My life in cars - Manta man!

[Cavcraft]

On 17/04/2025 at 20:13, Bmwdumptruck said:

When these Mk2 Cavaliers first came out my Dad still had his garage in Luton.  I’d have been 17/18 ish.  He had a customer / friend that got an early 1.6SR, before they made them 1.8Fi’s.  So it looked sporty but was only standard 1.6 power.  This guy was a rep and quickly put 100k on it, by which time it was guzzling oil so one of the last jobs my dad did before closing the garage down (in Maggies recession) was to fit a brand new crated vauxhall replacement engine, as they were still too new for recon untis from the more normal engine suppliers.  At the same time dad had another cusromer, one of the last hat factory families in Luton, where the dad had just bought an early BMW 323i that was just so nice, and his younger son who was their company rep, had a new 2.0 mk5 Cortina Ghia which looked great but was so antiquated compared to both the Cavalier and the BMW, and woefully finished and unreliable.  For me Ford certainly rested on their laurels through most of the 80s.  Don’t actually think much changed until the first Mondeos. 

My dad had a 1.6SR as a company car, he didn't want to hang on for another few weeks to get the 1.8 SRi. 

 

[trigger]

A quick update, the new owner of my Escort has fixed the arches and sills, fitted new door bottoms and given it a lower half respray. It's looking smart now so I thought I'd share some photos.

 

[trigger]

Meanwhile I've sold the Cavalier back on, I done a few shows in it including the festival of the unexceptional and whilst the cars absolutely lovely it just didn't excited me and spent most it's time just sat on the garage.

So i put it on eBay, as I'm sure many of you saw and it sold in less than a week to a local guy who's had 34 Vauxhall's and learnt to drive in an identical one back in the early 90s, he was looking for something to keep original and to take to shows at the weekend so he was perfect for it.

Obviously this meant that I HAD to buy another old car, first there was this Lotus Cortina replica that came up for sale for £9500, it has a 2.0 zetec, twin 45s, type 9 and all that jazz, I was second inline for a viewing but the first guy bought it which was a bit disappointing.

Then a red MK1 Cavalier came up for £2200 but again it sold before I could view it, next this 20000 mile Datsun 140J came up on Facebook for £8200, I had arranged to view it but it was a lot of money...

I was due to view this on Tuesday but something better came up on Monday...

[trigger]

Again, I was on Facebook Monday afternoon and I saw this Manta come up for sale on the club page in Daventry, about 120 miles away so rather spontaneously I jumped in my car and shot across and bought it!

It's a 1978 2.0SR automatic with 71000 miles, it came from Chelmsford and spent most it's life in the area I grew up, the seller was a lovely chap and very honest with it so money was handed over and today I got it collected!

I'm well chuffed, it's not perfect, the paintworks been done before and it's a bit microblistered and patchy and there's a couple of scabs and the auto box has a small leak from the selector rod but it comes with the seal and tool to fix it.

It cost me less than I sold the Cavalier for too which is a bonus, check out the blue velour!

It came with a massive file full of paperwork from new including sales brochures and even a book of petrol full ups, mostly from where I used to live.

I look like a proper GM fanboi whilst the Cavalier is waiting to be collected!

[hairnet]

oof

180 was nice but hfm

dun aroite ther boiy

[warren t claim]

AUTO???

Manual choke conversion?

[hairnet]

mrs trig love auto?

[trigger]

5 hours ago, warren t claim said:

AUTO???

Manual choke conversion?

Unfortunately but I can live with that, it's had a Weber fitted with a manual choke

[trigger]

I haven't done much with the Manta as I've been having issues with it, one of the previous owners fitted a cheap Chinese fuel pump as it was apparently struggling to start when sat for a little while, unfortunately it was unregulated so it was pumping 4 psi of fuel into the carb and brimming the secondary port with fuel when running making it extremely rich!

There wasn't a safety cut off either so it was just constantly pumping fuel all the time, that's now all been taken out and the original lift pump put back on again, I also changed the fuel pipes too

It's now running better but when it's hot it won't start, you can see fuel going into the carb but it's bubbling away! dad's been over for a look and we've come to the conclusion that there should be a insulation spacer between the inlet and the carb and that the carbs getting too hot from the exhaust manifold, hopefully once I've fitted that it will be ok again.

I've also fitted rear seat belts and some rear speakers for it.

I managed to get some photos last weekend, I'm gagging to actually use it, now the bad weather is here... 

 

[hairnet]

is the roll for all the mess youll make

 

[666jjp]

puppy power!!

[Rustybullethole]

That's well fit. 

[High Jetter]

20 hours ago, trigger said:

I haven't done much with the Manta as I've been having issues with it, one of the previous owners fitted a cheap Chinese fuel pump as it was apparently struggling to start when sat for a little while, unfortunately it was unregulated so it was pumping 4 psi of fuel into the carb and brimming the secondary port with fuel when running making it extremely rich!

There wasn't a safety cut off either so it was just constantly pumping fuel all the time, that's now all been taken out and the original lift pump put back on again, I also changed the fuel pipes too

It's now running better but when it's hot it won't start, you can see fuel going into the carb but it's bubbling away! dad's been over for a look and we've come to the conclusion that there should be a insulation spacer between the inlet and the carb and that the carbs getting too hot from the exhaust manifold, hopefully once I've fitted that it will be ok again.

I've also fitted rear seat belts and some rear speakers for it.

I managed to get some photos last weekend, I'm gagging to actually use it, now the bad weather is here... 

 

Looks fit, I remember them BITD, autobox would put me off though. Glad it's alive.

[trigger]

I've been working on this old thing the last few weeks.

My dad bought this 1957 Ford Popular 103E about 7 years ago and it's been sat in a barn since after a bit of welding work, unfortunately the mice had moved in and it got rather neglected. 

I got it back to mine and made a start cleaning years of mice shit and piss off it, it was proper minging man.

I pulled several dead mice out of it, the old car cover went straight in the bin, the following morning I opened the bin and alive mouse jumped out of it!

Once all cleaned I made a start with repairing and painting the lower A post panels.

Once the wings have been bolted back on they'll look as good a new.

The brand new 6v Yussa Battery expanded and split and ruined the tray so i repaired that too.

And the wheels had gone rusty, especially the spare where it had been swimming in a inch of mouse piss for years

There's still plenty of work to do, bumpers need painting, it needs a new carpet and the rear seat was damaged by mice and the rear board got woodworm so in the middle of trying to repair that

This was the original dealer, we think it's a genuine 36000 miles from new too.

It's not really my thing as it's a bit old but it's very basic and easy to work on!

[Spottedlaurel]

4 hours ago, trigger said:

Interesting to see this, apparently the precursors to Sheffield-Garner, Mereside Ford and most recently John Grose, all listed at what seems to be the same address. Showroom recently demolished and site due to be redeveloped as some sort of Council leisure facility.

[adw1977]

10 hours ago, trigger said:

 

That dealer plaque is a thing of beauty!

[Angrydicky]

Beautiful car Trig and great work sorting it out for your dad.