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Home of the Manta 400R

This guide should help you create a truly great 400R

These kits are fitted in many different ways and when done correctly most will give the required result. The methods explained here are wrought from the experiences of those who have built several of these cars each over many years and include the reasons why building the kits in this way will be easier and give a longer lasting and more professional finish to your project.

1. Get the best kit you can lay hands on. Most will require a lot of work. The only kit we have found on the market in the UK today that is of a high standard is the 400 Road Kit by Trevor Lewis of Rallytech. For a full 400 kit most will probably buy an MC Rallying kit whose moulds are quite old now.
2. Remove any extra fibreglass left over from the moulding process and remove the flat edge around the rear arches usually used to pop rivet them on. Assemble the kit loosely onto the car using some self tapping screws, if possible in hidden locations. This will allow you to assess how much work the kit will need to fit and will give you some fixed points each time the kit is removed and replaced.
3. With the original steel bonnet and doors in place, line up and fix the front arches in place watching the panel gaps around them in relation to doors and bonnet, then leave them in place at this time.
4. Fix the side skirts in place with a couple of self tapping screws under the skirt, and line them up with the rear arches.
5. Spend a bit of time now shaping the kit roughly so its sits in place on the car in the correct way.
6. The front air dam/bumper on most kits tends to sag in the middle when looking at it from head on, we usually recommend buying one from the Rallytech i240/400 road kit as it is the same as a 400 and perfect and requires no extra work. If not you can reshape the top of it to level it out and (use glass fibre paste, not filler, as it will fall off eventually) then open the top of the air dam intake to around 30mm below the bumper edge in a straight line giving the illusion the sag is not there as your eye will be drawn to the straight edge.
7. Rear arches. This is where most 400 kits fail. The rear arches on a real 400 are clear and defined like those on the front, they do not fade shapelessly into the rear quarter panels with a tub of filler. These kits are supplied to pop rivet on, using a flange around the edge of the arch, then this is uaually filled over to hide the rivets. The original kit did not have this flange. Apart from looking bad, the steel body, alloy rivets, fibreglass arch and resin filler all expand at different rates in temperature changes and eventually movement occurs from jarring and twisting of the cars shell which will crack the filler around the arch and let water in.
8. The real secret to fitting these arches to look like an original kit is to bond them on. You only have to look at a Lotus Elise to see what is possible with modern polyester resin adhesives.
9. Assuming you have already cut and welded you steel arches  to accept the larger wheels, damp the side of the car and cover the entire rear quarter panel in household cling film (aka: shrink wrap, stretch and seal . . .).
10. now lay your rear 400 arch face down and mix some fibreglass paste such as Isopon P40. Apply this in a 1” (25mm) bead around the edge of the arch.
11. Using your previously fitted self tappers, present and fix the back arch in place over the film onto the rear quarter panels and allow the fibre glasss resin to dry to touch only.
12. Remove the arch and trim off any excess fibre glass paste.
13. Finish shaping the arch off the car. Using a long sanding block, ensure you get an even ‘square’ curve along the top of the arches and that any dips of high spots are levelled.
14. You can now apply a polyester resin adhesive (eg: Bisonite) to the edge you created with fibre glass paste and fit the arch to the car. Once hardened you should be able to lift a bare shell by the arches without them cracking. You will also have avoided using filler around the edge and achieved a correct shape for the arches.
15. You can also bond on the side skirts, though use a self tapping panel screw (as on the wings) to give additional support.
16. The front wings should be bolted on ,as the original steel wings, though they may need to have an edge made along the top. We usually fit a 25mm wide 1m long strip of alloy along this edge as most of the kits we have seen are badly finished here.

Finally, try to avoid filler where it is not needed and your kit will look great:

Rule number 1. Never Never Never, blend the back arches shaplessly into the rear quarter panels.

Never fill the front airdam/bumper where it bolts to the fibreglass wings. Bolt it on only as the front is buffeted heavily by wind or may ‘clip’ a high kerb and it will eventually crack the filler. Also you want the wings and front to be removable for maintenance of the car.

Never bond in the plastic headlight surrounds. These will expand at a different rate to the steel panels and also twisting and jarring of the shell will eventually crack the filler (plus its looks crap anyway, just buy the rubber bead like the original)

Never bond around the rear 400 bumper (yes people actually do this) its primary purpose is to take small knocks without impacting your rear panels.