Thanks to our friend and fellow Baur owner Kieran Eastwood for this special find!
Hello, and welcome to this auction for my Opel Kadett C Aero, the word RARE is used way too often on eBay, but I feel in this case its valid…because:
(*) Only 1242 / 1332 **, of this car were ever made, each one being made by the coachbuilder Karosserie Baur, and they are all numbered and the main club does record these (link below).
(*) Opel is unusual brand in the UK, as typically GM used Opel in Europe, and Vauxhall in the UK
(*) The Opel Kadett was offered in the UK, but the Vauxhall Chevette was the common offering.
(*) This Aero model was never officially Imported into the UK
(*) We are talking about a car produced in 1976-1978 so they are all around 40 years old!
** - Depending on where you look the numbers made are different, but it seems to be somewhere between 1300 mark, links below:
What follows is a VERY LONG description about this car, I do this so you can get a full understanding of what I have, it took me a couple of days to take all the photos and write this description. Hopefully you can appreciate this and place bids with full knowledge of the car. If you read to the end you will know as much as me on this vehicle J
As well as the images on eBay, please see the link that follows, there ae 76 photos in here.
Due to the rareness of this car I’ll describe what it is, I laugh when people do this for mainstream cars on eBay, but I feel is justified in this instance.
This car was produced by Opel, with the body being converted by a coach builder Karosserie Baur, it has a lift out main roof panel, and a folder rear roof giving you a near complete convertible, much more than just a Targa roof. The all-important top roof panel, rear folding roof, rear roof cover, and in boot mounted roof holding bar are all present, but an overall may be required of these parts as you deem fit during the project.
Due to the cost of the car post conversion it never did sell well, hence the low numbers and the current desirability 40 years on.
This car has a large following with our European neighbours, and they also fetch very good money when they are sold over there, similar to the hot Fords Escorts of the same era we like here in the UK.
The main club is here, it can be found on the web, and also Facebook.
FACEBOOK – Just search for “Opel Kadett Aero”, and click on the “stammtisch” page
A very interesting page on the club is the list of current cars, this is here –
At the time of writing this advert the 1226 number of my car is not showing, this is as its been forgotten about as I’ve never contacted this club, but as I expect to send a note to the club to see if anyone wishes to buy this car someone may add this to the list perhaps ??
Looking on the web, I’ve found this one for sale @ 17,000 EURO / £15,068 to give you an idea of the investment possibility.
As you can see the car is a left hand drive, but I do have the front end / dash / front sub-frame, and spare engine + gearbox for that matter of a UK car if you wished to do a conversion, all the RED parts in the photos are from this UK car. All the RED items are included.
Photos of red car parts (main panels shown in white car pictures also)
Back to the original white car (the aero), as you can see this is a project, this was partly stripped and some work has been done by the previous owner, I can see there has been welding done on the front inner wings, the rear arches, and it looks like new sills. All this is many years old as I’ve had the car since 2003 and nothing at all has been done to it.
I cannot give much other information of what’s been done as it was not by me, so I assume it will need to be checked over, and as you can see a lot of work is still required. If it was me I would finished the strip down and get the body blasted to see what’s needed. At least floor repairs, new front wings, new front valance, front wing to valance repairs, new bonnet, new doors, new boot, rear wing repairs, new glass (the special Aero side glass however is present and fitted!), trim overall.
Engine / gearbox wise, I cannot say, there is a spare included that came with the red car. Lets assume a full overall is needed.
Suspension / Brakes, again I cannot say, but it’s a safe bet it all needs a full overall. There are 2 Front suspension parts that were in bags and look new that are supplied with the car, but these are new 13 plus years ago so are showing surface rust. Front pads removed to allow car to roll.
Looking online very quickly a lot panels are available, being as the standard Kadett C was produced in high numbers the standard parts seem well catered for.
So why am I selling, I’ll be honest I don’t want to as I would of loved to restore this car, but I’m going to be losing my storage, so I would like this to find a new home, being such a rare car I’m loathed to get it scrapped, I know work is needed but I feel it can be saved, and whoever takes this on will end up with a extremely rare car and I expect something with quite a value due to this rarity, link above showing one for sale I found.
The wheels fitted are off a Vauxhall van, as such the offset is wrong, the rear wheels just miss the suspension, but the front were rubbing, there are temporary blocks of wood to space these out to clear with the wheel nuts just holding these on by a few threads. These wheels are just to allow the car to roll around a workshop, they are not for running on the road. I’ll try and swap the 2 original Opel steel wheels on the day of collection onto the front to make it a little better for more wheel nut insertion hence safer for transport.
There was a set of 5 GM - ATS alloy wheels that came with this car, sorry these are NOT included and are listed as a separate item on ebay (see my other items 15 minutes after I list this, or the link in the revisions section of this listing) I’m selling these separate to try and get some of my costs back on this car, it cost me a lot to collect this car originally as I needed to move it the same weekend as I knew about it.
I was also well and truly ripped off when I bought the UK Red car, this was in a scarp yard and I agreed to buy it for it to be a template & spares for the restoration of the white car, however the cost quoted more than doubled when I went to pay, and after I paided the guy refused to get it out of the back of the yard that was agreed originally, hence the chopped off front end I have for a possible RHD conversion.
The white Aero car is registered in my name and I have the V5, I also have copies of the old V5 as the car followed me around from house to house. The current V5 is blue as I’ve not needed to do anything with this car with the DVLA for around 9.5 years.
The car is currently on a X plate, the log book states
(*) Manufactured 1978
(*) Imported 1981
(*) 3 Previous keepers since 1981
As a little treat I also have the original service book with 6 stamps to give some history – All non UK stamps before 1981.
I do have a set of keys labelled up Kadett, I think these are the ones but I’ve not checked. The boot lock has also been forced at some point. Let be honest you will likely want to fit a new lockset anyway but the keys I have will come with the car (keys not photographed)
You will need a car with car trailer or single car transporter to move this car, it has NO brakes and wrong wheels so it should not be towed on the road. The access to the storage can be achieved by the above methods, but it will NOT be accessed by a multi vehicle transporter due to the turns that need to be performed, and also due to the slope of the hill we are on it can be difficult. If needed I can send some images of the access, size of trailers etc used in the past.
The car is currently in a garage, and I will be there to help shove / lift the car & parts as needed on collection day, but we need at least 2 of us, and ideally more as the car needs to be pushed (its light however), but there is the spare engine with box attached that needs lifting also.
If you need to do 2 runs to collect the spare front end that’s fine, or you may take it all in one go. I suggest plenty of straps due to the loose items, or a big boot !!
Of course I will need notice as I can do most days with planning, but not all days are possible with other work / personal commitments (both week and weekend), but we can discuss this after the car has been won to find a suitable date for all parties.
To help an enthusiast to get this car I offer the following time scale.
(*) The winning bigger has 4 weeks to pay and collect the car, cash on collection please, I will expect contact however ASAP after auction end to confirm acceptable date to us both.
(*) If needed I will also hold the car until the end of the year (2016), I will expect payment within the 4 weeks of auction end however, in this case it may be an electronic payment system / cheque – any cheque must be FULLY clear (confirmed by my bank) before car is released. If you need this extra time offered the winner must communicate this too me ASAP.
(*) Failure to pay within 4 week will result in negative feedback and the car being re-listed, unless this has been discussed & agreed in advance.
(*) Failure to collect the car before the end of 2016 without valid reason will result in car being re-listed, with no refund…..of course if we discussed and it’s been agreed to collect at a future confirmed date then this will not apply.
Due to the demand I will allow one of our European neighbours to buy the car, of course you will be responsible for the shipping , as well as any export issues. Due to the fall in the GBP to the EURO I expect it may be cheap option to buy this car so please feel free to bid.
I am fair and want the winning bidder to be fair on me, I really want this car to be restored, and hence I’m giving this timescale to help (most listing want cars gone that weekend!).
After this time the storage issues may become more difficult so I may need to move the car that will entail costs, I really do NOT want to do this hence the strictness above.
Please see my feedback, 100% positive, so I hope with this and the excessive description you will have trust in what you see.
So there you go, a car to restore, enjoy, and go to the car shows with a highly likelihood of being the only one here in the UK, or restore and sell on as an investment either here or in Europe.
I’ve been on eBay for many many years, no scammers please, no I’ll not refund excessive payments, allow you to pay later etc etc etc…….we all know what the scammers do !!
Thanks for looking, and good luck if you bid.
PS – I would love to see this car completed, please send me photos once done.
PPS – Don’t forget to look at the wheels also listed.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Opel-Kadett-C-Aero-Convertible-Project-Barn-Find-similar-era-Ford-Escort/142150919459?_trksid=p2141725.c100338.m3726&_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIC.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20150313114020%26meid%3Dd808f34237a44def942c0d1444477212%26pid%3D100338%26rk%3D4%26rkt%3D30%26sd%3D232118032905&clk_rvr_id=1112083856508&rmvSB=true
