Reply to "Should I buy this Pantera?"

If you can buy a solid well known car without any suprises for only $10K more, point me at it! If Emery will sell his for $27-$30, I'll buy it! I have two friends who have been actively searching for a decent "driver" pantera with no success for almost a year now. Granted, the cars exist, but not for $30K or less. They can't be found for under $40K on the left coast.

Yeah, it's true you can buy a restored Pantera for less than the cost to restore one yourself. But most of the crap I've seen for $40K or less has not been "restored." Some have resale red paint jobs, but you still need to do the suspension, brakes, engine, and paint. Others in this price range advertise that they're restored, but you get there and find that the paint is 10-15 years old, cracked, chipped and needs to be redone anyway. Or, they have nice paint and interior, but the chassis suffers from the tin-worm. Still others have been "restored" to an owner's questionable taste and you'd spend more un-doing and correcting their "upgrades."

This car already has a lot of upgrades. The only real issue is RUST. Get it up on a rack with someone who's knowledgeable on Panteras, smack the hell out of the rear suspension vertical tubes and frame with a hammer and screwdriver. If it's solid and rust-free, BUY IT!

If it's rust free, it would be a solid platform to build the car of your dreams. And, you'd know everything that's been done to the car when you're done, versus the unknowns of buying someone elses completed "restoration" project.

Anyway, if you don't want it, send me the seller's name and phone number and I'll see that the car finds a good home very quickly.

Ciao!