Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT on My Classic Car with Dennis Gage - Cyclo Polisher

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Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT on My Classic Car with Dennis Gage - Cyclo Polisher


Cyclo Polisher Removing Oxidation on a 1973 Opel GT on My Classic Car ​
[video=youtube_share;BlYXui9oElE&hd=1"]Cyclo Polisher Removing Oxidation on a 1973 Opel GT on My Classic Car - YouTube[/video]



Air Dates

My Classic Car Episode #17010 – “Cyclo Polisher” Garage Segment

Sunday, May 13th @ 12:30pm Eastern Time and 9:30am Pacific Time

Tuesday, May 15 @ 4:30pm Eastern Time and 1:30pm Pacific Time

Sunday, May 20th @ 9:30am Eastern Time and 6:30am Pacific Time​



While filming our new how-to features for upcoming episodes of My Classic Car with Dennis Gage I had 3 cars to work on and one of them is a 1973 Opel GT also known as the Poor Man's Corvette.

DennisGageShoot07.jpg



This car is owned by the son of Dennis Gage and they use it just as a fun car to drive around town running errands and chasing parts. It has an single stage finish that Dennis says was sprayed sometime in the mid to late 1970's which is the type of paint that was still being sprayed back then. You can see from these pictures that while the paint is still intact, the horizontal surfaces are showing signs of oxidation.


DennisGageShoot06.jpg


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Oxidized single stage paints work really well for before and after demonstrations because usually the after shots are fairly dramatic.

The Opel GT was sold through Buick dealerships and besides the Opel GT back in the 1970's you could also get a Manta and a Kadet.


:)
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT

Opel GT (the newer model) is cousin of my Saturn Sky Redline! Im the MAN
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT

Those are cool little cars. I went to high school with a guy who had 3 of these cars, 1 of which he crammed a 327 into. That was a scary car to be a passenger in with that nut behind the wheel. His other car was a 427 split bumper Camaro. All my friends were motor heads that listened to Motorhead lol.

Can't wait to see the outcome of this little piece of history!
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT

I sure remember those cars, Mike, but my memory is fading...I was going to ask if that was the "Opel" that was built by Isuzu in Japan, but I decided to look it up and these were built in Germany. Must have been the Kadet that was an Isuzu.
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT

Setec Astronomy said:
I sure remember those cars, Mike, but my memory is fading...I was going to ask if that was the "Opel" that was built by Isuzu in Japan, but I decided to look it up and these were built in Germany. Must have been the Kadet that was an Isuzu.
Click to expand...

I thought all Opels were built in Germany. I had a '73 Manta that superceded the Kadett and it was made in Germany.

TL
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT

TLMitchell said:
I thought all Opels were built in Germany. I had a '73 Manta that superceded the Kadett and it was made in Germany.
Click to expand...

After researching this, I must be thinking of the Buick Opel, which was a version of the Isuzu Gemini sold here from '76-'79, according to Wikipedia.
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT

Mike.Phillips@Autogeek said:
I read that the new Opel GT is basically the Saturn Sky except for the Opel badges...

Cool to see the Saturn Sky live on at least in other countries and what an honor to get the Opel GT name.


:xyxthumbs:
Click to expand...

You got it Mike! Basically the same car. Some Sky owners switch the badges and put Opel on theirs. I didn't know the Opel got to stay though! Last I read a year ago it was going back and forth on whether they would continue production.

Picture: Redirect Notice
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT

CEE DOG said:
I didn't know the Opel got to stay though! Cool! Last I read a year ago it was going back and forth on whether they would continue production.
Click to expand...

Yeah, but remember GM was trying to sell Opel.
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT

Setec Astronomy said:
Yeah, but remember GM was trying to sell Opel.
Click to expand...

Penske almost bought Saturn but backed out last minute... Was looking at Renault supplying the vehicles under the new penske Saturn but it didn't work out.

The Opel was under the vauxhall umbrella right?
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT

Here we're doing a little glass glass and chrome cleaning before moving the car into position. Some of my pictures were taking with my iPhone and others with my Canon.

DennisGageShoot22.jpg


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Whenever you're going to work on a car you need to figure out the camera angles that will do the best job of showing the products and the process. For this Opel GT we chose to use the right hand side of the trunk lid.

DennisGageShoot21.jpg



This was a segment showing the Cyclo Dual Head Orbital Polisher and how well it works to remove swirls, scratches and in this specific example oxidation.
DennisGageShoot24.jpg



Here you can see Mike re-positioning a light for one of the camera guys...
DennisGageShoot25.jpg


DennisGageShoot26.jpg



Here I'm removing oxidation to the paint on just the right hand side of the tape-line using Pinnacle XMT #3 Intermediate Swirl Remover.
DennisGageShoot27.jpg



Here's the before and after results after removing the tape. The paint itself was real glossy on the after side but when I took this picture we had already moved the car off the set and I wasn't able to get the right angle to show the glossy appearance but they did capture it on video for this how-to feature.
DennisGageShoot28.jpg


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:)
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT

CEE DOG said:
The Opel was under the vauxhall umbrella right?
Click to expand...

I thought they were trying to sell Opel separately from Vauxhall, but I dunno if I'm remembering right. I think you're right that Opel/Vauxhall/Saab were all under the GM Europe umbrella.

And now I'm going to stop because we're hijacking Mike's thread.
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT on My Classic Car with Dennis Gage

Cool car in nice condition. Most are left to "rusting-out". :(
The TinyVettes were much better looking than the Ford/Mercury Capris of the same time period, IMO.

Thanks for sharing!

Bob
 
Re: Poor Man's Corvette - 1973 Opel GT on My Classic Car with Dennis Gage

Yes, indeed we are. Mike, love the car and looking forward to following this thread! Thank you!
 
I have always loved those cars!!
[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jle5-wa5Yjc&feature=related]Spencers Speed Shop2 1970 Opel GT.mov - YouTube[/video]
 
when is the video for this one going to be up on the my classic car webpage? do you know mike? im sure others are wondering also..
 
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