Oh my God, what the hell have I bought yet again!?

[Lopéz]

Underbonnet decals fitted on the strut tops

And door/wing decals fitted:

Brash, tacky and 80's - just like the car Still have the side skirts to go back on.

 

[Lopéz]

They aren't strut tops

Eighties for the win.

*n

Haha, damper mounts would be the correct term I suppose

It doesn't polish up very well but it's a lot better than it was:

Now I just need a foglight (Mantas only ever had bolt-on foglights and mine is missing)

 

[Lopéz]

I believe on the late year models they are clipped on to rivets (like a 205 GTI has) so no way am I going to try and remove them, it will look atrocious.

I actually prefer Mantas with no skirts, no bump strips, no big bumpers, just small chrome ones. So why I ended up with one like this I don't know

EDIT

Yep just peeled one back and checked, riveted trim clips that the plastic moulding fits over the top of, shedloads of work to remove and would require a full respray. Not happening!

 

[Lopéz]

Hugely exciting update.

1) My Manta has no fog lamp. How it passed the MOT is a mystery, but I don't want it to fail the next one. Unfortunately the Manta never had a built in fog lamp, just a cheap afterthought bolted onto the bottom of the bumper which looks immensely crap.

So I bought a 24-LED bulb to fit into one of the reverse lamps. These are really bright and are clear when the power is off. I disconnected the reverse lamp wiring (which doesn't work anyway) and fitted the new LED bulb, then wired it to the existing fog lamp wiring which was still there.

Hey presto:

2) The dashboard lighting is awful beyond belief, thanks to the 2 tiny bulbs that shine down on the clocks (no posh backlighting here)

So I bought a pack of LED replacements on ebay (various colours) these are the blue ones:

So at least now I can see how fast I'm not going at night.

 

[Lopéz]

I remember the joy of discovering a car I'd just bought had no dashboard lights. I drove around for ages with a small torch cable tied to an air vent before I finaly plucked up enough courage to take the dash apart.

When I was 18 my Fiesta had such poor dashboard lights I couldn't see how fast I was going, ever. I used to be so paranoid driving it at night incase I got busted for speeding.

If that was the case now I wouldn't really give a crap I just like the colour

 

[Lopéz]

Unless it was Saturday lunchtime somewhere between Ashby and Castle Gresley, no


Rain is cocking up my plans today.

I removed the rear bumper to paint it - there is no shine in the paint at all, so 4 bolts later and off she came. Rear valance is amazingly solid!

Resprayed:

Then as I was lacquering it disaster struck - wind blew the garage door it was resting on, and it slammed down on to the gravel driveway. Lovely! So now I have a shiny bumper absolutely plastered in grit.

Once it's dry it will all have to get sanded back and start again.....

 

[Lopéz]

Never seen a Manta? Kids these days....

Took advantage of more good weather today and cracked on with the old preventative rust treatment.

Did the other sill (not as nice as the other side, but still very good) and a spot of rust that had grown up on the top of the sill itself.

First, Nitromors the affected area:

Then rub away all the shrivelled paint:

Apply DeOx Gel:

Remove with a wire brush and clean the area up, then apply a few coats of Hydrate80 to stabilise the area:

Looks like this when dried:

That's not very pretty though, so it got lots and lots of coats of stonechip black:

Then some top coat (this is actually the wrong colour, a Volvo shade, but my local dealer haven't got Monaco blue in stock and it's a very close match:

And finally some lacquer:

Hopefully that will at least slow down the progress of any MOT-failing rot Side skirt can now go back on with stainless fastners to match the other side.

 

[Lopéz]

Cheers

Finished off the lacquering and back on with the sideskirt

As you can see the colour match isn't perfect but in real life it's barely noticeable. Hell, it's an inner sill, you only see it when you open the door anyway!

Now, on to the inner wing.

Remember this bit?

Well I poked and scraped and then Nitromors'd the area:

Then splurged a bit of the ol' DeOx on it:

Revealing the "real" damage

Not good, but nowhere near perforating and better than I expected!
That'll get the same treatment as the sills but it can wait until morning as I'm about to have a barbecue

 

[Lopéz]

Leon,

Plaster that area with Deox and put some cling film on it over night, it seems to work a lot better when it doesn't dry out.

Yep I remember reading that in your Golf thread. It dries out way too fast in this weather. I've just been out and yogged a load more on there and covered it up with film.

If you used nitromores on metal/paint i was always under the impression that you just couldnt paint over the top of it afterwards no matter how hard you tried to remove it

Never had a problem painting over it personally.

Just apply Nitromors, wash off the residue, then re-paint. What would be the point having a paint stripper that leaves the new surface unable to be repainted?

 

[Lopéz]

I also was under this impression. I think a sprayer told me this was the best way to ruin someones pride and joy as you can never get rid of it and painting over would be ok for a bit, but it would bubble through?

I think if people followed the instructions they wouldn't have these sort of problems

I've been using Nitromors for years, it consistently wins awards in car magazine tests from the likes of Practical Classics as the best paint stripper on the market.

You put it on, wash it off when it's done and repaint the area. That's all there is to it

 

[Lopéz]

Leon, exactly how excited does this Manta make you?

Looks awful doesn't it

Nitromors is awesome, I'm so glad that such a vicious, destructive product is available to the general public. It's a 2 fingered salute to the softies out there trying to ban danger

 

[Lopéz]

Anyway, what are your plans for the Manta? Just engine upgrades or do you fancy something like the group 4 suspension work?

Nothing spectactular. It needs bigger brakes, they are very very poor as standard. It also needs more power, the poor old 1.8 was never a firestarter and it needs an Ecotec or XE at the least - I could fit a 6 cylinder motor but I don't really want to.

Suspension is fine for now, who knows what the future holds. At the moment I'm just enjoying driving it.

Got the inner wing finished today, the other side can wait until next bank holiday I think.

Lovely sight greeted me this 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!

 

[Lopéz]

With a Manta it's always worse than it looks

Nah, seriously, I wasn't overly shocked, it's been touched up there in the past so I was expecting a hole really.

XE sounds a plan as you want more power but not much more weight.
Fat girls can't dance.

Damn right, they fed these babies more than enough in the factory:

 

[Lopéz]

Just over I think

 

[Lopéz]

Oh dear - it's MOT time

What temporary ghetto mods have I had to make to give it at least half a chance of passing?

 

[Lopéz]

Do you really need side repeaters even on a car that old?

Unfortunately yes. I think 1986 is the cut-off point

EDIT:
Vehicles first used on or after 1 April 1986
These must be fitted with one side repeater indicator on each side. Instead of a separate lamp, the side repeater might be part of the front direction indicator if it includes a wraparound lens. (See information on following page).

 

[Lopéz]

It's had replacement wings a few years ago - from an early car which didn't have repeaters.

I will fit some permanent repeaters at some point, but I didn't want to just throw any ones on, I want to choose some that will suit the car.

These ones cost a mighty £1.50 and will be removed after the MOT!

 

[Lopéz]

I've probably missed reading elsewhere in the thread, but what's with the blacked out headlamps?

They aren't connected and I can't be bothered to remove them or connect them for the MOT so I've blacked them out for now.

 

[Lopéz]

It failed, bloody shed

 

[Lopéz]

Minor leak from master cylinder (the seals between the reservoir and cylinder weep slightly)

Nearside steering rack gaiter split
Offside steering rack gaiter split (replaced both of these with universal QH ones this evening)

Steering column universal joint has excessive play (I personally think that one's a bit tight, though they are known for failing on Mantas due to their rubber donut construction (same as a Sierra) Unfortunately hardly anywhere seems to sell them though I may be able to get a decent used replacement.

Not really the end of the world on a 20 year old car, but enough to aggravate me