Personal Introduction Jerry Sr. I have been lurking on this page for weeks, Thanks for the membership. I am amazed at the shared knowledge on this (in particular) and other sites. The depth of knowledge shared on this site second to none. It has saved me so much time and headaches. Not sure I have much to add, I guess we'll see.
Back to #2636 1972 Pantera
As fate would have it, my son and I were looking for a projest car. A friend had a 67 Camaro for sale so we went to look at it. I had heard he was storing a Pantera and figured it was a driver and not for sale. When we got there I saw the condition of the Pantera. It was covered with who knows what, ( you couldn’t see through the windows) , covering a lot of surface rust, partially disassembled engine ( no carb or exhaust) , Undercarriage had flaking rock hard thick undercoating ( I owned a 77 Porsche with the same undercoating so I know what it can hide) and no way to properly get under the car. I had to see if I could rescue/buy it.( what Camaro LOL) Turns out a couple other people were already kicking tires. So after quickly looking it over I made my best offer.
After a couple of weeks of negotiation and nervous waiting I own it. Turns out I worked on this exact car and drove it when I was a 22 year old greenhorn mechanic. I think the paint went bad and into storage it went (my deduction) So it just vanished)
I didn't waste any time, got educated ( as much as you can in a few weeks ) and tore into it, It will be a father/son project. Both of us are experience technicians so it will be a fun project. The mechanical didn’t worry me but the body did. We know very little about body work and less about rust repair. So I started looking for someone local to evaluate the body.
First order of business vigorous bath and hours of removing any undercoating in areas that it was loose, chipped and digging at any underbody rust. I knew anyone would needed to see what was hidden to properly evaluate it. ( I owned a 77 Porsche that had the same undercoating and it can hide a multitude of bad)
Well I found a local “guy” to evaluate the condition. Turns out you can’t swing a “Cat” around in our area without hitting a guy named Kirk Evans of Amerisport.
I called him and ironically he was in my end of town running errands. He stopped by that afternoon. He seemed impressed with early vintage and the originality of the car. Kirk very strongly encouraged me not to do major alterations. (more like demanded, he told me to buy a different Pantera for that,) Turns out the under body rust is very typical, not major and can be made better than it was original (open up trapped and blind pockets for proper drainage, install wheel wells) The surface rust wasn't a consideration at all.
I asked if he could do this type of work and he agreed to tackle it. If all goes well Kirk will be getting starting on #2636 as soon as I can get it stripped out.
BTW I had no idea the part Kirk played in the History of the Pantera. What an honor and blessing
More to come I'm sure Enjoy the Pics Jerry Sr.
1972 Pantera 2636
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