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Very sad news about Ian Virco. One of the cornerstones of the OMOC has now passed. Ian had been around in the club for as long as I can remember. I think I first met him back in the early '90's and as a fairly local member to me, we had been friends ever since. He shared many interests with me - being into Music and Trains as well as Mantas. I lost count of the number of Railway events we had been to over the years.....I think the last one was a Diesel Loco Gala at the Severn Valley Railway in 2016 where we had a great Pie and Chips dinner. Some of you may know that Ian was involved in repairing some of the heritage diesel engines, (specifically Sulzer Class 45 Diesels) and was a dab hand at changing brakes and doing general maintenance on these beasts......certainly a lot more to them than a Manta! As well as singing in the local Choir and being mad keen on Ellie Goulding - there are probably quite a few things that would surprise folks about Ian.....he was one of a kind. Encyclopedic Knowledge, quick witted and funny, occasionally quite obstinate but always just and fair and I don't think I ever heard him say a bad word about anybody.....despite what he may have thought! There was nothing he wouldn't do to help someone in need and I'm glad that he had a friend with him when he passed. The last few years had been quite difficult for him and his health had certainly been quite variable. I must admit, I was really quite upset when I heard the news on Sunday and had a few sad moments reflecting on life and our friendships that we make as we go along. It is a real lesson that we should all live life to the full and be kind to one another, just as Ian tried to do.......you never know what is round the corner afterall. I've been in touch with the rest of the OMOC committee and we all agree that we shall try and make arrangements for some representation from the OMOC at his Funeral.....although with current restrictions, that may have to be a message and a wreath of flowers. Pic - Ian receiving his prize for "Old Gold" at Billing in 2010

Thats Patina, and it cant be bought

Front axle components painted today for E45 SFK. collected the bucket load of nuts, bolts brackets from the zinc plating place. Looking forward to building it all back up tomorrow with the new poly Bush kit. New ball joins, upper &lower, new track rod ends etc... also got the inlet manifold primered and painted. Had all the springs, brackets clips injection pipes zinc plated for that too 🙂

Regarding the seats: I had a a pair of ex manta Recaros retrimmed in leather.

I agree mate, that's a bad thought, as I've a lot of build threads on here. I'll look into that app. Some of the parts are pitted after having the rust blasted off of them. I could have replaced them with better ones, but I've chosen to stick with the original parts and live with some pitting visible after painting. I think it tells the story of the car sitting for 20 years on that drive way in Leeds and adds to its story. I hope I've made the right decision and it doesn't take anything away from the finished car ?

A true gent, i remember Ian advertised a car for an old guy he knew that had passed away, all this was explained in the advert, phoned Ian, and had a crack about the car, this was back in the day when a solid manta was a solid manta, anyway Ian passed on the contact details, i phoned the seller who was the old mans wife, evelyn if i remember correctly, any way introduced myself, had a chat, and asked her about the car, first question, whats the car like? Answer was, well, its white! Ok this is funny, i asked for photos and exchanged contact numbers, emails, addresses, three days later i got chemist developed 33mm photos in the post, this was around 2010, so to cut a long story short, bought the car in london not viewed, and picked up by a transport company based on Ians honest trustworthy recommendation, and a few photos of a white car. Verdict, not a wrong word, as honest as the days long, phoned Ian, and thanked him for his honesty. A great loss to the OMOC, Met him a few times at Billing, honest, trustworthy, friendly and very knowledgeable, and some storys! Isnt there a video of Ian being interviewed at NEC not so long ago. Wasnt there one time he had close to twenty mantas, aka, theres only one MANTAMAN, rip lad. Didnt he have names for his cars, young gold, old gold, thats taken me back about twenty years, reading manta magic, which was the omoc mag, before forums where forums, and face book was used for homework? He did own the oldest Manta b, id ever seen, think it was a orange 1976, so would have been one of the very first.

Cracking job on those plated parts, love it 👍 Not at all, it's just the age of the car. The only other option was to go full on concours with new parts etc, but then it's not original. So it is better been original to fit with its story, as you say.

https://mantaclub.org/uploads/imageproxy/MovingMoonMonkeysCavalier0004.jpg.b3c14dd18215bb20087a3e8b0eaecbc3.jpg

They look great, brilliant upgrade, are the old style seats filled with horse hair or something, took some apart recently, put all the manky filling in the bin! Any try fitting recaros from another car to a manta, ford, bmw, vauxhall.

Nice. I've used rust converters before but usually just Rustins or Kurust and it's always seemed a little thin. Hydrate80 looks much better... and cheaper! so that's ordered, along with some other stuff to qualify for free postage Yes, I joined before I signed up for the forums. It's already paying it's way Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!