Old Rusty Opel

I have an old rusty opel GT which was given to me as a gift. Honestly im more of an aircooled VW guy but it is impossible to deny the cool of the car. The car needs a lot of work. It supposedly ran fine years ago when parked, but its been through flooding, and serious neglect. The floors, bottom of the rockers, part of the fenders are shot. Somewhere along the way people did repairs with fiberglass and what looks like styrofoam, and it just caused the rust to spread.

My dilemna is the car is awesome and I got it for free. However, I know to get the thing drivable is gonna cost a lot of $. Parts are not easy to come by and it just seems like its going to be incredibly tough. My question to you guys is is the answer miata? Could I buy a miata with a rusted body, and drop the Opel body on top of the frame. The parts availability issue would be taken care of. All the running gear would be fully functional, and updated. I really know nothing about body swaps at all. I'm hoping you guys could point me in the direction of some resources. Tell me about what you've done etc. I look forward to your responses.

What tools and shop space do you have available for this project?

Miata might be a suspension and drivetrain donor but you're looking at two unibody cars... have you done anything like this yourself in the past?

I belong to a Lemons team that is using an Opel GT as a basis for our race car. There is a company that does sell quite of bit of parts for the Opels and body parts are still avaliable especially floors and rockers.

Pres589 As far as shop space goes its going to have to be rented. Tools are relatively basic. For a welder I have a miller 211 auto set. I was looking at pictures online today earlier where the two subframes where connected in essence making a chassis. I have not done anything like this, but I dont have the money for professional resto, and the car was already shot so it will be a learning experience at work.

Kimbbski what is the name of that company? That would be a great help!

I'm really just trying to figure the easiest and most cost effective way to get this thing on the road and enjoyed instead of rusting away. Im open to any and all suggestions.

The name of the company and link is Opel GT Source. I have a restored Opel GT and have sent them a bunch of my $$. Very good folks and customer support is great too. I bought a Pertronix kit from them and had issues with it, posted a question on OpelGT.com (another source for help) and soon recieved a phone call from Opel GT Source that saw the comment and he walked me through and found what the issue was and helped me fix it. Look at OpelGTSource webpage with something other than Microsoft Internet Explorer though, does weird thing in version 9 and up. I use Mozilla FireFox for it.

Fun cars with some cool stuff (cable operated roll-over headlights) and simple design. Some of the electronics on it is or is close to what is used on aircooled VW's. Bosch. In fact, the points and rotor in the distributor are the same as VW. It is a German car.

Well I got an email back from Opel gt source. They have the body parts I need to make the old rusty Opel just an old Opel so that is great news.

I was thinking more about how the miata subframes are too wide. After looking at opel gt source I think My opel will be getting steinmetz flares on all four corners. That should make the car wide enough and of course more awesome. Does this make it doable or am I missing something? For pictures of vintage flared racing goodness check out this site http://opelgtworld.de/site09m.htm

Great!!
I don't about the flares. I think the main issue would be tying in the suspension to the body as I doubt the Miata suspension lines up with the Opels. Would have to cut and box in the rear suspension. Miata's have independent rear with coil springs on the shocks and Opel GT has a solid rear axle with coil springs, panhard bar and shock located to the side of the springs.

If you do try it, PLEASE keep up posted on progress. I have thought of this before as I also own a Miata. The Opel GT has timeless good looks but never really was a performer. Though merging the best of the Miata (the suspension and drivetrain) with the Opel body would be awesome.