. 

Found it! 

Front seal.

Front crank seal?

MiniDave said:

Front crank seal?

Yep. I'm not sure why it leaked so much the other day when it hasn't done that before and doesn't seem to be leaking much now. I wonder if it was the extended time above 3000 rpm. Normally on the highway it runs 2500 rpms but I was running smaller tires and a higher speed than my normal drives. 

$3 later and a vast array of scratches all over my forearm, the SR now has a new front crank seal.  I also hit the crank pulley with a bit of flat black spray paint to spruce it up before going back on. 

Now back to our regular scheduled Challenge preparations. 

Now it's time to figure out what the 9" wide wheels are rubbing on. (Miata wheels are just to help visualize the radial location of the inner lip)