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Reply to "Pantera # 5357 - Rocky's 1973 L model"

Engine Bay Cleanup and Nightmare....

Did you ever see things that you knew were wrong, but hoped that "your eyes were deceiving you", or "maybe it's supposed to be like that"?

I saw a crazy coating / filling on the bottom of my swirl tank. It looked really funky, but I thought (hoped) it was "supposed to be like that".

I also saw small area of corrosion coming through on the passenger upright. "Maybe it wasn't a big deal", I thought.

Once I pulled the motor - It was apparently obvious. The swirl tank had leaked early in the car's life, and the first owner had the swirl tank patched / soldered / epoxied / etc. The tanks were a mess.

My belief is that fluid was dripping down into the passenger side upright, and corrosion had occurred. It looks like this had happened a long time ago, but the damage had been done. There were no other areas like this - it seemed to be limited to the passenger side upright. This exact situation was described recently in a Bosswrench post.

I tried to deny it to myself, but once the motor was out, I couldn't. The structure (upright) had to be fixed.

Prior to the engine pull I had been working on scraping the stock undercoating. I struggled with the options of using a truck bedliner (like the Banzai Pantera), or paint. I finally decided on Ford Grabber Yellow.

Again - I didn't realize the amount of work that was entailed in an engine bay prep. In fact, with regard to bodywork, there is never a point in which you can say..... "It's 100% done". You can always do more, scuff more, clean more, etc. I have to say, we did a good job of prep, and I believe I have a good foundation for the future.

I did not try and make the bay 100% pristine. Dimples / imperfections from the factory build remain. If someone wants to take it back to stock with the factory bedliner, they can have at it. I think my engine will look good inside the new, cleaned up engine bay.

Stand by for more pictures once I get them organized.

OBTW: Did I mention that my buddy 4820 / Mark IV has the mad skillz needed to execute such a repair project? Thank Gawd!
Last edited by rocky
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