Opel Kadett C - A Pile of Rust

The story begins with me,my brother and my friend going to tow the car in the neighbour city 25km's away in one direction



We saw the cops on the road,they just waved and looked away

Opel Kadett C 1.2S 2 Door Limo





There are some visual modifications,like Irmscher rear ducktail



And some plastic parts,that are normally made of steel.




3 Spoke Opel aluminium steering wheel,but unfortunately with original 2 Spoke wheel horn button :?




The stupid things about the car,tow hook



And this hideous front bumper,removing it was the first modification





The rear bonnet absorber,not working at all.



There is corosion on fenders,front part of the car.Front and rear shock mounts are not rusty.





I really don't know anything about the engine,the starter is not working,gotta fix that first.


This is after removing the air filter plastic lid.



There is 3 same wheels,and one different

The different one has the bigger oval cuts




Here is the fourth one that i managed to get few days ago on the junkyard



Last registration was half year ago,not so bad.



I'm not going to tell you plans,gonna tell it when the time comes,step by step.

It costed me about 200 euros,i think it's not so bad.

I'm very happy about it,and i think i'm gonna start working on it very soon

Cheers from a112- Der Neue Kadett C Fahrer

Day 2

Here is the photos from later today.
Haven't did anything much,beacuse all the time my friends were coming over to see the car.

I detached the side trim




It was easy to detach,but i had problem with front blinkers that i wanted to get detached undamaged,the screw was all worn out and rusty but i managed to do that.



Then i pulled the car on the trench so i can see the floor,it's ok in compare to some cars over here.











The luggage floormat is ok,there is maybe about 2 dead spots of rust,floor mat seems fair ok,and the door panels are probably going to be replaced.


I wanted to detach the rear spoiler,but i gave up,beacuse it's so bad installed that i would probably broke if i was detaching it.

Tried to pull out the co-driver's seat,but it was kinda hard,since all the screws were completly rusty,and you can't move the seat back,so it was hard to get to the screws,but i managed to do it.







I pulled the antena out,the whole panel structure is f'ed up,needs replacement.




I put it in the garage,to take a nap .



It was all for today,since i haven't had time,beacuse all the time my friends were coming over to see the car.I'm enjoying doing those small things for now,but soon going to strip the interior and get on the welding buisness.

Cheers, a112.

looks like a project! Get to it! I love seeing any old car out on the road!

Jim Prower

looks like a project! Get to it! I love seeing any old car out on the road!

Click to expand...

Yes,and probably a long term one,since i'm mostly low on cash,but it's important to have will and not to be lazy,you can always do small things.

Day 3

Continued to do some things today.

I pulled out the car from the garage and tried to detach the front seat,it was all ok,a bit coroded screws,but got used to it.It was down in few minutes.



Found some money in the car



I vacuumed the carpet so i can easly remove it,and detached the seatbelt mechanism,the plastic at the gear shifter,and few other plastics,the carpet was out.

The floor is in pretty much in a good condition,a few rust spots,but nothing to worry,usually the floor is completly rusted.





















Moved to the back seats,part of the job outside,but the sun came down,so i had to move in the garage for the light.
Had a few problems with the seats,but it was eventually out.








Detached the rear panels also.





I remembered that i have old rear bonnet somewhere,and i took a flaslight to see around the house.Voila,found it.
Detached the old one,and attached the new one only with 3 screws beacuse the mountings were all rusty.Left it without keylock,and attached the hammer to it to get some weight .










I fixed the handbrake a bit,it was also a bit rusty,it's good now,and put the car to sleep.



Cheers.

Day 4

Haven't done much of a job today,haven't had time.

Shortly,removed the rear bumper and the tow hook finally
There was a few problems with the hook,as usually rusty screws and hard reachable.
After that,i disconnected rear lights.





Started removing the front ligths and fenders,but screws were very very rusty,so i put some WD40 on it and had a sleep . Detached the fender screws that went down well.And yes,detached some badly done DIY net over the cooler that was also fitten with lousy and rusty screws.



That's all for today,cheers.

EDIT: Fixed the order now,should be ok.
Sorry for double posting,but i'm copying this from another forum by the days i've done things.

And I thought that I had hard time with my '82 Cortina/Taunus.. well, atleast your car weights about 500 kilos less than mine ( that was around 1400kg), and has pretty spunky 1'2l OHC engine. it should be good for about 50-70 bhp which is plenty for light car with rather short gear ratios.

It has 740kg by the papers,it's pretty much light.
Engine is 1.2 OHV inside,but not gonna stay inside

That's a cool looking little car actually. I'd love to see one in pristine condition to see what it looked like back then.

My brother has one,it's '73. But he swapped most of the parts.
Engine is 2.0 from Opel Monza,transmission is Getrag 240 from Manta B,complete rear axle from Ascona 2.0.Front brakes from Rekord 2.0,suspension is custom made + some of the original parts,custom car mostly as i would say

Woke up at 9AM and started to do some work.

Ordered new front fenders at the local parts shop,for C2 line(blinkers next to the lights) since they don't have C1 type.

Went home,turned the car around,and detached the hood and engine mount,mounted the lifter and pulled the engine little up.
Detached the motor starter that is not working.
We made a direct connection starter > battery and it didn't work.I took a visit to my friend who knows car electics,since my grandfather,also auto electrician is now for nothing(he is 83 year old).






Then started to detach the fenders and found out something new
















All for today.
Cheers.

Was the car originally yellow and someone painted it red?

Looking forward to seeing what your going to do with it...

Yeah,it was yellow,and just repainted on outside,i think i mentioned it somewhere.
Thanks. 👍

It's gonna turn out great! Keep up the good work.

Nice project mate. 👍

Good luck - looks like you're going to need it!

Make sure you keep us updated, it should turn out nice.

Something new arrived today

Those are rear sidepanels, right?

Those arches look huge!

Gingiba

Those are rear sidepanels, right?

Click to expand...

Other end, I think.

Are they Reproduction, or N.O.S.? (To Ricers: In the Old Car Hobby, N.O.S. means New Old Stock, Not Nitrous Oxide. To Everyone Else not in the know: "New Old Stock" Is a term meaning factory parts originally made as spares or crash parts, that are no longer in production.)

Yeah, looking back at the pictures I see that's the part he pulled off - and also noticed that kink at the edge, which must be for the headlights.


I love seeing completely everyday old cars. Maybe I should go ahead with that Bimmer 1702 rotting in the neighboorhood when I reach the age and money-minimum.

Know what, me too. Grandpa's '51 Chrysler Windsor's not really in that category, but it's failry civilian compared to a later C-300, and, truth be told, it was one of the least expensive Chrysler models that year, but it's still cool!

Someone needs to preserve the old everyday cars, or else we'll run out of them. I'm sure there are some cars that have been close to wiped off the face of the planet just because they were everyday vehicles.

I'm gonna be an AE82 Nova Preservationist.

Nice project you got there, keep us updated!

By the way, this car is called Chevette over here, this is our Kadett:

Yes,i know it's called chevette anywhere except europe mostly.(gemini in australia,japan...)
The kadett on your picture is our Kadett E line,mine is C line.
About fenders (front),not new old stock,but new new stock (probably reproduction),they are making it even today.Except you can't buy the C1 fenders in croatia(the blinkers down),only C2 that i bought(blinkers next to the headlights) so i'm gonna fill the holes beacuse i'm not a big fan of C2 line myself.
Cheers.

That is a nice project indeed
Always loved the C type Kadett.
When i save up enough money i,m going to look for a coupe.
Not in the state yours is though i,m horrible with metal works
Just curious what engine will you be fitting in it ?
I,ve heard that with some adjustments you,re able to fit a Lotus Omega
Engine under the hood. Twin turbo,s around 400 horses
I,m thinking about the c20xe or the turbo version of the same engine.

13thmonkey

That is a nice project indeed
Always loved the C type Kadett.
When i save up enough money i,m going to look for a coupe.
Not in the state yours is though i,m horrible with metal works
Just curious what engine will you be fitting in it ?
I,ve heard that with some adjustments you,re able to fit a Lotus Omega
Engine under the hood. Twin turbo,s around 400 horses
I,m thinking about the c20xe or the turbo version of the same engine.

Click to expand...

Hm, keep dreamin', that's an expensive convert, there. Probably better off looking for the Rover (buick) V8 or importing a Small Block Chevy. And, being scared of metal working's a bad thing for that conversion, anyway: I'd guess there'd be quite a bit of underbody, fabrication, and other such work.

Also, from the sound of it, good luck finding one without rust. Still, good to dream. You might try just modifying the stock coupe's engine.

13thmonkey

That is a nice project indeed
Always loved the C type Kadett.
When i save up enough money i,m going to look for a coupe.
Not in the state yours is though i,m horrible with metal works
Just curious what engine will you be fitting in it ?
I,ve heard that with some adjustments you,re able to fit a Lotus Omega
Engine under the hood. Twin turbo,s around 400 horses
I,m thinking about the c20xe or the turbo version of the same engine.

Click to expand...

First of all,Lotus Omegas(Carltons) are extermly very rare here,and fitting a inline six in Kadett is a bit bigger modification since you need to cut a piece of cockpit and move the gearbox tunnel a bit rear. There is one guy in Croatia that swapped MV6 from Omega B inside.
Second of all,i don't like turbo engines very much,and i also don't like Opel engines very much so i'm probably going to get some other makers engine(you will see when i get it).

Anyway a bit of an update,got a rebuilt starter,mounted it and started to bang myself in the head.
The engine is dead,i forgot to try it on crankshaft before i installed the starter,so i'm gonna be pulling it out soon.

Cheers.

Did some work today .

I was in garage since 7 AM (sleeping only from 5AM-7AM ) ,did some work on one of my brothers Fiat Uno,and after that did some work on my Kadett.
Removed the head,and saw that the upper part of the cylinders is ok,and the crankshaft probably doesn't work,so i decided to pull the engine out.




















My oh my misfortune got me



Gonna dissasemble the engine in a few days.

Cheers.

Disassembled the engine today and found out that it's just stuck a bit.
Crankshaft is ok,and also the clutch is very good.
Gonna lubricate it good and than put all together in a few days.











Cheers.

I have been waiting patiently and I can wait much longer.....

I don't have much time lately since i'm not home during the week when the school is running.
I got home yesterday and did some work today.

First broke all of the lime scale that collected on most of the engine parts,than washed the engine first with crude oil,after that with water and pressured air,left it to dry and after that dried the rest of the parts that remained wet.












Head before cleaning,pictures after are too dark,so i haven't uploaded them




Found one of my bro's old colored valve covers in the basement since mine is a bit damaged,so i'm gonna install that one instead.



I managed to get new head,valve cover and oil pan gaskets,but one of the panel gaskets needed a bit DIY action




For today,assembled the down part of the engine,and i hope i am going to install it tomorrow if i am going to have free time,since i got to travel back to the dorm. The crankshaft and the camshaft are in good condition,i hope it's going to start.









Cheers.