Reply to "Past Vegas"

DOES 200 & Marlin Jack:

Thanks for the responses, and taking time to measure your bumpsr distance, it may sound stupid to your bride, but men, I'm a Fanatic about Panteras.

When I walk out into my garage for a "Pantera Moment" and the garage door is closed, when I walk to the back of it and look down, I want to see those 3" exhaust pipes sticking out past the bumpers. I've measured it several times and I'm gonna go to Home Depot and get some pipe. I'm gonna probably buy a Harbor Freight drill press ($99.00) to do it and maybe never need the drill press again. The holes are a bit over 0.5" so I'm gonna need the chuck size of a bench drill (5/8").

I'm also gonna put in my new Hall stainless steel A-Arm covers, chrome the sway bar, and put some stainless steel acorn nuts on the back of the ZF. I just received my new polyurethane A-arm bushings and sway bar bushings, so, with regret, the Cat is going on the jack stands for a while. Gotta paint the A-arms while their off, and probably take them off again later to powder coat them....

I'm thinking of mounting my gas shocks upside down like the dirt bikes do, you guys ever seen that on a Pantera, or any words of caution???? Reduce unsprung weight and all that race car talk.

When I've got the look I like, I'll have to figure out how to send photos on e-mail, not that hot at the computer yet, never a compelling reason to be....

Oh yeah, another reason to move the bumper in by the body is so the hot exhaust gas doesn't heat up the bumper, saw a photo in PI years ago where somebody's bumper paint peeled from exhaust heat, and I just moved the exhaust pipes to 1" below the bumpers.

My bumper is 2" from the body and I never even thought about it until somebody mentioned their modification, then it appealed to me. Alot.