19?? Manta B coupe rebuild

[steel]

bought thjis non sunroof rolling shell off ebay a while ago needs some welding but not the worst ive seen by a long way worst part of the car are the full length chassis rails thinking of making my own from box section steel I know this will require bulkheadmods as the bulkhead is curved not straight where the rails sit ime also fitting a rover 3.5 v8 with edelbrock inlet and carb

[dodgycol]

get the welder out

[steel]

here you can see a strengthened and modified crossmember to suit a v8 with lowered centre to clear sump solid aluminium xmember to chassis rail mounts ,,x member rear arms with solid aluminium bushes manta 400 springs i also have an adjustable anti roll bor and a bias pedal box with brand new master cylinders and res pots all bought s/h from a manta enthusiast parts modified back in the early ninties and never fitted

[steel]

yep got the mig ready to go will be doing everything myself for better or worse heres a few pics of work i did on my m8s mk1 golf gti that hes fitting a mk4 golf turbo lump into new cills new inner wings rebuild door pillar scuttle corners ect

[steel]

few more pics ,,crappy mot patch removal

[dtvracing]

Good luck with the project, alot of work ahead of you but it will al be worth it

[steel]

i was going to fit a manta 400 bodykit but after seeing this i like the idea of all steel flared wings and quarters

[steel]

any metal work gurus here for advice on this job? have been in touch with the guy who did the arches on this car and hes giving me some pointers, top bloke

[dazcapri]

try posting a question in the making panels section tonybmw should be able to point you in the right direction m8

[steel]

due to the chasis rails being rough and the price on replacements also i didnt want patches welded together to make a rail I decided I would make my own box section chassis rails out of 60x40 mm theyve been mitre cut to correct angles and length drilled a 22mm hole to weld in a crush tube where the front subframe bolts just need to weld them together now and weld braces in the car to stop the front subframe moving while I remove and replace each rusty rail with the new should start this on monday as busy till then

[steel]

[steel]

the floor and bulkhead will be made to suit the new rails if need be

[luckygti]

Looking good, love the Manta and really like the idea of flared arches. keep the updates coming

[steel]

cheers m8,, was beginning to think no one was following the build for a minute lol

[tumult]

these must be quite rare now i can't remember the last time i saw one on the road, it's another one of those cars i always fancied but never got around to getting. i like the idea of doing your own wide arches in steel and you can never go wrong with the old rover v8, my dads got a 63 singer vogue with one in.

[steel]

yep not seen any round my way for a good few years ive owned a few in the past the last about 10 years ago really enjoying working on it atm

[Sven]

Godo work, keep it up. I lusted after one of these in my yewf.

[steel]

got up there and weded in some braces the only purpose of these is to stop the crossmember moving when i remove the old rail hence losing my suspension mounting points and knackering the suspension/steering geometry
img580.imageshack.us/img580/1065/brace2.jpg
img850.imageshack.us/img850/3924/brace1.jpg

[steel]

welded in the crush tubes
img198.imageshack.us/img198/7335/crushtubes1.jpg
img808.imageshack.us/img808/6581/crushtubes3.jpg

[wagoneer]

Looking good. I've not seen one about for years either. I used to have a hatchback one in the mid 90's and that needed both sills doing then after being on the road just 10 years. Still, I developed my welding skills on it.