HomePick of the DayPick of the Day: Immaculately restored 1964 Opel Kadett A

Pick of the Day: Immaculately restored 1964 Opel Kadett A

Music teacher had left the car parked in an Arizona carport for decades

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A music teacher buys a new 1964 Opel Kadett A,but in the early 1980s, she’s no longer driving so she parks the car in her Arizona carport. And there it sits. And bakes. 

But now, that car has been restored and has become the Pick of the Day on ClassicCars.com, where it is being advertised by its second owner.

“It sat timelessly over the next few decades with windows rolled up and quietly baking in the Arizona heat,” the seller reports in the car’s advertisement. 

“In November 2017, the teacher passed away and the car was rescued from going to the dumpster. It has all the original polished ‘chrome’ and engine parts. It was a total rebuild with everything taken off the car, sanded, primed, and rubber replaced. 

“Many of the parts that needed to be replaced had to be ordered from Europe. It has a 6-volt electrical system and manual 4-speed transmission. 

“It purrs when it travels down the interstate and draws a crowd at the car show.”

Opel introduced the Kadett A in 1962 in Europe and in 1964 in the US. It was a small car available as a 2-door sedan or sports coupe (with a slanting rear window) or as a 3-door wagon.

It’s 987cc 4-cylinder engine produced 46 horsepower for the rear wheels of the sedan and wagon (54 thanks to a higher compression ratio for the sport coupe), transmitted through a floor-shifted 4-speed manual gearbox. 

The advertisement includes a long list of what was done during the car’s restoration, and the car appears to be immaculate in its restored state in the photos that are part of the ad. The seller notes, “original correspondence from 1964 and shop manuals come with the car.”

The Opel is being offered for $18,000. To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.

Larry Edsall
Larry Edsall
A former daily newspaper sports editor, Larry Edsall spent a dozen years as an editor at AutoWeek magazine before making the transition to writing for the web and becoming the author of more than 15 automotive books. In addition to being founding editor at ClassicCars.com, Larry has written for The New York Times and The Detroit News and was an adjunct honors professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

3 COMMENTS

  1. My first car was an Opel Cadette. It was the year 1969 and I had just graduated from college and had no money. My dad found the 1964 Opel for about $1200. I drove it 60 miles a day to my first job and that was through a NE Pennsylvania winter. Things kept going wrong with it and after the first year I had spent $1200 in parts. You have to remember this was a “foreign” car and parts were extremely expensive. I drove that car for four more years before I traded it in.
    The car was the same color as the one being advertised. This really takes me back.

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