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Early 1800 coupe restoration


Kevin Abbott
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On 13/10/2017 at 20:40, Monaco Blue said:

Ah, but it's a 'labour of love'. ;)

Just as well it's a hobby, there would be a lot less Manta's running around today if it wasn't for folks like yourselves (and others) doing all the hard work restoring them in their spare time. 

As Mantaman says, values do appear to be on the way up but hopefully they don't get too expensive (say £10K) which would put them out of reach for the average Manta fan. 16V Astra GTE's are heading the same way with mint ones already worth that and more. 

A good manta coupe is now worth 10k and the values are only going one way. This pulls the value of the hatch up too 

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13 hours ago, Kevin Abbott said:

A good manta coupe is now worth 10k and the values are only going one way. This pulls the value of the hatch up too 

Talking of hatches, I wonder if this one has sold yet. Just £15K. It does look brand new.

http://borderreivers.co/portfolio/opal-manta-berlinetta-1-8s/

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More work completed. 

Engine painted. 

Engine bay and front end flatted and a small dent fixed on the front panel

painted in max meyer base and a 2 k lacquer. 

Engine parts removed and de rusted then painted standard black or silver 

waiting on stem seals as I pushed too hard putting the new ones on and tore them. 16v ones tried and won’t fit. 

Waiting on a sump gasket so we can check the crank etc. 

Brakes going to be next once the crossmember is back in. 

All new parts going to be used. 

Photo dump 

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On 13/10/2017 at 17:46, MANTAMAN said:

It's been a long time coming but Manta values have finally caught up with other contempory Cars, Though not quite the silly money two door Frod Scrotes make.

Whoever gets their hands one this when it's sold will have rock solid Manta that will outlast them.

Cheers Ian. 

I really enjoy saving them. It’s really really hard work and my Brother takes the piss when I remove more and more parts as you can’t use shabby parts against new ones. 

Quick flip, my arse :D

I really like this coupe. Rare as white rocking horse poo. Everyone has an exclusive or 400 rep. Try finding an original 1800 coupe 

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Time to treat all the welding work to a nice new coating of upol stone chip anta corrosion treatment 

A trip to Brakes to get the brakes left me £277 lighter !

new poly bushes into the lower arms. New discs  I get the clutch back on Thursday 

finding interior fabric to re trim it is proving difficult 

it’s now snowballed as everything we put back on now is being cleaned and painted. 

Single nuts and boots and washers. 

It needs new tyres too as it looks to be on its 83 originals :D

i need to get into my lights storage and pick a mint set of headlights out. I presume these would of had Hella?

many more late night to come. What’s a weekend without working on a manta ?

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It's looking good! You are certainly putting some graft into this one!

Re the seats, it might almost be easier to try and source another set of seats rather than re-upholster the originals. There are probably quite a few stashed away after being replaced with GTE Recaro's!

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Kevin Abbott said:

How can you tell? It was quite clean when i split it

The bores still have cross hatching marks too

An 1800 head not skimmed would have each cylinder almost round. It's not deep. I will see if I have a picture.  Hang on.

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This is a c20ne head but the 18s head looks visually similar. You can see the part i mean that isn't deep that disappears the more you skim the head.

It's not a bad thing as it raises the compression. As long as it hasn't had to much removed. 

 

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5 minutes ago, Snowy said:

This is a c20ne head but the 18s head looks visually similar. You can see the part i mean that isn't deep that disappears the more you skim the head.

It's not a bad thing as it raises the compression. As long as it hasn't had to much removed. 

 

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Ah, I thought the valves looked bigger. Thanks for the pic. I wouldn't know how to measure the compression ratio on a skimmed head

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7 minutes ago, Kevin Abbott said:

Ah, I thought the valves looked bigger. Thanks for the pic. I wouldn't know how to measure the compression ratio on a skimmed head

Simple question is did it run properly before you took it apart. If so don't worry about it. 

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Had a poke about on the world-inter-wide-web-network and it seems the compression ratio for a 1.8L Family 2 non-injection engine is 9.2 - 1, hopefully that head skim hasn't raised it too much, if its 10 - 1 or under it should be possible to get away with it provided the ignition timing is spot on and the carb is set up just right, quality high octain fuel would help.

 When you first get it back together take a 'youngster' out with you and ask them if they can hear a knocking or tinkling noise when its pulling hard at low revs in a high gear, as we become old gits we loose our high fequency hearing but teenagers are at their peak of their auditory powers, i was just able to hear Pipistrelle Bats as a teenager but not now and i would probably miss a car engine 'pinky' these days.

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44 minutes ago, MANTAMAN said:

i was just able to hear Pipistrelle Bats as a teenager but not now

Er.......... FPMSL Ian for 4cks sake man......:lol::lol::D it's like  "Hmm do the bats need feeding? they seem awfully quiet tonight" you are the only person I know who has ever even heard a fking bat lol you just made my night even better.

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No its true Clive, look it up on the internet, The echo location calls can't be heard but other squeaking sounds are just within the range of the human ear before age starts deteriating the ability to pick up high frequency sound.

 Billing was a good place for bats, there were Daubenton Bats flying around in the evening, these pluck insects off the suface of water which Billing had plenty of, sometimes far too much of.....

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Not much progress due to hunting parts and having the wrong ones delivered. Andy moving into a new house and a uni assignment for me put us back. 

Parts bill keeps going up though :lol:

boot edge painted as some bubbles were coming through. 

More paint required as the bonnet and wings need painting. 

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Some more progress made. 

Wiring loom had a crappy alarm butchered in so I took that out. Honestly, it was wires wrapped into wires. I probably have the receipt for it in the file.

loom laid out and rough additions and bodged wiring fixed

all engine bay earths to be replaced. 

All new brake pipes. 

Painrted servo and MS

pipes p clipped into place 

plenty of parts painted and replaced

bolts cleaned

nuts cleaned

new self tappers in black and zinc

pressure valve cleaned and polished 

new volt reg gauge in

new led dash lights in all switches and dash

engine bay sticker added from the club and other graphics from the club to go on (many thanks to Paul B )

 vent mesh painted

block back into engine bay

head on

new gaskets all over

new water pump

washer bottle cleaned and bracket painted 

sump off . Cleaned out. New gasket. Back on. 

 I found that the centaur had solid glass guides in the back edges of the doors so I removed them. Took them to my Laboratory and I made a silicone mould  using them as templates, and used that to cast new ones in acrylic . Then autoclaved them to set them without porosity and trimmed them up  then painted them satin black  

they fit very well  

 

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This is an awesome rebuild of a very rare early 1.8 berlinetta coupe. No corners have been cut & when it comes up for sale it will be a great car for someone.

There is always a temptation to add skirts, 16V it & rip out the "burnt orange" interior but its the originality that makes this car interesting & unique. I am not anti modding by the way :)

I would love to see this car at MH 2018

 

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19 hours ago, Kevin Abbott said:

nuts cleaned

new self tappers in

Oy ! this is a family show !

seriously, this restoration is looking good, they way your going about the details it is on course for a trophy at R'brugh next year.

One thing that has always puzzled me is the shape of the inner wing pressings on a Manta, near the coil looks like it was intended to have something mounted there, the 'dimples' are probably to locate a drill to open up fastener holes, but Mantas L/H and R/H drive with all engine variations have only had the coil on that side with exception of air-con equiped Mantas that had the battery behind the headlight, still not using the shaped pressed areas on the inner wing.

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