Marcos Mantula body

[ugly betty]

Hi, I'm new here. Ive recently purchase a 1986 Mantula and am going to remove body to carry out complete restoration. have any of you nice nice people ever done this? If so can you tell me where screws are located (am led to believe there are over 50 of the pesky gits. Also any other tips would be very muchly appreciated Cheers

[Cool Mart]

Get yourself across to http://www.marcosforum.org/ , there are quite a few guys there who have done this work in the past and will be able to advise you of all the pitfalls and things to look out for ie using four people to lift the body off if it's Spyder to support the unbraced middle section and prevent cracking.
I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a diagram showing the position of 54 (?) screws holding the body in place - may depend on if you have the Coupe or Spyder.

Good luck

Martin

[ugly betty]

Thanks for that Martin.. Better to speak to someone who has actually done something like this as you could bet you're that there would be a hidden bracket or something that would only be detected by doing it the first time. Lets face it we'd all do most things in life differantly if we could only have another go!! thanks a lot Bri

[chrisj]

I removed mine a few years ago (and it's still off...).
Screws are everywhere:

- Outer faces of the sill rails
- The ends of the footwells
- Behind the dash agains the bulkhead
- A few along the lower tunnel chassis rails
- In and around the seat squab wells
- On the shelf underneath the rear window
- On the ridge under the headrests
- The ridge on the boot floor

I think that's all of them.
Quite a few of them will probably have to be drilled.
When you do this make sure you get all of the screw.
I had a couple where there was a minute bit of the screw left and it was enough to keep a hold of the body.
Took ages to find.

Best of luck, and be prepared for lots of rusty loveliness when you lift the body!

Chris.

[ugly betty]

Thanks for that Chris. Really not looking forward to it but know its a job I have to do. Big sigh of relief once body is off .And again when back on. Do you remember what else has to go ie loom - pedals all stay behind I would imagine. many thanks bri

[chrisj]

I'm afraid the pedals will have to come out, along with the steering column.
Personally I would suggest removing the wiring altogether.
It's a pig of a job, but it's much less likely to get damaged than if it's trailing around when you're lifting the body off.

As far as the whole 'body off' job goes, it's the prep that's difficult.
I was bricking it when it came time to lift the body off, but it was remarkable easy.
I had 3 helpers, but could probably have managed with only 2.
I would suggest as many as possible though, a few 'spotters' are handy to keep a check on things as you progressively lift the shell clear.

One thing you should be is spend a bit of time freeing the body from the chassis.
Basically this is just lifting it off a little and putting it back.
The chassis foam tends to hold water, so things rust, then expand, so they are a tight fit in some of the body rececces.

Let us know how you get on.

[ugly betty]

Thanks for your help Chris . Hopefully will get to it in the next few weeks. I am a little spoilt as I own my own garage business so no scrabbling around on the floor for me. although must pick the right time or I will have 5 chappies using only 4 x ramps. I'll let you know how it goes. thanks again. bri