Reply to "New guy looking"

Congratulations, Punkdog! I hope the car will be as rewarding for you as it has been for the rest of us here. I also hope you will be as pleasantly surprised as I was when I first bought my Pantera by the incredibly supportive De Tomaso community. I have made many friends across the world as a direct result of participating in various De Tomaso events and on this forum.

There are a number of maintenance and upgrade checklists available for new owners, and I would urge you to use them to make sure your car will be safe and reliable. I recommend "Unsafe at Any Speed?" by Ted Mitchell, "Best Fixes for Under $20" by Banzai Runner, "Pantera Upgrade and Technical Information" by Garth Rodericks, "Pantera Woes" by Dave Doddek and "How to Buy a Pantera" by Cory Gehling. PM me with your email address if you would like me to send any of these to you.

Also be sure to check out Mike Dailey's web site "The Pantera Place":

http://www.panteraplace.com

Be sure to subscribe to the DeTomasoList email forum at:

http://server.detomasolist.com...an/listinfo/detomaso

And last, but certainly not least, take time to dig deep on this De Tomaso Forum and don't be afraid to post questions.

You will need to always be aware when ordering parts that late model Panteras have many differences from Ford-era cars, and some vendors are better than others at knowing the difference. The onus will be on you to make sure you do your research beforehand or you can find yourself running into expense, delay and hassle returning parts that are wrong.

Best of luck, and be sure to post photos and updates!