Welcome to the family Brian! Looks like you found yourself a beautiful car!
My 2-cents...
- Install some chassis braces. Many claim they've had no problem with cracking in all the usual spots once they installed a set of chassis braces.
- Paint the lower rockers black - front, rear, and sides. This will make the car look lower and more mean. And, it's what the factory did!
Here's a list of the Best Fixes for under $20...
(by Larry Finch, posted to the DeTomaso Forum on June 17, 2003)
The following maintenance should also be the first order of business for any new Pantera owner...
- Add an emergency front hood release cable.
- Make sure your engine oil dipstick is the correct length. Early cars showed "Full" but were actually a quart low.
- Add Zerk grease fittings to your ball joints.
- Replace stock ceramic/aluminum-strip fuses with GBC glass fuses and clean all fuse holders.
- Make sure throttle linkage has two return springs.
- Make sure water temp sender is moved from surge tank to engine block.
- Change ZF gear oil.
- Change brake fluid.
- Change clutch fluid.
- Make sure distributor gear shear pin is upgraded to stock pin with a second smaller pin inside for added strength.
- Drill drain holes in rust prone areas, if not already done on your car.
- Remove stock spring spacers if they are still there after thirty years.
- Make sure cooling system has all air bubbles removed.
- Re-route overflow tank vent hose to exit behind rear wheel.
- Add two heater hose shut-off valves to assist the A/C in actually cooling the cabin.
- Buy a fire extinguisher
And get out and DRIVE!!!