EARLY CAR BUT SQUARED WHEELHOUSES???

The pushbuttons had squared wheel houses too. And as you know, there were push button coaches laying around into 1972. This pushbutton must have got a set of doors.

If we had a better picture of the left side door jamb, that would help, because the pushbuttons have the hood release lever recessed in there.

cowboy from hell

quote:

The pushbuttons had squared wheel houses too.

thanks - I thought that might be the case.

Just another case of De Tomaso mis-match.

I don't think that the early cars wheel houses were quite that square. Were they?I know the very late cars were.Maybe they were replaced..

Looking at the photos closely I would hazard a guess (and I have been known to be wrong!) that it has been the subject of some major restorative work in the inner fender/wheelhouse area. It's somewhat difficult to tell under all that undercoating, but there are some definite patches and weld seams visible. But if its been doen properly that should be no reason to reject it out of hand.

I see the expansion bottle is on the driver side too, is that an early pushbutton trait or an owner mod?

This was a rusty car, very rusty and needed much metal work. You can tell by the location fo the welds. The water bottle is probably an owner mod.

Page 68 of the last issue of our magazine has some pictures of Bill Gaino's push button engine bay, check it out...

of course, Bill, Mark, Dennis or Gary could also post some pics of their engine bays here for all to see. Any other pushbutton owners I'm not thinking of?

Dennis, you own so many DeTomasos, I better remind you, the Hawaii Five Oh car is a pushbutton. LOL ......

The pushbuttons have the sharp edged wheel houses, not quite as squared off as the Embo/Maggiora built coaches, but close.

You're a hard crowd to convince sometimes, but I love ya all just the same.

My guess is that this car has late model type patches. This car has much sharper edges than any push button I have seen and the welds seem to be in odd places. See my #1306 pushbutton below

Here is the car that started this post

quote:

Originally posted by george pence:
If we had a better picture of the left side door jamb, that would help, because the pushbuttons have the hood release lever recessed in there.

George
FYI

I think this was only on the very early pushbuttons.

1089 belonging to Mark Edwards is the only pushbutton I personally have seen with the rear deck release in the drivers door jam. His car was at Monterey last year and it also had the very small script pantera & detomaso on the rear emblems mounted high on the rear of his car.
The highest numbered car I have seen pictures of that has this trunk release is 1258

Maybe Gary will let us know if #1280 has the trunk release

Very good comparison Mark thanks, the ebay car has had some serious panel work. Good eyes Mr Doddek.

I think that tub has been rebuilt/repaired.
It's hard to diagnose from pictures.

Personally the relocation of the bottle could be a good idea.

To me "original" means only one thing, and this ain't it.
It appears to be a nice car though.

Okay, jury is leaning towards a panel replacement.

Seller states 'never hit, no rust"

Is he lying or just doesn't know?

Larry

I think we find you don't always find the same thing even sequentially. Having said that the back wells deffinantly do not look like either option.

Here is mine:

#1905:



#1280



As far as the door jamb trunk reliese, that was not only US cars. My 1280 is from France ad it has BOTH a door jamb reliese and a rear deck release.

Gary

1332 looks just like 1280. I have the deck relase in the rear. I will post some pics soon as the car is apart and going through a engine bay detail job. 2 hours last night with a heat gun a scraper....

This car is numbered 2162. I thought that push button cars were only numbered from 1000 to 1382, with a total of 382 being produced? My "history book" says that 1000 to 1285 were produced for the European market and 1286 to 1382 came to the U.S.

Inquiring minds want to know.

I'll check my car and post engine bay picts when I get home from work.

How about the windshield wipers? They look like they rest opposite from my '71's.

This is what mine looks like. My rear deck release is in the back, no door jam lever.

Good eye .. I looked at that car and did question the same thing .. early car and the engine bay looks like 9138

And here is the later version of 9138 ...

quote:

Originally posted by 4NFORD:
This car is numbered 2162. I thought that push button cars were only numbered from 1000 to 1382, with a total of 382 being produced? My "history book" says that 1000 to 1285 were produced for the European market and 1286 to 1382 came to the U.S.

Inquiring minds want to know.

Not quite true. The first handful of cars starting with 1000 were pre-production prototypes, used for various sorts of testing, crash-testing etc. The earliest car in the USA is 1006, which was in Texas but was sold to somebody (unknown?) in Florida some years ago. That is probably the earliest Pantera in the world right now, except for 1000, the original pushmobile prototype, which was owned by Bertocchi until his death, and lay parked in his garage until recently when Steve Wilkinson bought it--it's still in Italy though.

You are making assumptions off the fact that the first US-market Pantera was 1286. That doesn't necessarily mean that ALL Panteras produced after 1286 until ??? came to the US market. It is quite possible that, say, 1292 or whatever was sold in Europe. Euro and US cars came down the assembly line together.

The Ford parts book identifies the pushbutton door handles as used "Before Ser. 1339" and the square doorhandles "From Ser. 1339" but that is obviously incorrect, as Alan Morris' pushbutton website shows cars as high as 1382.

I have been working extensively on 1256 in Paris over the past couple of years, and have learned a lot of interesting trivia about the things that make these cars unique. The early pushbuttons used a decklid release inside the B-pillar as earlier mentioned; the actual part is lifted straight out of an Alfa Romeo Spyder (it's the trunk release in that car). If this is the only means of opening your decklid, and the cable ever breaks or becomes disconnected from the latch, you are TOTALLY screwed. In order to gain access to the back side of the latch, it must be removed. To get access to the back of the latch, the gas tank has to be removed, and we all know that to get the gas tank out, the engine and gearbox have to come out!!!

Oh, BTW, the car that started this thread most obviously has home-made inner wheelhouses, as they demonstrably fail to match either the '71 style (which were stamped, although with rather crisp edges), or the GT5-style (which were welded in jigs from flat panels).

quote:

Oh, BTW, the car that started this thread most obviously has home-made inner wheelhouses, as they demonstrably fail to match either the '71 style (which were stamped, although with rather crisp edges), or the GT5-style (which were welded in jigs from flat panels).

WOW

Now I KNOW this site is gaining in visability...Mike Drew has returned