Mirage interior fitting

[Nidrahynnad]

311Mirage with factory interior, new gauges from Speedut, GM column and removable wheel. Test fitting everything before blowing it apart for paint.

[Manta22]

Is that another Mirage body in this picture?

[Sulley]

Interesting a different color rear section.

When you say a 'GM Column' out of what?

[Nidrahynnad]

Rear section (orange) is original to this car. Was gelcoat red, then primed and painted black, then primed and painted orange. I started to strip the nose, but then found the second Mirage in original gelcoat white, no cut body, no stress cracks. I am in the process of using the new white nose, tail, and upper doors. The orange pieces are being transferred to the second car and will be sold as a roller. I bought the second car all in parts this spring. Brought it home in a 16 foot box truck and began assembling the suspension, transaxle, wheels and tires, and body panels that I will not be using.

The body panels on the "keeper" car will be disassembled when I get everything fit and functioning properly, then I will get it painted and re-assemble it.


GM column, not sure what car. Likely a mid-'70's. It is a tilt column, igntion switch is on the column with steering lock, has turn signals and dimmer stalk also on column, as well as a hazard lights button. Bottom of GM steering shaft was modified to connect to VW Karmann Ghia steering gear via a "rag joint". It is also a collapsing column and has shear mounts to the Manta chassis in case of impact.

When I got the car, the column was mounted to a support which was fiberglassed to the nose of the body. I removed it and mounted it to the chassis via a cross-car support. Now I can test drive the car without the body, and make adjustments and repairs before I put the body on.

There are separate photo albums under my profile that show both cars separately.

Dan

[Nidrahynnad]

Neil

This was an earlier photo when I still had the original orange nose on the car. It was originally gelcoat red, then primed and painted black, then primed again and paiinted orange. Stress cracks in the body from not being properly mounted, as well as paint cracks from all the layers. I am in the process of installing new nose, tail, and upper doors from a second Mirage I found in the spring. Those parts are in white (original gelcoat, uncut). When I am finished fitting everything, I will take it apart for paint.

Dan

[Manta22]

Dan;

You are fortunate to have found that second one. I thought I was the only one who had two Mirages. ;)

[Nidrahynnad]

Neil
Not sure my wife would agree on the fortunate part!
I think there is another guy on the Yahoo Group (David Savage's forum) that has at least 2 Mirages. Ralphsrodger is his forum name. He worked with Alan Auto Glass to get the windshields made out of China as I recall.

Maybe there is a way to compare notes via email on the 2 cars I have...

Dan

[Manta22]

Dan;

Most of the info on my Mirages haven been posted.

BTW, my late wife Ella was the administrative assistant to one of the Rosen brothers who built Cape Coral. The history of Cape Coral development and their Gulf- American Corporation that is on the internet is wrong.

[Nidrahynnad]

Neil, you helped me quite a bit with the information you have posted on David Savage's Yahoo site. I corresponded with you a bit when I first got car #1. Thanks. Your history with Manta, all the early photos and details in your posts help a lot.

I hope to be able to post some photos I took of the Manta Cars display at the first annual Kit Car Nationals. It was held at the Michigan Fairgrounds outside Detroit, Michigan in 1984 when I lived in that area. There were several Mirages as well as a Montage there on display. My old slides are being converted to digital media now, so it shouldn't be long.

Cape Coral-small world. I'll have to see if your wife is mentioned in any of the books written locally about the Rosen brothers and the making of the Cape. My uncle retired from the Air Force, was a civil engineer. He joined Gulf-America back in the late '50's to help lay out the roads and canals here. Built his home here, convinced my parents to buy here. My sister moved here to take care of my folks as they aged. They are gone now, but sister and her family live here. I retired here from Michigan, bought a house here in 2004 and moved here permanently in 2006. I don't miss the cold and snow at all!

I am not sure how much Sulley wants me to go on about the 2 Mirages I have, maybe this belongs in another thread.

The first car (a 1974) is listed twice on David Savage's Mirage registry - originally owned by Henry Rennemann (#38), then owned by another person here in Florida for a while (transplant college student from Henry's hometown in Utah to a Miami suburb where he attended school), finally by Neil Wallace in Clewiston, FL (#159) before I bought it. After Henry's ownership, I don't think the car ever ran...the car sat outside in at least two locations under a tarp in the Florida sun and humidity, lots of work to fix everything, still going on.

The first car has a long seating tub, but the first owner (Henry) converted the steering back to VW because the rack & pinion was "too twitchy"...he also added a power brake booster which basically eliminated reverting to the r&p steering without a lot of changes. I have spoken to him at length about the car and the changes he and his father made to it. Unfortunately all his paperwork and records including papers from Manta including the original bill of sale etc, got displaced by owner #2.

Second car is a short seating tub and has the VW steering and Karmann Ghia front knuckles with disc brakes. Both cars are the early chassis with no outriggers around the fuel tank, although the last owner of the second car fabricated some outriggers. Second car (1976) was originally bought by a guy in Virginia, but never finished. Body was loosely attached to the chassis, and suspension and steering were added. Doors were never hung and for the most part the body is virgin. He moved many times within VA, to Illinois, finally to Florida, and then several times within Florida. He sold the car in 2006 to a guy in a Ft. Lauderdale suburb. I believe the original owner passed away sometime late last year. Second owner took the car all apart to "re-build it right", then never did much else. The parts were mostly in a garage, an outdoor shed and a small utility trailer. He is retiring and wants to sell his house and travel, he just wanted the car gone. I got the car in lots of fiberglass parts, bare chassis, suspension, transaxles, and many unmarked boxes.

Car #2 is about ready to sell as a roller, so I can have the room in the garage to work on the one I am keeping.

Dan

[Manta22]

Thanks, Dan- I'm glad the information helped you. If you haven't discovered it yet, I've posted many original Manta Cars pictures that were in a box when I bought MANTA 2 (I call my red Mirage that because that was the CA license plate number on the car when I bought it).

It is too bad more Mirage/Montage owners are not as informed on their car's history as you are. Sometimes you just have to be lucky and be in the right place at the right time to take advantage of deals like your white Mirage. Good score!

Adding those side pod structures is a good idea-- they add safety and chassis stiffness. See my photos to see how I triangulated mine.

[Manta22]

Dan;

About Cape Coral & the Gulf-American Company--most histories confuse the company with the one which bought out Gulf- American. Those were shady characters many referred to as "loan sharks". The Rosens (Julius ("Jack") and his brother Leonard were pressured by the FL governor's office for kickbacks, which they refused. In retaliation there were unfounded charges made by the governor to try to force them to comply. The corruption was so bad in FL at that time, the Rosens sold their company in 1967 for $127M and left FL to do business in AZ. Published histories do not know the inside story. Your uncle may have known of "JR" as Jack was known to his close associates.

[Nidrahynnad]

Alas, the shady characters in politics are still plentiful in Florida.

One or two books written locally by those who worked inside with the Rosens as they were building Cape Coral, paint a picture similar to what you describe. While there were some people selling swampland in Florida back then, and the politicians had their finger in lots of enterprises, the Rosens got a lot of heat because they didn't want to play that way. As a result they were accused of a lot of things that just weren't true.

The Rosens actually went way beyond what the average developer did in SW Florida...raised the level of the land so it wouldn't flood in summer rains, putting in roads, dredging 400 miles of canals to provide waterfront homesites, then adding power, sewer and water, bringing industries from "up north" to provide jobs, giving land to churches to build on, pre-planning the area for schools, business, light industry, single family homes as well as condo/apartments, building a world-class attraction park for visitors, developing the waterfront on the river for residents, getting a bridge built to the "mainland" Ft Myers, and lots more.