1974 A Series Opel Manta Blog

The Opel Project blog has been setup to record the rebuild of my 1974 A Series Opel Manta.
OPEL
1974 A Series Opel Manta Blog
Bodywork

Front end nearly finished!

I had a chance to do a bit more on the car today and have the wings fitted and the indicators in place. I just need to get some bulbs and that’s the front end sorted. I will fit the bumper after I have flatted and polished the front.

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Bodywork

Time to fit some parts!

Today i started to fit some of the parts back onto the car. The middle grill section is in place and I fitted the nice new rear lights that I have had stored away for ages and the new rear turn lenses that I got from Opel GT Source went on and look great. Time to get some nice new bulbs for them.

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Bodywork

Trying for perfection!

As the nose cone came out so good it has made me take a second look at the other panels and I have ended up repainting the wings and boot lid to try and get a similar finish. And I think they have come out pretty good. I have also found that even when you think something is spot on its not until you blow a coat of the red over it do you see any imperfections that you missed so the bonnet has had a quick coat with some paint I have left over from the wings which really…

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Opel Manta A Series Cardinal Red color match | Standox - Standofleet R2/R185
Bodywork

Paint Color

I thought i would post the color I’m painting the car in case anyone else is looking for this color. As far as I’m aware the original Opel color was Cardinal Red, but the paint company could not find this in a paint system I used so they go their spectrometer on the wing and came up with a match of Standox – Standofleet R2/R185 As you can see from the color chip its a spot-on match for the original color that it was painted 🙂

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Opel Manta A Series 2K solid red
Bodywork

And finally we are in paint!!

Well, its been a bust and slightly frustrating week this week, but we are finally in paint! I decided not to buy a compressor but to hire one, well that was a mistake! I booked from Tuesday 21st off for the week and had the compressor turn up first thing Tuesday and the weather was stunning! So I cranked it up so I could test the new Devilbiss FLG-G5 out and after the initial filling up of the tank, I connected the gun and started to have a play around with it. Then when the compressor kicked back in to…

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Opel Manta A Series in Upoxy super etch
Bodywork

Sanding, sanding, sanding…

So the never-ending sanding continues!! I have just gone over a few bits with the Upoxy super etch primer. This is a bit like a high build primer and etch combined, so I’m hoping that on some of the panels that don’t need too much work I can get away with a couple of coats of this and a light sand before the topcoat. The nose cone, boot lid and bonnet will need a couple of coats of 2K high-build primer as well as they were quite rough and need a fair bit of sanding. Hopefully i can get all…

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Painting

New paint gun

I had a very old Devilbiss JGA gun that i used to paint the car originally and had planned to use this but as it had been sat in the loft for years and after a quick test it didn’t seem to give a great spray pattern i decided that rather than mess about with it and try to get it painting properly i would just opt for getting a new gun. After a fair but of reading up and youtube videos the Devilbiss FLG-G5 1.4 came out with very good reviews for the price and for painting 2K solid…

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Bodywork

The Bodywork Prep Begins!

Now its time to start on the bodywork! I popped over to the local paint supplier the other day and they managed to match colour of the Cardinal Red as it was not listed anymore. So I’m all ok for the topcoat when I’m ready. I picked up the etch primer and a few other bits so I can now start prepping and filing the bodywork, with the plan to have as much as I can finished by the end of August and then hopefully get painting in September.

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