Does anyone know the History of Graham Tool Co. and their Pantera Restoration History ?
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The previous owner of my car had the majority of his maintenance/work done by Graham. He swore by it, and from what I can tell so far as I've been working on the car, the work was excellent.
Rocky,
Would you be interested in selling the Graham Tool Catalog ?
thrillrider,
Brian's father, Dr. Neil Graham, had a red 72 w/GT5 body and *both* twin-turbos and a supercharger (pictured in the book "DeTomaso, The Man and the Machines). Brian picked up the Pantera "hobby" and turned it into a business selling parts as well as doing complete restorations.
If interested, and Rocky doesn't want to sell his catalog, I have both the above book and Graham Pantera catalog ($5) listed for sale here: https://www.gr5pantera.com/books-models-etc.
Dave
If Dave K has a catalog for sale for $5, that seems like a good value.
Given that, I think I’ll hang onto mine!
Thanks,
Rocky
Brian started out in the Pantera business working for Lance Nist. That didn’t work out so he set up his own shop. Nist had crates full of Pantera parts but had no idea exactly which parts the crates contained. Brian made Nist an offer for the whole lot, without even knowing what the crates contained. I got the feeling it wasn’t very much of an offer but Nist accepted. When Brian got the crates to his shop he started opening them and cataloging the parts. If I recall, there was more than one new ZF trans with the stuff. There were parts there that hadn’t been available from DeTomaso for a long time. That was probably 20 years ago, or more, so I apologize if my recollection isn’t 100% accurate! I do recall buying a few sets of those little lights that shine on the center console; NOS too. At the time, they hadn’t been available for over a decade. Years later I was sad to hear he’d left the business.
Wow, first I have heard the name and I've been following these cars for a while. Sorry I missed him.
JT
JT,
I first met Brian at POCA events in 1990 (or before), and agree, it's unfortunate if he's no longer in the Pantera business.
A first-class guy, he also had an outstanding experienced crew (some of whom have since retired) to help cover everything up to full restorations. Guess we're all getting older ;-)
Thankfully there's resources like this site, and still a few out there supporting our cars w/parts and service. But maybe fewer than before
Here's is the car built by Lance Nist for Dr. Neil Graham. Sold last year on bring-a-trailer and still looking like I remembered it from the 80's - 90's.
More pics at https://bringatrailer.com/list...detomaso-pantera-39/
Dave