Ownership Verified: Meet Karl - 1974 Opel Rekord

Personally I'd go for the hubcaps as I do like the "Grandma car" appeal.

On the other hand it may also look smart with black steelies and hubcaps without the trims, although I may be biased...

DHB1uBg.jpg
 
I'm in the "keep the hubcaps" camp, not a big fan of bare steelie look.

Either way, really looking forward to seeing Karl alongside Lucille at this year's Ringmeet :) The diversity in car choices is one thing I really enjoy in this community.

I agree. The more interesting cars, the better.
 
Looking forward to seeing more.
 
Umluftsystem = EGR?

EDIT: no, must be the anti lag system! (ALS)
umluft-2.png


but why was this fitted to a daily driver???
 
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Nope, it's this:
1B3umgem1.jpg

The #48 part.

As far as I understand, Umluft (circumventing air) unlike Umgemisch (circumventing mixture) means that in order to set idle, you have a bypass valve that lets air past the throttle blade. Umgemisch has air-fuel-mixture bypassing.
 
Personally I'd go for the hubcaps as I do like the "Grandma car" appeal.

We are definitely on the same page when it comes to the grandma look! ^^

An while we are at it: I googled the original grandma who bought the car in 1974. She had it for 27 long years and as of 2015 she was still alive celebrating her 60th anniversary as "Schützenkönigin" accoding to her local newspaper...
 
Nope, it's this:
1B3umgem1.jpg

The #48 part.

As far as I understand, Umluft (circumventing air) unlike Umgemisch (circumventing mixture) means that in order to set idle, you have a bypass valve that lets air past the throttle blade. Umgemisch has air-fuel-mixture bypassing.

the idle screw!
it determines how much mixture can reach the engine while the throttle is closed (to keep it from stalling)

the other is the mixture screw, which determines how much fuel is mixed in the air
 
Yes, but there is two different kinds of idle screws, depending on how the carb is constructed - with a Umluftsystem you regulate air supply, with an Umgemischsystem you are regulating mixture supply.

SOLEX3232DIDTA.jpg
 
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Parts!


While tomorrow will be dedicated to Lucille, these will go onto Karl in a week's time.
 
Quick update - after the carb re-tune, the car ran perfect for about a week - until we took it on a 200 km Autobahn blast. The heat warped the carb's lid once again and everything went to shit. Using some glue to fix the carb lid screws solved that - or so we hoped.

Running behind @_Jules_ on the way to ringmeet I saw the car blowing smoke whenever she accellerated and sure enough, when we got off the Autobahn, Karl refused to idle, even dying when slowing down for turns. I fiddled with the carb, a garage fiddled with the carb, cause after all the carb trouble, what else could it be?

Until @nicjasno checked the spark plugs, which all were fouled from too rich mixture. So we got a new set of plugs and I re-tuned the carb by ear on the Ringmeet campsite. After trouble-free jorney to Berlin we hooked the car up to an exaust meter and tuned it properly - but it still ran like shit.

So, we re-checked valve clearances and, lo and behold, the outlet valves all were too tight. Fixing that made Karl run smooth as silk for the first time since @_Jules_ bought him.

Oh, and we also had to replace the wiper motor before ringmeet, but that was very straightforward.


And in the next episode - we convert to a manual gearbox using a donor car from Finland (hopefully!).

EDIT: I just realized we did not report that @_Jules_ rebuild the carb herself and we re-tuned it properly first.
 
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Oh! So you‘re actually thinking of picking up the blue Rekord from Finland that public posted! Very nice.

That comes with a 4 speed, I presume? Wiki tells me, that generation Rekord never came with 5 speeds, and iirc you‘d liked to have a 5 speed Getrag in it?
 
Oh! So you‘re actually thinking of picking up the blue Rekord from Finland that public posted! Very nice.

That comes with a 4 speed, I presume? Wiki tells me, that generation Rekord never came with 5 speeds, and iirc you‘d liked to have a 5 speed Getrag in it?
In the long run, the Manta B/Rekord E 5-speed Getrag would of course be the perfect choice. Sadly, these gearboxes are rare and super expensive, so a four-speed manual already will be a huge step up from the three-speed autotragic. Also, going from 1.7 to 1.9 means a longer rear end ratio, further increasing top speed and decreasing fuel consumption.

Bur first, we'll have to get our hands on the Finnish car.
 
awwwwwesome! It'll be way cool to see the conversion. :dance:
 
awwwwwesome! It'll be way cool to see the conversion. :dance:
TWO conversions because Karl's drivetrain will go into the Finnish car to be sold on - minimizing losses.
 
TWO conversions because Karl's drivetrain will go into the Finnish car to be sold on - minimizing losses.

Then I feel honored to have been given the privilege to drive Karl with his original heart.
 
Definitely keeping an eye on this gearbox conversion project. One of my favourite things about FinalGear is when people go crazy distances to improve their cars or to buy them. And all of that presented in a way that's pleasant to read.
 
Also, going from 1.7 to 1.9 means a longer rear end ratio, further increasing top speed

only a german would say that :D
i'd go for more acceleration tbh...you never can have enough of that...
 
only a german would say that :D
i'd go for more acceleration tbh...you never can have enough of that...
Compared to a three-speed autobox, the thing will feel like a rocket even with the longer rear axle.
 
Opel, 3-speed automatic and carburated engine with a choke brings back memories. Not good ones. So I wish you good luck with solving part of that at least. :)

For real: Nice car. But awful gearbox. ;)
 
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