Building a Gr4 replica

inside

Test fitting of inner B-post. Started Work on upper traverse as it fits into b-post

Welding finished. A lot of measuring went on before final welds

Upper traverse finished

This little reinforcement is like the original.

From the rear

Great photo documentary! This will be very helpful to the community.

Keep up the great work!

Rocky

Started work on the outer rocker. Again my friend Michael did an awesome job reproducing these in one piece. They are exact copies of the ford-era rockers. Although they look pretty simple in shape - they are not!! In addition to bending along the length they also taper towards the ends both at the top and bottom. They also taper more towards the rear compared to the front. Reproducing these required fabrication of several special tools.
Michael also added the original drains at the bottom.

Test fitting door and front fender. Lots of measuring going on. Looks close.

That btw is a NOS front fender and a NOS door that came with the car

From below. Pretty close - curvature on door and rocker align nicely and rocker meets factory measurements spot on!!

You are doing a great job! I am particulrly impressed with the inner B pillar your friend helped you with.. I could have used a couple of those!

I finally managed to find some time to work a bit more on the chassis

Since I'm likely going to convert this car to Gr4 specs for track use, I wanted to reinforce the front suspension mounts.

This is what the std mounts look like on this car and all the 71-74 production panteras

For inspiration on how to reinforce to mounts, I had to look no further than my other pantera. That car is a pre-production car chassis #1267. This car came from the factory with substantionally reinforced a-arm, shock and sway bar mounts.

From what I've been able to figure out, only the very first 286 cars had these add-ons (I may be wrong though).

Spot the differences ?? - I Count 9 reinforcementplates

Here is another angle

Another

So I got under the early car, measuring and making cardboard copies

Fabricated copies in 2.5 mm steel and started welding in

Almost done

I want to THANK YOU for posting your work! besides the first class work, the presentation has been great.

as for the front suspension reinforcments, did you make tracings of your templetes? (that could be shared?)

Can not wait till completion.

Joe

Looks good. Welding is fun, right? But takes time...