Latest Updates for Manta MontageAfter spending a few days measuring and trying to find the best square on the trunk lid I managed to get a line that looked pretty good. So today it was time to cut the trunk lid and get started shaping it to be set up the way I am wanting. It was pretty quick to cut, I just used a jigsaw and followed my line around the whole thing.
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I started trying to build a wing for the trunk lid. I am using foam and shaping it to get the look I am after. Then I will make it out of fiberglass and mount it to the car. It will fix one of the big problems with the trunk and hopefully look nicer.
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Didn’t get much time to work on the car today but I did manage to get the trunk lid bolted down solidly.
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I unbolted the trunk lid from the car and hung it from the ceiling with straps to position it on the car. The trunk has is warped and will not sit flat on the car. It took a bit of measuring to figure out how it is twisted but after getting it sorted out I got it sitting square.
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Got a bunch of small things done today. First thing was finish the drivers side dropped spindle. After that I dropped it down on the ground and got a picture of how it sits.
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I should be getting some time to start back on this car. All the structural parts are mostly in place so I think it is time to start putting some things together for the last time. The easiest thing to do is the front end so that is what I am going to work on first. I have a set of 2 inch dropped spindles to try and get a better ride height out of the car. I managed to get the passenger side swapped out. The boots that came with the new control arm ball joints are rotten so I will have to replace them and get new tie rods before I can call the front end done but that is minor stuff I will do when I am closer to finishing the car.
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After a short break from working on the car I am back on it at least occasionally. One of the last fitment problems is getting the wipers and heater box to fit in the car and still have room to fit the passenger’s foot area. I tried using the stock Metro wiper assembly and it was just not going to fit in and give me the correct coverage of the windshield. As well as it would make the heater box sit pretty low on the dash and the passenger would end up putting their feet on it. I gave up with trying to get it to fit and went with the AutoLoc WIPER2 Heavy Duty Power Windshield Wiper Kit.
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Today I worked on mounting everything under the dash. First was put the pedals back in then remove all the old stuff from the car.
It took a while to get the pedals in place and get the steering wheel at the right height to be comfortable driving. But after it was in I checked the fit of the heater box and it has plenty of room on the passenger side. I then started fitting the Metro wiper assembly into the car. It is a different width between the posts and the motor will be in a different place but I think I can get it all working. I just need to come up with an easy way to modify the sweep angle of the drivers side wiper to get it to sweep a bit wider than stock.
I managed to get the holes to put the shafts through sized properly and get the wiper shafts put in place. They are not mounted yet. I will probably have to glue them in place to mount them. The motor will probably be the hardest part to get mounted since it will be mounted under the dash instead of through the firewall and will mount backwards. I will experiment with the mounting tomorrow and see if I can get a working setup.
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Today I started by framing up the front section of the floor. I will make the floor later. I mostly wanted it framed in so I could start building the firewall and getting everything mounted. With the floor lowered an inch and the body raised 3/4 off the frame I have more room for the pedals. So first thing is figure out a template for the new 16 ga. firewall.
Using cardboard I made a template for the firewall that fits pretty snug in the opening. The closer I can get it the better off I am with sealing it up and keeping it from leaking. Once I cut the pattern out in steel I marked and cut out the hole for the master cylinder mounting. The new location for the master cylinder gives me plenty of room under the hood for the stock setup to fit. I might still add a remote fill to it so it will be easier to top off the fluid.
I spent a long time trying to connect the morse cable I am using for the clutch to the pedal but there just was no good way to get it working right. I finally just gave up and used the stock Metro cable to mount to the firewall and built an adapter to connect the two cables together. This will work out good since it gives me even more adjustment capability on the clutch cable. I will mount the adapter bracket in the front somewhere once I get more of it built and know where it can go. Up next is to finish mounting the pedals to the firewall including mounting the throttle pedal. After the pedals are in place I need to mount a set of good wipers and mount the heater box. Then I just need to build a dashboard and the few odds and ends for the interior then it is time to start on the final build to get it on the road.
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I decided to split the floor into two parts. The back part will be welded in and the seats and seat belt hardware will be mounted solidly on it. The front half will be bolted on so I can remove it to access under the dashboard. I just had to cut and weld on some 1 inch square tube to go around the frame to give me something solid to mount the floor to. I used the old floor and just cut out the part of it I needed I spot welded it to the frame enough to hold it in place for now.
I will use square tube to mount the front section of the floor and weld nuts. I will most likely use angle to attach the front firewall to the floor. After that is framed up I will start building the dashboard and that should finish up figuring out all the locations of the components. Then I can brace everything up solid then strip the car down to do the final welding and rust proofing of the frame.
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