Project Pain(t) begins

Sunday I started dismantling the Pantera for this winter's paint job. Those that read my rendition of Le Mans Classic know that I hadn't planned to paint the Pantera, I didn't want to. I can never again lean over the fender without fender protection, and I can no longer enjoy a lunch on a ferry with the Pantera squeezed in between other cars and fat tourists. I'll worry about the paint job! Bummer. I'm a bit like my wife on this point. She likes a car with dents, so she doesn't worry about getting a dent.

OK, I exaggerate, but you must admit I have a point. I had the perfect no worries Pantera: all things mechanical worked, paint was scratched, cracked and still shiny when going by fast...

No more. New paint job. Plan is to disassemble and grind off all the paint. I could paint it myself, I've done that 5-6 times before, but right now I have nowhere to do it, and I've in latter years made friends with a pro painter who will paint it for not a lot of money. And of course he can do a better job than me. He said he would only do it if I removed all paint, he refused to paint on top of the miserably and thick American thermoplastic paint it has now.

So all paint has to come off. This will reveal it all. Rust? Dents? Major body work? Only time will tell.

So what color? As can be seen in the picture it was yellow at birth. Well right now I haven't found a color I like more than the one it has. There are many reds nuances out there, not all pretty, some look like tomato soup past its prime. And some look like a F-car wannabe (which is quite difficult to be when Ferrari changes its nuance according to their sponsor's wishes, like Marlboro). Some people want desperately to have a color nobody else has. Well I want what I want My red is quite dark, like there's a little blood in the paint. Reminds me of the blood, sweat and tears shed over most Panteras... I like it, and as I said, right now it looks like I'll end up with the same color.

Taking apart so far, gone pretty well, nothing major broken. I bent a window bright trim piece, spent an hour getting it back into shape. And the nice people who assembled it before me has made my job easier by only installing half the fasteners to save a few minutes.

The painter has a time slot for it in November. I don't know if I'm in a hurry. If I just find a perfect body underneath the paint, I have plenty of time, if I don't I'm in a hurry.

Soon the mufflers will come off. Hhmm, maybe I should just try to start it w/o mufflers? I've got time to try that Sunday morning I believe...

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