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As my other post says I?m in the market for an SR / GTE / GSi. Having reshelled a Nova back in the 2000?s I know it was relatively common when the cars were worth a few hundred quid.
Now originality has bumped the prices of these models and aside from the VIN on the chassis are there any identifying marks that can show whether a SR / GTE / GSi has been reshelled?
There's no obvious distinguishing features between the shells that I can think of. May be possible to identify a mk1->mk2 or vice versa due to bumper mounting holes.
The biggest hint I think may lie with how skirts have been fitted to a GTE or GSi. E.g. fin lip and along the bottom sill edge.
Thanks Iain, can you describe the skirt mounting more? Any links to visual differences?
I'll be honest I've never inspected an OEM one!
Behind the skirt will be several clips. If the shell wasn't a skirt model chances are they'll be fitted with self tappers rather than a special rivet used from the factory. However you probably won't be able to see that!
There's additional holes along the bottom and fin that look to use some funky fittings, this means drilling the sill further and may be an indicator of either a sill replacement or a reshell?! Similar for the rear fin, there's 2 further mounting holes on the lip itself; although the likelihood of a replacement arch lip is quite high.
https://opel.7zap.com/en/car/s83/b/3/1-1/
https://img.7zap.com/oem/opel/images_big/S83/249462.png
On a gte and gsi they have the strut top plates which is a massive give away, diesels also had them factory. But you can buy the plates so somone could make it look legit. Another thing i could think of is whether the wiring for inside the doors is drilled in the correct places, as 90% of them didn't have them apart from your higher spec models
Thank Iain.
Millworm, thank you. Do you mean wiring into the doors, where the wires enter the door? So lower spec models will have these wires in a different place or in a smaller hole?
Is there specific place where it should have been drilled on the higher spec models?
Basically if it was a reshell somone would have had to drill the holes for the wiring for the central locking and power windows themselves as they wouldn't have had them at all so if you knew the measurements of where they were supoosed to be you could easily spot a basemodel shell thats been converted.
Got it, makes perfect sense. Didn’t consider the base models wouldn’t have had any wires running to the doors!
Although likelihood of a new door is up there with a rear arch! Good shout on the strut tops, would they have been spot welded from the factory? i.e. would there be a visible spotweld dimple on a GSi?
Very true! Spot welded yes, but not sure how visible it'd be on themQuote:
Originally Posted by Iain