Bondo

Some times quite a bit of bondo.

Yes, the factory used a lot of it. I guess the sheetmetal had a lot or ripples in it when it was new?

Vignale was assembling coaches much faster than they ever had before. Modena was cranking out Panteras at the rate of 40 per week. Bondo was a way to cover up shoddy work, resulting from the pace at which they were putting the coaches together.

cowboy from hell

I know of two Panteras that were taken down to bare metal and there was no Bondo. One 71 and the other a 72.

Mike

This subject always seems to raise the heirs of everyone no matter what car is being spoken of.

I think there is nothing wrong to use fillers properly.

A lot of owners I kow have demanded lead in the preparation of their cars when doing a ground up resto. They will then go on to describe the car as bondo free.

This is going to be the furthest statement from the truth you can make.

Even lead is going to REQUIRE the use of a filler over the lead to get the shape correct.

In the case of a Pantera I'm sure that it varies from car to car. There are always imperfections in sheetmetal that need to be filled when assmbled by humans.

Todays CNC assembly techniques reduce or eliminate much of the need for it although I'll bet you a nickle that 1/4 panel seems to the roof panel still need to be leaded by a human.
The Borg still haven't figured out how to eliminate us completly yet. Maybe tomorrow!