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F reg 1988 Exclusive coupe restoration


Kevin Abbott
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Delivered today from Simon is the latest in the Abbott's restorations 

Last used in 1998 and it's been to France once judging by the 2 francs I found in the ash tray and the P&O stena line rear view mirror tag.

It has been used as a cat shed for a long time but it's a very nice complete car, lots of spiders webs and it looked like a rat was living in the engine bay

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A trip over to the industrial wash and a gallon of TFR

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Looking better already

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A bit of petrol into the intake and it runs like a dream, nice and quiet, oil looks good

 

 

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The size of that battery you've found to start it, that would get you 5 miles on the starter motor alone !!

That newspaper addvert... Brilliant, just gotta wonder why something like this from the year the car was made stayed inside it? was this where the Manta was bought from and someone kept the newspaper add ??

Concours restoration, you'll have use young Ormerod's Manta for referance, but it is a pity there isn't a proper concours at Billing anymore.

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Time to strip it down.

Found a person who didn't believe in the project so he was dealt with ' casino' style.

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Boot cleaned out

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Wings off, bonnet in the skip

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Interior out, lots of spiders:o

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All bolts and fixings individually bagged and labelled 

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It's an F reg exclusive so it's got rust issues.. here we go.. hold tight..

 

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Engine and box out, crossmember and suspension out, exhaust off, prop off

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As F reg exclusives go that doesn't look too bad, although i'm sure it will get worse as you dig into it (don't they all)

Hows the roof :ph34r:

Yea I thought it would be worse than it is, blaster coming tomorrow to hit it so it won't weigh much once he's finished with it:lol:

The roof looks ok, I'm going to remove all the foam and treat it all.

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Or I may do the hatch roof swap to make it non sunroof

More stripping. It took 7 hours to take the glass and trim off without damaging anything 

 

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The GT is being blasted on friday too so it's slowing us down as we are stripping that too. engine and box looks good from it

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Found a turbo in a box so tried it for size, fits just like a courtney conversion

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  • 2 weeks later...

Bit more time on the Exclusive, hunting for rust. 

It wasn't hard to find

Quality previous repairs such as skin sills brazed over the original rusty ones and silicon to seal the edges causing more damage than if just left alone due to the acetic acid eating the metal away.

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Outer sill removed, some decent steel remains

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Bad at the rear, not seen many rust the jacking point off

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Chassis rails are special and have a lovely old repair

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' A ' post made from filler, quality job

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Removing the outer

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inner still good and strong, I will be boxing this to the jacking points

 

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Rear chassis and spring hangers very good

 

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Edited by Kevin Abbott
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No, use Hobbyweld, no rent on the bottles.

Yes that is one heck of a daunting sight, perhaps this will take 26 weeks......

This baby is going to use up a full six foot tall industrial bottle:lol:

Time to cut out the rot, there is some good steel in the car so I went hunting for it.

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Made a start tying in all the complicated bottom of the 'B' post area, a favorite point for mantas to rot and easy to hide dodgy repair work if I wanted to. I don't;)

 

Outer sill removed and good steel appeared

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Started to trim the outer to give me access and then measured up the rear most panel and marked on tape.

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I now have my own restoration corner in the unit so I can make good repair panels up.

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New rear most part made and butt welded into place keeping an eye on the levels and angles, copper weld through paint added over the zintech steel.

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Welds not ground down to make pretty as you don't see them and it keeps the panel strong. Weld penetration checked around the back before a new jacking point cut from 5mm plate welded in

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Middle part normally only connects to the bottom of the sill with  a 5mm return so I've modified this area to make it stronger.

 

Panel making, the holes are to make sure I do not box any cavity in and therefore paint and cavity treatments can flow in and any water can be expelled

 

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Hammer hole over socket

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Copper paint, cleco into place and weld

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B post seat belt mount tied in too

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Repeat on other side

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Small repair to the middle chassis section the seats bolt to, added a proper hole so it will look ariginal when raptored

 

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Inner sill rot cut away and new panels held in place using intergrips and butt welded into place

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Edited by Kevin Abbott
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Time to cut out the rot, there is some good steel in the car so I went hunting for it.

And when you found it you put it in your pocket to use again later !!!

I do like you method for creating flanged holes, very clever and so simple, i shall be trying this method in the futrure.

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  • 2 months later...

A little update

Not had much time on  it due to the Mancona hatch getting some love and Jacks hatch hogging our time but I've been able to spend some money on parts and prep them ready to go on.

Panels arrived in raw steel! So I etch primed them and painted in POR 15.

Some panels to be replaced here.

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I made a jig from my GTE so I can use it to replace chassis on Mantas, looks like the ARB mounts aren't always in the same place,

Front end cut off and jig in place.

 

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A posts inner getting some Bilt Hamber treatment

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Inner sill repairs getting done.

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I made a jig from my GTE so I can use it to replace chassis on Mantas, looks like the ARB mounts aren't always in the same place,

Front end cut off and jig in place.

 

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No they aren't. I found that out too. The gearbox crossmember is the same, they are all slightly different. I only used the gearbox crossmember for reference.

Edited by Snowy
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