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Created by Martyn Locke

Since 07/08/02

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Berlinetta 1.8S - History

18/4/02

This is the day I bought it, my third car but my first manta - A Berlinetta 1.8S coupe, registered new in 1986 & dark metallic grey.

7/8/02

I bought it knowing that work was required as there was a hole by the rear offside wheel arch and some bubbles on the roof which would eventually have to be seen to.

Meanwhile happy motoring was enjoyed for a few months and various add-ons were bought to tart the beast up (not that it took much to out do the local 'boy racers' in there Nova's, the pure class which comes as standard with the manta was by far enough!). Until one day, after it had rained, the carpet was soaked and after having the front piece up I was most horrified by the sight of more rust which was not just surface but had eaten most of the floor pan, leaving a few holes. Of course the other side was the same. The question remained - Why?

The prime suspect was the door rubbers which had seen much better days and possibly the sunroof, the only way to find out was to pour water over the car and watch. The culprit was the sunroof, although in-directly as the water which goes down the drain pipes which lead down past the windscreen and empty into the inside of the sill, had rusted right through the inside of the sill drained onto the floor and so rotted the floor! (What a great design eh?).

To cure this I simply extended the rubber hoses on the front sunroof drains so that they stuck out of the floor and drained directly onto the ground (the back drains have been thought out properly and stick out underneath the floor).

Putting the welding off for a few months was the only thing to do as I need the car almost every day and finding the time to actually do it was rare. So the only thing to do was upgrade the sound system and lighting.

I had already installed the Kenwood CD player just 2 days after buying the car, the speakers that came with it were not up to much so the Sony 6" x 9" 180 watts had to transferred from my old car as well as the 100 watt tweeters which were bolted to the underside of the manta dash using the existing dash mounts. More bass was needed though and motorworld had the answer in the shape of 12" SPLX subs kicking out 700 watts a piece, the two subs will be mounted in the boot on a carpeted raised floor which has the spare wheel in the centre laying flat and a sub either side, these will be powered by 2 "Wanted" amp's each one is bridged and provides 250 watts RMS to each sub. A third carpower amp generating around 200 watts RMS per channel will drive four SPLX 450 watt 6" x 9"s when I get round to fitting them.

Lighting was also important and firstly came the small super bright LED spots for the instrument display inside, these provide a nice glow especially if you have white dials I've been told. Then the windscreen washer jets were upgraded to ones with built in LED's (illegal but fun) and finally I splashed out on the neon kit, just the one for now, under the front bumper but soon there shall be four.

The interior is what I really want to up rate badly, the manta exclusive's and GTE's came with Recaro seats and these are exactly what I want! soon!

Engines are also on the mind especially the 16v types with the magical 2.0i stamped on them. However all depends on what the insurance has to say about engine mods.

Engine temperatures are quite a way above normal but I think that's due to having the wrong rad fitted (not by me) so a trip to the local scrappy for electric fans was the answer, a large fan from a Vauxhall Senator 3.0i V6 was positioned in front of my rad and another fan from a Rover 218 was put behind and the original fan was removed to free up a few bhp.

31/8/02

Friday the 31st - A day to remember for the wrong reasons. Whilst happily driving through town around mid-day, a silver cavi decides to get a bit to intimate with my nearside wing after pulling out from a junction and destroys the plastic surround for the twin lamps and dents the wing (TWAT!) with only a scratch to his bumper which really pissed me off!

Insurance says I can't upgrade the engine until I'm 25, that's 6 years away! can I wait that long for the 16v 2.0?

450 watt 6" x 9"s now installed with a black carpeted rear shelf but still no subs as the amps are proving to be troublesome to obtain and the rusty bits need welding first before bolting the false floor down.

6/9/02

The non-standard in floor air conditioning known as rust holes have now been plated and seam welded so its very quiet now with all the carpets and sound dampening stuffs back in place after driving around for months without it. Now all I need is some tread plate which I intend to bolt to the front passenger and driver side floor instead of mats which are annoying and wear out.

Dent still in wing but ebay has provided me with a pair of Irmscher twin head lamp surrounds at the reasonable price of £26.

8/9/02

Ground breaking news, ok for me at least. transport has finally been arranged for a trip to Kilmarnock (near Glasgow) to pick up my most wanted items - A complete manta exclusive (minus the shell) which includes Recaro seats and sports interior, black alloy wheels, Irmscher spoiler and a 2 litre injection engine for a very nice price.

15/9/02

The Scotland trip has been cancelled as it's is gonna cost to much, so another exclusive nearer home is the only answer. Finally the hole by the rear wheel has been welded and filled along with the two seams that run down the back. Now the sub unit can be fitted when the amps arrive from CPC (They only had a few left in stock, so I bought three!).

28/9/02

The boot is now finished, with the 3 amps, 2 subs and 2 6 x 9s in place and its loud! Although when the boot is shut it does dampen the noise loads.

12/10/02

Number-plate pin lights now fitted (front and rear). SUB Down! - I think I turned the amps up too much as one of the subs voice coils have melted which caused a protection circuit to kick in on the amp and blow one of my expensive gold plated fuses (£2 a piece). So its time to splash out on subs with a bit more power.

2/11/02

Sikura alarm now installed for added piece of mind.

12/11/02

Central locking fitted and connected up to alarm for remote central locking. Courtesy light now converted to two super bright L.E.Ds (blue of course).

31/11/02

Picked up another manta today, mainly for bits. Its a GTE coupe.

11/12/02

Big bore exhaust fitted (3 inch) and GTE recaro seats and door cards fitted.

12/01/03

Overheating problems are now a thing of the past, as I swapped the meaty rad from the GTE with the one from the Berlinetta. But it may be too cold now, as it hardly gets above the quarter mark and there isn't even a fan working, cos the original mechanical one was removed for (slightly) more power and both electric ones have been removed.

25/2/03

A trip to motor world to purchase a new brake line for the GTE leads on to the subject of subs with one of the staff, and after a demonstration of his 1200 watt sub, I buy it for a very reasonable price. It now graces my boot and there's another one on order!

27/2/03

On the way to work a bloody road cone appears from the rear of the wagon I'm following and hits the bumper at about 50 mph, which makes a nice big crack in the bumper and wipes out my £40 under floor neon tube!

Typical, the cars only gonna be on the road for a few more days and this happens!

5/2/03

Tis a sad day, but also a good day, The old dears gonna be off the road now for about six months while I carry out vital repairs and modifications, but the good point is I get to drive my GTE now!

29/03/03

I've now started stripping bits off the car, the windscreens out so I can clean up some corrosion around the corners and apply a black sun screen along the top. And the rear axle has been removed for sandblasting and a nice coat of paint.

4/4/03

Its now looking quite sorry for itself, up on stands with no rear axle or drive train. I've pulled al this down to have them sandblasted and painted - cos someday its going to Billing, maybe not this year but definitely next year so its gotta look spectacular from all angles.

I've also been working on the 400 bumpers I got hold of, as they were a little worse for wear. (it appears there not 400 bumpers, but Mantzel elegance bumpers)

29/4/03

Its all filled and primed on the rear end now, just need a spray job. Just finished welding some minor corrosion on the inner wing, bring on the fibre glass wings!

6/5/03

All the drive train has now been painted in red, yellow and blue and looks very nice!

18/5/03

Drive train now installed back on car and the exhaust system has been re-fitted.

20/6/03

The boot lid has been de-locked and a cable now runs from by the drivers seat to the back to open the boot.

27/7/03

Fibreglass wings from Smith and Deakin are here and waiting to go on, 400 bonnet has yet to arrive.

I've just bought some Astra GTE discs to go on the front, they're bigger than the Carlton ones I intended to fit with the Volvo 4 pots, and so don't have roughly 8mm of pad overhang. The discs are vented and came ready drilled with a spacer made up and longer bolts, to bolt them straight on.

30/7/03

Discs and calipers now on with EBC green stuff pads and they look sweet! now all I need to do is sort out the hydraulic line as the manta has one line per caliper but the calipers need 2 lines each.

3/08/03

Fibreglass bonnets here and looks good, shame the four bolt holes are in the wrong place!

Now have to weld on a piece of metal to lengthen the hinges slightly.

22/9/03

Not a lot happening now, waiting for my non-sunroof roof to arrive in November (still attached to a GTE unfortunately), after chipping away at the tiny bulge in in the roof it soon became apparent that it was far worse than I thought, with fairly large holes that had been filler-ed and sprayed over, so a new roof is the best idea.

Also on the look out for a 16 valve engine/complete car, so I can get the thing moving again as most of the engine has now been removed.

Thinking about having a remote start feature (That's your fault Chris!) which looks fun, should get a few confused looks!

Gonna be ordering a brand new headlining from Germany, cost 125 euro + shipping, but available in white, grey and black, so black it is! Also I'm doing away with all the handles, sun visors, interior light and the rear view mirror as I hope to have a camera underneath the car going to a small 5-6 inch TFT monitor in the dash - Have to see how the funds go as they don't come cheap. Hope to get the interior re-trimmed some time.

Took matters into my own hands and sprayed the whole dashboard and centre console black - Completely dis-assembled it. Looks good.

19/10/03

Been trimming the fibre glass wings I got from Smith & D - Lots of work required to fit these.

Acquired some very nice and very rare blitz seats from a scrapped i200, as well as a set of 400 style mirrors.

And today I picked up my brand new front heated windscreen, which should be priceless in winter when the outside and possibly the inside is frozen up!

24/3/04

Haven't been doing much to this one, although I did pick up a very nice solid roof skin from a mk1 Cavi coupe in Marham, the owner thought the car wasn't economically viable to save (If I'd of had the money and time I'd of bought the whole car and done the work) so cut it up in front of me - a moment not to forget. I also got a complete Jetex exhaust system for a CIH engine, a Momo Opel sport steering wheel and a few voltage regulators for a very good price.

Apart from that there's nothing new, lots of ideas for modifying the dash, engine and rear lights though. Sometime soon I intend completely stripping the car and turning it on it's side so I can get all the old underseal off the underside, deal with any rust and pain the whole lot in white hammerite including the engine bay.

25/5/04

Lots of new ideas for the old girl but neither the time nor money at present to do anything - damn credit cards! (and fuel guzzling mantas @ 25 mpg)

30/7/04

Well I've been thinking about a good engine for this one for a while and after getting some advice from someone who knows his stuff I've decided to look into going for the Rover V8 option, with it's alloy block and tuning potential I feel it's the way forward. Together with a modified SD1 back axle this should be fun.