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1978 Manta Sr Berlinetta - Australian Version!


GTREA
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July update

Started with some radiator work, its already been shortened to fit between the chassis rails, but now its had the Top outlet moved to match the 1UZ, and a Radiator cap neck put in its place, and some tabs fitted on the side that locate it on the chassis rail.

Bottom outlet was the hardest to sort out as the swaybar is 50mm away, tried going under and up, but radiator wont slide down into place

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So just kept the bottom pipe in tight, but then it fouls on alternator

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So was fitted at an angle (note tabs on side)

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Twin thermos then fitted to the front....and they fitted perfectly each is 250mm in diameter, and the gap in the Manta is W 500mm x H 250mm before it fouls

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Then came the wiring, I had two different 1UZs because I bought a mid sump by mistake, we just banged the front sump version in, but it turned out the harness was different and didn't have an ECU, so I manned up and swapped them over

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You have to strip the 1UZ right down to get the harness off, but that was the easy part on a motor out of the car, refitting a harness with the engine in :eek:

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Two steps forward 1 back!...took me a full weekend to do.

Mostly found homes for all the wires, although there appears to be no plugs on the harness to suit the single pin plugs on the exhaust temp sensors?

Anyway waiting on some relays, and a fuse box then will attempt to wire and fire this thing!

After that I thought I would try and adjust the shifter cable on the auto as P to 1 on the box covered the distance of P to D on the shifter, so I re-drilled a hole further up the shifter rod, and my estimation was bang on :)

Still being a bit to chuffed with my success I forgot to tighten it all up and in playing with it bent the shift cable.....arghhh

So drop the box down, undo the brackets, slide the cable over the top of the box, try and straighten cable end and refit....there is NO room, it is a BITCH of a job.

Anyway that's sorted now so Heat and exhaust wrap was next as fuel lines and shift cable come very close to the exhaust

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The heat wrap is self adhesive but have chucked a few cable ties on for now which I will replace with wire later

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Edited by GTREA
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Next up was the steering and front suspension.

Because I lowered the rack 50mm, and the car has 40mm lowered Spax springs which cannot hold the weight of the car (note the first 4 coils below!)  its probably safe to assume there's been a total of a 100mm front end drop!

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The steering just cant cope, Tie rod angles and bump steer is massive, just push down on the front of the car and the wheel turns, there is no adjustment left on the tie rods or ends, i cannot even push the car without assistance as the wheels just fight each other

Its been giving me massive headaches as, I think about steering and how im going to get this thing licensed more than Boobs...and that's a lot!

1. I cannot fit modified Tie rod ends legally
2. I cannot modify the hub legally
3. The car has to be engineered and licensed
4. To be licensed the car can only have 2 degrees of bump steer
5. I can fix the problem after its licensed easy enough with said modified tie rod ends

So to get it licensed I have raised the car back up using some VW Amarok springs I had lying around :)

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Not ideal but its done the job, its given me a 75mm height increase and pretty much eliminated all my steering issues

Tie rods are now flat as they used to be.

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And I can still actually bounce the car, long term I thing I will run Holden Torana V8 springs if the measurements are correct

Ive never been so excited for a ride height increase!

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Doesn't look tooooo bad.

Anyway heres a few shots from when I washed it on sunday, still requires a lot of work visually and mechanically but getting there.

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Edited by GTREA
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  • 4 weeks later...

August update

First things first, electric aerial big success, even if i never get this car running I feel because of the aerial alone the build will be seen as a success ;)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lenb-bnq0Ec&feature=youtu.be

Its operated off the standard original radio, and that is the Radios only function now.

Now the boring stuff, Fan belt.

No PS or AC mean a new fan belt needing sourcing, so I did what anyone would do and copied a guy from another forum and his 1UZ Bluebird build and ordered a 6PK780 fan belt from Europe

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In mounting however, I found a very simple solution, by chance, by using an L shaped bracket from my spare motor, which fitted perfectly to the original alternator lower mount and the spacing it gives provides perfect tension

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Now I moved into my wiring phase

Interior light never worked, this would be why

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Cleaned up it all up and added an LED Bulb

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Wired in the new GPS Speedo, this again is an easy option for the problem of Manta mechanical speedo drive and  Toyota digital speedo output, few wires to connect, and the 3 3/8" dial fits perfectly into the Manta dash, no cutting involved.

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Has lots of cool features as well, such as 0-100 and 400m times

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Now to wiring in the ECU

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I based my wiring setup on this information, its a wiring diagram to get a 1UZ running, but to suit a Toyota crown, not a SC400 like mine, so wire colours don't match, but the principal is the same and with the SC400 Pinout printout I also have I set to it

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Tracing and marking wires

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A bit messy but all hooked in

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Relays mounted on a bracket which is mounted to ECU to save space, I also used a separate fuse box

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This is where I am at now, and I have wired in an ECU check light which comes on with ignition, but wont crank and fuel pump wont power up?

Not happy there was no sign of life, as id spent all weekend doing it  :(

I will have a think.....do some googling.......and revisit it later

Edited by GTREA
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Electrical stuff can be a nightmare sometimes.

When I did my V6 conversion in my A, The engine would start, but only run for a few seconds and then shut down, took me 2 weeks and lots of investigation to find out that the ECU has a built in immobilizer :o.

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Yeah I love and hate the wiring, I enjoy the soldering and heat shrinking, but hate the dead legs I get from sitting next to the car for hours and hate it even more when I have spent hours on something and it does not work!!@!@@@

Then again when I'm feeling down now I can just watch that aerial go up n down a few times and all is well again :) 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Yeah I still try and do a little bit every day Derek, slowly but surely the list of 'Jobs to do' is coming down.

I wouldn't say the best ever Gary :) it certainly is not a Retro Power build, its more of an eBay powered build, but it is breaking new ground I guess and for something I have done pretty much by myself in my garage, and as much as it pisses me off sometimes, i'm pretty happy with it, thankyou ;)

Here's a little more progress over the last week

Made a little radiator tray, its painted in ute tray liner, as is the motor, looks a little funny in this shot, but in real life gives it a bit of a Factory plastic'y Retro'y look, when I pull the radiator out next I will paint the tanks on that black to.

Basically I only want black and alloy as the two main colours in the engine bay, nothing standing out bright or fancy,

 

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New Hella Horn, looks similar to factory one....the original one still worked but was to badly weathered to refit

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New horn fitted as are the twin thermos, thermos are triggered from 1UZ temp sensor and activate at 70 degrees, used my heat gun to see if they worked...which they did :)

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General tidy up of under bonnet wiring, got the under bonnet light to work again, not sure how it was wired but now it operates off the door switch and the 'pulling out' head light switch.

Old washer bottle was to broken up badly so had to source another, and replaced all the original horrible looking 'Murky yellow' washer hoses with black 4.5mm rubber hose


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I also fitted a Blue LED to the under bonnet and boot lights :)

Yeah yeah I know what your thinking , but at night it does set the Blue of the engine bay off nicely :P ......anyway lets move on!

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This arrived, my Wilwood master cylinder and remote reservoir kit.

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I am running Holden Commodore VT 300mm front discs and Calipers, they use a 1"bore Master cylinder from the factory, so I copied that for these brakes, hopefully it will be ok.

The master cylinder is now bolted straight to the firewall and moved over a touch to clear the rocker cover and the remote Booster will be fitted under the drivers side guard.

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This was another job I thought may cause me a massive headache and may not fit, but I knocked it over in a few hours!

Brake pedal travel feels fine

(Brake lines and reservoirs still to be fitted)

I do need to source a new Brake pedal Clevis though as the Manta one has the wrong thread, I need a Clevis with 5/16 24 thread, which sounds easy but I also need it to have a 8mm jaw, and 40mm depth to clear the pedal...haven't found one yet that quite matches all those criteria!


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Also fitted new T5 LEDs to the dash to brighten it up, I used these ones as they have LEDs in every direction, don't buy the ones with one LED on the end as the spread of light they give is not good

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As for the ECU and the wiring, I have it sussed now, the fuel pump is running , and although the car does not turn over on the key yet, the starter solenoid does click, and after putting 12v straight to the starter motor trigger wire and still nothing happening I went to my spare motor to test a few theories.

I hooked the big starter 12v+ wire to the battery and put 12v power to the trigger wire on that motor and nothing happened, then I noticed the Earth was badly corroded, as soon as I earthed it better, put 12v to the trigger wire it turned over, so I would say its the same issue with the motor in the car....problem being of course its an absolute b*stard getting to the starter in the car as its situated right in the valley of the V8, everything has to come off .

Thats this weekends job!

Edited by GTREA
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  • 2 weeks later...

September update:

Pretty boring stuff here, but it all has to be done!

The sum total I will be spending on a Diff that could last 5 minutes or 5 years

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Some trim work

Before:

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After:

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Stereo install

6"  rear speakers, on Spacers, so no holes cut in Parcel shelf

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Front in-dash speaker was a strange 6"x3" sizing, so I just used a spare 4.5" speaker I had which I spaced down so as it had room to move

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Powered by a Bluetooth Amplifier mounted under the seat

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Obviously sound quality wasn't a priority, not cutting holes and keeping original head unit was.
A real easy install with just a constant 12v wire, an ignition 12v trigger and just speaker wires needing connecting, the Amp cost about US$44

Video of how it works / sounds here

Turning the original head unit on and off now does this

All the interior refitted

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Sorted the wiring non start issue, but cant run car yet because I don't have a sump on it!

All ECU wiring now tidied up, hopefully car runs OK so I don't have to open it all up again!  I also added a (Blue) ECU power light to kick panel :)

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Next job is tidying up engine bay

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Things left to do include

Buy and Fit remote booster under drivers side guard
Buy and fit Brake lines to front of car
Buy and fit Trans cooler lines
Source, buy and fit trim clips for various bump strips and chrome strips around body work (If anyone has any of the large ones for the black bump strips, i need 4, or the small ones for the chrome striping, I need around 8 please pm me as the German ebay site I used previous no longer stocks...apparently)
Source, buy and fit new steering rack Gator as mine are split (Best place to buy?)
Paint radiator tanks Black
Fit remote brake reservoirs
Remove front engine cross member and have welded / tidied up and refit
Get engineers approval
License
Enjoy :)

Edit: framed this for dad for Father's day 

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Edited by GTREA
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  • 3 weeks later...

Another small progress update

First off, as part of 'Operation factory engine bay' I painted the radiator from its shiny polished alloy to satin black

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Heaps more boring, and better

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Transmission cooler lines fitted...please note no purple or blue anodized fittings or braided hose used....only black!

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Also note the lack of sump still, which is the only thing stopping me from starting this thing :(

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Another little thing that needed doing, the exhaust temp sensor wiring has always been hanging down low, now attached to gearbox inspection plate

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Turns out I don't need the sensors to run the engine, but there in there now so I ran some fake wiring up to the harness so it looks better for the license inspection folk.....

Mounted the Transmission level dipstick, required me making a new mount as the 1UZ one was never going to work in the confined space I have.

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Also note in background ECU wiring harness which im currently tidying up, I cut the hard plastic cover from it as it was sitting up way to high, I need something more flexible, so I can bend it down and around out of sight more....but what do I use?....its 40mm in diameter, and I cannot slide something over it, and I cannot find split convoluted tubing in a size that big....suggestions?

Action shot!....filing Radiator with water...exciting...the trans is also filled....no leaks so far

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Tidied up the Gearbox cross member which was bare steel and not boxed in previously....my first real welding!....I think it looked great....right up until I put it in the vice before the paint had fully dried and left the mark you can now see :sad:

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I might just add whilst removing the gearbox cross member the captive nut broke loose from the bodywork, which is inaccessible...F#@#$&&%$K!....which brought about my 2nd bit of welding, I bought a 12mm bolt, screwed it into the now bare hole, cut the head off and welded in place.

Next up was another part of the 2 steps forward 1 step back process which has been this build.....I never realized up until now the car never locked in position when in 'P'....it could still be pushed!?

Turns out I had the cable pushing the selector the wrong way so 'P' was '1' and vice versa.

Now in fairness to me the car has been on axle stands 90% of the time, and the mount that adapts this cable to the sump only logically fits in one place as seen below so I presumed it was correct

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But the cable and mount must suit a shifter where the cable attaches to the shifter above the pivot point so the cable pulls rather than pushes the selector

Anyway I made up a mounting plate to the bell housing and mounted the bracket to that.

I also added a 'Skoda' sticker I had lying around, which should impress that humorous bunch at the licensing centre no end.....

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Another gratuitous glamour shot as it was outside again....I think its going to look fantastic when the ride height is sorted again :yup:

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Next up I am supporting the engine and dropping the whole front end out to have, blasted, strengthened, tidied up and painted black (I don't like the alloy suspension arm look it has now it didn't work as envisaged)

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I actually initially wanted my sentimental favorite colour, the Gold, on a Manta, but really love this blue on them...biased...perhaps haha 

Sometimes I wish I'd just retained the standard engine as id have been driving this thing around 12 months ago if I had :(

 

(Abliet slowly) 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Oddly enough, a 1993 Opel Senator B was recently bought from a Christchurch, NZ friend by a Perth motor museum and shipped over there. Not sure why they were looking for one, but looks like someone considers it was worthwhile shipping that distance. Should have bought the Senator myself as I had the chance, but was not really looking for one at the time.

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You actually seem to have greater freedom to make changes in Aus than we do in NZ! When my Monza GSE was flagged for having rusty rear suspension on entry to NZ, I had all sorts of issues. Essentially, the NZTA rule book said "Thou shalt not weld suspension parts" and that is what they were sticking to, in spite of the Monza having fabricated suspension parts rather than cast parts like the Jap cars for which the rule was originally written!  They just could not see the illogicality of their rule!

I shipped over one new one that I bought from Germany at great expense with postage, and could not find it's twin, so finally got someone in NZTA who said ok if the part was 'subjected to non-destructive testing' -  What the F@*K does that mean? The local companies had no clue, and when one said leave the old/new parts with him to see what he could do, I had to grab the straw with both hands. Six months later, after several visits, he had done absolutely nothing, so told him to stop wasting my time and took parts back.

What I finally did was to purchase a NZ-new Monza that I found in Auckland, swap over the trailing arms from that which were in reasonable condition, and then put the repaired parts onto the NZ-new Monza which I then was able to resell. There was no problem with this since the NZ-new Monza already had MOT and no pedantic old women looking at the rule book! With the UK one, the repair certifier then wanted to force me to get the spring seat welded all round, when at factory it is welded in three spots around the nipple, but I heard he didn't want to be the one to tell me the factory standard was not good enough!

Shows what cretins they are over here. I've been dreading having to put other cars through the process, and hoping this guy will retire sooner rather than later! The repair shop he was prepared to work with, was finding every possible issue they could justify for extra repairs, saying they needed to maintain his confidence in them to pinpoint any issues! Yeah, like heck, I said, at my cost! They managed to stick in some extra work on the chassis rails anyway :(

No way all the work you have done would be allowed in NZ without getting it signed off first by these repair certifiers!  Even if putting through a low volume certifier for the changes, any rust repairs would have to be signed off first by the repair certifier!

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Edited by opelnz
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I am not looking forward to the licensing process to be honest, I already have applied and got approval for this engine conversion, but the inspection guys generally are antagonizing assholes, who just try and get a rise out of you, and look for any reason to fail you.

I took my as new Opel Insignia OPC over the pits last year as I had it shipped over from Melbourne.

Inspector walks over to my car

I say "Hello"

He ignores me and just says "pop the bonnet"

Spends a few minutes getting some details under there, then says

" There's nothing flash about these cars mate, there not flash cars at all"

Me " ?, I didn't say it was flash...."

Him " yep, just a Daewoo these things, don't know why you'd go to the trouble of of shipping one interstate"

So hard to bite my tongue!!!

 

 

Oh yeah I cannot wait to take the Manta over.........................................

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  • 1 month later...

So, progress be slow on my Manta, but things have still happened :thumbup

Terminal bus bar to tidy up all the new found wiring associated with an injected engine!

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I was owed a favor so had a few chips,scratches and pressure dents fixed I had made in the course of this build, plus a whole car buff.

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Looks pretty now!

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Then it was straight up in the air to drop the front end out.

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Now its off to have engine mounts boxed, the hack thru the cross member, and steering rack relocation tidied up

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Should have that completed early next year.

whilst that's off being done I think I will mount the remote brake booster and front brake lines to make life easier for myself for a change :)

 

 

Edited by GTREA
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  • 2 months later...

Still messing about with odd little jobs while front ends still out.

All original bump strips are back on, I resorted to a really good 3M double sided tape for the job....better not blow off!

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Added Gas struts to the bonnet, a very simple bolt on job, using Holden Commodore struts (equivalent to Omega)

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Mounted a VH40 remote brake booster under the front drivers side guard, there's still another bracket required which attaches to the bumper mount on chassis rail but...as is the case when you work on cars my drill died when drilling the last hole, so I rage quit for the day!

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Last little job was fitting some brand new brass guard bolts from VB - VL Holden Commodore, which are identical to the Mantas and gives the engine bay a bit of a lift

although in the pics the engine bay is covered in white dust from when it was in the panel shop having some work done...as is the interior...is it so hard to wind the windows up! :angry:

I also added (just resting there atm) a period Holden 'Beware of the Fan' sticker, this sticker is found on all Holdens from this period over here, and as this car is all about the 'Illusion of originality' I thought it would be fitting for the locals......plus you do have to beware of the fans as i've wired them to constant 12v so they may start up without warning...safety first!

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Down the back I also added a Computer wiring cabling sleeve to cover over the large engine wiring harness, its velcro so can be wrapped around large harness's...will see how it goes.

Edited by GTREA
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