1973 Opel GT Spyder

We began with a rusty 1973 Opel GT with the idea of turning it into a Spyder GT; similar to one I saw at the Carlisle PA import car show. No small task considering the car had lost much of its structural integrity to rust and now we were going to remove the roof! It would be necessary to reinforce the body with an inner frame of our own design.

Safety is our primary concern in this build, so with that in mind we decided on a frame design that would incorporate a roll bar as well as a tube steel skeleton in the rockers.

First we had to cut out all of the rusted areas and fabricate replacement panels to restore the original look of the car. While the body was laid open, we set about getting the new frame design welded into the car. 1 x 3 inch tube steel was used to run the length of the rocker area then was attached to the car with heavy plate, this combined with the soon to be added roll bar should eliminate any stress.

Now it was time to restore the belly, while much of the original metal remained, most of it was in bad shape and the previous owner had tried to repair the damage but it was not good enough. We again, cut out all the rust and welded in replacement metal and added a few braces to make the whole belly much stronger.

Here, with its first coat of body filler, is the nearly completed restoration work on the belly. We were going more for function then perfection on this part as it really wont be seen. Having said that, it still looks very good, just not to my normal standards.

Here is the primed belly, considering the rust bucket we started with this is not to shabby. While all this work was happening, we had also prepped the engine compartment for primer and paint. Next we will paint the belly, as it is very hard to get at when the car in down on all four tires. We will do a very good blend when we paint the body.

Here is what we started with. Next we stripped any removable items and sand blasted the entire area clean.

This step shows the engine compartment in epoxy primer. While I am not covering every little step, we did take all the necessary prep work and cleaning to get to this point.

1969 Cuda green is the chosen color, my wife wanted something between lime and emerald green, and it had to "pop". I think it does.

Well, one month turned into 7, and finally I am back at it. I was quite apprehensive about cutting the top off as once you do it there is no going back, but it had to be done. It looks good, the cut is conservative to allow for errors. Now I have many small details to attend to in order to get it running and driving and figure out the deck area. You know me... cut first, think later..lol

Here is a test fit of the new roll bar, nothing is in any way final yet. This roll bar is as much about safety as it is for structural support to keep the car from flexing. There will be other pieces added before it is done.

Deck lid, first try.

Not a bad look, functions pretty well.

The engine is reinstalled and looking good. Not the add-on fuse box and dedicated ground block system I use on GTs.

Finally the roll bar is complete, fully welded to the the car and added supports it seems to have eliminated the body flex as intended. Now we will install the new rear cover as we scraped the one in the previous pictures, Dave came up with a better design that is smoother and stronger than the first one.

My friend Pat came up with the idea of having the cover flow down into the side a bit for a more eye pleasing look. He was right and I set about adding extentions to the sides of the cover.

Here you get the general idea of how it will look, of course this is well short of the finished form.

The extentions also forced me to rethink the rain channels. So I cut away the old and came up with a new idea that would also add some strength to the sides of the car.

This is how they will look. I made this so strong you can grab them and shake the whole car without any noticible deflection.

Now a bit about the convertible top. Here is the gasket to window alignment, looks to be pretty good.

Front view, the tabs are just for adjustment, later I will fab up a proper front section for the top.

It took some doing to get the top to look good and fit right, the strings in this picture are temporary. I will be attaching cables along those lines later. The top itself will secure to the real lid with spring activated locks and push rods.

Another side view to show the height of the top in relation to the windshield and door glass.