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The 5 Year Wait For The Red Gte


Andrew65
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Many, many years ago before the kids arrived I had a wonderful Sportshatch 2000GLS. I hang my head in shame when I look back at its fate.

I had just been given a company car and at the same time the hatch failed its MOT on a broken spring and a couple of minor points.

Like an idiot I sold it for scrap. Well they were commonplace then. You can see from the pix it was still a very solid beast. I already had a Dolomite Sprint that I was restoring (which I still have) so there was no place for the hatch at our old house.

Hatch2.jpg

Hatch3.jpg

Roll forward to 1999, two kids and a new home, and I suffered heart failure at the age of 34. Told I had a couple of years to live and needed a heart transplant no less.

After two unsuccessful call-ins for transplant I started to react very well to the mountain of drugs and was taken off the active list until 2009 when I had an LVAD fitted and back on the list. (Thats the very stylish black bag you see me wearing in the pic with my son.

Look up LVAD on the web and I’m sure you’ll go ‘bloody hell’

Enough of the depressing stuff what about the Manta?

Back in 2007 I saw a red GTE in a chaps garage whilst waiting for my daughter at her friends house. I went and asked if it was for sale and made him an offer. He said it had been kept in his dry garage for 14 years or so and he planned to restore it. I left him a number should he change his mind about selling.

Forward to 2011 and the car crops up 500 yards from my house at a friends brother-in-law.

I knocked on his door to see if he wanted to sell but said he was planning to get it going and then keep it.

Well after some gentle prodding he finally let me have it last week.

It had been outside for 9 months or so but was on a driveway protected slightly from the elements. It was still filthy though. Note that the sunroof had been sealed with some waterproof tape.

Once home it took the four of us three days to give it a damn good clean up. As you can see from the pix it is all there and appears very solid. You can tell by the paint that it has spent so many years indoors. At least 16.

There is a 3x1 inch hole on the battery tray, one tiny hole in the roof and a dented drivers door. A couple of rust scabs here and there, but seems very good. Boot floor is very solid, especially under the spare wheel.

Underneath looks very promising as well. I’ve am in no doubt there will be issues but looks good so far.

Interior is grubby and cleaned up quite well but I have a good-as-new set in storage that I bought from Druid last year.

It even has the original radio/cassette fitted which I am told still works.

We plan to get it running and see where we are from there.

Luckily we have indoor space for two / three cars so it is now inside once again.

Not bad for £500

BEFORE IT WAS SAVED

Manta1.jpg

THE CLEANING STARTS

Manta6.jpg

STYLISH MAN BAG

Manta5.jpg

Manta3.jpg

Manta2.jpg

CLEANING DAY THREE

Manta4.jpg

CLEAN AND SMELLING FRESH.

Manta10.jpg

Manta9.jpg

Manta8.jpg

After years of Triumph 16 valve engines with SU carbs, this is all new to me. I had better dig out my metric socket set!

The seller removed and refitted the cleaned and flushed petrol tank, fitted new fuel pumps underneath and a new radiator. He said he had it firing but one of the injectors is knackered so he gave up.

I have been picking up spares for Manta over the last year or so and I have a set of injectors and rail that have been overhauled so will try and fit them.

I would greatly appreciate if anyone wants to give me some words of advice before I get started.

CHEERS!

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that is a nice Manta, well worth the wait for,

there are pages of advice things i could type about Manta's but i will put down a few things that i'm sure you'll need to do.

changing the fuel rail, not too hard but when you do re-new ALL the 'rubber' fuel pipes, they might look alright but they are a well known failer when they are old and you REALLY DONT want petrol falling on a hot exhaust manifold......

Brakes - the front brake calipers if they haven't seazed will seaze up soon, they are a very well known problem on Manta's and either need rebuilding or they are still available new at not that much more than rebuilding them.

fluids - all the 'oils' will be well past it and should be re-newed, CAUTION, only replace the gearbox oil with genuine GM Getrag gearbox oil, i know of two gearbox's that have 'died' because other brands of oil have been used, the genuine oil is still available from Vauxhall dealers which if your a member of the Manta club you can buy at trade price ( infact if you are going to be at the parts counter of your local Vauxhall dealer often you'll soon save your club membership fee with trade discount)

tires - even if they look OK they are very old and could have perished, wouldn't risk them myself, Manta size tires aren't widely availble as 14 inch wheels are an un-common size these days, but a search on the interwebnetwork will show you whats about.

having restored a Triumph i'm sure your capable of sorting this Manta

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Your lucky its a coupe, all I can say is take your time and think about it before doing any work on the car, plenty of good build threads on here, no doubt you will have had a good troll around.

If that's your son standing next to you try to get him interested, I was lucky to get my boy interested around the same age and its kept him on the right track in his mid to late teenage years, nothing like using your hands and a bit of hard graft, much better than play station and computer games.

keep us posted with your progress and all the best from New Zealand

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Thanks for the comments, much appreciated.

I have a new battery coming tomorrow. I'll check a few more things and then see if / how it starts.

Thought you might like to see a few pix of the Sprint.

Taken a long, long while. But almost there.

Have many rebuild shots but here are a just a few for you.

Sprintfrontsmall.jpg

Sprintbacksmall.jpg

Enginesmall.jpg

Sprintinsurancepic6.jpg

Sprintaxlesmall.jpg

Sprintinsurancepic5.jpg

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Hi Andrew.

Dolly and Stag great auld skool motors, The Manta cleaned up well worth all the elbow grease great to see another being saved.

Chassis to block earth strap might look all hunky dory bi sight but give a check it might just fall apart in yur hand.If you have not lifted carpets yet would do and have a look at floor for any signs of rot setting in, deafning will show signs owe raised areas, grommet holes get covered with deafning and gap between grommet and deafning rust can start in this area and spread to top side chassis legs and jack points, inner sil and afore yae ken it yiv no floor. Check for rot:

rear top front 4 slot panel & above head lights.

front lower panel.

front end of chassis legs onto swan necks onto below floor pan onto rear.

rear front panel at lights.

inner wing rail, seam to front panel, & bulk head /water bottle and below, battery tray.

`A` posts, sils inner outer, (rear internal side panels remove and place hand down inside to check inner skins for rot.

rear lower quarter panels, arches, spare wheel well.

rear panel and lower valance.

sun roof drainage pipes not blocked/secondary inner roof area.

Electric fuel pump support bracket,and all entailed within.

Have fun wi yur Manta we all do.

cheers rab.

Edited by Rab
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  • 1 month later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Andrew.

Dolly and Stag great auld skool motors, The Manta cleaned up well worth all the elbow grease great to see another being saved.

Chassis to block earth strap might look all hunky dory bi sight but give a check it might just fall apart in yur hand.If you have not lifted carpets yet would do and have a look at floor for any signs of rot setting in, deafning will show signs owe raised areas, grommet holes get covered with deafning and gap between grommet and deafning rust can start in this area and spread to top side chassis legs and jack points, inner sil and afore yae ken it yiv no floor. Check for rot:

rear top front 4 slot panel & above head lights.

front lower panel.

front end of chassis legs onto swan necks onto below floor pan onto rear.

rear front panel at lights.

inner wing rail, seam to front panel, & bulk head /water bottle and below, battery tray.

`A` posts, sils inner outer, (rear internal side panels remove and place hand down inside to check inner skins for rot.

rear lower quarter panels, arches, spare wheel well.

rear panel and lower valance.

sun roof drainage pipes not blocked/secondary inner roof area.

Electric fuel pump support bracket,and all entailed within.

Have fun wi yur Manta we all do.

cheers rab.

That's the best buyers guide for any manta, well put Rab!

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After years of Triumph 16 valve engines with SU carbs, this is all new to me. I had better dig out my metric socket set!

I have been picking up spares for Manta over the last year or so and I have a set of injectors and rail that have been overhauled so will try and fit them.

I would greatly appreciate if anyone wants to give me some words of advice before I get started.

CHEERS!

All you need is an 8, 10, 13, 15, 17 and 19 mm then you can take a Manta apart and back together again :)

Not much to say regarding advice. You should give it a good lookover, change the parts thats faulty or rusty. Make sure to check the swan necks as theese tend to rust around the hole for the lower front triangles.

Parts are available from several German part dealers like Leidinger. He is very polite and will send the parts to the UK. He also writes in English so no need to brush off the German vocabulary :)

And good luck with it, its a beaut :)

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