1974 A Series Opel Manta Blog

The Opel Project blog has been setup to record the rebuild of my 1974 A Series Opel Manta.
OPEL
1974 A Series Opel Manta Blog
Travel

Classic Cars on the Quay

There is a great little car meet on Christchurch Quay on Sundays in the summer. Its a mix of all sorts of classics and this is the 3rd one I have been to (4th Sept) and weather being ok I will go to the last one of the year on the 25th Sept. Now the roads are a bit quieter I will be trying to use the Opel as much as I can over the Autumn and on good days in the winter.    

Continue reading
Electrical

Alternator

As the alternator was not happy on the way to Northampton and back it thought it was best to take it off, check all connections and pull the regulator to make sure the brushes were not worn out. Did that, all looked ok, popped it back together and put it back on the car. Got the tester out and fired the car up and guess what, yep you guessed it, its all working fine now!! Why is it electrical stuff does that! Took her for a run this morning to get a coffee and she was running spot on and…

Continue reading
Travel

VBO 2022 at Sywell Airfield

Wow, Sunday was a long day and the longest trip so far in the Opel since the rebuild! 150 miles up and 150 back to the VBO at Sywell. It was a great day and Sywell is a great place and has an amazing bar!! All in all the Opel ran well. There was a slight issue that part way up I noticed the battery volt gauge was only just reading above 11v and seemed to move around a bit on the 11v but never seemed to be charging where it should be but the car was running fine, temperature…

Continue reading
OPEL

Enjoying the Opel

Its so nice now i can just roll the Opel out and go for a drive 🙂 I took her out for a run today and when I got back gave he a quick wash and that was all that needed doing 🙂 I have a small adjustment to do on the exhaust as it sometimes knocks on the gearbox cross-member bolt but that can wait until the weather is not so got, while its sunny I’m just going to drive her as much as I can!!

Continue reading
OPEL

The Opel Project is almost complete!

There are a few tweaks left and I’m sure there will be some other modifications and the engine bay does need a paint!  but basically, the Opel Project is in its final stage and its now time to drive the car and enjoy it!!

Continue reading
Fully restored 1973 A Series Opel Manta
Bodywork

What do you mean it only needs a wash!!

We, today the weather was beautiful down here in Bournemouth, about 15 degrees! So I decided to roll the Opel out of the garage and just give it a wash!! now I have not been able to say that for quite a long time!! I still have the trim to fit and an oil change, but there was nothing as satisfying as just giving it a wash and dry and not needing to really do anything else to it!!

Continue reading
1973 Opel Manta A Series flatting and polishing
Bodywork

The Finishing Touches

Yesterday i flatted and polished the top of the driver’s door so I could fit the door handle and wing mirror. and today I flatted the top of the passenger’s door ready for fitting the handle and mirror after fitting the new window guide runners. Then it’s time to work my way around the car polishing the rest of it and then I can finally fit the bumpers and last bits of time. If the weather stays nice I will hopefully be ready to be back on the road properly towards the end of Feb, just in time for some…

Continue reading

Popular posts

GM/Opel CIH Engine Timing Chain Guides & Potential Problems

Im writing this little post on some of this issues i have encountered when building my Opel Manta CIH engine due to the differences between the Original GM/OPEL timing...

Finishing the Exhaust

I have finally got back round to doing some more work on the car!! The summer has been a bit busy with work so not much time has been...