Rab Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Hi Clive. Hope awes well wi yae,and another stunner owe Manta from yae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted March 23, 2011 Author Share Posted March 23, 2011 (edited) Ay up Devil Fish and Christ, been looking at your projects too, good to see them moving along. adz the stig.. If you go back to the start of this thread you will see that the shell I was given was mainly white, all the red stuff has been put on by myself over a period of time, just hope the remaining paint hasn't gone funny in the can. Skyline pics, I'll post some up some time mate Pat and Rab, cheers fella's, comments much appreciated. Well not been to work today, so been pottering about in the sun on the Manta drinking Bud accompanied by a smoke or two, decided to go and get another battery (bloody corsa took my Manta's battery) and check that the fog lights were going to work as there seemed to be some hacked about loom in the foglight area, in fact the loom just doesn't look right at all in a lot of places. All electrics at the moment are working apart from fogs, heated rear window and washer pump, fogs only got connected up in the boot today, heated rear window I won'y know until engine is running, and have no washer bottle or pump. Anyway battery goes on, ignition is turned on, engine turned over a couple of times, then lights turned on followed by fogs. No foglights, normally I would have checked for 12V at the fogs, but knew something wasn't right under the dash. removed the clocks to find a nightmare of cobbled up wires, none of which were original, simply thought I'd connect the original connector to the Fog Switch, but it was nowhere to be seen, in fact there are none of the original rear fog wires at all, the front ones are there, but no rear, and obviously no rear connector. Only thing I could think was that the colours in the manual are wrong. And fook me have you tried tracing the fog wires in the manual, absolute pain in the butt, makes the XE injection loom a total breeze in comparison. looked over that bstard wiring diagram that many times this afternoon my eyeballs are stuffed. More bast wire probs........ As I knew this area relly needed some attention and wanted a proper working fag lighter (luxury item that I've never had working in a Manta yet) and wanted the wires for CD, Clock and Fag lighter as neat and correct as poss, coupled with the fact that today I ran the Lambda sensor wire through the trans tunnel today (more wires) I thought it best just to take out the whole dash. Great, I now have a thick black wire coming off a piggy back connector on the clutch wear switch going to nowhere, haven't got a bloody clue where this is supposed to be going. The household cable with 0.25mm gap between the uninsulated terminals on the fog switch was removed that was scotchlocked into a cut grey wire with green stripe. The weird flasher unit was removed from bulkhead along with it's trailer flasher/indicator, and a proper one fitted into the base of the fusebox, don't ask,, BIG FAT relay that has been a pain in the ass getting in the way on bulkhead has been removed and smaller one fitted that does not include the headlamp wash/wipe relay/s (I THINK) can always re-fit Big Fat if the wiper motor blows up or does whatever. Washer pump.... Struck me that there was no relay on the inner wing a while back but thought not a lot of it as I was sure I had something that would mount there, only to realise today that I don't actually have any wires to connect to a washer pump, i do have a connector with the purple wires and a brown wire living in it and always remember it being a nuisance area running the wires neatly around/under the big washer bottles with various connectors attaching to each other but damn sure something is missing but don't know what. Gonna take a look at the manual in a minute to take a look at the wiring diagram for the fog switch and intend to wire up a relay from the switch and be done with it, just so damn annoying and weird that the original fog wires and connector are nowhere to be seen. You know...... The one main thing that always always pisses me off with cars is when......... people have messed about with the electrics that would have been better left alone. Edited March 23, 2011 by opel2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantadoc Posted March 23, 2011 Share Posted March 23, 2011 Great, I now have a thick black wire coming off a piggy back connector on the clutch wear switch going to nowhere, haven't got a bloody clue where this is supposed to be going. Same place as the handbrake switch goes to Washer pump.... Struck me that there was no relay on the inner wing a while back but thought not a lot of it as I was sure I had something that would mount there, only to realise today that I don't actually have any wires to connect to a washer pump, i do have a connector with the purple wires Thought that was it, If not using headlamp wash wipe, I usually trim the first fe inches off it, the bit that extends to the large bottle pump I retain Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kevin Abbott Posted March 24, 2011 Share Posted March 24, 2011 (edited) Looking nice and straight Clive, nice swage line too For good quality( even the ali particle stuff like frost do) and cases of satin black, take a trip to Newark autojumble, i used to go loads of times and blag my way in In fact i could do with a trip to Newark autojumble myself! Link http://www.pff-uk.info/Dates.html Only 40 mile from you, It's 100 from me but i love the place Edited March 24, 2011 by Kevin Abbott Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted March 30, 2011 Author Share Posted March 30, 2011 Thanks Kev, Mantadoc. Bit of filler and shaping went on around the arch, and always a bit of a bast to get it blended into the swage lines properly. Clutch and brake pedal cables all seem fine, just an odd wire knocking around, was going to get back on withthe electrics today, but was p1ssing it down, decided to knock it on the head for today. However, as weather was crap, it hasn't been for the last 2 days, and as I had stayed off of work due to GF being very poorly, I thought I'd tackle a bit of work on the Manta in between keeping an eye on her. So did this............. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted March 30, 2011 Author Share Posted March 30, 2011 Thought I'd add a few words, was thinking that the pics would speak for themself, but looking back over the last post, there has been a lot of hardwork. Exclusive spoiler, Many thanks Keith. When this arrived I really didn't know where to start with this, slightly out of shape, better now but still not 100% and had some nasty cracks running through it in various areas, managed to deal with most of the cracks, but decided to draw a line and not get it as good as I could, main reason being hoping the weather stays good. Which incidentally it didn't, no sooner had I got the side peices dropped into position as soon as paint was hardening it decided to bloody rain. Had to get everything off asap and stored up in spare room. Also pretty unsure whether to leave it all red or to paint on the black edging strip on the lip of the spoiler. Boot lid. Surprisingly in very good nick for a 33 year old boot lid. I Jenolited the inside seams where the boot skin meets the bracing a while back, so all the minor rust in these areas was killed and ready for paint.......... You see, it takes 5 mins pottering about on a car on a crap day and there is always a little bit that can be done in readiness for future work. Due to making a bit of a mess when trying to fit the spoiler, I will be siliconing the mounting areas to ensure water does not get to the steel mounting studs or into the boot itself. Also got he overspray areas sorted around the windows, all this area should be satin black so stripped off all the trim and seals masked off and cleaned off all the sealant and gunky stuff that always seems to want to reside here, and sprayed it satin black before refitting the trim, must get some better rear quarter glass seals the on on the side shown has now split altogether. door seals have been on and off so many times now that the carrier wire is now not gripping the door shut. Started tackling the fog lights today, and all was going well until the bloody landlady turned up to see how the GF is doing (her hubby runs a car dealers and is into his classics, quite fortunate really as most landlords wouldn't appreciate what I'm doing on the front of what is essentially their property, especially as I have one neighbour complaining that I have 3 cars) interfering snotty nosed stuck up old bag he can go stuff himself. Fog lights.... wiring was going well found a headlamp switched positive I could use (possibly the original source for fogs) and used this to see if fogs were working....... Er, no, oops, found that the lights were not earthing correctly due to.......... chuffing corroded earth terminal in the rear of the lamp unit, by this time rain got too heavy so packed everything away. (threw everything in boot) Which brings me to....... Forgot what an absolute bast it is to get the retaining clip onto the boot lock, unless you remove the boot and do it on the floor, also could not find a key to fit the bloody bootlock, so dis-assembled barrel, fitted a key which raised the tumblers? the least and filed down the little tumblers until it rotated freely in the lock housing, simples. Downside is I'm an absolutel bastard for locking my keys in the boot, been using a screwdriver to date due to no bootlock fitted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted March 30, 2011 Share Posted March 30, 2011 Hi Clive, looks braw boot spoiler awe in red wid keep that way, lock clip must admit had awe wee chuckle as minded when daien mi own what awe fecker.Clive did you get sorted ok for front lamps?/holders re your thread. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 Hello Rab. Thanls for comments, as for the front lamps, pretty unsure what to do at the moment, as I pretty much have everything but a way to mount the lenses, I;m gonna have a bash with some threaded bar again first to see if I can get these things mounted nice. Cheers mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Manta again Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 Really nice paint finish on the boot lid and spoiler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantapaperman Posted March 31, 2011 Share Posted March 31, 2011 nice work this..i see you have a clarke welder in your shed? i,m in the process of deciding what model clarke welder to buy? can you offer any input on this.. what model you got and is it ok for car body etc..keep at it mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted March 31, 2011 Author Share Posted March 31, 2011 Hi there mantapaperman. Actually not a shed but a plastic outside store, the Clarke box just houses a few Manta spares. Anyway the Clarke welder is the 151te http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/product/details/151te-turbo-mig-welder And have been dead happy with this, it really is a damn good bit of kit, as much as I'd like to slag down Clarke stuff I can't with this item. I'm currently working over at Retropower as Nat and Callum had workspace for me, http://www.retropower.co.uk/ anyway due to them being dead busy they recently roped me in to do some fabricating and welding on the scabbiest piece of junk you could ever wish to see, but got stuck in with my welder, Nat and Callum then went on to use the welder and both commented on the nice low settings available on this machine. Every time I'd used a hobby type MIG setup in the past (I'm used to using BIG Mig plant with seperate wire feed units bigger than my hobby MIG) but this seems to have the setting that every machine seems to be lacking if you go Low Medium and High, this then has Extra Low, Extra High and that elusive extra medium or extra low medium, whatever, Basically using 0.8mm wire on CO2 gas (still find this better for thin panel work over Argon CO2 mix) this bit of kit will lay down decent weld seams on pretty much anything, wire feed is dead smooth, before I went for coding course on positional aluminium MIG I had a blast with my MIG running overhead seams and uphill butt joints and it laid a lovely neat weave/weld seam. Recently patched up the sill on this project..... it really needed a new sill, but I can do that further down the line, right now I just want it finished and MOT'd as the car will never really be finished due to LOTS of plans I have for this. Anyway the sill was pretty damn thin in one area that I needed to weld to, so I turned the welder down a tad and working underneath the sill I flowed the weld off of the good metal onto the thin stuff and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't blow through but left a nice neat weld. Only real faults are....... Torch is horrid cheap nasty thing, I don't like this at all, but maybe cos i'm used to bigger better stuff. Torch lead is too damn short, means you have to move the heavy MIG around, and I never bothered fitting the supplied wheels to mine. Earth lead and clamp really is cheap and nasty, but it does it's job, apart from again being too damn short. The 0.6 small spool of wire supplied with machine is joke, never got on with small spools, the bigger the spool the better the wire feeds off. So from someone that has used a fair few hobby welders and a fair few bits o' big kit, along with Nat, who likewise has used a lot of small and big kit, this bit o' kit is definately an item to buy if you are either experienced or even better if you are inexperienced as it will help you lay a decent weld no end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
keith1200 Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 (edited) It's looking good I honestly thought the cracks on the side fins were down to the plastic primer paint , and I didn't 'really' check! I wonder wot heavy object the courier b*****d sat on top of it f**kers charge me nearly £13 and that was the cheapest 5+ day delivery. I probably should have packaged it better What type of paint are you using? if you don't mind me asking? as its looking VERY good Cheers, Keith ps if your needing any 'bits or bobs' gives a shout, to try and compensate for the extra work. Edited April 1, 2011 by keith1200 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantapaperman Posted April 1, 2011 Share Posted April 1, 2011 thanks for the info on the welder bud . i,m going to get one! they all look the same in machine mart, i think they should have a room out back so you can have ablast before you buy . thanks again for the insight mate Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 It's looking good I honestly thought the cracks on the side fins were down to the plastic primer paint , and I didn't 'really' check! I wonder wot heavy object the courier b*****d sat on top of it f**kers charge me nearly £13 and that was the cheapest 5+ day delivery. I probably should have packaged it better What type of paint are you using? if you don't mind me asking? as its looking VERY good Cheers, Keith ps if your needing any 'bits or bobs' gives a shout, to try and compensate for the extra work. No No no Keith not at all mate, the item is spot on and knew that any spoiler I got my hands on would require some work, the amount I paid for this from you is absolutely spot on mate, I'm more than pleased with this, apologies if I put the message across that I was robbed cos I wasn't, in short dead happy mate Paint I'm using is two pack. Primer I use is a Cellulose "Belco" Filler Primer. Belco stuff used to be ICI, this stuff gives a damn good base to work on, it levels out superbly upon spraying and covers a lot of sanding marks/scratch marks yet is not a thick heavy primer to spray on, so a lower spec compressor such as my Machine Mart piece of junk can actually give a decent spray/finish (JUST) I used to buy a premium Celli thinner for this stuff as I'v ehad issues with micro blisters in the past, due to Ethanol/water content in the thinners, when the frost hits any slight water content that was inthe thinners that had not evaporated during spraying can remain under paint and exapnd with the freezing temps, just hope the cheap nasty thinners has no Ethanol content. Also due to the red being stored for a long time now it had started to thicken up so added a spot o' celli thinners to this, when using the hardener/catalyst for this paint it seemed to take a lot longer to go off than when I hadn't used the celli thinners (used to use the correct Acrylic thinner but that was in good old Leicester) anyway, paint seemd to dry off slower and take a long time to harden up properly, also the other panels on the car I have done are ROCK HARD and an absolute bast to polish up, but the areas where I've used the Celli in the paint are easier to polish up to remove the odd fly and beetle that decided to inspect the paint whilst drying. Nice thing about this stuff is..... you can keep loading the paint on (short of getting it to run) and when it looks all wet and shiny and smooth then that is exactly what it will dry like, there should be no need to flatten off and polish up if done properly, all you should ever need to do with paint like this is to wash down and add a coat of wax. thanks for the info on the welder bud . i,m going to get one! they all look the same in machine mart, i think they should have a room out back so you can have ablast before you buy . thanks again for the insight mate That's ok mate, When buying my first welder years ago I wish that there had been this information to hand for me, instead I ended up buying a nasty SIP bit of kit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdi200 Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 hey clive,,,,,,,hope alls well mate ,,,your paint finish looks the doggies mate,,,defo does,,,,good to see your making progress aswell,,,,,,,look forward to seeing your manta when its completed,,,, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted April 2, 2011 Author Share Posted April 2, 2011 Bloody hell Craig, just sending you a pm at this moment re quarter blanks and came here to grab the link t this topic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted April 2, 2011 Share Posted April 2, 2011 Clive, used celli/2pk on i200 as was told bi a painter just as good and gives gloss finnish oot the gun, only prob he told me I would have would be the drying time as not fortunate to have a oven. Going to have a go at the water based come thi better weather,but will still have prob wi drying time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted April 4, 2011 Author Share Posted April 4, 2011 You know what Rab, with all the previous talk of "Everything" will be water based in the future, I have never had a problem getting hold of Celli based products, and 2 Pack products. Car moved along slowly over the weekend due to distractions and stuff to do around house etc., coupled with crap weather on Sunday but nice to have the dash back in place and all wiring now correct and neat, at the point now where I really need everything permanently in place and really need the interior finishing off not really in a position to buy a new headlining, but I really need to get hold of one desperately now. Found the Relay for the washer/wipers that sits in the engine compartment near the washer bottle, and definately have some wiring missing here, so it will be back to the wiring diagram in the manual again to see what I need to be doing around here. On sat my good Buddy (there are some good things in Derby) Bobby popped round to see me, was dead fortunate as at the time I had some bits o' spares lying around and asked me "What is that Dizzy" "That would be 2.0 GTE complete with the electronic ignition module and coil" As Bobby had just bought a 1.9 Opel GT the Dizzy and module suddenly found itself a good home, just love it when a result comes together like that, in return he is going to see if he has a XE alternator bracket for me. So Currently project needs the following. Exhaust tubing and boxes mounting. Fuel lines running. Fuel pump mounting and connecting. Need to sort out either mounting the dizzy somewhere/somehow and using original heater box, or making a heater box, or using a compact aftermarket heater unit (many thanks for link Pat earlier in this topic) Still need to mount front lamps. source and fit Headlining. Source sensibly priced ignition leads, (£800 from Halfords is not on) Bit o' bodywork Source decent bonnet, current one is stuffed, corroded through from underneath between the bracings in areas. fill and shape the other rear quarter. Fit stereo. Drive. Heck..... nowhere near finished then eh?, just hope the bloody thing runs come the time Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 (edited) Well with such superb weather, things have moved on a bit more. Got some High pressure fuel line £2.50 per metre and delivered in about 2 hours off of trusty old Ebay Oh how fortunate to find a brand new boxed fuel pump pre-filter in the collection of bits i had ready for this project but had forgot about. Fuel lines were ran under car by using metal strips approx 90mm long x 20 wide with a 7mm hole in the middle, these were then plug welded into suitable places and then wrapped around the hoses aka true Opel stylee. Next up is to source some properly priced plug leads, sort out a new thermostat housing (got one sorted this eve ) fit an oil cooler or do away with the sandwich plate, fit alternator and connect up the final 2 spare wires on the whole of the loom to alternator, er, put some oil in and prime, put some water in and some petrol, and fire it up WOOO HOOO it's getting so damn close now, the excitment and anticipation of hearing this fire up, feel like er, well dunno really just can't wait to be driving a Manta again, can't wait to see the looks on peoples faces when I'm driving this around. Oh got the bonnet done as well and wired up the washers which work ok, seems I got a tad confused over a certain relay which wasn't actually fitted to this car, but obviously as Mantadoc pointed out Not needed. Even got the underbonnet light fitted connected and working, only the 2nd one I've ever had working on any Manta. As I packed everything away tonight, putting a few trim bits and minor prts in the boot (it was originally rammed with loads of stuff now, all in place) I locked the Manta up and looked down on it and for the first time I suddenly got that huge grin you get as you start to see the finish line. Bonnet doesn't look too bad in the pic, but is/was in quite bad shape, ground out a lot of corrosion, and filled it, it won't last but it gets the car closer to a state of finishment, and cursed flying beetles landed in my paint, little basts, took out one big fly type thing but 2 of his legs stayed in the paint, all the joys of painting outside eh? Really i should have waited and sourced a better bonnet, but can do that at a later date, it would have just held the project up. Also I have headlining coming tomorow Edited April 10, 2011 by opel2000 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leon Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 Looks great Clive, been flicking back through old posts, have you been painting it a panel at a time? If so any problems with colour matching? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickappy Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 looks the muts nuts mate. hope it fires up ok for you. would`nt worry about the oil cooler. ive run mine with and without. make no differance really. good work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted April 10, 2011 Author Share Posted April 10, 2011 Hi Leon, I bought 5 litres of paint at the beginning, so it should all match up, just got enough left to the the 2 rear quarters now, which is all that is left to paint. Hello Mick, how's things? Reason for oil cooler is that I've been told that if I remove the sandwich plate thing there will not be a thread to screw my oil filter onto, not actually checked this yet, but would rather not run the oil cooler as I'm pretty damn sure that in a nice open airy engine bay like the Manta it should not pose a problem to lose the cooler. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robah Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 That is looking grand mate. Love the work your doing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickappy Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 yeh things are good mate, all u need to do is unscrew the long centre bit that goes thu the sandwich plate and replace with a smaller one, i will have 1 somewhere im sure. al post pics tomoz mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdi200 Posted April 10, 2011 Share Posted April 10, 2011 clive that looks like a really nice paint finish,,,,good to see that your making progress and i know what you mean about the first start up,,,,,,i was kinda nervous wen i was at that point aswell,,,itll be fine bro just get it cranked over and get those hydraulic tappets primmed up Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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