new owner #4914

The rollers can be replaced. Hall Pantera has them listed on their website. I made a set years ago out of aluminum round stock.

Interiors - Hall_Pantera (hallpantera.com)

Have seen worse cars!

Agree on the rollers, if you have a lathe, you can also make them from Delrin or other hard plastic.

The old ones flatten out and don’t “roll”.

Good luck with the car.  Everyone here wants to help!

Rocky

PS. Lots of pictures in ProvaMo going back a while!

Car is listed in the ProvaMO registry as far back as 2012 and was for sale several times up until 2019.  The first entry says the following below.  Who knows, maybe Rod's DNA is in there!

1974 Pantera GTS - Rock & Roll Fast!!
LhD
Located in the USA...Private collector car...
Miles:33,813

- Has very dry and Solid floors.
- Sporty color combo White(~)Black.

Has the clean Black Interior...
- Has the Manual trans...
- Numbers Matching...Original...Survivor...
- There was just $6,000. usd spent on recent service in the last 30 days...
- Pantera that were called GTS-were suppose to be 1974 for the first year in the USA-
- -This Pantera GTS is a 1973, and is 1 of 5 brought into the US, and was at the New York Auto Show-
- -the highest horsepower any of the other panteras had were 330 or less--these 5 cars were special built by DeTomaso and were 500 horsepower.
- All 5 cars were purchased by the Rod Stewart Rock Band (manager).
- This car is unrestored and has not had any factory modifications done-and this particular car was owned by the band manager.
- It has all of the paperwork etc.
...................
Can be exported at you cost or about $1,500 dollars to the UK port in 4 weeks...
- Serious collectors please...more pics comin gand on request...
Price:
$85,000. USD American dollars...oBo...
Advert Type: For Sale
Category: Classic Cars
Make: DeTomaso
Model: Pantera GTS
Year: 1974
Country: USA
Region: International
Telephone: (001) 503 974 9215

Sorry to hear that your initial experience is not a positive one, as Rocky said, there's lot's of willing help available. Where are you located?

Thanks for the replies. I don't mean to sound disappointed in the car, just disappointed in the seller.  I love these cars and this one is going to be restored.

I'm in Las Vegas, I'm a radiation physicist but my first life was a diesel mechanic in the USAF. I just finished restoring a C4 corvette; it's sold just waiting on the buyer to arrange shipping. The Pantera is for me though so it's not going anywhere.

I have a rough plan for restoration but I'm concentrating on the safety items so I can drive for a little while before she goes down. The brake booster just failed yesterday; i'm actually impressed with whoever was able to prep this car for selling and have all these hidden failures waiting for me less than a month after purchase.

Anyway, I made temporary seat rollers out of 1" steel washers, 1"PVC pipe and epoxy resin. The washers provide support, the epoxy resin binds them and can flex a little. Definitely temporary.

Epoxy resin doesn't bind chemically to PVC so you can just cut the pipe off and clean up the lip. In the future I will finish burning the old rubber out of the original rollers and fill with urethane window weld or similar.

Nice work!

Necessity is the mother of invention!

I have found one of those Allen ball drivers (6mm?) really helps with access for the Allen bolts at the end of the seat rails.

Keep us posted on the updates… good luck with the car!

By the way, it looks like a good car.  The photos of the car's belly show only surface rust.  It looks like a good starting point for a restoration effort.

@stevebuchanan posted:

By the way, it looks like a good car.  The photos of the car's belly show only surface rust.  It looks like a good starting point for a restoration effort.

Thanks for the reassurance. I think you're right. Here's some more photos. BTW i'll do a forum search later, but wondering if there is an easy solution to filling the gas tank through the rear hatch?

Hall Pantera sells a curved elbow which will greatly improve the fuel filling experience. But you will still be opening the rear deck.

Larry

Easy is of course, relative. As you probably know the later cars had the fuel filler in the gill. The stock parts to do this modification come up occasionally but I haven't seen any as of late. The elbow definitely helps. Opening the rear deck lid to refuel adds to the mystique. I have the elbow which is threaded and I have a cap you don't have to remove to refuel. Not sure any vendor carries these anymore.,

Hi Animal,

Congrats on your "new" Pantera!  And welcome to the family!

Here's a list of the "Best Fixes for under $20" that you need to perform (or check if they've been done) on your car. AND, unless your original worn and cracked brake lines have been replaced, you NEED TO REPLACE them with new braided stainless lines.

BEST FIXES FOR UNDER $20

Hallo AB

Joined about one year ago when I purchased my Pantera in Sep 2022 happy at first and then reality kicked in, lots of problems piled up. Had problems with electric and same with the seat rails brakes, engine etc. Took the time and learned a lot. Now one year later and with the knowledge of this brilliant Forum, thanks to everyone again. My Pantera works fine now starts well, drives well, brakes well and is a joy to drive. Take it step by step  and you will be enjoying this wonderful car it just needs a lot of TLC and then all will be fine.

regards from Germany

Ulli

@garth66 posted:

Hi Animal,

Congrats on your "new" Pantera!  And welcome to the family!

Here's a list of the "Best Fixes for under $20" that you need to perform (or check if they've been done) on your car. AND, unless your original worn and cracked brake lines have been replaced, you NEED TO REPLACE them with new braided stainless lines.

BEST FIXES FOR UNDER $20

Source:Larry Finch (posted to the DeTomaso Forum on June 17, 2003) with edits/additions by Garth Rodericks

The following maintenance items should be the first order of business for any new Pantera owner.

1. Add a Front Hood Emergency Release Cable (See TSB 9, Article 64).
2. Make sure your engine oil dipstick is the correct length. Early cars showed "Full" but were actually a quart low. (See TSB #5, Article 34).
3. Add Zerk grease fittings to your ball joints.
4. Replace stock ceramic/aluminum-strip fuses with GBC glass fuses and clean all fuse holders.
5. Make sure the throttle linkage has two return springs.
6. Relocate the water temperature sender from the surge tank to the engine block, if it's not already been done.
7. Change ZF gear oil.
8. Change brake fluid.
9. Change clutch fluid.
10. Make sure distributor gear shear pin is upgraded to stock pin with a second smaller pin inside for added strength.
11. Drill drain holes in rust prone areas, if not already done on your car. (See POCA News, Feb. 2002)
12. Remove the stock spring spacers if they are still in there after thirty years. This will lower the car to the intended ride height as designed by Giampaolo Dallara.
13. Bleed the cooling system to make sure all air bubbles are removed.
14. Re-route overflow tank vent hose to exit behind the rear wheel.
15. Add two heater hose shut-off valves in the engine compartment to assist the A/C in actually cooling the cabin.
16. Buy AND CARRY a fire extinguisher.

This is great! Thanks for the compiled list

On your un-movable seats, besides the flat spotted rollers, if the lower seat rail is bolted down on TOP of the carpeting, the carpet under the bolts will compress and bend the rails slightly. This will lock up the seat adjustment. The stock setup had aluminum spacers that protrude thru holes in the carpet to prevent this, but some larger owners remove the spacers to lower the seats fractionally. Then they need a pry-bar to adjust the seats, or they leave the bolts loose (VERY bad idea!).

Next, there were two seat versions and you may have either. The early seats were three piece with a removable back and a removable headrest. On later seats, the back frame was welded to the seat frame. These frames nearly always crack at the welds, which makes them flexy. Early & late seats are completely interchangeable (but the seat rails are not). The early base is slightly lower plus it is adjustable (a little) for seat rake. This also results in more headroom if you're 6 ft or over.

The DeTomaso Pantera is the world's MOST modified Sports-GT, sort of like the '32 Ford roadster. So if you have something on your machine that you don't care for, if you alter it no one in the club will ostracize you. Just keep all the stock parts for later if you change your mind. BTW, you appear to have a '72-1/2  L model which was a rare transition car (either 571 or 451 made, more or less, out of about 7200. So it has many pre-L (early) parts and some L (later upgrade) parts straight from the factory. Don't get confused when you see stuff on other "stock" Panteras that you don't have.