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

[Lopéz]

More of a pain than anything else.

I have a spare master cylinder, it's just a ballache bleeding the whole system through. It isn't physically hard to change (2 bolts)

The UJ is a real ass to get to though, not only that but it might be something else causing similar symptoms (there is an inner and outer column, these sometimes work loose causing the same sensation. Need to investigate really with Kate wobbling the wheel while I check underneath with a torch.

Joy

 

[Lopéz]

Zoiks!

My left hand drive conversion still needs a bit of work.

 

[Lopéz]

Hopefully my new UJ and steering column bearing will arrive today and I can get it back in one piece tonight.

 

[Lopéz]

LED mirrors was my first thought with regards to a permanent solution - I have a couple of spare mirrors so may experiment on one of them.

More grotty MOT work done:

Split steering rack gaiters

Remove the tattered old ones and repack the rack with grease

New QH universal ones fitted, very nice and easy to fit thanks to a handy fitting cone that lets it slide over the track rod end

Couldn't resist a shot of my perfect chassis rails Non-Manta owners probably wouldn't understand

Also got a pleasant surprise, no wonder it feels so taut to drive

I've also replaced the steering universal joint, steering column end bearing, brake master cylinder, bled the brakes fully and put it all back together.

Fingers crossed for the retest :/

 

[Lopéz]

Yeah, wouldn't be my first choice but not going to complain as they car feels really tight and firm on them.

On another note:

Registration Mark: F899AYD
Make of the vehicle: OPEL
Model of the vehicle: MANTA GT
Test Result: Certificate Issued (Pass)

 

[Lopéz]

Everyone I talk to about it says things like that.

Bloke walking past while I was changing the steering joint:
"A Manta.... christ.... I don't remember the last time I saw one of those. My uncle had a Manta"

MOT Tester
"Manta..... I used to have a Manta, don't remember the last one I tested though"

Motor Factor guy
"Manta!? Now there's a name I've not heard in a while, I used to own a Manta"

It's not like it's an exotic rarity or anything, there just don't seem to be many about. Until a few weeks ago, when one rumbled past my house, I don't remember the last one I saw on the road.

 

[Lopéz]

Shameless bump for no reason other than I took a couple of dusky pictures of it that I liked.

New cars are gay

Plans over the next few months:

Replace all 4 headlamps with brand new ones and build a nice loom for them to replace the shoddy original gear

Fit some proper side repeaters

Fit an Ashley exhaust

Find a spare axle so I can weld up the diff ready for the wet season

 

[Lopéz]

Is it coming to the RR day?

Yeah I'll drag it along. You'll hate it! It isn't even shiny.

 

[Lopéz]

This thread has reminded me Im getting the Capri at the weekend, more retro goodness!

Excellent - make sure you get plenty of pics up, I'll be interested to see what condition it's in.

 

[Lopéz]

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 Kate 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.
How much is this stuff a litre again?

http://ocukroguesgallery.com/lopez/Mantaavid.wmv

 

[Lopéz]

"We got ourselves an engine fire, boys"

Exactly why I decided to quit while I was ahead. Didn't fancy having it spit back through the carbs and send it up in flames.

More fiddling to be done. Sounded great when it was running though

 

[Lopéz]

Disaster strikes!

I was running some RCA leads back to the sub box a couple of weeks ago and noticed a very damp carpet on the passenger side. Lifting the mat, I noticed I had a couple of mushrooms growing as well

Knowing the floor above the chassis rails is normally the first bit to "go" I decided I'd better find out how bad it had gotten as I had no idea how long the car had been letting in water.

I think the leak is being caused by my split door seals. I've checked the battery tray and washer bottle tray from inside the car, neither are perforated or leaking so the water must be coming in the corners of the door seals - I'll do a hosepipe test when I get the chance.

So out with the seat, peel back the carpet on the passenger side first and what do I see.....

Wet newspaper from 1997 and a hole in the floor.

Hole is directly above the jacking point. What causes these to rust upwards? Moisture/condensation forming inside the jacking points I guess?

Glad I caught it early, this would not have been spotted by Mr MOT tester for some years I fear.



So, having seen that I was confident the other side would be the same if not worse

Hey presto:

Bit worse to be honest. Ah well, can't be helped, what's done is done, and a Manta will go rotten as sure as night follows day.

So to tackle this properly the carpet needs to come out and the soundproofing needs to come off. I removed the passenger seat, centre console etc and was pleased to discover the front carpet is in 2 halves which means I could at least take half out today (got to drive to work tomorrow!)

A bit of this:

Left me with a lot of this:

Then it got dark. So next weekend, out will come the seat and carpet on the other side so I can do the same.
Then I will replace the door seals, and after that, I suppose I'd better weld it all up!

 

[Lopéz]

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

 

[Lopéz]

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.

 

[Lopéz]

A bloke called Petrol by any chance? Seen his threads, the guy has fantastic attention to detail. L1J recommended Bilt Hamber to me and I've been sold ever since! Need a restock soon though.

The gel is very effective when you cover it in clingfilm to stop it drying. Hopefully in the morning I'll have some decent steel exposed to weld to.

 

[Lopéz]

The holes in the 'humped' bit are to locate the jack I suppose, but if you get water spray up those holes is there anywhere for it to get out or does it just sit in the trough and rot the steel? Might be worth putting a couple of drainage holes at the lowest points if so?

It's an odd setup.
The outrigger (it's just a jacking point really) has 2 channels with the "hump" in the middle - and the round end of a standard Bilstein jack slides into the hump.

The 2 holes in the top of the hump both had the remains of rubber bungs in them. Not entirely sure what their purpose is! The passenger side hump has no drainage holes but the driver side one has 2 holes in the side which appear to do nothing!

I think I'm going to do as you suggested and drill a decent sized hole in the bottom of each outrigger and put a rubber gromet with the centre cut out so the whole area can drain and "breath"

 

[Lopéz]

Keep up the good work! , your welding in new pieces where you've removed the rust from the floorpan?

Yes - new metal will be cut tomorrow and welded over the holes. Until I actually made a hole in the outrigger today the rust shown above would not be considered an MOT failure as the tester cannot see it from below the car.

Which is why it gets left for so long and gets so bad as you don't tend to habitually lift up the carpets in your average car....

 

[Lopéz]

How does it look now with the gel removed?

I was looking through the pics I took yesterday and it looks like I didn't take any after scraping the gel off, which is annoying because I was sure sure I had.
I found a pic in my folders of some treated metal I did a few months ago though which was similarly corroded:

Awesome thread, I've really enjoyed going through it. Keep up the pics with your progress.

By the way what size is the engine and what sort of power did it put out when it was new?

1.8 and when new it had something like a mighty 90bhp when new
To be fair to it, it's a light car and at speeds of up to 60 or 70 feels urgent enough when the second choke opens.
Above that though it really starts to lose puff so I'd like to put something bigger in when I get the chance. At the moment it will do 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.

 

[Lopéz]

I've got 4 front sidelights as well.

Of course, I forgot all about angel eyes.

They stay in that case!

 

[Lopéz]

Well seeing as nowhere local could supply flux-cored MIG wire at less than extortionate prices, I abandoned the welding and ordered some online. I'll finish off when it turns up.

So instead I busied myself with the battery tray and washer bottle tray. Both these areas are notorious for corroding and allowing water in which then rots out the floors and chassis rails.

First up, the washer bottle tray. Out with the bottle and this is what we have. Not too bad but in need of attention to stop future rot.

After a bit of action with the heatgun and gasket scraper - I don't want that nasty sticky soundproofing holding water in this area like a sponge:

Wire wheel in a drill to take it back to bare metal where needed and apply some Bilt Hamber to bust any remaining corroded areas:

And finished off with a nice few coats of underbody sealant

Moving across to the battery tray. Once again, pretty sound:

Clean it off and treated exactly the same as the other side:

Replaced all the crumbling seam sealer with gutter + drainpipe sealant which I have been using as a seam sealer for years with excellent results! Then boshed on a topcoat and lacquer. Not overly tidy but it's only a battery tray after all:

All sorted:

Poured litres of water onto both sides and checked in the cabin...... NO water ingress Exactly the result I was hoping for.

Cleaned the car up and took her for some proper pics but will post those later