i240 Dan Posted January 31, 2006 Share Posted January 31, 2006 (edited) This was what the car looked like when I got it 17/02/03. It was the third Manta my father had owned during my life time hence my love for them. During the summer of 2003 I set about modifying the car externally as I had always loved the look of the 400 arches on the manta. After doing some research into body kits I discovered that the 400 kits which were available were of poor quality and needed a lot of work which I did not posses the skill to do. After dicovering that RallyTech who make an i240 arch kit was literally 100m from my front door and that the kit needed very little work to fit I set my heart on it. With the help of Trevor and the others at RallyTech the kit was fitted to the car. It took me a long while to source wheels which would be the correct offset as I couldn't afford to fork out for a new set. After about six months of searching I had resigned myself to buying a new set of wheels when out of the blue I received an email from a chap who had the perfect wheels which had been fitted to his i240R. Unfortunately he lived in Ireland. Later that day I was telling teh story to Trevor only to find out that the chap was a good friend of his and was actually coming over to RallyTech the next day. So I actually managed to get the wheels delivered to my house. Couldn't believe my luck. The car then ran like this untill september 2006 when I decided it was time to take the car off the road and give it the restoration it deserved. Dan Member: 5612 Edited February 20, 2011 by i240 Dan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunman Posted January 31, 2006 Author Share Posted January 31, 2006 All sounds and looks very familiar! Good to see someone else dealing with the tin worm. Keep at it, when you see some of the mint cars in the club it shows what can be done with some work! Lovely car by the way, just love white coupes![^] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i240 Dan Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 Finally got the engine out, the unit space i rent is pretty boxed in so it was a real pain to try and get a hoist to the car, managed to borrow a foldable one off trev and had the engine out in less than ten mins on my own so was well impressed with myself for my first time. It's a steep learing curve this car restoration bussiness but I'll get there in the end. Dan Member: 5612 http://www.mantaclub.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6321 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 25, 2006 Share Posted March 25, 2006 Are you gonna do thw whole job yourself Dan ? Pete M OMOC 5885 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunman Posted March 25, 2006 Author Share Posted March 25, 2006 those sills look like they'll be awkward. that inner piece thats rotten is the bottom of your seatbelt mount! mine was gone as well and i've just finished repairing both sides. Its worth taking your time and doing them right. If what I say can be taken in 2 ways and one of those ways get you angry....I meant it the other way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i240 Dan Posted March 26, 2006 Share Posted March 26, 2006 I'm planning on doing as much as I can on my own, may well find I'm getting way out of my depth but you only live once and there is no shortage of people I can call upon for advice when I need it. The next job is to get the front chassis rail straight then I can get it on a spit and begin scraping the gunk off from underneath the car. It will be a lot easier to get at those rust holes with the shell on its side. I've not looked too deeply into the rust holes yet although I did have a poke at the passenger well where I had a garage weld it up a couple of years ago. Seems they thought ti would be fine to weld a plate over the rust, one inside and one outside the car. I was able to pull the plates off with my hand. [] See what you mean from the photo gunman, I'll have a better look next time I'm at the car. Dan Member: 5612 http://www.mantaclub.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6321 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Autoscum101 Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 Nice Manta! Not too much rust either by the looks of it, that sill might be awkward though like Gunman says. Mine was gone too on the offside below the seatbelt mounting, inner and outer, could see the ground from inside the car. Funny too because the other side was completely solid. Just need to take your time with it and do it all properly, then you'll have the satisfaction of knowing you have a solid Manta, no mean feat! The 400 kit looks awesome, good luck with it all Tommm 1984 GT/E Coupe, 1978 Cavalier, 1972 Firenza. OMOC # 5875 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 IIRC that's not actually a 400 quite. it's not quite as wide, but has the same look. Probably do the same if I take mine off the road. Pete M OMOC 5885 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted March 27, 2006 Share Posted March 27, 2006 nice lookin car dan might see you this friday if i can fix the 405 in time http://www.sitevendor.net/mysite2530/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie Posted March 28, 2006 Share Posted March 28, 2006 Nice car Dan looks like you are going to be busy with the scrapper and welder for a while Dan but the car dont look to bad, It,s all worth it in the end, so i keep telling myself [] http://www.mantamagic.com OMOC N,Ireland Rep id="blue"> OMOC 5706 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i240 Dan Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 Thought I would put my new grinder to work and get the paint off the drivers chassis rail to inspect the area arround the dent which I knew was there to see how easy it was going to be to bend it back into shape. Well after two hours of grinding through filler with a wire wheel I found this. I would have loved to have been there at the point when the person who performed this botch repair stood back looked at and said to himself, "Ah finshed, looks good as new" [}][V] Right before he used three tubs of pink filler to cover all four sides of the chasssis rail and the whole area of the inner wing shown as bare metal in the picture. Apart from the dent which I knew about there was another dent further back, about two inches forward of the sub frame top mounting hole with a big crack in it. There has also been some very bad welding done to it to secure the wing back to the chassis rail after I presume, a good hammering. You can also see in the above picture that the air filter box mount had been repositioned onto the wing using three screws, seen top left. Having looked at some pictures I have of martins pickup when it still had the mounts but no air box I can see that this mount should infact be on top of the rail, not the wing. You can still see the grinder marks on the top of the rail where the mount was cut from. That explains why my airbox was too high and rubbed on the underside of my 400 bonnet. I'm hoping that I will be able to get hold of a new front chassis rail section and also a new inner wing. The lower part of the rail going round the footwell seems to be ok apart from a small ripple 2 inches in front of the lower sub frame mounting point. Having measured the dimensions of the front of the car I think that at the point where the subframe top bolt goes through the chassis rail it is between 10-15mm too high. It is way off at the front of the car, about 25-30mm. This all explains why my car has always had a much smaller gap between the arch and the tyre on the drivers side. I did know that the car had had a smack in it's lifetime as is was out of shape and I had found the dent, but I had no idea it was that bad simply because it had been covered over with up to 1/2 inch of filler. Can't understand why somone would think it had been an acceptable repair. [xx(] Dan Member: 5612 http://www.mantaclub.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6321 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted April 9, 2006 Share Posted April 9, 2006 Blimey Dan. That is a hell of a crease in the chassis rail there, I would have thought that you should be able to pick up that section relatively easily as they don't normally rot there. Very surprising because your car always looked so damn straight, would never have thought it had a crease like that in the rail. My red b has a slight crease due too a light bump I had, and this always seems to make lining the bumper up a bit of a bast, so to see yours with a 240 kit must have been a bit of a task to get lined up nicely http://www.customsolutions.me.uk Looks like meat is back on the menu boys Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i240 Dan Posted April 11, 2006 Share Posted April 11, 2006 Funny thing is, the idiot who has performed this repair has put a new front pannel on the car, which is why it's in such good nick. The pannels fit pretty well as the external shape of the car is not far off what it should be. I have emailed a couple of people about a chassis rail section and the person I gave away my old engine to this weekend said there might be a spare inner wing in his stock pile so here's hoping. Dan Member: 5612 http://www.mantaclub.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6321 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rab Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Awe thi best wi yur repairs great photo, Bonny motor. Do you know how thi crease got in leg. Scottish Rep /OMOC Mem.2094 Opel Team Scotland. `ScottishClanManta` Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i240 Dan Posted April 15, 2006 Share Posted April 15, 2006 I think that the chap who owned the car before my dad and then me had only had the car a short while. This leads me to think that he bought it as an accident damaged car and did a bit of a garage botch job and sold it on to my dad. The front pannel is in good condition as it must have been replaced after the smack. If you look down from above the front pannel you can see that the crossmember is not straight with the front pannel. It angles backward towards the drivers side. Hopefully I will be able to get it sorted as most of the deformation has orrured forward of the suspension so although I'm not an expert with driving I don't think that it has affected the handling of the car. Not going to be a simple cut and bend as I had thought though. Dan Member: 5612 http://www.mantaclub.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6321 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mello yello Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 Hi Dan will this help you out? if so just pick it up. Driving the one and only 400 pickup!!even in the WET!!!!! member no 1148 mantapickup@yahoo.co.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 16, 2006 Share Posted April 16, 2006 if that was my engine bay there would be a feckin' hole where the front panel meets the inner arch.......[] Pete M OMOC 5885 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i240 Dan Posted May 12, 2006 Share Posted May 12, 2006 I have been putting a bit more time into my car now that it's not as dark and cold in the unit. Now I've got my SIP Migmate 130 Turbo, an auto darkening helmet and gauntlets I'm ready to get trigger happy [8D] This is how the car looks at the moment. There are a couple of places to patch while I've got good access to them. The washer bottle tray and where the cross member had been badly welded back on. So it's been out with the old and will be in with the new, well new to me at least, cheers Martin. Dan Member: 5612 http://www.mantaclub.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6321 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunman Posted May 12, 2006 Author Share Posted May 12, 2006 Now thats a serious operation! good luck. If what I say can be taken in 2 ways and one of those ways get you angry....I meant it the other way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted May 13, 2006 Share Posted May 13, 2006 How's the cross member you removed? If it was like mine you need a new one. Opel Classic Parts. Very helpfull. Try their ebay shop http://stores.ebay.co.uk/Opel-Classic-Part...3QQftidZ2QQtZkm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i240 Dan Posted May 14, 2006 Share Posted May 14, 2006 It's in about three large and twenty small pieces, didn't want to keep it as I wasn't sure whether it was completely straight. Have alreay had a new one delivered to me from OCP after seeing your post when you bought yours a while ago Snowy. Cheers Dan Member: 5612 http://www.mantaclub.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6321 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
i240 Dan Posted August 12, 2006 Share Posted August 12, 2006 Wow it's been a while since I touched the car. Just got back from a training course I went to straight from Billing. Had a good day friday and managed to weld in the plates I made for the footwell vertical pannels and the washer tray. Before During I'll get some pics of them welded in when I'm next down, I've got the day off Wednesday so probably then. I am quite impressed with my welding, think I'm starting to get the hang of it. My next problem is how to force the chassis rail down. It's easy to move it sideways as you've got something to jack off but the roof isn't that low in the unit to jack down off! [xx(] i240 Dan Member: 5612 http://www.mantaclub.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6321 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pat Posted August 12, 2006 Share Posted August 12, 2006 mate of mine used to use a standard manta jack bolted to the floor with a suitable shaped insert welded to the insert section for that[] i wish you luck with this manta mission should you choose to accept it omoc member 2126 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted August 12, 2006 Share Posted August 12, 2006 Do you not need to brace the front end, given you've removed the front panel, cross member etc ? (I'm not having a dig, I just thought that's how these things work) [] OMOC 5885 Steer from the Rear Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gunman Posted August 12, 2006 Author Share Posted August 12, 2006 bloomin eck man! lot of fabrication there. Problem I'm having not is that because mine had so many plates it is difficult getting it all prep'd for a mint finish. Yours will be a lot of work indeed. as regards the bracing, i would think it will be ok as the is now no weight on the front corner. Its good to see theres someone else out there as mad as me[] If what I say can be taken in 2 ways and one of those ways get you angry....I meant it the other way Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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