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Mancona hatch now Finished!! Aug 2017


Kevin Abbott
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Hi

That project looks great. don't supose you could list the parts to do the conversion.

ie

bonnet

wings

front structure

vallance

etc.

I will be taking my manta off the road soon to move house and put it in storage but i could have a go at this conversion so its a new car when i get it back on the road.

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Cav/Manta are exactly the same layout but the trim distinguishes them. Anything advertised for a Manta will fit your car! As for the Monza seats just dress up all in black and go to your uncles house at 3am with a crowbar. Simple.

OMOC #5826..... 79 SRB coupe - 'interesting project', 79 Cav saloon - 'another interesting project', 1993 Senator 24v. Yakshimash.

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Hi Mantanut

Parts to do the Mancona are

Ascona bonnet

Ascona wings

Full Ascona front panel inc valance ( valance not needed if you can find a narrow Ascona 400 front bumper)

Ascona headlights

Ascona grill

spiney_norman.. the Monza seat needs a recaro seat base to bolt to( ie manta gte), recaros from loads of cars can then be fitted

On with the project

Manta brakes are scary indeed so the first thing i do is throw the standard ones in the bin[:P]

The brakes i put on the Mancona are sierra cosworth 2wd front discs and calibra turbo calipers, the cossie discs need the manta disc pcd drilling and they go straight on and the cally t calipers are huge so that made a dramatic improvement to the braking

manconafrontbrakes2-2.jpg

The above pic shows the difference between the standard manta brakes and the cossie disc.

manconafrontbrakes-1.jpg

This pic shows the cossie disc on the manta hub with the cally t caliper boled on, it just bolts into the standard manta stub axle and is a big disc brake upgrade for about £80.

A polo heater conversion was added in preparation for the turbo engine.

poloheater13-1.jpg

See, Polo heater conversion for 16v, in the members section to show in detail how it was done.

The mancona is now off the road so major surgery was on the cards.

The roof was the main thing about the car that needed addressing so i went to the scrappers and noticed a calibra roof was a similar profile to the manta, hmmmmmmmm would it fit?

I remembered at the omoc meet for the 15th aniversary the dutch came across and showed us what a modified manta was. one of them had a tilt/slide roof, was it a calibra one?

The seed was planted.

So i took the cordless grinder and chopped the calibra roof off.

Dropped it on top and was amazed it was the same profile[:)]

manconaprogress2021-1.jpg

The original manta roof had the normal rot but the calibra sunroof was sooooo big it enabled you to chop all the rot out.

manconaprogress2018-1.jpg

See the link on how to add a power roof to your manta and remove the rot.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.mantaclub.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10478">http://www.mantaclub.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10478</a><!-- m -->

The mancona now needed some work engine bay, the 1800 was removed and the cally t turbo engine made suitable for RWD application.

The problem with putting a cally t engine in a manta is the turbo side engine mount, with help from my mate cliff we made a mount that fitted underneath the turbo and mounted the engine.

wheelpics054.jpg

I also converted the engine to a multi vee pully and uprated alt ditching the power steering and ac pumps using a belt from a pugeout.

The front end now needed doing as it was the old ascona front end from my last mancona, it was full of old weld and wasn't as good as i wanted it to be so everything underneath the slam panel was cut out and i made it from galv steel.

manconastripdown.jpg

I found a new front valance and 2 front wings for the front end so the front panel had it's holes welded up and the mounting points made so i could remove it if need be.

manconaprogress4028.jpg

Look close and you can see the car dollys i made from bread trays at a cost of £20 for the four of them.. ( hmmm, should of done a 'how to' on that too[:)]

Many A Night Tinkering About

OMOC 4076

Edited by Kevin Abbott
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  • 2 months later...

Update

The roof is now done and fully powered up, click, brrrrrrr, open roof, cool

bmwbroke019.jpg

Arches are now on so the bigger wheels will fit

manconaprogress4017.jpg

A 400 bonnet via ebay

manconaprogress4015-1.jpg

Next thing is to fit the plastic petrol tank and get the pics up

Cheers

Kev

kevinmanconaatbilling-1.jpg

Many A Night Tinkering About

OMOC 4076

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  • 9 months later...

Update

Rear hatch delocked and central locking added

DCP_1240.jpg

DCP_1296.jpg

The problem of the manta hatch petrol tank always fecked me off so i went to the scrappers armed with a tape measure and as luck would have it a calibra tank was almost the same size DCP_1291.jpg

I cut the floor out of the hatch and fabricated tank mounts and a new boot floor

DCP_1280.jpg

DCP_1276.jpg

DCP_1294.jpg

The front end was full of rust so i cut out all of the crap and fabricated the new headlight bowls and rad mount

DCP_1286.jpg

DCP_1287.jpg

DCP_1282.jpg

The bonnet i got off eBay was bobbins so i made a template to put proper 400 bonnet vents in then cut and modified to suit

DCP_1248.jpg

DCP_1247.jpg

DCP_1253.jpg

DCP_1252.jpg

engine bay primed and ready for the turbo

DCP_1285.jpg

Kev

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  • 3 years later...

This WILL be coming back to my garage in the next few weeks :D

It WILL be at Billing 2012, it's nearly done (ish :rolleyes: )

Bumped it up as William wanted to see the Calibra roof conversion, the main topic on my roof http://www.mantaclub.org/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10478

Has gone?

Can any mods help?

Ta

Kev

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  • 5 months later...

I'll look forward to seeing it at Billing if the new owner gets it finished in time. I think the Ascona front end looks great on the Manta Hatch body and have fancied doing one of these for a few years now. I've got the Ascona wings, front panel, headlamps and grille, but don't have a bonnet spare though I suppose a fibreglass one would be pretty easy to source. I'll see if my Mrs will settle for a Hatchback Manta once she passes her test! ...Luke.

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  • 4 months later...

As this stands today, god I miss this car. The new owner has fitted a XE and plans to to send it to be worked on by another fellow members workshop soon :D

9facd628.jpg

Sorry for any missing pictures in the thread, i must of changed something in photobucket

Edited by Kevin Abbott
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  • 5 months later...

20DF30A6-142E-42FA-806F-9E1F0D111977-5667-00000683625CD43A.jpg

Many thanks to Derek ( and his mate Darren) for sending a pair of unmolested XE looms for the mancona

Now the parts can be gathered up and taken to Mantasport to mate up with the car and finally get the thing running !

Derek, you are a star. Thanks mate.

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^^ glad that worked out Kev - only too happy to help you out after all that you have done for me lately

Darren is a good bloke, he ended up not needing the spare looms as he is about to do a bogg bros bike carb conversion on his Mk2 Astra GTE, he has a Calibra turbo sitting at his place too.

Looking forward to seeing the progress on this project.

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Not wishing to hijack this thread,but I've just converted my coupe with an Ascona front end.

I'll get some pictures up soon.(As soon as i can remember how to do it !)Just in the process of bolting it all back together.

But you are right they do look good,although I may be a bit biased !!

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