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good evening y'all

1965 needs some minor body (relatively speaking) and structural work done, the structural frame work, looks straight forward and not beyond my meager abilities, but of course questions arise.

framewise, during the repair process, if a rusty section of the "frame" is cut out, then stresses exist and the frame/body will "flex", and unless the frame /body is locked into position beforehand, i can only suspect the post repair alignment will be in error. so the question is "how do i lock in the frame/chassis/body so no misalignment flex occurs"? it seems to me, that this "lock in" has to be very precise, is the answer many many jacks, kind of all tightened up so the weight and stresses are spread out or?????????????????????

also, do you just overlap the "frame" repair patch (seems a lot easier) or accurately cut both the "frame" and patch and then butt weld it in??

regarding the body work, including the infamous rocker panels, realisticly speaking the work that needs to be done is not the equivalent of what many other site-members have had to do, but i am not all real hot about doing this, and truly, this sort of work does not interest me in the least (actually it is about as welcome as a poke in the eye with a sharp stick). so,,,,, what do i look for in a repair shop? there are not exactly a lot of shops in the chicagoland area that have done a lot (or little) of pantera work. should i supply "secondary market pantera parts" (the only replacements that maybe necessary are the rocker panels, and not in their entirety), or should i let the shop make their own replacement panels?

lastly, i still can't figure out how that english wheel works!!!

prospectivly speaking "happy birthday america-have a great 4th of july".

nazgul
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If you want to learn about the english wheel and it's uses I suggest you go to metalmeet.com Ihe site is very informative and it may give you some ideas.If you do not have a strong interest in metal repair I would suggest you find a reputable shop to do it for you.Finding a shop that does quality work is not easy anywhere.I would'nt look for a bodyshop to do the metal repair ,Iwould search for a coachbuiders shop or a metal restoration shop specializing in antiques.This would assure a quality metal repair,then you could take it to a bodyshop for paint.Hope this helps
"Tony's Autobody" is like fast food. Okay if you're hungry and can't be bothered. A Pantera needs a French chef. No Happy Meal for her!!!

Look for the old world shops. Places that repair MG's, Jags, Mercedes, these guys are craftsmen. They have experience with discontinued, fatigued, and outdated works of art-and they will treat your Pantera as such.
Nazgul,

The correct way when replacing sections of a frame is for the car to be mounted to a frame machine. If the frame was rusted ..i guess in the senario you speking about... the frame has been already stressed out of factory specs. Mounting it on a frame machine will first pull it back to spec's then hold it there until the repairs a re made. The ohter way is to fabricate a series of stray edges and mount them to the car .. measure to car for straightness and tweek it back to a dimensionally square car. The only think thats a little hard without a frame machine is elevation .. the best way woul be a series of jack stands .. leveled off .. a level would be kind of hard ..but a transit or builders level and shoot the tops of the stands or 8 exact points on the car .. then start cutting and sectioning back the frame and body panels.

OK here is a real curve ball .. how do we know the car originally was striaght and square from the factory ?? I question this that the cars were perfect from the factory ??

Ron
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