quote:Originally posted by Panterror:
No info for you Patrick but I do recall plenty of Chat on what Hall had to do to make the targa conversions at it was quite extensive. Perhaps Michael/aka Cyboman will weigh in.
Since you mentioned roadster, there was a Pantera on Craigs list some time back that had been converted to a roadster/convertible. Here's a link to a thread with some pictures of that poor thing.
http://pantera.infopop.cc/eve/...=580106554#580106554
Best,
K
Pat,
I had a '74L and currently have an '86 Targa 5-S. If I were to jack the '74 up from the frame just behind the front wheel, you could actually see the car twisting and hear it creaking. If I had to go up any kind of height, I would use 2 floor jacks, one behind each front wheel and alternate until I reached my desired height. I'm suprised the windshield never broke.
The first time I jacked up my Targa 5-S from the same location with one jack, the whole side of the car lifted and both the front and rear tires came off the ground! Pavesi did an excellent job of reinforcing the Pantera for the targa top, but the gusseting is extensive. There is a 1/4" length of steel about 4 inches tall that runs the entire rocker panel from wheel to wheel (see picture).
Under the rug for just about the entire perimeter of each side's floor pan, there are wide metal straps that tie the floor to each intersecting wall and corner. The windshield frame is also heavily reinforced although I don't know to what extent. As far as I know, there is no reinforcement in the engine bay, or beyond the footbox into the front area. There also doesn't appear to be any additional metal up and around the rear window.
The car is very tight and there isn't a squeak, rattle, or vibration anywhere. I love the way it handles; very direct, and very sure. Hall just about disassembled the entire car and installed an inner subframe with integral roll bar attached to the rear of it in the engine bay.
If you're going to remove the whole roof, I would suggest additional strength in the crossmember that goes across behind the top of the seats (roughly where the lower rear window crossmember would be).
Good luck with it. Do us proud!
Michael
