keep rivits or weld??

I dont have any rivets in my car. It is all welds. What year is your car. Could this of been one of those early car fixes or someone elses modification.

BTW, where in illinois are you at, I am in Peoria.

the vehicle is a 1971 #1965'

the rivits look factory installed as they are symetrical and rusted, on the other hand-the vehicle did have frontend damage as the frame rails were straightened by the prior owner, also the trunk felt was installed before the riviting process.

guess i will add some undercarriage stichwelding to my weekend list.

hmmmm, better be careful, or else the entire car will be in pieces by next week.

nazgul

Ford had issues with the first batch of Panteras delivered for the US.
They broke during durabilaty testing on the first batch .
They sent all of them to Stroppe in Long Beach, CA to be corrected, or reinforced. I don't remember Fords word.
I don't remember specific items being detailed but I think I remember the "chassis being strengthened".
Something with the air condition also.

The car in question is probably one of those cars. I don't have the rivets on my '73 either.

Nazgul, my car (1826) has them too. I don't see a lot of rust around them, but haven't stripped the undercoating in the wheel wells either, so there may be. If you're doing a full restoration, might as well weld them up. I'm sure they were done with rivets as an easy fix when Ford sent teams around to do the updates and fixes, and welding would have required too much extra work (re-lining the front trunk, scraping undercoat etc.)

Nazgul or Mark,

Can you post a picture of these rivets from the wheel house side. I have never seen this before.

Johnny

i think i should learn how to spell "rivit"

the aftermarket repair by ford makes sense since the felt liner is under the rivets and i doubt the factory would do it like that.

thanks for the info

nazgul

[QUOTE]Can you post a picture of these rivets from the wheel house side. I have never seen this before.
QUOTE]

Just when you think you've taken photos of every square inch of your car...

Next time I'm over where I store my car for winter, I'll try to remember to poke a camera up there.

this picture is not the best, the undercoating kind of hides everything. the arrows point to the three rivets, each of which fastenson side of the post production brace.

on careful examination it looks like the portion of the shock support that i placed the long piece of tape on was the post production fix done by ford. it is welded to the rounded flanges through which the upper shock mounting bolt passes. a rather nice fix, it is quite difficult to recognize as a fix, and if not pointed out to me, i would have never thought it.

nazgul

Interesting, My 74 does not have anything like this. Wonder just what problem that they were fixing with the brace.

That's very interesting. Those push button car were quite different. Here's a pic of my 74.


Johnny

quote:

Originally posted by Johnny Woods:
That's very interesting. Those push button car were quite different. Here's a pic of my 74.

Johnny, both Nazguls (#1965) and mine (#1826) are not pushbutton cars but are, I guess still considered in the early range of the Ford Era—cars before they worked out all the bugs.

It would be interesting to see what the PB cars have in this area. Can someone post?

That is part number 18A058 and you can see a picture of it here http://www.panteraplace.com/Pantera%20Pics/pantera%20front%20area.jpg It is called Reinforcement – Front Shock Mounting. The combination of 16055 parts that work with it, were different depending on the serial number. This shock reinforcement, 16C167 next to it in the picture and the unmarked plate on the bottom of the image were factory mods. My 71 car number 1887 has all the factory mods. I’m not sure why the factory stopped installing the mods on the latter production cars because all of the cars needed them. I’m aware of later production cars having suspension mount failures because the factory mods were not in place, e.g the lower front A arm back mount tearing loose from the body. I think it is somewhat of a myth that the later production cars were better because they were improved assemblies. It would be interesting to know why the factory stopped adding the body and suspension enforcement mods on the later cars, but I guess we will never know.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by nazgul:
this picture is not the best, the undercoating kind of hides everything. the arrows point to the three rivets, each of which fastenson side of the post production brace.

on careful examination it looks like the portion of the shock support that i placed the long piece of tape on was the post production fix done by ford. it is welded to the rounded flanges through which the upper shock mounting bolt passes. a rather nice fix, it is quite difficult to recognize as a fix, and if not pointed out to me, i would have never thought it.

nazgul

Mine 1371 pb allso have the same job done. Per #1371

quote:

Originally posted by nazgul:

the rivits look factory installed as they are symetrical and rusted,



nazgul

Hmmmm symetrical.... definitely not factory.

Blaine

My "hood" is like Johnnys but different on the side.
My lip appears to be the depth of that square chassis rail.

All this talk of failure? I can understand a few failures of this chassis here and there.
I really glad that I am running stock spring rates.

A 450 # front spring is a little bit of a load for a questionable chassis mount with a stock spring.

Also the leverage placed on the mount from wider tires and wheels can't be a life extender.

quote:

Originally posted by #1371:

quote:

Originally posted by nazgul:
this picture is not the best, the undercoating kind of hides everything. the arrows point to the three rivets, each of which fastenson side of the post production brace.

on careful examination it looks like the portion of the shock support that i placed the long piece of tape on was the post production fix done by ford. it is welded to the rounded flanges through which the upper shock mounting bolt passes. a rather nice fix, it is quite difficult to recognize as a fix, and if not pointed out to me, i would have never thought it.

nazgul

Mine 1371 pb allso have the same job done. Per #1371

Correct. The parts were factory made mods that were sometimes installed in cars that were already in the US. They weren’t just chunks of metal bent and slammed on.

Mike