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
Steering

Best Laid Plans and All That!

So if you have been following my build you will know that like Baldrick i came up with a cunning plan for the steering! well, after some testing i was not feeling the love for it. It has real potential as an option but i think needs to be made as a custom kit specifically for the rack and cross member as using prts from other cars and then adapting them got the concept right but i just felt that with the stress exerted on the rack when stationary and at low speeds that there would be movement. I think…

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CIH Engine

GM/Opel CIH Engine Timing Chain Guides & Potential Problems

Im writing this little post on some of this issues i have encountered when building my Opel Manta CIH engine due to the differences between the Original GM/OPEL timing chain guides and the aftermarket ones. It started off with me finding it very hard to fit the top chain sprocket onto the cam end and thinking was it the aftermarket chain? or the banana guide?, so sourced an original chain and the long guide. The banana one does not seem to be available as an original one only aftermarket ones, but i did find an original one for the chain…

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Opel Manta A Series Cylinder Head. Wrapped for storage
CIH Engine

Cylinder Head Rebuild

If you happen to pass by my blog every now and then you will see that i have not posted for a while, mainly because if have not been up to much on the Manta. After hassling the engine builder to get the cam bearings in and the head back to me, i got the head back and was ready to build up the head and then i got side tracked into trying to sort out my Seat Altea as just a week before the MOT was up the passengers door lock would not release the deadlock. So weeks of…

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Interior

FULL INTERIOR CLEAN

The plan is to slowly build up the head and finish off the motor so its ready around the end of March/start of April, when the weather should be better and i can plan the time in to get it all fitted and started up properly. So that leaves me with a bit of time to get the interior totally sorted out. As the weather has been good this weekend and the sun is out (after the last few snowy days!) i thought it would be a good idea to removed the interior and give it a good clean. So…

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engine bay

Washer Bottle Conversion

One issue i have had that i have been putting off is what to do with the washer bottle. The area where the washer bottle originally fits has been taken up with the fuel lines, regulator and filter and i was finding it hard to locate a place where the washer bottle could go as its quite big. The ideal location would have been up on the bulkhead behind the accelerator cable outlet as there is a nice bit of unused space there. But the standard bottle is too tall. So a bit of research was needed. It turns out…

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Lights

Opel Manta A Series Halo Lights

I just thought i would share this little video of the Halo lights all up and running. I will add a pic later of them on with the grill all fitted as that finishes it off nicely. Halo Lights video, click here. And here are a couple of pics with the grill back in 🙂

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Steering

Track rod end locking nut

I thought i would pop this post on as i had been trying to find the safe place that i put the track road end locking nuts, with no luck. So a quick post on the forum and i have the info back that the nuts i was looking for were: m14 X 1.5 pitch half nuts. So after a quick google i tracked down this site: ttps://www.brickwerks.co.uk and it turns out that a T3 VW has the same ones, and they are only £1.76 each. Here is the link to them: https://www.brickwerks.co.uk/half-nut-m14-x1-5-bzp.html in case anyone else is looking for an…

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Interior

Time for the interior to get some TLC!

I have spent so much time on the outside of the car i thought is im getting closer to getting her back on the road it was about time i did a bit of a clean up on the interior. Luckily, before i took the car off the road i had the rear seat recovered to match the front Recaro’s and sorted the head lining and got the interior all up to scratch. So it was more of giving it a good clean inside. I had been saving a new piece of plastic for the dash pod so i took…

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Interior

Time for a tidy up of the wiring!

With this nice mild weather over the Christmas holidays, i thought it would be a good time to tidy up the wiring as i now have the new twin fans all hooked up and i wanted to get the little engine bay vent fan properly connected up so it will run with the twin fans or i can switch on manually to help with cooling if sat in traffic and there have been a couple of spare wires that needed tracing and removing since the swap to the bluetooth music controller. I have also taken to opportunity to add a…

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Popular posts

GM/Opel CIH Engine Timing Chain Guides & Potential Problems

Im writing this little post on some of this issues i have encountered when building my Opel Manta CIH engine due to the differences between the Original GM/OPEL timing...

Finishing the Exhaust

I have finally got back round to doing some more work on the car!! The summer has been a bit busy with work so not much time has been...