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Opel Manta A Series Hot Rod (Beast)


DiMarco
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Just a quick update. Went to go see the beast today to check to see if the brakes where seased on and found out that the rears don't appear to be but the fronts defiantly are. While jacking the car up on one side the car did drop and seem like the jack point went into the shell not good :( but to be honest on a car this old that has been stood for so long you have to expect this sort of thing. Any way it looks like she will be getting her new shoes on Friday ready to be taken up to get stripped really cant wait.

Also something that I found out also she is running standard A series front brakes and 71 Camaro drums on the back.

Edited by DiMarco
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Just an update:

The car is getting the new tyres today and only one of the brakes is seaded :D and we ran her on the stands and the gearbox is still working the back wheels all good. Was so awesome to hear her start up again wow what a noise will post a pic up later.

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Big update:

I have just bought the Beast :D the chap I bought it from was a right gentleman was very helpful with the car like yesterday with the wheels. He has given me the hole history of the car and there is so so much of it which is great It is going to take me so long to go through it all. Within all the paperwork I also have the photos from the chap who built the car and what it looked like before so I can add that to my build.

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Tomorrow has finally come close so I can get ready to strip this baby down and get her looking the way she should.

Edited by DiMarco
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Well a new up date on the beast she has now been picked up and taken to chris. I now have been given my job which is to send down the surface rust areas until we can get the beast in the garage to get strip her down. Now trying to found out what brakes are going to go on the front I would like to stick with the current front wheels which are 13 inch but is there anything that can go to that size and be strong enough to stop my V8 beast?

Only downside is when the car was getting put on the back of the truck the exhaust snapped on both sides. But due to it being replaced anyway I am not to bothered and looked like it was going to give due to rust.

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The bumper suits it well and I like that 351 graphic :) That scoop is so OTT it's cool!

Thank you Kevin I really like the way it looks. Chris said to me that he has only seen one with the B front and rear bumper, the graphics on the side with look similar when finished but not quite what it looks at the moment and I agree with you on the bonnet scoop so I am going to change it for something like a trans am rear facing scoop.

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Nick, sorry to miss you Sunday when Chris rang I was in Stafford at a VW show (sshh lol) I popped over monday and had a scan over it. Lots of nice stuff in there re the electronics etc. One thing i noticed was the carb is sat on a large spacer plus the nitrous spacer/plate. I reckon with the carb sat on the manifold instead of the spacers a stock bonnet would fit. You may need a "lowline" filter but its do-able I reckon. Depends on what you want looks wise really. The carb spacer is there to help bottom end power mainly but without knowing what camshaft is in there i would run it without and see what you think, that way if bonnet mods are needed to put it back on its only a bonnet mod and respray later.

Great potential though :thumbup

Tony

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Nick, sorry to miss you Sunday when Chris rang I was in Stafford at a VW show (sshh lol) I popped over monday and had a scan over it. Lots of nice stuff in there re the electronics etc. One thing i noticed was the carb is sat on a large spacer plus the nitrous spacer/plate. I reckon with the carb sat on the manifold instead of the spacers a stock bonnet would fit. You may need a "lowline" filter but its do-able I reckon. Depends on what you want looks wise really. The carb spacer is there to help bottom end power mainly but without knowing what camshaft is in there i would run it without and see what you think, that way if bonnet mods are needed to put it back on its only a bonnet mod and respray later.

Great potential though :thumbup

Tony

Are traitor tony lol.

I am glad you like her from seeing other A series around she is very unique. You might know better than me but some of the electrics I don't understand like there is an ignition system there which I don't understand the meaning for, unless it does the same as a choke. But I do want to get all the gauges working and wires hidden plus find something to fit in the last one which is missing. I believe like I said to chris that she is a diamond in the rough just needs some love and she will be perfect but I do want her to look the business so she can be in show condition and really want to get her in a mag :). With the NOS system I wont use it but would like it in there for look so would still leave it all wired up and ready encase it does get used.

That is not a bad idea with the spacer to be honest you would know better than me but I wouldn't want to do all that and find out that she wont run right or what ever and have to go back to how she was originally. I do also like the idea of a scoop on the car make her look hotrod and that is the kind of look I am going for with her as that how I found her and thought she look the best and don't want to changed to much on how she looks.

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Not sure what you mean about ign yet. I couldnt get into the car as its tight to the wall (or was) and i cant squeeze yet lol. Ill have a look when the doors are open. It will still run fine without the spacers just change the way the power gets delivered. It normally would just run without one anyway. Its not a big job to put them back on if needed, 4 nuts effectively .

Tony

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Thanks tony i might be at chris's house on sunday doing the body work so you are more than welcome to come and have a look just depends on the weather. you will have t show me what you mean about the that as i kinda get what you are on about lol.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Update :D :

Yesterday was the first day on the restoration of the A series beast :D found out that as predicted the rust showing on the panels is all surface so that is a big wait off my mind. Was a hard day working on her nothing wanted to unscrew and was just a pain and a huge piece of the body work came out in my hand :o. But through the day we went through all the boxes of bit to see what is worth keeping, binning and selling. After that was stripping her down all the interior carpet, seats, harnesses and the roll cage that was a pain in the ass most of the bolts didn't want to come out so most had to be cut out. My biggest panic was the right seal came off in my hand :o but was told by chris its not to bad lol. Roll on tomorrow when more work gets done to the beast cant wait :D.

It seems when the car was first built to be a drag car the man made the engine fit and work then quickly finished the rest of the car hiding the wires every where. So the interior was quickly finished so he could use it. The paint work as you know is cracked all over and pieces have fallen off this was due to a quick cheap spray well I would say blow over. We noticed so many areas missed as the old paint was still there which she was once Blue.

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To day was a hard and busy day but a lot of work got was done. Finally after 3-4 hours I got both wings off the screws which where a mixture wouldn't come off then I found the wings where welded and fiberglass together so I need to hit and split as well as do a lot of cutting lol. Then it was just sanding behind the arches to find the rust holes.

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