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Project "J"


stradacab
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Front crossmember is not fitted yet but I do have all I need to overhaul front and rear brakes and shocks ready to go on. I need the link arm from the cross member to chassis as one side had rot in it.

Meanwhile I have fitted the boot lid, bonnet, both doors and the front wings. I had to do quite a bit of "adjustment" to the drivers door hinges to cure a 7mm gap between the door and rear wing. It's lovley now.

I have just started to offer up the front spoiler to decide where to drill the holes to fit it properly. I was not intending to fit and additional lamps but I found a genuine set of Hella fogs with the correct mounting plinths at Billing (the bloke thought they were for a Cavalier Mk2) so it will have a set of period fogs on it.

Here are a couple of quick shots with the spoiler frog taped to the valence so I can do the holes. You can just about see the panel work virtually complete (in its multi coloured glory) the spoiler is very good despite the fact that the paint is falling off in chunks!

Oh, I would be grateful if anyone could tell me the correct fixings to use to attach this properly

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  • 3 weeks later...

Since then I have hauled the front crossmember round the front and single handedly managed to coax it into place. Steering all connected up. Just need one rear arm to replace the rusted one.

Fitted new anti roll bar links and shockers now the front suspension is fitted. Have cleaned up the disc back plates and am derusting prior to painting and refitting the new discs and hoses. Calipers are seized solid so may pick up a new set if I lose interest in overhauling the old ones!

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Painted the back plates and refitted them with some Loctite, replaced the front discs and repacked the bearings.

After a tip off, Bigg Red will refurb my calipers for 79 quid for the two so they are off to Worcester soon to be overhauled.

Fitted the new front flex hoses, road wheels and dropped the car to the floor (even though I need to fit a control arm. Can do that when I get one)

The car is on 4 wheels for the first time in, what, two years? At least I can wheel it out and clean back in the garage. We are nearly at the rolling shell and ready for paint point I reckon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Got on to overhauling the rear brakes, consisting of cleaning and painting the inside of the backplanes, followed by a blowtorch, knuckle bar and WD40 to free off the manual adjusters.

New slaves, shoes and drums all fitted, adjusted and handbrake set up (but no bleeding cause half of the brake system is not there yet)

Rubbish pictures

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Not many jobs on the list to do now prior to getting it painted

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Now I have the info I need I will start to have a stab at mounting the Englemanns later this week.

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So next job was to fit the Englemann mirrors. I quickly got the info I needed from two very helpful club members about the mounting dimensions and the method to correctly fit.

First up was the fact they self tap to the door, a bit crude, but I am assured that is how Opel fitted then so there you go!

Second was the correct mounting location. The look calls for them to be set well back from the alloy plinth where the standard mirrors fit. I roughly fitted my blanks as a reference point and measured up. You can see the shot from a brochure I have. Maybe I am so used to the standard mirrors but these felt like they were going to be soooo far along the door that you would have to turn your head to see them.

After much deliberation I decided to use the front mounting hole as the rear putting them 65mm nearer the front of the door but still giving a good gap from the alloy plinth and the front of the mirror. Sat in the car this feels far more comfy in my opinion even though it is not absolutely correct but there you go!

Another small job done. I might Sicaflex some strengthening plates in behind as they do flex slightly on the skin.

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  • 2 months later...

Rolled it out of the garage and did some tidying up of a few little welding details that needed doing. Cause the garage is so full of boxes of parts for this car I have forgotten how nice it is to be able to easily get round the car to work on it.

It's pretty much finished and ready to go for paint and I must organise getting it booked in.

Took a quick piccie before it started raining again. If you look at page 2 of this thread you will see a 4 year old Ellis playing in the car. That tall chap is now nearly eight years old so I think I ought to get on with this, but then again I bought it in 2008 so I've only been going 7 years!

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The calipers are up at Bigg Red for overhaul so I can put them back on next week, apart from that I have been pretty lazy the last 4 weeks cause of Christmas and stuff. Hopefully the next lot of updates will be exciting ones

Edited by stradacab
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Collected the calipers today. They were really skanky and I have to say that Bigg Red did a brilliant job of the refurb and turned them round in three days. I went to their place in Worcester as its only a couple of miles from one of my offices. The team there were helpful and polite and I would deffo recommend them.

I reckon it would have cost me around 40 quid for slide kits and caliper repair kits, washers, nipples etc and I don't think my finished product would have been as good as this.

79 quid all in, I reckon that's reasonable value

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I'll get these fitted this weekend.

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Rolled it out of the garage and did some tidying up of a few little welding details that needed doing. Cause the garage is so full of boxes of parts for this car I have forgotten how nice it is to be able to easily get round the car to work on it.

It's pretty much finished and ready to go for paint and I must organise getting it booked in.

Took a quick piccie before it started raining again. If you look at page 2 of this thread you will see a 4 year old Ellis playing in the car. That tall chap is now nearly eight years old so I think I ought to get on with this, but then again I bought it in 2008 so I've only been going 7 years!

imagejpg1_zps7019158a.jpg

imagejpg1_zps6bca1429.jpg

The calipers are up at Bigg Red for overhaul so I can put them back on next week, apart from that I have been pretty lazy the last 4 weeks cause of Christmas and stuff. Hopefully the next lot of updates will be exciting ones

:DB):thumbup

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  • 3 weeks later...

James posted some pics on FB so I have hosted them to update here too.

All prep to find the obvious low spots and shape the wheel arch repairs. The boot was a good panel but rust pitted so they have bare metalled it. I think the next stage is priming and guiding to find all the dinks and dents.

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This car could be ready for Billing 2015 at this rate.

 

On April 18th 2010 your Ascona DFH came back from the paint shop & on July 9th 2010 made it's Billing debut !

 

http://forums.mantaclub.org/topic/16967-ascona/page-3

 

It can be done, read the link above :thumbup

Edited by Rapierdave
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Dave, a LOT less work to do on the Ascona than the GT/J.

Ascona already had an engine, sound deadening, wiring loom, gearbox, headliner and the bulkhead built up, the Manta has nothing!!

I intend to savour this and enjoy the pleasure of reassembly at a leisurely pace. Plus the fact that you know that when this is finished I will only start another one!

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