Christ Posted September 6, 2008 Author Share Posted September 6, 2008 Turned my attention to the steering rack today - the rubber bush at the bottom of the column which I've always thought of as a bad idea.... I noticed on the DW shop they sell these solid steering bushes for the S13 and R32 to 'remove vagueness from the steering' as they have a similar set-up. Unfortunately they are much smaller than the Mantas so I figured I'd make my own. Found a length of 1"x1/2" aluminium bar in the shed so instead of making a round bush like std I thought I'd just make a spacer and bolt the two parts of the column together. Cut it to length, drilled a couple of 8mm holes (52mm c/c) and roughly shaped it.... (remember it's easier to work if keep your work place tidy ) And then just bolted it all together All I need to do now is loosen off the pinion and rotate it 90degrees so the top of the column lines up with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantadoc Posted September 6, 2008 Share Posted September 6, 2008 (edited) Deleted Edited October 2, 2017 by mantadoc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted September 7, 2008 Author Share Posted September 7, 2008 You might be right - we'll see once i've got the cross member bolted back in place I can soon swap the rubber coupling back, although I have come across this...... A PU coupling designed for the VW Beetle but i looks similar size - just waiting to get the dimensions of it off a mate who's got one, although using the highly accurate method of measuring the pic on screen and scaling it up, if they're 8mm bolts then the holes are roughly 50mm c/c Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted September 8, 2008 Author Share Posted September 8, 2008 I think your solid mount may be an error as I think there is an agle difference. If I'm wrong I apologise. No need to apologise - as usual you were right Hopefully the VW poly coupling will be the right size. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantadoc Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 (edited) Deleted Edited October 2, 2017 by mantadoc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted September 8, 2008 Author Share Posted September 8, 2008 Fitting another UJ would be a lot more hassle - having the top of the pinion shaft machined to fit one (or as you suggested before having the middle section machined) and of course that also means getting a good UJ - last time I bought one it wasn't cheap. I think the poly coupling should work - if it doesn't fit I could put the std one back in or there's a guy selling 'new' ones for a viva which have the same bolt patern. The rear crossmember bushes are nylon ones, got them from TAS(?) years ago - so not quite solidly mounted but near enough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulmanta Posted September 8, 2008 Share Posted September 8, 2008 I have seriously considered another lower UJ for the V8, I worked out I would need to machine the spindle that fits the rack to the same size as the shaft and then machine flats and a bolt locate notch into it to make the DD for a second UJ, Flaming river do a dual UJ with an adjustable slider in the middle, this would mean easy fitment and would take the shaft away from the starter on a V8 by about 2 cms due to the fact the new UJ would be closer to the rack. You have woken this idea again, i will try it and report back in my thread !! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted September 9, 2008 Author Share Posted September 9, 2008 I can see the benfits of running 2 UJs on a V8 purely for the extra room it would generate - it's certainly needed down that side of the engine I look forward to seeing your solution Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mantadoc Posted September 9, 2008 Share Posted September 9, 2008 (edited) Deleted Edited October 2, 2017 by mantadoc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted September 9, 2008 Author Share Posted September 9, 2008 AFAIK the pinion shaft on quick racks don't come with the rubber coupling or any kind of clamp to attach them to the std column, they just have the sides machined flat so using a UJ is the only way to connect them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted September 15, 2008 Author Share Posted September 15, 2008 So, moving on from the steering column mis-judgement and the stub axle problems.... This w/end I have been mainly working on the roll cage and figuring out the best way to mount the harnesses, having found out the way there are is not very safe - as in figure 2 below... Decided the best way to mount them would be a harness bar between the two rear tubes - either wrapped round it or fixed somehow. Thought about welding on some tabs with a hole drilled to bolt the end of the harness to but then came across these.... 7/16 UNF (that's the thread size of the majority of seatbelt/harness bolts) threaded inserts - just need to drill a 20mm hole in the harness bar and weld them in. Being an inch long they are in contact with all of the bolt so should hold it securely Next onto the actual harness bar - roll cage tubing needs to be made of CDS (cold drawn seamless) steel tubing which is approx £18 a metre and of course I need about 1.1m Then I remembered I has on old OMP strut brace doing nothing (actually mountd in the boot - but not really doing anything), so I cut the end plates off, had a look to check it was seamless and it just about fits perfectly. That's now welded in along with a bit of 4mm thick bracing just to make it extra safe (considering the forces that will be on it in the case of an accident) From the front This is not how it sits in the car - the thicker main hoop is obviously upright with the other feet on the rear arches Behind I'd not painted the harness bar at this point as I was waiting for the threaded inserts to arrive and get them welded in. The holes for the inserts are angled slightly back so they will be about 90degrees to the harnesses. There's also a removeable diagonal that not in the pics. Close up of the bracing on one side of the bar and a bit more round the other side The threaded inserts arrived this morning, very good service as I only ordered them on saturday - McGill Motorsports on ebay As the harness bar is 35mm OD and the inserts are only 25mm I got some 20mm tube, cut that to 35mm lengths and cut them one side length ways so I could open them out slightly to fit the inserts inside, with 5mm left sticking out. I then welded down the length of the cut to secure the insert properly (wish I'd taken a photo as it would explain what I'm on about so much easier ), fitted them in the 22mm holes i'd drilled in the bar and welded them in place - top and bottom. A couple of coats of hammerite and we have this.... Close up of the mounting point Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Volksdevil Posted September 16, 2008 Share Posted September 16, 2008 Im really enjoying reading this Good work mate, keep it up and keep the pics coming. Great thread! Neil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted September 20, 2008 Author Share Posted September 20, 2008 Thanks The roll cage is all bolted in (with 12.9 grade cap head bolts) and looking good - the amount I'm spending on new bolts for this project is getting silly but there's something satisfying about putting stuff together with shiney new bolts instead of having to re-use the rusty old ones. I'm thinking of making up a list of all the suspension bolts I've re-newed as I'm sure it'll be useful for anyone else rebuilding the front and rear suspension components. Can't get any decent photos of it all fitted as along with it being dark in the garage the whole interior is black as well so it doesn't come out very good. Moved on to the seat subframes while I was working on the interior this week. Really they only needed a coat of paint but I thought I'd do a little work to them. When I originally made the frames for the Cobras I made them so they would just bolt to the original recaro subframes - just in case I felt like swapping them over at any time (like for comfort on a long journey) but as I've sold them now it ain't going to happen. So they're now welded in place.... All I've actually done is add the 3 lengths of 1"angle to the original frames, drilled them for the cobra runners and welded captive nuts under neath. As some of you might have noticed the rear mounts on the original subframes have some really dodgy set-up - something to do with the sliding seats in the older/lower spec models - so they're not actually attached to the floor but instead hook onto the old floor mounts. Didn't like the look of it so I've cut it all off and added some basic brackets to bolt it straight to the floor. These are all bolted back in place now - with shiney new bolts of course With the cage in and the seats re-mounted that only leaves the rear quater panels to re-trim and some of the dash to tidy up. spent a while routing wires out the way under the dash then came to re-fit the heater ducting adn realized I'd fixed wires right in the way so they had to be moved When I made the centre console up (outof MDF) I just sprayed the side black which looked OK but I've been experimenting with finishes to make it match the original dash. I thought about using wrinkle paint but I've used it before with not very good results and the std finish is not really wrinkle anyway The best solution I have come up with so far is using plasti-kote fleck stone paint A few light coats of this textured paint, leave it to dry (takes a lot longer than normal paint), then give it a light sanding to level it slightly and a few coats of satin black paint. Here's a test peice, the RHS has been sanded down before top coat, the LHS hasn't This is not in the manta (EGT gauge I mounted in the drivers air vent for the SX) but gives you an idea of how the finish matches... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted September 29, 2008 Author Share Posted September 29, 2008 Hurrah!!! The lower wishbone poly bushes turned up last week (after a 6 week wait).... Shame they're not purple to match the rest of the bushes, after spending that amount of money I'd like them to be noticeable - but I did get a free keyring The finished wishbones with new ball joints, bushes and strengthening.... They're now back on the car - just need a pair of matching stub axles to finish the front suspension off Did a bit more work on the interior and made up some new rear quarter panels out of a bit of 3mm hardboard and vinyl. Fitted a few panel trim clips to keep them in place, then glued and stapled the vinyl on... Top and side don't need stapling as they'll tuck under the door and rear quarter glass trim should have maybe used a thin bit of foam between the vinyl and hardboard as the staples and trim clips are showing through slightly but I don't think they'll be that noticeable once in place..... Just need to sort out that bit of carpet now I'd previously re-trimmed the door cards in matching vinyl, unfortunately I did them when I had a stereo fitted so attached speaker pods to them.... I'll probably keep them there (empty, but with grills on) rather than re-trim the cards again When I had the rear quarter glass tinted it meant drilling out the end of a flared pin to remove the latch. To replace this I've used a stainless nut and domehead bolt (m5x30), drilling the latch one side so the nut sits flush with the surface. It's these little touches that make a car, in my eyes. I doubt anyone will ever notice them but I know they're there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted October 4, 2008 Author Share Posted October 4, 2008 Got a pair of matching stub axles the other day - thanks maddave I bought a big brake kit from Hi-Spec designed for a cavalier, consisting of a pair of Vectra V6 discs (286mm) and a bracket to space out the std caliper to fit the larger disc - I figured as a lot of vauxhall discs/calipers seem to fit the manta I should be able to something with the kit. Had to have the Discs redrilled to fit the manta hub and the bracket machined down to fit onto the stub axle and bring the caliper in line with the disc. New discs vs std ones.... With calipers fitted they look like this.... So that's the front suspension just about re-built CAUTION: Bodgery ahead - don't read the following if you like to do things properly The ARB drop link on the passenger side has always been very close to the front spring for some reason. After a bit of measuring (and re-measuring it properly) I found the front bracket mount about 10mm further back than the drivers side one - must have had a knock at some point. Obviuosly the best way to sort this out would be to remove the mount and reweld it in the right position but not having power in the garage I opted to cut off the lower half of the mount, take it home, cut it about, weld it back together and bolt it back in place - I'll weld it in place at a later date. lower part of bracket cut and extended forward. and fitted back in place (only temp bolted for now) Seems to have cured it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted October 8, 2008 Author Share Posted October 8, 2008 Guess what I'll be doing thsi weekend..... Drivers rear arch Passenger rear ach Passenger rear sill Passenger footwell/innerarch Chassis rail Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devil Fish Posted October 9, 2008 Share Posted October 9, 2008 Not too dissimilar to what my chassis looks like!..actually mines worse... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted October 10, 2008 Author Share Posted October 10, 2008 Yeah, it doesn't look too bad really. A bit worse now I've cleaned back a few areas to find the full extent but nothing major - should be able to get it all done this w/end as it's all fairly basic stuff. I won't be fitting any kind of repair arches as they'll be covered by the plastic arch extensions so all I need do is cut back the rot on the outer skin, fold up the inner to meet it and weld together - more wheel clearance Got a poly one from a VW beetle which is more or less the same size as the original rubber one - the mounting holes are approx 1mm closer.... Bolted it all together this morning and it fits perfectly.... and looks good being red Obviously it's hard to tell if there's any difference in the steering feel with it being up in the air but it's got to be better using something that's fairly rigid compared to the std one which I can fold in half with one hand Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akis-driver Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 Hey love the idea of the VW Beetle steering rack PU.Can you tell me where you find it as i cant seem to find any place that sells that thing.Thanks and keep up the project.Its great... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted October 12, 2008 Author Share Posted October 12, 2008 Thanks Got my coupling from a mate but they are available from SSP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbie Posted October 12, 2008 Share Posted October 12, 2008 don't forget to take your door pin removal pin out great progress on the car. typical rust there, once you get it solid the way you want it, you wont have to go back again, loads of dinitrol and oil down those chassis legs Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted October 13, 2008 Author Share Posted October 13, 2008 don't forget to take your door pin removal pin out yeah, took that out - along with the door pins, seems the key to removing them is doing from the outside with the wings off. Came straight out whereas I spent ages trying to get them out from inside to no avail. The rust is now about sorted - but it's been a long weekend. As there's no power in my garage my original plan was to get the car back on it's wheels, trailer it to a mates unit and get it all welded up there but I decided that would be too much messing around so I hired a generator for the weekend instead - friday noon 'til monday noon. As usual the rust turned out to be a little wore than it looked - once I cut away the rear sill section I could see the jacking pint was barely attached to the car at one end, which was slightly worrying as that's where one of the axle stands was - had to move it somewhere a bit more solid. No pics of the progress though - didn't have time for stuff like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted October 22, 2008 Author Share Posted October 22, 2008 This week I 'ave been mostly working on the doors..... I knew the underside of the doors were bad but as it's not something you ever see it didn't really bother me. Now the doors are off I figured I'd best do something about it. Both doors were of similar condition...... That's the drivers side and the whole bottom section needs replacing as it's hardly attached to the outer skin, the passenger side only needed half of it doing. Decided to re-skin the bottom 100mm of both doors as well as the rust was begining to creep up them and gone through at the front. Haven't been able to find any repair sections so I've just used a sheet of steel - as the doors only curve in one direction I'd be able to bend it into shape. So a lot of cutting, folding, welding and grinding I'm left with this...... must remember to drill the drain holes The door skin is not as smooth as it looks but it's not far off, a skim of filler should sort it out. Not bad for a first attempt and no specialist tools, had to make the folds in the skin and bottom by hand - really should have made up a sheet bender, it would have made it much easier Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garymanc Posted October 22, 2008 Share Posted October 22, 2008 looks a good job,looks like the water has got in at the door lock. painted inside my doors with waxoil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christ Posted October 23, 2008 Author Share Posted October 23, 2008 Yeah, there's a little rust round the door lock - probably something to do with me changing them ages ago to solex hi security locks and didn't think to use any sealant round them. It's little more than surface rust so cleaned it off and applied rust killer. I'm thinking waxoyling the inside would be a good idea or at least something to seal up the bottom so there's nowhere for water to seep into. Took a few pics of the rust repairs I did the other weekend...... Drivers side rear arch Compare it to the pic on the previous page to see how much of it I've cut away. Passenger side arch is very similar so didn't bother taking a photo. Passenger side footwell and chassis rail repair, all seam sealed, undersealed and stonechipped Passenger side rear sill along with replacing the rear section of sill I had to refabricate the mount for the jacking point as it didn't seem to be attached to the car at the sill end Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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