Opel commodore A

[Paulbarrett]

The general lee has gone, not my thing unless it’s the real deal.

 

[Paulbarrett]

Insured and on the road!
But tyres scrub like hell as been lowered considerably at the rear now. Haven’t done the fronts yet as maybe leaving that for something to do at the NEC possibly


so went for it and cut the panard to make it adjustable as lowering has swung the axle over a fair bit to make one side scrub.
I robbed the manta v8 A series front end I still have of its adjustable compression strut (escort mk2 rally) coincidence has it that, it is too 25mm tube with a 20mm bore. So machined off the adjustable part I needed and it slip fitted perfectly. Drilled a hole to plug weld and will seal round the end.


paint job done

 

[Paulbarrett]

NEC was ace again, nice to have another one of my cars there again. Loads of attention for the stand and the car being so rare.
Made some new contacts in the opel world too which was handy.

Managed to find, bastardize and fit a reg counter in the dash.

Install some spring buffers to stop the tyres catching

Polished the ‘general lee’ livery out pretty much now.

Made it hope with no dash working at all lol, a power feed came loose whilst getting out of Birmingham.

 

[Paulbarrett]

Also found out the car is an ‘S’ model
Not a GS as I presumed. The fact it doesn’t have hazards light system gives it away I’ve been told.
The dash installed is a GS model. So I need to sort a way to get some pins connected to the gas add switch, pic of the 9 pin round switch above. Getting hold of the original style male plug will be very hard, so thought maybe get some brass pins and make some leads to a universal plug then suss the wiring to hash into.

 

[Smallfry]

I always liked these, and the Manta A. Never had one though, although I did have an Ascona B, one if the first fuel injection models, a couple of Manta Bs
and a GT. The GT was auto though, and not quick at all, despite having a new engine. My god it was so rusty though. Someone made me an offer I couldnt refuse so I let it go. At the time I couldnt face spending the rest of my life welding it up.
When I worked for Vauxhall in the early eighties, myself and a colleague had to go to the factory and collect a pair of brand new Monzas and drive them back. Both were well run in by the time we got back !

 

[Paulbarrett]

Recent large Opel/Vauxhall/Bedford show I’m involved in the commodore came away with a trophy. It’s quite amusing as I hadn’t even washed it or hoovered it out since buying it. Was expanding foam stick to a the wing lol where a can had exploded in the workshop yet still it got some appreciation. My mantra GtE exclusive didn’t get a sniff despite its full restoration lol.

 

[Paulbarrett]

The exclusive at another show in Bristol few weeks ago

 

[Bobupndown]

The general lee has gone, not my thing unless it’s the real deal.

It's shape does give more than a passing resemblance to a Charger though.
There's a guy lives not too far from me has an all black 68 Charger, looks and sounds mean, also see a full on General Lee replica occasionally, growing up in the late 70s early 80s I was a huge fan of the Dukes of Hazzard, a car which I covet soo much.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

I was a huge fan of the Dukes of Hazzard

Did Daisie have any influence there?.......

 

[Bobupndown]

Did Daisie have any influence there?.......

Nope never crossed my mind...

 

[Paulbarrett]

Nice, I did wonder what happened to this, are you going to keep the front end or put it back to origional? I do have the parts microfiche for these if you need any part numbers

front as is but tidied up a lot. I have the full English translated workshop manual that I bought with the car, apparently a very rare item