New Pantera

quote:

If I decide to part the Euro, which I am strongly considering,

John

Please try to find a buyer that wants to bring it back to life. There are too few Panteras left to part it out.

I would love to find a buyer for the complete car (even though there are parts I would like to have). However, this car is not for the faint of heart. All I would want is what I have in it.

Are they Simmons wheels on it ??
Good to see Aussie wheels on a USA car for a change !!

Yes, they are Simmons. I've never heard of them, but I kind of like them. They say Austrailia right on the wheel.

in the 90's they were the 'in' wheel to have, and probably still are.
You can get parts for them as well, ie inners and outers and centres etc.
centre caps !! i notice it is missing one !

SIMMONS does make some nice wheel's.
I have a beautiful set of 4 lug 17's just waiting for me to find the right FOX BODY MUSTANG for them.

Congratulations!

I only had an opportunity to look at pictures of this car and talk to the owner about its condition. But if it is what the owner represents, this might be the Pantera buy of the decade. It’s going to need a lot of cleanup work and expense to get the interior back in shape but at 24K you can afford to spend a lot of cash on it and come out ahead. It’s obvious the owner didn’t understand current Pantera prices.

Mike

Is it home yet?

Mike

Yes, its out in the garage. I spent the day going over it. The VIN is THPNMS04805. I have records going back to 1976 (maybe earlier). It was originally a California car. I have a 1976 registration showing a date first sold of 5/15/1974. The original owner was John King of San Luis Obispo. This car has had a ton of money spent on it over the years including a single $10,387.61 bill from 1996. The car was sold to a gentleman in Georgia in 1998. Most interestingly, it appears that PI Motorsports might have brokered the car. I have a PI Motorsports receipt from 8/12/1998 for a radiator deflector and 5 months storage. That's one month before the car came to Georgia. The name on the receipt is Mike Reynolds. There are also some pics of a blue Pantera with wire wheels and the early chrome bumpers. I'm not sure why they are in there. I have probably a hundred other receipts including some from Hall, RBT, Pantera Performance, etc.

It amazes me how someone can take a car as nice as this one appeared to be in 1998 and turn it into what it is today. Granted I couldn't have bought it if they hadn't, but it still makes me wonder. Thankfully, I think I can make a better than decent driver out of it.

A few things of interest:
It appears the heater has been bypassed. They also chose to cut the metal heater lines running through the center tunnel down where they exit the tunnel below the dash. I think I can still make it work if I choose to hook it back up. The front part of the console is missing, so I will have to find a new one. A couple of switches have been relocated to the dash in a rather ham-handed fashion. I don't know what I am going to do with that yet. Both mounting tabs where the rear deck lift cylinders mount in the engine bay are broken off (anyone have fix for this?). The A/C lines have been cut. I'm sure theres more yet to be discovered.

Anyway, if any of you California guys know John King or remember the car, I would love to hear from you.

Take care.

It is hurtful to see what some people do to these beautiful cars. You wonder what in the world were they thinking. When you have to clean up their messes you’d like to just thrash them. But on the other hand you got the buy of the decade on it so you’ll be fine.

Dash and console parts show up on ebay. You’ll need to make sure they are the correct parts for your two pod dash because the single pod dash parts are different.

When you get it road worthy you might enjoy meeting some of the other Atlanta Pantera owners at http://www.panteraplace.com/page92.htm

Did the lower front valance and front cross member turnout to be OK?

Mike

Thanks Mike - The front valence and cross member will need to be replaced at some point. Right now, I 'm not too concerned.

It seems that the car is one of those in between body service numbers which means it has the two pod dash, but its a later two pod dash. I'm not sure what that means except that it is different from earlier two pod and later single pod ones. Also, my MPC shows three defroster vents for that car, but I only have two. I think the easiest thing is going to be to find the correct console and patch the holes as best I can. I tried the console off my single pod '73, but it doesn't fit and I'm not about to cut it.

John,
Good to see the pics of the new car. As you probably already know, Mike Dailey is one of our local Pantera experts. His web site is IMO the past resource for Pantera info period.

Mike is a super great guy, and has helped me the ”mechanically challenged” many times. He is extremely patient and never laughed at my dumb questions.

Jeff