Can anyone please tell me if it is possible to remove the "nose cone" from an L series Pantera? If so, is it a major operation or just a case of some minor cosmetic patching? Does the car look like a standard Pantera without it or does it look like a car that has lost its bumper??!! (does that make sense?)

Thanks for any assistance

Try http://www.panteraplace.com/page105.htm

The best way to know if your going to like the look is to remove the bumper and just sit there and look at it.

Kirk Evans makes a fiberglass mini-bumper replacement kit.

Very nice.

View thread here -

http://tinyurl.com/5vc6eu

Larry

Well Red,

The front of the fenders L & R are the same '71 through '86 EXCEPT ...

The 73-74 "L" model cars had 4 holes in the front of each of the forward fender face to mount the front black bumper. Each fender had 3 bolt holes about 3/8" in diameter and one large hole about 2" in diameter. The large hole allowed a front bumper shock to pass through. The front bumper shock also attaches to the bumper. In later cars with the L type bumper, the shock strut holes (and shocks) were deleted.

If you want to change bumpers, depending on what type of bumper you chose, you may need to deal with the holes. A Euro bumper will require patching all the 4 holes (Check out Husker's link). An early 71-72 bumper will not fit without major rework because of the turn signal light change.

I went with a light-weight fibreglass bumper that was the same in appearance as the original. While it mounts using the 6 mounting bolt holes, it covers and does not use the 2 shock strut holes. I like the appearance (and nose protection) of the original "L" bumper. While mine is black, it looks very much like the white bumper on the white car in the "Detomaso Internet Community" photo.

Personally, Kirk's small bumpers for L cars look very good (great, in fact) on a dark coloured car such as Mark D.'s car (Moderator). To my taste, they don't look as good on a light coloured car.

B.G.

Here you go Red Tera:

http://pantera.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3350045562/m/8610005994


Same car with the "L" bumper and again with Kirk's bumpers pained red to match the car!

Ed...

...It will look like this! The same as all narrow body Cats. There will be 2 large holes where the Isolators went through, and 6 small holes, I plugged the small ones with snap-in plastic plugs (black). The Large ones; I was going to mount 'pencil beam' lights behind, but, since there is a partition in the way (too close), I just left them open for now. I have always been glad I took off that rubber boat anchor! Doing so makes the Pantera 6-1/2" shorter and 40+ Pounds Lighter. Go ahead and Do It!!..

Kirk's ... they go on vary nice, no drilling the body - uses and covers all stock holes

I went from the big rubber monster to small bumpers - and ended up much happier. It was a simple job except for the emotion and imagination of what it might look like.

Mark D is right. Take 'em off, then look at the car for a while. It takes some time to get it right in your mind, as there are lots of choices.

It also may be that you can easily hide the original holes with a new bumper, or even some vinyl tape.

Look at this first:
http://pantera.infopop.cc/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7650045562/m/4370072535/p/1

quote:

Originally posted by Red Tera:
Does the car look like a standard Pantera without it or does it look like a car that has lost its bumper??!! (does that make sense?)

The bumper was an afterthought, mandated by America's new 2 1/2 MPH impact bumper law. It came out nice for what it was intended to be, but I think the Pantera's design looks much better the way it was meant to be: without bumpers. It looks smoother and cleaner. That's why I took mine off.

Michael