Cylinder Head Rebuild
April 23, 2019
If you happen to pass by my blog every now and then you will see that i have not posted for a while, mainly because if have not been up to much on the Manta. After hassling the engine builder to get the cam bearings in and the head back to me, i got the head back and was ready to build up the head and then i got side tracked into trying to sort out my Seat Altea as just a week before the MOT was up the passengers door lock would not release the deadlock. So weeks of…
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FULL INTERIOR CLEAN
February 4, 2019
The plan is to slowly build up the head and finish off the motor so its ready around the end of March/start of April, when the weather should be better and i can plan the time in to get it all fitted and started up properly. So that leaves me with a bit of time to get the interior totally sorted out. As the weather has been good this weekend and the sun is out (after the last few snowy days!) i thought it would be a good idea to removed the interior and give it a good clean. So…
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Washer Bottle Conversion
January 22, 2019
One issue i have had that i have been putting off is what to do with the washer bottle. The area where the washer bottle originally fits has been taken up with the fuel lines, regulator and filter and i was finding it hard to locate a place where the washer bottle could go as its quite big. The ideal location would have been up on the bulkhead behind the accelerator cable outlet as there is a nice bit of unused space there. But the standard bottle is too tall. So a bit of research was needed. It turns out…
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Opel Manta A Series Halo Lights
January 16, 2019
I just thought i would share this little video of the Halo lights all up and running. I will add a pic later of them on with the grill all fitted as that finishes it off nicely. Halo Lights video, click here. And here are a couple of pics with the grill back in 🙂
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Track rod end locking nut
January 15, 2019
I thought i would pop this post on as i had been trying to find the safe place that i put the track road end locking nuts, with no luck. So a quick post on the forum and i have the info back that the nuts i was looking for were: m14 X 1.5 pitch half nuts. So after a quick google i tracked down this site: ttps://www.brickwerks.co.uk and it turns out that a T3 VW has the same ones, and they are only £1.76 each. Here is the link to them: https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/half-nut-m14-x1-5-bzp.html in case anyone else is looking for an…
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Time for the interior to get some TLC!
January 11, 2019
I have spent so much time on the outside of the car i thought is im getting closer to getting her back on the road it was about time i did a bit of a clean up on the interior. Luckily, before i took the car off the road i had the rear seat recovered to match the front Recaro’s and sorted the head lining and got the interior all up to scratch. So it was more of giving it a good clean inside. I had been saving a new piece of plastic for the dash pod so i took…
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Time for a tidy up of the wiring!
January 1, 2019
With this nice mild weather over the Christmas holidays, i thought it would be a good time to tidy up the wiring as i now have the new twin fans all hooked up and i wanted to get the little engine bay vent fan properly connected up so it will run with the twin fans or i can switch on manually to help with cooling if sat in traffic and there have been a couple of spare wires that needed tracing and removing since the swap to the bluetooth music controller. I have also taken to opportunity to add a…
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The final piece of the puzzle, Steering – Part 1 The Rack
December 8, 2018
One big problem on the Opel Manta is the steering. As standard its fine, but start modifying the engine and adding a bigger exhaust and it gets a bit tricky. Left hand drive cars are nice and easy as they don’t have to contend with the steering and manifold all on the one side! or brake servo’s getting in the way of things. But i suppose as it was originally built as a left hand drive it wasn’t something they needed to worry about 🙁 The problem has always been getting a nice tubular manifold down past the steering shaft,…
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Clutch Pedal Finally Installed
November 17, 2018
I have finally managed to get round to installing the reverse mount clutch pedal and master cylinder for the hydraulic clutch. I have also reinforced the bulk head, as when i installed the Wilwood brake pedal there was a bit of movement as these bolt up on the vertical part of the bulk head which although its doubled skinned it not that solid. So i now have some nice solid 5 mm plate that was laser cut to the exact shape that i wanted and i have stuck these on the vertical face and the top where the original pedal…
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