A stripdown of the Manta reveals a very healthy shell. Sunroof is totally rot free which is almost unheard of. A few bits of rot here and there, but generally good. A good going over with a steam cleaner followed by a blow torch and scraping session and it's ready for blasting. The final pic shows an area of rot at the rear of the o/s inner wing which had been 'repaired' with a bean-tin lid and some sealer!!!

RB25 engine looks a big ugly lump, but with all the anciliaries removed it's suprisingly compact (relatively speaking!!)

With the shell blasted it's time to start offering up the skyline engine and 'box. We've got the new inlet and 'top-mount' turbo exhaust manifolds on at this stage to check for clearance. Initially the shell is roughly cut to get the engine sat in position. then once we have a clearer idea of the postioning of everything, the fabrication gets underway, starting with the transmission tunnel and bulkhead area.

Next step is to tackle some of the rotten areas that won't be cut out as part of the running gear installation. First-up is the inner wing. We have a genuine replacment part, so it's a case of drilling the spot welds out, removing the old wing, applying plenty of weld-thru primer and spot/plug-welding the new panel in. A small repair section was made to replace a rotten area of the flange between inner wing and nose section.

A new rear panel has also been sourced, so the old one is cut out and the flanges remade in preparation for fitting the new one.

The new rear panel was then fitted, and some rust repairs carried out to the offside 'A' panel area, although these jobs somehow escaped the camera!!

Next we get busy up front - the bulkhead modifications are completed to clear the new engine, and pedal box, and the whole area is seam welded to add strength. At this stage (not photographed) we also offer up the new aircon and heater (HVAC) unit which will sit behind the dash, above the tunnel. It's tight but it fits!

On this project we are trying to keep as much original Manta metal as possible, and after making up a Jig from the other IRS manta we are building, and offering up the subframe, it becomes apparent that we can retain a lot of the original Manta rear floor. We had assumed this would not be possible and not blasted this area, so the car goes back into the blasting booth for a quick reblast, and cleanup of the rear floor, before getting an all-over Zinc Phosphate prime.

Alongside the bodyshell metalwork, we are also preparing parts and panels. The Skyline rear subframe we are using is stripped, blasted and repainted with a Polyurathene 2k paint.

The doors and bootlid are stripped and inspected - all very good indeed. The boot just needed the old GTE spoiler holes welding up before a light skim of filler and a good coat of 'Reface' (high-build spray filler). One door had a small patch of corrosion bulging out between a double skin section near the check-strap, so this was cut out and made good. The doors were also then smoothed out and Refaced.

The bodykit is also getting an initial smoothing out and tidying up session

This Manta is going to have a lamp pod fitted, which is one of the more involved parts of the bodywork. The pod is to be removable to access the lamps (which will be fitted from the back) but not look like an afterthought.

First job is to cut down the fibreglass pod to the shape we want, and remove the section that forms the top of the bumper. We then bond the remaining front section (usually removable with lamps mounted between the two parts, but we feel this would look untidy) to the rear section. Next we cut out the front panel, tape it up and remould the pod to be a perfect fit to the front panel.

Next the bumper-top section (previously removed from the front part of the lamp pod) is cut into the bumper, screwed in place with temporary brackets and then fibreglassed.

Then begins an extensive 'sculpting' session, to get everything even, smooth and the gap between bumper and lamp pod looking perfect. The lamp holes are also milled out to the correct size for the lamps we have (allowing us to get them perfectly circular, unlike their original state!).