Opel Kadett D GTE Restoration advices needed.

[Ash]

I'd say yes because its rotted away where the Engelmann mirrors are fitted and they normally came on GTE's. Its also got the door brightwork fixings. The lower spec models didnt normally have this. The Euro models had a very different spec to the UK cars.

[nelson c.]

I have tought the same as you, but realized the car had been painted somewhere in its life, and they putted the GTE logos on wrong positions, that first made me suspicious.
In the other hand, the sunroof, and that "cut" in the chassis legs, (in the image below) made me think otherwise, but are there other things that can identify a GTE chassis? Now you let me thinking

[DeadEye]

I'm not sure that cut in the chassis leg means much as the new inner wing I put in my car has that cut and there's only one part number if I recall correctly.

However, you do have the airbox mounting bracket on the far side inner wing which is a good sign.

Does the plate on the slam panel say "made in Germany"? if not, then check the floor for "GTE" written in chalk on the bit that would be behind your ankles if you were a drivers side rear passenger.

[nelson c.]

You mean those little aluminum plates that have the weight of the car, chassis code, etc? It does not say "Made in German", but it is all in written in German , and the chalk thing you told me, even if the car had that by now it would be covered in rust, I went there to see it now and I couldn´t find it. I took pictures of it and the plates, but I can´t take them out of my phone, my usb port is damaged.

ps:by slam panel you mean the front panel of the car, the one that goes up to where the hood closes, right?

[GT/Estate]

Check the welds on the cross member and the air box bracket on the drivers inner wing/turret, if the factory spot welds then it's a gte I'd say

[nelson c.]

It does have 2 spot welds, one on each end, but it seems to have some welding around also, maybe someone had it reinforced. (The previous owner of this car was a mechanic and the car was driven in a rally some time, that´s why some things may be reinforced and modified)

[nelson c.]

Is this upper part of the bulkhead supposed to be made of zinc in all mk1´s? If I remove it from the car to repair the rusted out areas around it, would it be easy to weld again the zinc to the steel?

[DeadEye]

It's not zinc, sadly nothing is.

Someone may have sprayed zinc primer on it but that's it.

[nelson c.]

That´s not zinc primer mate, it zinc treated, I didn´t notice it has no rust on it, but when I was stripping the paint with the wirebrush I noticed it was zinc treated and that was when I noticed it isn´t rusted either. Then I switched for the grinder with a nylon paint stripper disc, and that removed a bit of the zinc protection, and it turned to normal steel. Funny how one method keeps the zinc treatment and the other removes it. Other clue I had is that after that I used some rust converter on it, and the steel around it, and that area where I removed the zinc protection, the rust converted worked as usual, turning the steel into a really dark blue color, in that area that is zinc treated it didn´t work.

[DeadEye]

Well if it is zinc treated, it's not normal.

If you're worried about it, I have a spare one

[nelson c.]

well I am only worried about the middle bulkhead part, the top as it was zinc treated is fine, the bottom one is not perfect, but not bad also, it´s the middle one that worries me. How much shipped to Portugal?

[DeadEye]

[nelson c.]

ahahah I was about to write the same thing

[nelson c.]

I will try to fabricate a copy of this piece, as this one is too rusted, can someone post some pictures of how this piece it should be undamaged. It´s just to make sure if all the holes are there, or if any have rusted out.

[DeadEye]

Same as that but without the rust

Check my resto thread for close ups of the cross member.