74 Manta Paint Job

[neuropel]

I recently put my '74 Manta into the paint shop. As I work out of town every week, I asked my wife and son to drop by every now and then to snap some pictures of the process. As I get pics, I'll dump them into my photo folder here:

74 Blue Manta - Opel Photo Gallery

It's going back to the original Signal Blue, but with a few twists.

Todd

[BQS4]

Did you get Bobby's approval for these "changes?" wink, wink, nudge, nudge..

[Phoenix]

If by "a few twist" you mean GTE scheme, It'll look awesome.

Side note, I would swap those wheels and tires out before they start painting just to make sure that absolutely no overspray gets on them. They'll say that they won't get any on them but it still happens.

[neuropel]

Everytime I go into the shop, the guy asks me if we can ditch the big bumpers and go with the small chrome bumpers. Once they removed the bumpers, they noticed a lot similarity to the two 1st gen Camaros they have in the shop. If it was easier, I'd let him go for it but it looks like it would entail a lot of work. I'll have to admit, it DOES look better without those big honking bumpers.

[opelgt73]

Are those ROH Snypers?

[neuropel]

Originally Posted by opelgt73 Are those ROH Snypers?

Yes. They're around 10yrs old now!

[Phoenix]

Originally Posted by neuropel Everytime I go into the shop, the guy asks me if we can ditch the big bumpers and go with the small chrome bumpers. Once they removed the bumpers, they noticed a lot similarity to the two 1st gen Camaros they have in the shop. If it was easier, I'd let him go for it but it looks like it would entail a lot of work. I'll have to admit, it DOES look better without those big honking bumpers.

What about welding the bumpers to the body, very close, molding them in and just painting them to match? I always want to see that done similar to the camaros and cudas. Personally, I'd like to put Mustang S197 bumpers front and back and mold them in. You could go GT, Roush, Saleen, whatever.

[jerseydave]

I know about the big bumpers, what a difference when I took them off. I am putting a set of little chrome bumpers back on the car this winter-I did mount them temporarily for the last couple of months. My Manta should also be painted by spring!!!

[jlthunder]

OH NO, not the big bumper/little bumper discussion again

[neuropel]

Does anyone have pictures that show the "early" bumper mounting on a manta? I'd like to be able to print out pictures to show the body man.

Also, I need to source some early bumpers, front and rear, along with some early turn signal housings and lenses. I'll be placing an ad in the classifieds.

Todd

[jerseydave]

Todd,

Charles Goin had some NOS bumpers for the Blue Max, I don't know if he sold or still has them. You could also check with Duane or some of the suppliers, USA Opel or Opel Werks.

As for the exact mountings I have taken plenty of digital pictures that I'll try to e-mail to you.

[jerseydave]

Here are some pictures

[Gary]

Originally Posted by neuropel ...Also, I need to source some early bumpers, front and rear, along with some early turn signal housings and lenses. I'll be placing an ad in the classifieds. Todd

There was a guy from PA at Carlisle who had a bunch of rechromed Opel Manta and Ascona bumpers. He was taking measurements of some of the cars to ID his bumper stock. I'll try to find his contact info.

[Opel/Manta]

Todd, do you mind where I ask you, where you took your car? My manta is faded pretty bad.

[neuropel]

Originally Posted by Gary There was a guy from PA at Carlisle who had a bunch of rechromed Opel Manta and Ascona bumpers. He was taking measurements of some of the cars to ID his bumper stock. I'll try to find his contact info.

Awesome! Thanks Gary.

Todd

[neuropel]

Originally Posted by Opel/Manta Todd, do you mind where I ask you, where you took your car? My manta is faded pretty bad.

The car is currently at A&S Infinity Graphix in Vandergrift, PA. It's less than 10 miles from my home. You can PM me for more info if you're interested.

[neuropel]

FYI...
I contacted the company that has recently advertised on opelgt.com selling stainless Rekord bumpers. They will reproduce the manta bumpers in stainless for me at no cost. The small catch is that I have to pay shipping and provide them old bumpers as a pattern. The bigger catch is that they're in Vietnam and it apparently costs rougly $600 or so to ship them each way. I would have to pay shipping to send the old bumpers over there, and pay for shipping the reproduction bumpers back. They would keep the old bumpers as a pattern.

So this raises the question, does anyone know (roughly) what it costs to rechrome one of these bumpers?

Todd

[timemachine]

As Jeff said, oh boy, here we go again with the bumpers...

I'm keeping my mouth shut this time up to the point somebody (Dave) starts busting on my car, but you're welcome to park behind me.

Jim

[jlthunder]

I had my bumpers rechromed at Frankford Plating in Philadelphia.

Here is a link Frankford Plating Inc

I paid $900.00 for all of my GT bumpers and bumperettes. They do great work. I delivered and picked them up so I didn't have to pay shipping. This was 5 years ago and the bumpers still look great. They do bumpers for concourse shows.

[RallyBob]

Originally Posted by neuropel So this raises the question, does anyone know (roughly) what it costs to rechrome one of these bumpers? Todd

Todd, that's like asking how much it costs to paint a car...it depends.

If the part you are plating is like new, no rust, no pitting, and not bent (at all), then it really is as simple as:

*stripping the bumper
*polishing the bumper
*copper plating the bumper
*polishing the copper
*chemical cleaning, then nickel plating
*chemical cleaning, then chrome plating

Trivalent chrome costs much less than hexavalent chrome (as a process), mostly because hexavalent chrome is highly toxic. It is actually banned in some countries (Germany comes to mind). It is scarcely used these days, but hexavalent chrome is the 'old' style of chrome, which is very deep and almost 'blue' in color, whereas the cheaper/safer trivalent chrome looks more yellow...almost like polished stainless, but a little less yellow than nickel. True restoration shops and anybody working on Harleys use only hexavalent chrome, hence the higher price tags on those parts.

Now, if the bumper is tweaked, rusted, pitted, etc....then they need to do bodywork on the parts to make them perfectly smooth before chrome. They can use some filler techniques with silver solder (super pricey!) and heavy copper buildup (also super pricey!), but they are still sanding and smoothing metal...not bondo. So the cost of labor is stupid! If you had a choice of a $50 bent bumper or a $200 straight bumper, you will still save hundreds in metalwork alone!

As an example, earlier this year I made a dome light base from scratch for a '25 Buick because it was too far rusted for the chrome shop to save (economically speaking).













I probably saved the restoration shop $200 in repairs prior to plating this single light fixture!

[jlthunder]

Bob has a good point. My bumpers were straight but faded and only rusty on the inside(minor rust). I'm sure this kept the price reasonable.

[Rionart]

I think the reasonable approach is to put the big bumpers back on.

.............then go out and find a small bumpered Manta to paint the same colour!

[neuropel]

Originally Posted by Rionart I think the reasonable approach is to put the big bumpers back on. .............then go out and find a small bumpered Manta to paint the same colour!

Now there's a thought...I mean, they're so plentiful!
Actually, the SS/Vietnam route doesn't sound that bad, but I've no idea on quality. I'd bet the polished stainless looks awesome though, and no rust worries....ever...

[deanh74_2]

Originally Posted by neuropel I'd bet the polished stainless looks awesome though, and no rust worries....ever...

That would depend on the SS they use. 304 SS doesn't rust at all. 403 SS will rust unless it is coated and taken care of.

Dean

[neuropel]

Well, time for an update. As mentioned, I decided to take the plunge and convert from the big bumpers to the early style chrome bumpers. I made this decision primarily because I wanted the car to have a GT/E theme, and when we held up the front spoiler we just couldn't get it to look right with the big bumpers. This is not to say it won't work, but the tubes holding the shock absorbers for the big bumpers interfere with the spoiler. I've seen other cars that fitted the spoiler by cutting it to fit around the tubes, but I wanted to be able to remove the spoiler, so keeping the original bumpers was going to turn the spoiler into even more of a hack job. So...the tubes were cut off the front end and the holes in the lower valence panel were closed by welding in steel patches. I then had to source some early style front turn signals (found them on Ebay through Opels USA (thanks Jim)). Next came fitting up the bumpers and brackets. I sourced some original brackets through Duane Foley (MantAscona), and took some pictures of his Manta as a reference to begin the process of fitting up the bumpers (thanks Duane!). With some "improvisation", the shop got everything to fit up nicely. The brackets are not exactly "high tech" - just a couple of pieces of steel L brackets really. The pictures show some of the issues the shop ran into with mounting the bumpers. They basically had to go to the opposite (outer) side of the frame rails to fit the brackets, but this then threw off the mounting holes for the bumpers. And to further complicate things, the '73 bumper I gave them to use for fitment has different mounting holes than '71-'72 bumpers - though if you have an original small bumper car, it seems there are holes for either configuration. Compared to the '74-'75 big bumpers, the early Manta bumpers are almost purely for aesthetics and offer virtually NO front end crash protection.
I originally wanted to use Dzus fasteners to attach the front spoiler, but the fiberglass is very thin and the fit isn't exactly perfect, so we opted for a different route. The spoiler now attaches with stainless bolts via welded nuts on the back side of the lower valence panel. This allowed the shop to attach it using as many points as needed to hold it in the proper position. If I need to remove the spoiler to get the car on/off a trailer, etc., I can do so. But more importantly, when the spoiler gets cracked and beaten up (being so thin, this WILL happen), it can be removed and repaired.