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After much waiting my car came back from the restoration shop on Friday. Since the body work and mechanical fixes have been professionally redone the car is now in a restored stock condition - only upgrades are wheels and tires. Mild collision damage is now undetectable. Chrome is all replated. Exhaust has been stripped and coated. Headliner replaced with original-like material. Carb was professionally rebuilt by a master mechanic. Chrome was all replated. All exterior black bits were stripped and repainted. Body was taken to bare metal and painted glass out with Rosso Corsa (I don't care for the original red so it was changed very slightly). Front and rear trunk completely redone. I still need center caps, a radio repair, window switches, and a front badge (shop lost it in the resto). Otherwise it is complete - for now. Thanks for everyone's help to this point.
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Thanks Hudson. I thought of you when I noticed my front badge was missing, somewhere someone has a complete set with my nose badge and your "Power by Ford" - I'll be watching for it on eBay. Looking at your avatar I am noticing that my car looks too high. Do you have adjustable shocks or just have the spacers removed? I want to lower my car but frankly am not interested in the expense of new shocks/springs right now. Still recovering from sticker shock on the bodywork.
quote:
Originally posted by 72red:
Thanks Hudson. I thought of you when I noticed my front badge was missing, somewhere someone has a complete set with my nose badge and your "Power by Ford" - I'll be watching for it on eBay. Looking at your avatar I am noticing that my car looks too high. Do you have adjustable shocks or just have the spacers removed? I want to lower my car but frankly am not interested in the expense of new shocks/springs right now. Still recovering from sticker shock on the bodywork.


Yes, somewhere, someone is building a 'new' Pantera one part at a time, scarfed from bodyshops. It's a conspiracy!


I had my spacers removed, have a fully adjustable Pat Mical suspension set up except for shocks. My fender lips are right atop my 10" rear wheels. So my car is at Euro ride height, 3/4" AT LEAST below the US height.

I've never rubbed the tires on the body, and this car doesn't (or hasn't yet) scraped on anything. I asked Pat about this repeatedly and he assured me no probs in that area - and has been right. I used to be able to break my front end 'pushing' at will. Now, if I try to do it, it DOESN'T push, at least till I'm going to fast for rational driving. A big improvement.

Out of morbid curiosity, what was your bodyshop bill? Mine ran a hair under $5k.
25K. They gave me 5k off - for a total of 20K. I would have been better off driving it to your shop from Minnesota for the money. I figure the paint and body work is actually about 15K. Everything was completely re-chromed. The front trunk was redone including custom carpet. New headliner. Carb rebuild. Air conditioning repaired and converted to the new stuff. It was still too much but people love the paint. I couldn't get anyone to touch it for under 12k - just for the body- and nobody would give me a firm estimate. I asked a few people I trusted about the projected cost and they felt it was reasonable based on what was being done. 5k - was that a bare-metal glass-out job or no?

The people I worked with were very nice and very good. They were probably much more particular than I am and probably agonized about details that I don't care about, and I paid for it. Once they got into it though the car was in pieces in the shop and in primer, I was kind of at their mercy at that point. They delivered a premium result and I paid a premium price - I'm kind of tight and probably wouldn't have chosen for it to come out that way, I consider it my gift to Pantera posterity - this car will be around for a long time whether I am the owner or not. The whole ordeal kind of wore me out really.
I completely understand the 'worn out' part! Me too. And let me be clear - mine was ONLY body and paint. I bought every scrap of weatherstripping, decals, trim, polishing, rechroming... ANY replacement part was over and above, outa my pocket.

My AC, headliner, and all that jazz was done previously. Yours was like a mini restoration, mine limited to paint and body. All my glass and trim came off except windshield which was 'roped'. I don't think I have anywhere near your job to be honest, but am nonetheless satisfied. Spent most of yesterday pulling trunk carpet, retrimming under there, etc etc. Would love to see your 'new' trunk too!
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