Wanting History On D687 Pwj, Red

[Ben Hefty Hollings]

hey guys

i bought my red manta gt/e reg D687 PWJ in summer last year from ebay, it is a 2.0 gt/e and has an exclusive sticker on the back however it is a hatchback, this made me wonder what else the car had done to it on lookin through the history it shows that at some point, and i cant pinpoint where, it changed from a 1.8 to a 2.0 sugesting an engine change. I WANT TO KNOW MORE! so, as the car had a omoc sticker on it and there is a sheet with some old tax disks on it with the omoc logo on, it must have been a previous member.

someone has to know something.

wen i bought the car it was advatised as formaly a GT but converted to a GT/E however i dident even realse there was a manta GT?? this jut adds to the confusion

i realise that all this devalues the car but i dont care i feel it adds character, it only cost just over £900 and it runns sweet. i just want to know the cars history

thanks

Ben

[spiney_norman]

The GT was the name originally given to 1.8 Mantas that were lower trim spec than the 1.8 Berlinettas. Towards the end of Manta production, the Exclusives were brought in, which were available as a 2.0 injected hatch or coupe (the GT/E Exclusive), or a 1.8 hatch (GT Exclusive) which it sounds like yours started life as. Hope that helps!

[Ben Hefty Hollings]

ahh ok so the exclusive stickers may have come from the origional 1.8 hatch gt exclusive and a 2.0 gt/e exclusive injected engine was transfered into it at a later date. (does this engine have a name? like the later redtop did)

the car was registerd in 1987 if that makes any difference

thanks

ben

[spiney_norman]

The engine code was just 20E, it's generally known as the cam-in-head engine. A lot of 1.8s get stripped for parts which people use for redtop conversions, it's likely this happened to yours in the past so somebody fitted a GT/E cam-in-head engine, which are still much more readily available.

[gt/e paul]

hi, ben i can give you all the history you need to know as i can confirm i was the original owner of d687 pwj (betsy) as i used to call her.

i owned her from 1996 until august 2009 ,i only sold her as i have two mantas and your one was in a garage that i could no longer afford otherwise i would have still had two. she is one hell of a strong manta yes she was originally a 1.8s gt with no rear wash wipe ,had steel wheels and i think it was called tweed cloth seats.

i used her as a daily driver until 1999 , and at that time had started some welding work to the inner front wings and jacking point areas . around the same time the head gasket went , a mate of mine was making a race manta out of a standard exclusive . so i had the 2.0e engine ,gearbox and axle the engine bay was stripped and re painted

as was the engine painted and the engine and box recieved all new seals .all new brake pipes were fitted and the master cylinder re-rubbered .

i had to keep the car mobile as i was about to move house , a reconditioned fuel tank was fitted and off i went to the new house that had a garage.

there both front wings were replace with very good ones that i had been saving for that car , a brand new rear end panel was fitted .sills welded and the entire underside cleaned off and painted and undersealed and loads of waxoyl applied .

i saved up for the paintjob but was so disapointed with the end result as it had started to go flat and there was various areas of the roof that had blistered . no down to rust as i had already tackled that .

end result ! i used it for a bit was disheartend as i had waited so long only for it to be spoilt my a crap paintjob.

Indeed no ben she isnt a real exclusive but she was exclusive to me and i wanted something reasonably standard looking and tastefull .

so you paid £900 eh ! when i had her for sale on e bay i struggled to get £500 , she went to a guy in great yarmouth norfolk who decieded to drive the 200 miles home dispite i told him the manta had been in the garage for five years so i couldnt guarantee the reliability ,but she got him home .

he didnt do a thing with her and sold for a profit at £750 i that point i lost track and was fearing she had been cut up or something.

i had fitted the gt/e seats long before i done the engine conversion , the skirts anthracite alloys exclusive rear bumper twin headlights ( which she seems to have lost looking at your picture)

and the exclusive steering wheel were all added by me later.

most of the parts i had bought genuine vauxhall ( you should have reciepts with pp restorations on the top from geoff bray vauxhall southend).

all in all thats a real solid manta , that i built for myself and not to sell on at the time so i did not cut corners paying attention to detail. that i reluctantly sold at the time. i only really converted it to gt/e spec as i had always had 1.8s and wanted a gt/e and this was an affordable option for me

i have the photos to support the work i done ,perhaps if you are attending billing this year i would love to see the manta and have a chat i can bring the photos along with me .

good luck, and enjoy her feel free to email me at funnily enough my email is paul687@hotmail.co.uk after d687pwj

theres prob loads ive missed as i had that manta for 13 years . if you have a look at the your project section you can see my current hatch under steel grey hatch

all the best regards paul

[Ben Hefty Hollings]

wow thanks paul i apretiate all that. i have done a little work on the car myself and noticed wile dooing so that it was in very good shape, from the little i have driven it i can also say that it is still solid and alot of fun. i bought it for the same reason you built it i think, i wanted a reliable reasonably standard looking car that i could tinker with myself and hopefully use as a day to day and it fulfils that perfectly.

the paint job is very disapointing im saving funds for a respray i am thinking it may go black though. as you said the headlights are not the the twins but i am curently looking for a good set to fit, other than that i dont think it is much different than you described. yes i did pay 900 but as i said im well happy with that because in my opinion she has far more character, i may be getting all wierd but it feels like a car that has been well looked after and loved it is clean and tidy and i love that you named her betsy, unfortunatly that name has not stayed as i now call her mani ( its debatable wether its a mans name or not but hey)

it is my first year in the omoc and i am intending to come to billing aslong as i can get time for it and i would love to show you the car and hopefully what i have added to her

i will keep you updated with anything major that i am dooing to the car

thanks ben

[gt/e paul]

hi,ben thanks for that its nice to know the old girl is being cared for. i quite like mani ! all my old cars have names my current manta is called grace! yes indeed it would be great to see her again and i cannot recommend enough you get yourself to billing for everything manta!

looking at your picture i see not only has she lost her twin headlights she has also lost her englemann mirrors but everything else looks how i left it i guess these were removed by the owners in between myself and you.

i think a colour change to black would suit her , i only opted for red as that was the original colour however would never own another vauxhall/opel branded car in red as in my experience the fade to bad but thats just me .

keep up the good work ben and i look forward to an update paul