Opel Manta 2.0 GTE Exclusive

by Mike
(UK)

Good old simple mechanicals, meant very easy maintenance. However my Manta seemed to suffer from a little from the rust bug, which eventually I got round to sorting. Actually I was forced to in the end, as one night while driving along a country road in the pitch black, a young deer decided to run across the road, hitting the drivers side front wing. I guess I was lucky, as a second later would have had me hit it front ways on and probably have done a lot more damage. Unfortunately it was pitch black and although I stopped, I couldn't see a thing (don't know what happened to the deer either).

As you can see in the pics the damage was minimal, but required the dent being pulled and then skimming over with filler and primer.

The Manta was my only car at the time and work was restricted to doing a little bit here and there, as the car was needed for daily driving. At some point I realised that getting hold of the right paint and matching it was going to be a right pain and so decided to just respray it white (or at least just the bottom half - was feeling a bit too lazy to do all of it, plus would have meant a full strip and inner panels, doors, boot and bonnet having to be done as well).

I was a member of the Opel manta Owners Club with this car. I was given my previous members number having owned and been a member with a preious Opel Manta some years before - nice.