1974 Silver Pantera L - St. Louis

welcome John.

would you happen to have the last 4 digits of the VIN?

I wish I did, but I have virtually no information. Still trying to scratch up what I can.

I do know that the 3rd owner was a "Tarpoff" in Granite City, IL.

John

some suggestion for finding VIN
either old insurance policy or ask agent.
another would be county property tax records
and of course contact state DMV

You might check if Chuck can run a search of his DeTomaso registry for that name (Tarpoff) in any past owner history. He can also search by color and location and might come up with a list of possible cars (assuming it's still in the area and is still silver).

How do I contact Chuck? I believe my Dad may have been a member of Pantera International. I wonder if they would have records that far back.

John

"Chuck" owns this site http://www.provamo.com/
To access the good stuff, one must be a contributor (read rules)

this site allows the search of cars that have been submitted

I did a quick search of all "74 original color silver". there is maybe 30 or so on file. the on file narrative is only what the contributor provided. I didn't see any thing obvious that I could say was your Fathers

the VIN would be the best search

Thanks for the note. I took a closer look at my notes and realized it was a '73. Got it confused with another car.

from Provamo,
this is the list of 73 original silvers
Pantera L 1/1/1973 4942 Silver Red
Pantera 1/1/1973 4957 Silver Silver
Pantera GTS 3/1/1973 5119 Silver Yellow
Pantera L 3/1/1973 5234 Silver Silver + Black
Pantera L 4/1/1973 5271 Silver Silver
Pantera L 2/1/1973 5310 Silver Silver
Pantera L 4/1/1973 5311 Silver Silver
Pantera L 4/1/1973 5332 Silver Silver
Pantera L 4/1/1973 5340 Silver Black
Pantera L 6/1/1973 5647 Silver Silver
Pantera L 6/1/1973 5648 Silver Red
Pantera 7/1/1973 5803 Silver Silver
Pantera L 7/1/1973 5879 Silver Silver
Pantera L 9/1/1973 6005 Silver Silver
Pantera L 9/1/1973 6018 Silver Silver
Pantera L 9/1/1973 6023 Silver Silver
Pantera L 9/1/1973 6039 Silver Blue
Pantera L 10/1/1973 6083 Silver Silver
Pantera L 10/1/1973 6164 Silver Silver
Pantera L 10/1/1973 6184 Silver Silver
Pantera L 9/1/1973 6201 Silver Red
Pantera L 10/1/1973 6211 Silver Red
Pantera L 10/1/1973 6216 Silver Silver
Pantera L 10/1/1973 6264 Silver Red
Pantera L 11/1/1973 6457 Silver Burgundy
Pantera L 11/1/1973 6594 Silver Silver
Pantera L 11/1/1973 6596 Silver Silver

De Tomaso built cars on the calendar year, Ford built cars on the
fiscal year. De Tomaso sold their 20% interest in "De Tomaso Inc."
to Ford in late 1972. The businesses comprising "De Tomaso Inc."
were no longer subject to any influence by De Tomaso. De Tomaso Inc.
was renamed "Ghia Operations". The reckoning of a "model year" was
aligned with Ford's business practice.

Thus 1973 became a transitional year from one reckoning of a "model
year" to the other; it began in January as per De Tomaso practice,
but ended in June as per Ford practice. The 1973 "model year" was
therefore only 6 months long.

De Tomaso Calendar Production Year 1971
1001 - 1382 Pushbuttons (January 71 - April 71)
1383 - 2292 Chrome Bumper Pre-L (April 71 - December 71)

De Tomaso Calendar Production Year 1972
2293 - 4268 Chrome Bumper Pre-L (January 72 - August 72)
4269 - 4839 1972-1/2 Black Bumper Pantera L (August 72 - December 72)

Shortened Transitional Year 1973
4840 - 5899 Black Bumper Pantera L (January 73 - June 73)

Ford Fiscal Production Year 1974
5900 - 7380 Black Bumper Pantera L (July 73 - August 74)

There are a few pushbutton models that are exceptions to this scheme,
their final assembly occurred later than April 1971. Notice also
the 1974 model year was 14 months long.

John, does this possibly change your understanding of the year of your father's Pantera? Another useful method for dating an L model is to identify where the fuel filler was located, in the engine compartment or in the fish gill behind the driver's door.

The serial number mentioned is a train of stamped numbers on the upper surface of the pedal box visible inside the front trunk, usually through a riveted aluminum plate with a slot cut in it. It will start with 'THPN' and four digits at the end are how we ID your car. The letters after THPN also tells us the year of mfgr. There was a second tag riveted onto the inside of the left-hand corner of the dashboard so it was visible from the outside thru the windshield. That small tag had the same letters & numbers. Once we know your S/N, ID-ing the thing is far easier.