1988 Opel Manta GT Exclusive - the future's bright

Oops forgot to update this.

Finished off the inner wing


Lovely sight greeted me in the morning:



Wipe it all off and it's done a very good job on the rust. I hardly had to use the wire wheel at all after this:



Once it was all back to bright, on with several coats of Hydrate 80:



Somewhere around this point I shook the bottle and the cap flew off, spraying my wing and bumper (and myself) with purple paint So there followed an impromptu washing session!

Hydrate80 all nice and black now it's dry:



Now on with a good few coats of stonechip black



Then some colour:



Finally lacquer, de-mask and we are done:



Not concours, but like I said earlier it isn't a concours car. At the end of the day it's just an engine bay.

This was the worst corrosion on the car and hopefully this will slow it down a little. I'm sure in years to come I'll be cutting that bit out and welding a new bit of steel in though!

So, following on from my experiments with bike carbs here are the pics:

Take one set of bike carbs and a standard manifold


Start cutting up the manifold with a grinder


Get busy with the hose and clips, et voila.
Here they are pictured next to the standard Varijet carb.


And in situ. When fitted properly, the coolant hoses that feed the autochoke on the standard manifold will need to be joined together.


Should be enough room for trumpets and/or a filter


I did get it running, unfortunately the Mrs forgot to press "Record" and stood there holding a camera while she gazed at the sky/a passing butterfly/whatever it is that women do when they nod off into standby mode.

So here instead is a short clip of my fuelling woes. To be precise, there is far too much of it
How much is this stuff a litre again?

Angle the carbs up so they sit at the correct angle as they do on the bike as otherwise the floats in the float chambers wont be working, thus fuel curse word out everywere Good luck getting it sorted, used one of these on all the ones I have done, work well and are cheap:

cgi.ebay.co.uk/Pro-Flow-Dial-Fuel-Regulator-Kit-Car-BriSCA-F2-Rally_W0QQitemZ330264064557QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item330264064557&_trkparms=72%3A12|39%3A1|66%3A2|65%3A12|240%3A1318&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

Very nice Manta! Should really bark once you get those carbs set up!

thats a decent looking manta. most mantas of that age have no chassis or floor by now.

Well, had some holiday I needed to take before summer and it was a dry day so I decided to do a little remedial work.

First up, finish the headlamps.

I recently replaced all 4 of my lights with new convex replacements. The lights are now relayed (1 for dip and 1 for main) so that I can safely run higher wattage bulbs if I choose to do so.
All 4 lenses are now H4 with dip pattern but on the road it makes next to no difference and main beam performance with new relays and lenses is tremendous.

The old wiring was incredibly sketchy so I assembled a new loom which (even with the Scotchlocks ) is much better than the old setup which literally fell apart in my hands

Here is the car with the old corroded lights - the driver's side is the worst:



New lights compared to the old ones - convex lens instead of flat glass:



Here's the relay bank and new loom - inner wing really needs degreasing!:



Also tidied up my lives to the battery:



New eyes!



Just needs aligning now but already they are a massive improvement on the old setup




Next job was the dreaded rust.
First up was the rear arch where the arch spat normally covers it. Ideally this needs new steel welding in but a preservation job will have to do for now.

One scabby arch:



Rubbed back to bare metal:



Smear in Bilt Hamber DeOx Gel and coat with clingfilm so it doesn't dry out. I left this on for a few hours.



Clean off the DeOx Gel and coat in Hydrate80 which is a rust stabiliser/convertor. It starts off a blue/purple and goes black when dry.



Added a second coat to the worst affected areas



Tomorrow that gets painted with stonechip black, primer, topcoat, lacquer and then the arch spat can go back over the top.

Did exactly the same to a few spots on the rear panel. No point repeating the words!









Tomorrow when dry it will get finished off


Final job for today I have been putting off for a while. 2 nasty little areas of rot where the chassis outriggers join the floor. Had enough of that crusty feeling beneath my heel so today I cut out the rot.

Passenger side - cut away the rusty floor:



Clean out the inside of the chassis rail which is surprisingly sound:



Fill with DeOx gel and this will get left overnight to work it's magic:



Then on to the (nastier) driver's side.

Before:



After:



As you can see the driver's side is much worse, I'll need to repair the chassis outrigger before welding in the new floor section.

Early start tomorrow again, I'm actually quite enjoying this as I haven't done much mechanical work lately.

That don't look too bad at all for the year. Generally speaking, later Mantas rotted much worse than the earlier B series due, I think, to poorer quality metal being used. I've welded up far worse than that on cars of the same age so it looks like you dropped lucky with that one. Chassis rails go as the water draining off the bulkhead runs into them and is supposed to drain out under the floor by the jacking point. Biblically stupid idea. I tend to blank the hole off by the bulkhead and shoot wax into the chassis and jacking point.
Nice looking car and the 1800s are getting rare now.

Cheers - and yes the various drainage systems are absolute curse word. This car isn't bad for a late Exclusive, I've seen some right shockers! It's hard keeping it that way though.


Didn't get as much done as I wanted yesterday but made some progress still.

Firstly, primed and stonechipped the rear end panel behind the bumper:



Then topcoated, lacquered and refitted my bumper. Looking out for a straight replacement as mine is the wrong colour and it's warped at some point.



Got the floor nearly done on one side before I ran out of MIG wire. I'm not a great welder but I've tested it with a lump hammer and pry bar and it's well attached. Needs lots more grinding down as gasless welding doesn't half make a bloody mess! When I'm happy with the welds I'll paint this area.



Also finished off the rear arch with some stonechip and then a coat of underseal. I'll dig out the arch spat today and refit:



Finally, tested the lights.

Sidelights:



Dipped:



Main Beam:



I've checked through the MOT manual and can't see anything illegal about having 4 sidelights. Not sure what UK lighting regs say but if I do get any bother it's easy enough to disconnect the inner ones.

Got the floor done on the other side, my welding still has a long way to go and my little Clarke gasless welder isn't the best but I seem to have made a passable job of it (I hope!).
It's definitely very solid anyway, tested with the lump hammer



Now all sealed up and painted and the same from the underneath. Hopefully that will keep her roadworthy for another year or two...

Polished her up and took some beauty shots:









And a couple alongside the Mrs' Golf GTI







Next up - find a replacement rear bumper, put the carpet back in, find some new door rubbers and rebuild the brake calipers.