Guest Posted February 4, 2007 Share Posted February 4, 2007 Bit off the subject, first i would like to say i used to be a member 10 or more years ago , got the feeling then some members did not like mantas been modified then recently i took the car to a show at pickering as i entered the show i was greeted with a lot of interest from the north yorkshire omoc who asked me to put the car along side theirs which i did ,there was maybe 6 or 7 club members with cars and all but one of them made me feel welcome ,i think it was the guy who organised it [ black manta] , would like to say thanks to all the others i think one was called ian very helpful guy, the show was about 2 years ago .anyway back on the subject car looks awesome hotrodder ,by the way i did cut up a perfectly good manta and are sorry if this upsets anyone but i dont have any regrets far from it , thanks if you read this babble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h0tr0dder_uk Posted February 15, 2007 Author Share Posted February 15, 2007 just finished installing the master cylinder and servo and fabricating the brake pedal (still needs welds grinding etc) note - the car still has old paint on as its going to be media blasted once initial fabrication is completed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 WHOAH! do I love this thread/topic[][] This is possibly the most exciting Manta project I've ever seen, just so damn awesome and certainly inspiring me to take a certain route a few years down the line. I never did post a scan up of what I was trying to explain, but after talking to Simon P, he told me I would be wasting my time if I wanted the car to go round corners like the Manta currently does. HotRodder, any chance of an invite when this vehicle does its first run, pleeeeeeeease. Shiny bits http://www.customsolutions.me.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h0tr0dder_uk Posted February 16, 2007 Author Share Posted February 16, 2007 When building a car like this there are always compromises. I wanted a car that had the fastest acceleration i could find. Building a drag car means that it won't go round corners as well as a lot of tuned mantas but it will still handle suprisingly well. you have to remember the narrow front tyres and huge weight of the engine. If I had the money I would build another manta, with a new box section section chassis that was based on the original but running from front to rear. Then I would install a twin turbo LS1 engine (as they are aluminium). The wheels would be manta 400 10"x15" wheels tucked under the rear arches for a sleeper look (I actually had the wheels, an LT1 engine and a nice monaco blue exclusive, but sold them when this car came along) hopefully car will done this year - but don't think it will be anywhere near the quality of your car! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shug Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 Its this kind of insanity that inspired me to get a manta! Although I am making do with a 2.2 [:I] I would have happily sold you my wing, but then you would need an A series to attach it to. [] I never noticed before but it does seem more and more prevalant that some folk have issues. I guess it was just better hidden this time last year. Push out the jives, and bring in the love [:X] [] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ OMOC #5988 hmackay at opel-manta.com I hae a few guid reasons for drinkin’ And yin juist entered ma heid If a man canna’ drink while he’s livin’ Hoo the Hell can he drink when he’s deid! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 "If I had the money I would build another manta, with a new box section section chassis that was based on the original but running from front to rear. Then I would install a twin turbo LS1 engine (as they are aluminium). The wheels would be manta 400 10"x15" wheels tucked under the rear arches for a sleeper look" Could not agree more. But would like to see the difference in figures from a S/charged LS1 compared to a twin tubby, Got a feeling the turbo would be quite a lot higher due to no BHP draw from the engine. Was chatting to a chap with an S/C'd Monaro, just can't remember for the life of me how much extra power he was getting from the supercharger over the standard lump, have a feeling it was somewhere around 100BHP extra Shiny bits http://www.customsolutions.me.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 The idea of building a box section chassis would propbally be the easiest in the end, as you could have your whole engine and drive train setup and build the chassis to suit, like the project you are doing now its an awsome amount of work with countless headaches as many modified car owners know. If I had the money engine wise to start of with I would try and get as high up the ls range as possible ie the LS7 the spec is fantastic with titainum con rods and intake valves, dry sumped which is handy, so after the inital power of just over 500bhp, when a few more ££ was gathered up it could be boosted even more [] But as with all engines the cost of gaining more BHP esp under race conditons would be horrendious, the ls series are very hard to keep the bores round due to the head bolt pattern and under heavy use they probally need redone every 1000 to 1500 mile. They can be pushed to around 800 bhp but the cost of using forced induction and engine build could set someone back a cool 20k [] I had looked into an Ls for a project i,m thinking about but if i went down that route i think i would run the engine more or less standard spec but higher up the ls range. ps Just looked back on some of the posts and noticed you comment on the lack of replys to posts, The CLUB supports all Manta owners wether modified or not. I think its great to see someone build a car like that and when it zips down they track people will go wowwwwwwwwwwwww look at that manta go [:0][:0][:0] As with all clubs we have purists and modified owners and it takes both types to make the shows and topics interesting. http://www.mantamagic.com OMOC N,Ireland Rep id="blue"> OMOC 5706 Please dont shoot me it,s only an opinion not a demand Email robbie @ mantamagic.com (without the spaces) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czwh42 Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 Yes Opel2000, you're right about the extra bhp. The Monaro VXR 500 (supercharged LS2 engine) pushes out something like 498 bhp. As standard the VXR is around 403 bhp.[][] Honest Guv, it's common knowledge. Don't tell the Mrs I'm interested in getting my hands on either one ! [:I] Hotrodder, have you not seen the project Matt Wanless (aka Animal) is building ? It's very similar to what you've described but without the turbos on the LS1. He used to have a web site, but he was in the process of moving it and I'm not sure if it's up and going yet. [] -=< You can sleep in your car, but you can't race your house... >=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 AHA! Animal. I remember sitting down one evening and going through his thread on a forum he had designed (or whatever) he used to be on here a lot in his early days of his original idea of putting a 24V V6 Vauxhall lump into his car. My God was that a good read, started off with a simple idea which got more involved and ended up (last I saw) like HotRodders vehicle in this thread. 2 very similar vehicles indeed, always got the impression that at one point Animal was having no life whatsoever apart from building up his space frames until he got it right. Shiny bits http://www.customsolutions.me.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h0tr0dder_uk Posted February 17, 2007 Author Share Posted February 17, 2007 Clive regarding a chassis for a high powered manta - I had an idea a while ago that was sparked by your topic on producing new chassis rails out of 3mm steel. I thought of getting you to make the front chassis sections then run the box section straight to the back and have a custom rear chassis (available quite cheaply) to house a 4 bar or ladder bar rear. Put a simple roll cage in that ties into this and you have a chassis that will take a hell of a lot of power and you could still keep the car looking totally stock (and it would rot so quickly). use a chevy axle on the back and you have the right pcd for manta 400 wheels. [] am sure a man of your talents could do this very easily. most mantas i have seen have very thin / rusted chassis rails that would buckle if you put some decent horsepower through them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted February 17, 2007 Share Posted February 17, 2007 Well it's funny you should say that Hotrodder, because that is exactly what I had been recently thinking. The current shell I have, has the chassis rails rotted through totally under the floorpan. From there I thought, it would be better to just replace with box section steel rather than fart about repairing, or by building up U sections to put under the floor. Then I thought to just do away with the chassis rails altogether and fit new ones made from box section steel. Then I thought, do away with the inner wing area and the compromising space of the inner wing chassis rails which simply get in the way of an exhaust on a V8, so this would allow the fitment of a good off the shelf tubular header system. THEN a BBC cropped up not too far from me for approx £350. BUT I simply need to know and look into chassis building a bit more there are certain areas I'm really in the dark about. There just seem to be so many benefits of taking this route, hopefully next Saturday I'm going off to see an AMOC member by the name of Simon Peckham, he has been doing some similar work to the ideas you have posted up and along the same lines as I have been thinking of. I'm hoping that as soon as i see this sort of build in the metal everything will click into place. As the recent content of an email to a good friend of mine "Its at times like this that I knew I wish to God I hadn't thrown all those old Street Machine magazines out" I kid you not Hotrodder, I held onto these magazines for bloody years just for the chassis build info in them because I thought it would really come in handy one day, but dumped them approx 1 year ago [] Edit:- Also on the benefit side of creating the sort of chassis I have in mind is the use of GM hubs/stub axles from Chevy or similar, then couple that with some true US muscle style wheels, which in my opinion would look so damn ffing cool on a Manta such as Torque Thrusts or even the big chrome steel Rostyle type, I'll edit this post in a bit with some links for the benefit of other users who haven't got a clue what I'm on about. Wheel link 1 http://wheelvintiques.com/shopsite_sc/s ... age43.html These do it for me though, the sheer thought of these tucking under the arches of a bog standard looking Manta with a polite bonnet bulge or slight scoop, would simply do it for me http://www.americanracing.com/wheels/de ... r%20coated§ion=A# Oh ffing drool[][] Make sure you click the wheel for a bigger better pic in the last link.......... And just look at the offsets!!!! [:0] Proper offsets, none of this bloody ET38 bum which is about the best you can get for a Manta these days, and they even do them in a 14" x 6" Shiny bits http://www.customsolutions.me.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h0tr0dder_uk Posted February 18, 2007 Author Share Posted February 18, 2007 sh!t - have you been reading my mind or what. I have fitted 5 spoke halibrands (basically torque thrusts) to my a series. I looked into a set of wheel vintiques rostyle types wheels (ss396 rims) but decided to go with the halibrands in the end. you can get the ss396 wheels in some big widths. how about a set of 10x15s under standard rear arches - true sleeper!! ss396 rims my a series on halibrands (not quite finished yet) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 hi guys n girls, wow hotrodder thats coming on a treat lov it..... we will have our own section at the manta field at this rate lol supermantas lmao...... good work..... those talking about boc chassi etc, this is the route I took on megamanta and got to say I am so glad I did. here are a few pics of the chassis when I started to fit it in almost 16 years ago now boy dont time fly.... Look Out Wide Car Coming through!!!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h0tr0dder_uk Posted March 1, 2007 Author Share Posted March 1, 2007 Just got in from the garage. Have spent about 9 hours over the last three night building these headers I don't think they have turned out too bad for a first attempt. I still have to finish welding the flange & collector and clean up welds. Then start on the other side [:0] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 HECK! That looks to be an excellent job you've done, "not too bad" my arse[] I take it you have access to a pipe bender, if so I was wondering how you got around the kinking of the pipe/tube. I have filled tube up with sand before before bending but that has been on small dia tube. Nice to see a good V8 project on here, again. I just watched my V8 being driven off up the road tonight by it's new owner[][][][][][] Never gonna let another woman into my life again. Sorry for going off topic, but would suggest that if you have not built headers before then please be aware that the flange will distort like hell if not bolted to something such as a cylinder head when running the weld around the Tubes-flange. BUT judging by your work on the car so far, you are probably thinking "Cheeky Bast, as if I wouldn't realise" Hmm sorry mate, I really shouldn't have tried to teach a master. Shiny bits http://www.customsolutions.me.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h0tr0dder_uk Posted March 2, 2007 Author Share Posted March 2, 2007 Gosh - Thanks. Advice is always welcome clive. I don't think anyone knows it all (although some people like to think so - lol). I am going to get my mate to clamp it to his bench and tig weld the flange as hopefully this won't produce as much heat. Thinking of getting a tig welder myself as well. Its a real shame you had to sell your car. That looked fantastic. It makes it even worse to see it drive off as suddenly you think "B1oody hell - that looks great" because its a view you don't normally get of it. I bought the bends as part of a kit. You basically get a load of bent tubing with several different curves in them that you cut up and weld together to make the headers you want. These were mandrel bent curves which is why they aren't kinked. Cost a bit more than normal bends but makes life easier when putting them together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h0tr0dder_uk Posted March 12, 2007 Author Share Posted March 12, 2007 Finally got around to making the headers for the other side as you can see it still needs final welding around the collector and flange. Floors are welded in and I think the next jobs will be catch can, transmission cooler, seat mounts etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 Catch Can? if you already have one then "damn" BUT if you are thinking of buying one........ THEN... I will match whatever price you have been given, except I will produce one to your spec/size, and will fit the hose sizes you require for the breathers, and mounting brackets on the can where you want them, drain plug where you want it, I will baffle it if venting through a filter to the air (well I baffle them anyway). In fact I'll meet the best price you get and I'll knock a tenner off as well. It would just be so damn flattering to have a little bit of Custom Solutions on the worlds fastest Manta. Ideally I would like to throw one at you for nothing, but money is damn tight at the moment. Alright twist my arm then, £29.00. Ok ok bottom line £25.00 Shiny bits http://www.customsolutions.me.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted March 12, 2007 Share Posted March 12, 2007 **** it, Can I please make one for you, throw me a tenner for postage. Shiny bits http://www.customsolutions.me.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h0tr0dder_uk Posted March 13, 2007 Author Share Posted March 13, 2007 8loody hell clive thats a really good offer. Unfortunately I bought a catch can ages ago. Fear not though as I will be needing some of your skills to make some bits for it. I'm thinking I will need the blanking plates for the mirrors & back windows and probably a washer fluid can. I could definately do with a brake fluid resevoir for my master cylinder. I wouldn't want you to lose money on the deal either - I believe in paying a fair price for good work (or should I say excellent work). I'm gonna send your website details to our club and see if they can put a link on our site and maybe a piece in our newsletter as my mates are always looking for someone to make good quality custom pieces. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h0tr0dder_uk Posted March 19, 2007 Author Share Posted March 19, 2007 heres an update (or not) finally got the front wing i was after and managed to have a sick day off work (ahem) to get it fitted. cut the old arch out and temporarily fixed it to the original wing (as the arches have to be 2" further forward on my car). work has now stopped as the nosey old c0w from next door complained to the landlady about the noise from my angle grinder. is it me or does 2pm seem a reasonable time to make a bit of noise? i never work on my car before 10am or after 8pm. I felt totally p1ssed off as the neighbour had played classic music loudly til midnight outside their house in the summer, mowed the lawn at 8am on a sunday and had their dog barking at all hours and we never complained. the landlady came round to check the house and said she was happy and not to worry about the neighbour as she had p1ssed off most of the street at some point. think when i am eventually ready to start my car for the first time i will do it on open headers at 4 am in the morning[] anyway - rant over - i'm going back in the garage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
czwh42 Posted March 19, 2007 Share Posted March 19, 2007 hhmmmmm....neighbours..... you get some that are excellent and then you get some that are a pain in the proverbial [:0] I had my garage rebuilt a few years ago and the neighbours kicked up a right fuss about the pitched roof and their 'right to light'. To cut along story short, I was hell bent on getting my own back on them for dragging out the garage rebuild. The following year I bought a V8 that had a rear shunt. I was hoping to transplant the engine into another shell. I made sure every Sunday I would start it up and leave it running. I would then rev it for a couple of mins. The car sounded awesome ! The best bit was the master brake cylinder had crap seals on it would suck in oil and dump the smoke towards the neighbours most of the time [].....lovely [}] Had I done it now, I probably would have been slapped with an ASBO. [)] -=< You can sleep in your car, but you can't race your house... >=- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
h0tr0dder_uk Posted May 17, 2007 Author Share Posted May 17, 2007 Update - work has stopped on this car for the last few weeks as I have been sorting out small jobs on my a series. Have been looking into getting the brake calipers firred to this car. The front struts are ford capri based and the original mounting brackets have been cut off. I have posted messages on a few sites about how to weld my steel caliper bracket to the cast steel strut. A few people have been saying that you can't do it and that I should buy new struts ££££'s. I am due to go on a proffessional tig welding course next week, so I rang the tutor and asked him if it could be done. He said no problem so hopefully problem solved. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opel2000 Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 Hmm....... Welding onto Cast metal eh? As far as I know the only way to weld onto cast steel, or even weld cast iron is by the use of Oxy - Acetylene. Now I know that welding to cast iron is possible as there were at one time places in Leicester that used to do Cast Iron Welded repairs. So if that can be done then welding to cast steel should be possible. It is something I have never tried myself, but can only assume it has something to do with the grain structure of the casting that will not allow the weld pool to flow and may possibly froth up and I mean froth up when you see this happening it looks like the metal has turned into fizzy pop when you have just poured it into a dirty glass. Shiny bits http://www.customsolutions.me.uk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MANTAMAN Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 I'm sure you can weld to cast steel As far as i see it steel is steel,weather the ingots are melted down and recast into something or heated up and rolled into sheets/tubes/bars etc Cast Iron is a different material,if i remember rightly it can be welded but needs a much higher temperature,hence specialist welding equipment. I've got piles of all sorts of Manta parts,i might even have something you need! surplus parts bought,whole cars considerd. M/B 07947 640505 OMOC Member number 2658F Ian Virco,area rep,Beds Herts and North Bucks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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