2548's Restoration

I prefer to call it the inspiration of desperation. Improvise, use the tools and materials on hand, don't be afraid to goof up sometimes, and refuse to give up.

Next I'll get on with cleaning up the engine bay. The gas tank has to come out. Mine was easy, as it was not being held in (!!!!):



There has been an odd creaking noise coming from behind me, ever since I've had the car. Whenever going over sharp bumps such as a railroad track. Now I think I see why:



I'm not going to be a real stickler for originality, so I want the clean bay look. I used an air chisel to remove the metal straps for the A/C lines and electrical bundle. This proved to not be so wise. It tore away the base metal, and left me with holes to fix:



Here the hole has been rounded and I am preparing to weld in a small plug. Using magnets to hold it in place. Magnets really mess with the welder's arc, so use another method if possible. That super sticky aluminum tape used on A/C ducts works pretty well.



I've used an air powered scraper tool, and in some places ordinary paint scrapers, to get most of the "tar" off. Heating it helps to soften it, using a heat gun or propane torch. Use care; the stuff will burn if you get it hot enough.





Following that with rags or paper towels soaked with mineral spirits yields a clean (?) metal surface.





If you have high humidity like I do, wipe the bare metal down with ospho (a phosphoric acid solution) to slow down surface rust.

Here I am going to remove this grounding stud, which I don't use. Shortly after I bought the car, I moved the battery to just in front of the right rear tire, and ground directly to the engine block. Of course, if you are staying all original, you would not do this.



This tear is on the left side, at the emergency brake cable opening. Possibly damage from a stub axle failure, as the axle opening was a little beat up too. Pics that follow show the repair process, which was pretty easy in this case:











Here is a little tip I learned; if you can reach both sides of a repair, and one is more visible than the other, weld on the less visible side. It will save you time on post weld grinding and finishing.

OK, another departure from originality. I have stabbed myself for the last &%^*$*! time on these things:



I actually cut off a couple of chunks of rubber hose and shoved them on to these brackets to keep from really hurting myself. If you intend to keep them, I suggest you do the same while you work in the engine bay.

Going for the clean bay look, I decided to make new brackets not only for my safety, but because they were ugly. The factory welder had blown a hole through the sheet metal at one of the welds; never fixed it. Been there 44 years as far as I can tell.





Here is my design for the new bracket, with the cardboard template I used to shape it:



Removing the original brackets left patches of rusty metal and some holes, which had to be fixed:











Before removing the old brackets, I measured their positions, and made a simple wood brace to reach from left to right. Here I am using it to hold the new brackets in place with clamps. This way, the new brackets support the engine cover panels in the same positions as before.



A test fit of the covers:



Next I'll scuff up the metal, and grind off any burrs and other obvious defects.





Give it a good cleaning, and apply the first coat of epoxy primer with a brush. It doesn't look so great, but most of it gets sanded off anyway.





Here was a factory boo - boo. The inner and outer panels did not completely overlay, and there was a funny looking gap here. Cosmetic mostly, but easy to fix with a small piece of metal welded in:



Finally about to wrap this part up. The inside of the engine bay is really wavy; it will take a lot of work to smooth it out. Right now I am just going to address the gross issues. This is not the end of my work here, just reached a point where I can leave it and move on.





This coat was sprayed:

I'm loving this thread. Incredibly inspiring - I think I'll have to go take a welding course so I can have some play on mine when I get to take it down to bare metal.

Lot's of great tips to help us rank amateurs as well.

quote:

OK, another departure from originality. I have stabbed myself for the last &%^*$*! time on these things:

Oh man! I feel you bro! Can't tell you how many times I stabbed myself or nearly lost an eye on those damn things while refinishing my engine compartment. I came really close to cutting/grinding off the point, but ended up zip tying a bundle of rags on each one.

UFO, with some 95 changes from stock in our Pantera, I never criticize anothers' work, but I do sometimes suggest more.... like cutting the under-engine crossmember & e-brake bellcrank support loose and making them removable. The first time you need to pull the oil pan and run into that welded-in-place crossmember, you'll wonder why Ford never did this. DeTomaso did make those parts removable, once he regained control of his project. Each car has slightly different dimensions between the rails, so either a custom piece or shim to size. I made my bolt-in crossmember from a 2-1/2" OD thickwall aluminum pipe. Others have modded the stock part or made a billet aluminum structure.

OK Boss, it's on the list! I've already done the e-brake mod. I'm waiting with the cross member till near the end, so I get all the rest of the suspension mounts repaired and assure their proper location. Rodney.

Looks great. Keep up the good work.

Next I’ll show the repairs needed around the windshield. This is all rust repair, and it involves pieces of several panels. Here is what I found after taking the windshield out:







This brazing and lead work appears to be original, where the very tops of the A pillars meet the roof; I’ll leave it alone if I can:





These rust holes are along the roof line, and I have put marker dots on each spot weld I have to drill out:













Now I have cut the welds and cut out the rusty strip of metal. About 2/3 of this upper channel at the roof line needs to be replaced. It is easier to smooth a weld at a sharp bend, so I cut right along the front most edge:



It is good to see the rust had formed from the outside in. Once I scuffed off the surface rust on the inside, the remaining metal is in pretty good shape.



There were a few places where the rust had pitted the roof panel badly enough I did not think I should leave it. Here I’ve cut out a segment, and am preparing to weld in a patch.







Here is something I learned about welding in small pieces. The small patch piece will heat up a lot faster than the big panel being repaired, and it is very easy to blow holes in it. So leave extra metal on the patch, and cut it off after the welding is done. Some times, it is not possible to do this, but it helps when you have room to do it.

Here I am fitting the repair piece in the windshield channel up by the roof:















Here is another rust pitted area over on the driver’s side. I’ll weld in a strip of new metal:









After repairing the edge of the roof panel, I’ll fit in the repair piece of the windshield channel, and tack weld it in place.







Now normally I would plug weld in a repair piece like this, but in the windshield channel, I decided to tack weld the edge of the repair to the inner frame. I did it this way to not have a bunch of plug welds in the windshield channel, which I would have to finish smooth and flush. I want a smooth surface for the windshield gasket to seal against.

Where the repair meets the roof panel, I stitch weld them together so there are no pin holes to leak. Here I had a bit of trouble, and had to cut out a small section and do it over:



Now to work on the lower part of the windshield channel. This is formed by the rear most edge of the front fender panels, and by the vent cowl. I suppose I could do this repair all in one piece, but that would be cheating. Seriously, if anyone needs to work in this area in the future, it would be a pain to have this all in one piece. I’ll make the repairs to match the factory panels, and leave a small gap in the channel for water to drain away.





Much like along the roof, the rust has damaged the channel and the edge of the panel. Here the channel and fender are cut apart:



The spot welds are located and cut out:





Here the damaged edge of the fender panel is cut away:



I have adhesive tapes of various widths, they help guide me to make a uniform cut. It is much easier to make repair pieces of uniform size.





A small segment of the cowl is rust pitted, and needs to be replaced:





After welding and smoothing, I have solid metal to work with:



Next I’ll weld in the repair piece on the fender:











Ok, almost done with this area. Notice how the repairs of the fender and cowl sections are separate, as original. If this area ever needs work again, it will be much easier to do. I will leave the small gap as a water drain.







Only the very bottom of the A pillar part of the windshield channel was rusty. Thanks for small favors. This patch segment was welded in here:



The repairs on the right (passenger) side will have to wait. My right front has both rust and accident damage. It will be one of the last areas I repair, and I will complete the windshield channel on that side as part of the over all work on that area.

Wow! Great work - very impressive.

You are making me feel bad. I need to get out to the garage RIGHT NOW, and get back on my project!

Rocky

It will still be there tomorrow. Rod

The right front fender is the only panel that has to come completely off. There are plenty of clues that this car has been hit here at least once:







I can see there is a LOT of bondo here. Normally one would sand or grind through it, but I chose not to do that. I figured that would take a lot of work, time, and create huge amounts of dust. Also, I could have just cut off the whole panel bondo and all, but I could see that major portions of the panel could possibly be saved. I wanted to get most of the bondo off so I could see where the serious damage was.

It is fortunate that I can get to both sides of the panel in most areas. I used a propane torch to heat the inside of the panel. This causes the bondo to soften and release it’s bond to the metal. Of course, I can’t heat the whole thing up at once, so I used cabinet shims to wedge the bondo off a little bit at a time.









Maybe there should be a prize for the biggest slab of bondo ever removed from a deTomaso:



This is what was underneath:



Be careful when using a torch to heat things; some will burn:



This filler panel between the A pillar and the fender panel I call a contour filler. I can see this was damaged and brazed back on in the past, but I have to be cautious here. The fit of the fender with the door was reasonably good, so I can say that this past repair, although ugly, was fairly well done. I may end up leaving it if I do not find any structural damage.



Next I’ll remove the rest of the bondo and see if the fender can be saved:









This part, I don’t think I can save:



This clue makes me believe this car has been hit at least twice here. Not only is the replaced fender damaged, but the original metal that it is brazed to is badly damaged also:



Here I am separating the fender from the contour filler:



I tried to melt off the brazing that holds the fender on (this is not original, of course). You can see I got it very hot in front of the head light opening, and near the hinge, but I was not successful. I decided to cut the panel off. I used a plasma cutter to cut in the bottom of the drain channel between the fender and the front hood seal flange. That way, I can hide the repair when (if) I put this panel back on.



If I have to use a new panel after all, I will have to cut away the remaining material also.

Here I cut off the area near the windshield channel and cowl:





And finish separating at the contour filler:



After cutting the panel away from the obvious areas of previous repairs (no pics), the panel finally comes off:



More damage is uncovered:





This piece near the windshield channel and cowl must come off:



This reveals even more work that awaits me:



This is going to be fun …. not.

oh my

I can't imagine, it has taken me this long to reply still getting over the shock of what YOU found.

Holy cow UFO... you're rockin!! Very commendable... !! And...yes...I do believe you get the award for the biggest slab of bondo. You can call it your "lightening" project, as you likely will take 30lbs out of the car by the time you are done...

Great work man...! Keep it going. Now I have to get out in the shop and try and be as productive..

You, sir are a real craftsman! (And stubborn, too!) My hat is off to you.

This series shows why ANYONE contemplating buying a Pantera desperately needs a 'Paint thickness gauge' (aka Bondo-meter).

Think though Boss - the more people pulling mass bondo / bog out of these cars like this only makes the marque better in the long run again...

I'm seriously contemplating doing some courses to learn how to work panels so I can do this sort of work myself on cars. My biggest source of frustration with my project so far because its my first ever car project is just not knowing stuff...

Next I’ll show some of the work needed on the floor pans and under chassis stiffeners. This was damage from rust and some improper jacking. I also repaired holes left by the installation of some non-stock seats.

Here is inside left floor, after removal of carpet and pad (well, what was left of them; what a nasty job that was):



Outside, same area:



Most of the rust through was in these two areas:



Fortunately, most of the damage was out in the open, areas where there is only the one layer of metal. Not here, however. This rusty patch extended across one of the stiffeners, so I had to locate the spot welds and cut them out:



Here you can see the one area repair tacked in, and the other yet to do. Also see the jacking damage to the outer stiffener:



The right side does not look quite so bad from outside, but it has a lot of pin holes.



Here is a series of pics of the jacking damage on the chassis stiffeners, and the work needed to repair them:





















I used the plasma cutter for most of the work removing the rusted patches and the bent stiffeners. Since I wanted to reuse the stiffener pieces after straightening them, I had to find a way to cut the damaged bits out more or less cleanly. Here is how I guided the cutter along the corners and bends. A small piece of wood, a hole drilled through for the cutter tip, and a groove ground along lengthwise guides the cutter tip. Obviously they don’t last very long, but so easy to make, just throw away the burnt up one and make another. Works surprisingly well:



Here is a little patch to cover some holes from a prior seat installation:





I could have fixed this on the inside of course, since it will be covered with pad and carpet no one would see it. Just decided to do it here while I had access.

Here is more of the stiffeners repairs in process:







I’ve cut out the rusty patches on the right side; funny how the rust damage is almost a mirror image of the left side. Must be low areas where water collects:



Some of the smaller patches I made, and welding them in:









A few more pieces to go:





Looks like Dr. Frankenstein has been here:



But hey, my quality control inspector approves:



My spider died and my toad moved out. Tough to find good help these days.
Rodney

I am happy when I did my car, it had very little rust.

When I repaired mine I made the replacements from 14g. I also put some inner supports with slots in case moister gets in.

I have no intention of jacking up the car here but in case someone does down the road it should be a little more stiff.

Alright UFO...now I'm just getting plain jealous..!! You're making impressive headway. Keep it up...!!

Thanks, guys. I have been following your work also with keen interest. Comp; why did you weld nuts to the back side of that sill stiffener panel?

quote:

Originally posted by UFO-LOW:
Comp; why did you weld nuts to the back side of that sill stiffener panel?

I figured when the car was on the rotisserie it was the best time to set up a belly pan. I mounted nuts all over the belly and built a belly pan.