I wanted to start a blog of the work that is being done to Pantera #2245. This site will log the restoration project and other modifications that I have made to the car. Additionally this is a place for me to collect my thoughts on the choices that I have while restoring the car.
I am currently a member of the northern california chapter of the Pantera Owners Club of America. These folks have been really helpful to me in this project.
I purchased the car in September of 99. I currently live in california near Santa Cruz in a town called Capitola. My brother-in-law, Nick, owns a automotive shop in Scott's Valley. This is where I keep the car and work on it. Nick's expierence and help is invaluable, not to mention his tools.
The car was for sale out of Bend Oregon. Nick and I flew up to Bend and looked at the car. The car was listed for $20,000. I had talked to the owner and he had claimed that the car had a little rust on one rocker panel, other then that the car had no rust. I knew from looking at other cars that if there is *any* rust there is probably more in places you cannot see.
This car has been driven into the ground. Somebody drove this car day in and day out for years. The engine has what looks to be the original air cleaner with an edelbrock performer manifold and a holley vacuum secondary carburetor on top. The valve covers are "detomaso" aluminum valve covers. The rest of the engine looks stock. The engine feels strong and pulls very hard at any rpm, top end yet unknown. My guess is that a cam has been added. It has what looks like stock exhaust. I am guessing as I have never seen a stock exhaust system on a pantera. The system is steel with four individual pipes coming out of the head like heders but then coming together quickly in a "web" formation. The size is relatively small and one of the mufflers has been replaced. The system is rusted and needs replacing. The engine doesn't burn oil either past the rings or through the valve guides.
The transaxle is completely stock and the ujoints never replaced ( as far as I can tell ). There is no body damage around the ujoint/axle areas. The car shifts like it is brand new and no synchros are out. I don't know what kind of gear ratio the car is supposed to have but we run 3000 rpm at 80 mph.
The interior is all there and functional. All gauges work and light up. The seats look like they have been sat in for billions of miles. I am not joking here, the driver seat has no padding left. The driver side is so bad that you are actually sitting on the floor pan. The seat frame has been broken and the back lays crooked. Steering wheel is stock and shows the wear. Headliner looks suprisingly good for a 71 and seems to be stock. The mirrors have been replaced with some Alpha gt mirrors. The shifter is stock and worn. The 1-3rd finger on the gate is worn and bent over making third a tricky shift.
Now comes the heartache ... the body. The underside of this car is still holding the original undercoating. None of the undercarriage is rusted out or has lost the undercoating. The suspension is all original and it shows.The ball joints are just holding the tires on and the front shocks and springs are ready for the scrap heap. Somebody hit a big bump with the tire turned as the front fender on the drivers side has been bashed in by the tire on the inside edge. The front trunk area has a huge black 16" truck battery looking thing. That has leaked all over the inside of the trunk.The clutch master cylinder has been replaced with a "wilwood" version. The master break cylinder has been swapped out with a GM dual master cylinder, the drum-disk type ( loosers ). The radiator is stock but is leaking slightly due to the front rock gar being rusted apart and bashed in all the way to the radiator.
Both doors are in good shape there is a dime size spot of rust on the front bottom corner of each door. Both rocker panels are rusting from the back to front ( i know ... i know ). There seems to be no rust behind the gas tank as the splash guard was just hanging on the tank so I could easily get behind it to see with a flashlight. The sub frame doesn't seem to be rusted under the gas tank. The back window is there and isn't rusted in the corners. There are two stress cracks that we know about one in between the drivers side door post and the roof and the other between the passenger side rear window and rear quarter panel. One of the support pieces on the drivers side rear quarter panel behind the rear tire is broken so the rear fender wobbles and is cracking from the flex. The paint is lacquer black that is a good 1/16" thick. The paint was put on so thick that it is now cracking everywhere due to the body flex of the car. Plus the paint is a good 15 years old. The original color looks to be metallic blue.
The wheels have been painted, but are still intact and the tires are oversized dunlops. The breaks are stock and need to be gone through. The clutch has given up and needs to be replaced.
If you are still with me, thanks. Over all I think the car is worth the effort because the rust is limited to the rockers and lower door/fender area. This looks to be the rusting case of the rocker panel drain holes being filled with something and water pooling up in the rockers. The body was in worse condition then I expected but the engine and mechanicals are in good shape. So instead of using my money to build a good motor, I am going to use it to restore the coach work. I still paid too much for the car.
Despite all of this supposedly pantera bashing, I love this car! This is perhaps the most perfectly designed and conceived car of all time! The whole time, and 12 hours in a pantera is a lot, all we could think about was how this car should be illegal and it isn't fair to other cars that this car exists. We couldn't come up with another car that was sold in the US that compares to this car, power and performance wise. Just to put an exclamation on our thoughts, coming over Altamont pass which is where the famous wind powered generators are, a shelby cobra 429, pulled up along side of us trying to race us, but he was already tacked out to catch up to our 100mph.
This is one tired kitty, but it still drove like a dream all the way home with no problems. Ahhh to be in love again.
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